Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) would be filing private criminal charges against ministers and other government officials for corruption.
At a PPP press conference yesterday, Jagdeo did not go into details but said, “We don’t do our business like how they [government] have been talking. We are not talking about going to jail and all of that. We are preparing the documents….”
He also expressed concern about what would happen at the Integrity Commission because government had sent all of the staff home. “We know that many of them broke the law and did not file returns so we are worried that they could just stick these things in and they would tamper with the records,” he said.
Jagdeo also suggested that the 50% salary increase that government gave its ministers shortly after entering office could also form the basis for action. “The basis for which they are looking at the Pradoville issue is that people illegally transferred assets to themselves to enrich themselves… Then we can prove a case in court that they have taken financial assets of the state based on a Cabinet decision that they themselves made to give themselves an increase bigger than anyone else. That is enrichment also,” he said, while adding that the private charges would be a way to see if President David Granger was immune from prosecution.
A special investigation of the Sparendaam Housing Project, referred to as ‘Pradoville 2,’ was conducted by accounting firm Ram & McRae, which found a criminal case for misfeasance can be made against the PPP/C Cabinet members who benefited from allocations there. Lots were allocated to Jagdeo and Cabinet members—Dr Roger Luncheon and ministers Priya Manickchand, Dr Jennifer Westford, Robert Persaud and Clement Rohee—along with other persons with connections to the then government. The Special Organised Crime Unit is currently investigating the allocations.
