Former President Donald Ramotar has accused the APNU+AFC government of harassment of former Minister of Finance Ashni Singh and charged that it is misusing the state apparatus to serve its narrow political ends.
In a statement yesterday, Ramotar said that he felt compelled to respond to statements reportedly made by Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan “in which the regime once more tries to besmirch the good name” of Singh in relation to the spending of $4.5B from the treasury.
Ramotar’s statement appeared to be in response to an article in the New Year’s Day edition of the Kaieteur News headlined ‘Consolidated Fund $4.5B…Ashni Singh will face the music for money illegally spent.’ According to the article, Ramjattan insisted that no matter how long it takes, justice will be served when it comes to the illegal spending of $4.5B from the Consolidated Fund by Singh.
“I promise you, this will not become some other cold case. If the powers that be give good reason why he should not be charged, well then that is another case, but in my opinion he should be charged. Listen, if we don’t set an example, then this nonsense will continue. This financial lawlessness has to change. We saw under the PPP, the lawless spending of taxpayers’ monies in defiance of the laws. It just cannot go down as though it is okay or else we would be saying too that this is the norm, and our own will think they can do the same and everything will be as cool as cucumbers,” Ramjattan was quoted as saying.
Yesterday, Ramotar defended Singh. “The fact of the matter is that Ashni Singh did nothing wrong and acted legally,” he said.
According to Ramotar, the spending of the monies was based on a written decision by the Chief Justice interpreting the constitution. “It was also done on a written legal opinion by the then Attorney General and by decisions of the Cabinet. Moreover, I wish to point out that the monies were used to promote the economic development of Guyana and to enhance the welfare of our people,” he said.
“The behaviour of the regime is a clear demonstration of its intentions to witch-hunt individuals of the former PPP/Civic Administration,” the former president declared.
Ramotar recalled that when Ramjattan was part of the then opposition, he reported the matter to the police; it was investigated and sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for advice. The DPP found that no laws were violated, Ramotar said.
“Now in government, he is using his position to pursue ends that were already dealt with and found to be without merit. It is pure harassment of Dr Ashni Singh and his family. It is a crude tactic to try to embarrass a gentleman who made an outstanding contribution to our
country’s development,” Ramotar asserted.
He said this “latest attack” follows “vicious attacks” on head of NICIL Winston Brassington, even though Brassington answered all questions given to him by the auditors and fully cooperated with them. According to Ramotar, NICIL’s head publicly provided explanations for every single query raised by the auditors but despite this, his office was raided in his absence and files taken away.
“The regime is misusing the state apparatus to serve its narrow political ends, to harass political opponents in the case of Dr Ashni Singh and to create scapegoats in the case of Brassington,” Ramotar charged.
“This is a dangerous path that the regime has taken. This is only the beginning,” he asserted even as he called on “the democratic and peace loving forces to make their voices heard and to stop this abuse of our institutions for narrow political objective.”
