Shameful
The loan by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) raises once again the concern about the conscious mismanagement of the resources of the Guyanese people by the PPP/C government. Guyanese expect their government to promote and protect their financial interests as stewards of the nation’s resources. But quite often there are revelations of what looks like deliberate attempts by the government to undermine good governance and to thwart the will of the people. The laws that are applicable to this case expose the depths to which the government would go to take advantage of the resources of this nation in an attempt to preserve its self-interest and to hold on to power in this country. To get a good sense of this shameful conduct one has to bring together multiple parts of the GGMC Act and then link them to the public financial rules. This is obviously a task for the lawyers. But this writer believes that even without legal credentials, one could see that the government may have ignored the most important restraints on the ability of the GGMC to make a valid loan to the CH&PA. In addition, this article intends to show that the government by taking a loan from GGMC undermines the very rationale that it used to justify the decision by choosing an expensive option to do so. Irrationality is commonplace with this government but so is subterfuge in its actions. One therefore cannot discount all the other corrupt reasons that might have persuaded the government to make such an indefensible move.
Circumscribed
A discussion of this nature cannot take place without reference to the GGMC Act, the Housing Act and the Securities Industry Act, for they have all been implicated by the comments made on the matter of the loan by GGMC to the CH&PA. A reading of paragraph 10 of the GGMC Act should make it clear to all and sundry that the GGMC did not