Dear Editor,
I have been asked about two paragraphs in the Freddie Kissoon’s column in Kaieteur News of Friday, August 28,entitled ‘The passing of the droit du seigneur’, in which he interprets wrongly the reported purchases of vehicles by/for the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).
Did I as Prime Minister “in one of the poorest countries of the globe”, expend over 2013 and 2014, US$250,000 in purchasing vehicles for me and my retinue? It certainly was not so.
It is well known that I was also Minister Responsible for Energy and Electricity, particularly GEC/GPL, the Linden Electricity Company Inc (LECI) and the Hinterland Electri-fication Unit (HEU). Depending on the source and nature of the funding and what it might require, on precedence or just convenience, expenditures in these areas would be entered in the accounts of OPM or the Ministry of Finance (MOF) or other relevant ministry, or parts in each. For example the $3.1 billion in continued electricity subsidy for Linden/Region 10 in our 2015 Budget is being met by $2.1 billion from OPM and $1.0 billion from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. It might still be that in GPL’s vehicle fleet some vehicles carry the insignia, “Unserved Areas Electrific-ation Programme – OPM”.
As I recall, the reported purchases of vehicles by/for OPM over 2013 and 2014 included vehicles for the Lethem Power Company Inc (LMPCI) and LECI, replacing vehicle(s) destroyed in the 2012 disturbances in Linden. The then PM never travelled in luxurious extravagance; not all the vehicles purchased on the OPM’s accounts were intended for the PM. There is no truth, only aggravation, in Mr Kissoon’s conjecture, that, “This very mendicant [country] spends US$250,000 on transport resources for just one Minister and within a time frame of just two years”. It was just not so.
Perhaps it is to avoid misunderstandings and conjectures that the Office of the President (OP) has been renamed The Ministry of the Presidency.
Life has much more greys than blacks and whites. Perhaps Mr Kissoon should be satisfied in seeing “the menagerie of eight old, rickety, reconditioned cars in the PM’s direct jurisdiction”, as just being in line with where we have gotten to, so far. And those vehicles got the job done. Great was my pleasure in late 2012 to drive to the top of Kurupung mountain,(along the rebuilt and extended UMRP road) from Georgetown through Bartica, Itaballi, Puruni Landing, Oranapai Junction to Olive Creek and Pappyshow Landing on the left bank of the Middle Mazaruni where we spent the night, thanks to our Correia Mining Group. Next morning, we drove up the Kurupung mountain, crossing the Serong river on the new ‘Dream Hole’ Mining Inc (DHMI) bridge, beholding the Komarou Falls (said by some to be the most beautiful in Guyana) and at the top, driving past Mahaica’s ‘top side’ concrete airstrip, (the cement for which was brought up the mountain on the backs of droghers), to DHMI’s camp. We Guyanese can now drive to Kurupung and say “morning”, and greet some pioneering people and communities along the way.
Yours faithfully,
Samuel A Hinds
Former Prime Minister
