Dear Editor,
Dishonest politicians in the region must be careful because there is a wind of change blowing from as far as South America. For decades we have been hearing about corrupt and dishonest politicians. Save and except former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Basdeo Panday who was hauled before the courts and sentenced to six years imprisonment by a magistrate, no other politician in the region has been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Panday who was charged in 2001 for failing to declare $TT M1.16 was eventually freed a decade later following several appeals which eventually ended up with the London based Privy Council.
There have been allegations against prominent politicians in Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and most recently St Kitts-Nevis, but charges have not been laid against any of the lawmakers or former legislators. But it seems as if the new administration in Guyana is taking drastic action against former lawmakers in the Republic. A 54-year-old former Public Service Minister, Dr Jennifer Westford appeared before a magistrate in Georgetown on Wednesday charged with the acquisition and transfer of several government vehicles. Her personal officer, Margaret Cummings, 36, was also charged. They were placed on $2 million bail. Westford was granted a total of $800,000 bail and Cummings, who faces additional charges of forging receipts, was
placed on $1.2M. They were ordered to return to court on August 10.
The APNU+AFC coalition during the election campaign spoke out against massive corruption and promised to prosecute the wrongdoers. Mean-while extensive investigations in other ministries, government corporations and agencies are now underway.
It is hoped that the governments in the region take a page out of Guyana’s book and clamp down on dishonest practices by politicians.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
