Dear Editor,
I have read with no surprise a letter published in the Guyana Chronicle of Saturday 10th March under the caption “Greenidge will do good (sic) to answer the following questions”. I doubt that answering would serve me well.
I should like to offer three thoughts by way of reacting to this most scurrilous piece. If indeed Mr Balram Hiralalli has full knowledge of the cases he cites and is in a position to confirm the veracity of my response, I would urge him to pursue a more appropriate remedy rather than parade his assertions in the newspaper. He should take the matter to the Police and to the relevant Minister.
Secondly, the process by which the PPP Government sponsors such vicious attacks on those who criticize them publically is not new. This obnoxious behaviour reached unprecedented levels during Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo’s Presidency and that of Mr. Ramotar. In June of last year, at a Youth Forum, President Jagdeo made some of the same assertions after I commented on the mischief he engaged in when he addressed our young people. I provided the newspapers with the facts regarding the audit of the public accounts.
I laid 11 audited annual Reports before the Assembly, although I was in office for a little over nine years and the accounts for the remaining years were to be laid as part of a process agreed by the two AGs – the Accountant General and the Auditor General, including Mr. Anand Goolsarran.
Notwithstanding this, a few weeks ago, a Mr. Bynoe made the same assertions in a similarly ignorant manner. In the National Assembly on February 16th, Finance Minister Dr Singh was indiscreet enough to repeat the lies. I drew to the attention of the Speaker and the House the details of the submissions as available to the National Assembly which I contrasted with the PPP fabrication. Dr Singh was obliged to withdraw his petulant comments and substitute in their place a claim that the reports were not timely enough. I had no difficulty with that position. Again, a rather silly Mr. Hiralalli repeats the assertion.
I shall ignore it.
It is unfortunate that, for a President who claims to be distancing himself from the excesses of Mr. Jagdeo and his Ministers, Mr. Donald Ramotar continues the same policy.
If Members of Parliament are not protected from such behaviour no-one will be safe.
In 1992, after it came to Office, Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s Government embarked on the same exercise. A little later, although the Government sold a nearby property in Bel Air Gardens to Minister Shree Chan at a fraction of the cost I paid for my residence, they started a smear campaign accusing me of having acquired the property for G$24,000. The then Trade Minister invited himself to the Guyana Stores Board meeting in a bid to undo the transaction involving the sale of the property which was completed under the PPP .
The Minister was embarrassed when the Secretary to the Board outlined the facts. That was the end of the matter.
It is a testimony to the PPP’s lack of imagination that they could return to these discredited old cases in a bid to discredit me and in an effort to divert attention from the various frauds being perpetrated by the Government, and, the Parliament’s not entirely unrelated action, to get the Government to adhere to the law.
Last week, the Guyana Chronicle carried a letter suggesting that my criticism of the request for the Specialty Hospital may have been racist.
To support the case it was suggested that I blocked the request for money for the purchase of land for the hospital. What the author overlooked, however, is that the financial paper claimed that the money was for mobilization: mobilization is not a satisfactory explanation for land purchase.
Neither is it a satisfactory explanation of design and study and that is why it was rejected. Financial papers should not be prepared on the basis of untruths.
I am sure that in future the Government will continue its harassment with many more such despicable innuendoes or allegations.
I shall not be responding to each and am only sorry that in this case the writer did not word the allegation in a manner that would permit me to sue them for libel.
In closing, let me stress that I have never bought anything from NICIL nor have I any idea of what duty-free motor vehicle Mr. Hiralalli is talking about. I have only ever sold two vehicles in this country both before 1983 and neither fell into the duty-free net.
Mr. Hiralalli, please let me know when you are ready to go to the Police.
Yours faithfully,
Carl Barrington Greenidge
