Dear Editor,
I joined the AFC in 2005 after I left the PPP. My primary aim was to help fight against corruption which was rampant in the public sector and all government ministries. I also was a victim and I paid the ultimate price with corruption to get my businesses off the ground. Some government officers respected me for my knowledge in all areas, knowing that I was a former Director of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and the Deputy Mayor of the Anna Regina Town Council. When it comes to familiarity with commercial and residential plans and the local government laws 28:01 and 28:02, I am well versed in them and no one can roll over me as they think.
After AFC +APNU decided to team up to fight the May 11 general and regional elections, I was approached by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo at my home to help Mr Sam Bacchus on the campaign trail in Region Two. I used my wife as my driver with my car to go down on the ground with my own gasoline to meet and talk with the people and encouraged them to go out and vote for a change, which they did. I knew the Prime Minister for decades; he was my local government minister during my tenure as the mayor/deputy mayor. We both knew each other well in the days of PPP; he would visit me every time he was on the Essequibo Coast, meeting with rice farmers and holding bottom house meetings.
My campaign was slick and forceful against corruption.
I had every confidence that the new government would stamp out corruption when it assumed office, but it still continues to raise its ugly head in some governmental departments in Region Two. I saw it first hand when I was invited to the birthday of my best friend’s wife on Monday, November 2. His house was in total darkness, although there was electricity in the village. He told me that he had asked GPL to disconnect his light for fear of a fire since he was going to take care of his daughter’s house in Canal Number Two for 6 months.
GPL disconnected his meter at his request, and after the 6 months was up, he came back to live at his residence in Lima. He then went back to GPL and asked them to come and reconnect the meter, but was told by the supervisor that the house would have to get a new inspection first before they could connect it. He went to the relevant department in Region Two and an official went to his house and looked at the wiring, points, switches and lights. He told my friend that his house would have to be rewired and changed from 240 volts to 110 volts because it could burn down.
He gave my friend an estimate and told him that he would do the job but he would have to pay him well with a top up. My friend bought a new roll of110 volt electrical cable, points, breakers, lights and switches; the official took the job and charged him $5,000 for each point, light and switch with an inspection fee of $10,000, and demanded a $30,000 bribe after the house was finished. My friend told me that after 3 days all the lights and other equipment shut down, and it seems now the electrical worker may not even have been qualified.
Editor, this is a poor man; all he does for a living is to make coconut oil and sell and his wife will buy and sell ground provisions to the community.
On his wife’s birth night the house had no light and it was a total embarrassment to him. He showed me the $10,000 receipt for the inspection and his bills from the electrical store. I saw the tears in my friend and his wife’s eyes while they were telling me their sad story of how the official demanded $30,000 from them.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
