Dear Editor,
The residents of Region Two are calling on President Donald Ramotar to launch an investigation into the selling of bogus tickets to members of the public for the Essequibo Nite 2012 event.
According to reliable sources, the six Essequibo Nite preparatory committees meetings were held on the 28-08-2012.The first two meetings were chaired by a top regional official within the Regional Democratic Council. The remaining four meetings were partially chaired by the Regional Vice Chairman Mr Vishnu Samaroo.
The last preparatory meeting was held on Thursday October 4, 2012, where sub-committees were formed in the different fields such as (1) Accommodation and Security, (2) Ground, (3) Cultural, (4) Advertisement and Decoration for the event. A secretariat for Essequibo Nite 2012 was also established to look at the logistical arrangements for booths allocation, agencies participation, tickets, musical band and other arrangements.
The Regional Development Officer was delegated to perform the duty as a coordinator for the secretariat. All the tickets were printed with security features at the New Guyana Company Industrial Site, Georgetown. These tickets were uplifted by the Regional Development Officer (RDO) on Tuesday, October 2nd 2012, and were in his possession. These Essequibo Nite tickets were taken over by a regional official for safe keeping in his office on Wednesday 3rd October, 2012, along with a certified stamp.
During the period from Wednesday to Friday these tickets for the event were checked in a detailed way and packed in sequence according to numbers. The regional official acknowledged that the tickets received from New Guyana Company were in order, and only one ticket did not have a number.
The tickets and stamp remained in the office of the regional official from Wednesday 3rd to Friday 5th October 2012. At about 3:30 pm the Regional Development Officer collected the stamp to stamp the receipts and the tickets from the regional official. These stamped tickets were then allocated out to the persons working in the two ticket booths.
During the last night of the Essequibo Nite 2012 event it was revealed by the ticket collectors at the Anna Regina Community Centre Ground that a series of bogus tickets valued about $500,000 had been sold to patrons. These tickets after investigation were found to have been sold at the first booth opposite the Fire Station where the official’s son was selling tickets.
These tickets had no security features and were found to be different from those printed by New Guyana Company. It was also revealed by the official that 200 of the security features tickets were missing from his office before the event but he never reported it to the committee. Editor, it is not only an issue of bogus tickets, but an issue of some 200 tickets missing under the watchful eyes of the high official and his team, since the tickets and stamps were in his sole control.
The bogus tickets sold for both nights had different colours but no security features. It was printed at a local office here in Affiance, Essequibo Coast. This was a well-planned scheme to defraud the event coffers of Essequibo Nite 2012.
The official said that he was informed about the tickets without security features being sold on both nights of the event but he only summoned the police on the last night after the fraud was exposed. He and the police visited the ticket booth opposite the fire station. They checked the tickets in the booth and found no bogus tickets.
He then sent the female ticket seller to call another male ticket seller working at the fire station booth, leaving his son in the booth where the bogus tickets were being sold. When the female ticket seller returned she was informed by the regional official that the police had checked her bag and found something hard. The regional official then suggested to the police that a female police should check her bag. This was done in the presence of her and some tickets found were bogus.
Editor, the big question is why the female’s bag was not checked before she was sent to call the fire station ticket seller? Something appears to be fishy with the official and his son.
Monies collected from the two-night event are still in the possession of the said official.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
Former Deputy Mayor,
Anna Regina Town Council
