Dear Editor,
It is time that the taxpayers of this country from both sides of the political divide begin to examine what the political witch-hunting and vendetta that is being unleashed on a segment of this population, is costing them, individually, and the treasury, as a whole. Let us take the law books, for which I am being hounded, as a start. The facts of this matter are well known. I will therefore not repeat them. Suffice it to say, that those who are prosecuting this matter have totally misconstrued it. The Government of Guyana simply paid the subscriptions under an existing contract, for a specified period, between a company and me for the supply of these books. The Government had no contract with this company and never purchased any of those books from that company and therefore, has no lawful claim to these books. The books were purchased by me and are my property. If it is felt that the transaction was unlawful or improper, then it is the subscriptions paid, which the Government must seek to recover and not the books. Under similar circumstances, the Government paid my telephone bills and my electricity bills. If it is felt that, those transactions were improper they must seek to recover the monies which were paid. They cannot come after my telephone and my electrical appliances. That being said let us examine the transaction with the books a little closer.
The current market value for those books approximates to US$2,000 or about $420,000. The entire Accounting Department of the Ministry of Legal Affairs spent approximately three months investigating this transaction. Hundreds of man-hours of public officers would have been expended in this exercise, costing the state several hundred thousand dollars. The Attorney General then commissioned a special audit into this transaction. A team of staff from the Auditor General’s office conducted this audit. This exercise lasted approximately three months and culminated in a report being done, spanning dozens of pages, which exonerated me from any wrongdoings. This exercise would have cost the state over a million dollars, conservatively.
In relation to this same matter, I sued Mr. Basil Williams, personally, for libel and slander in the High Court. He will not defend this case from his personal expenses but will use taxpayers’ dollars to do so. The hearing and determination of this case in the High Court, without taking into account the legal fees that taxpayers will have to pay for Mr. William’s lawyers, will cost the state a few million dollars, from the time the case is filed to the time of its conclusion in the High Court. If it is appealed to the Court of Appeal and then to the Caribbean Court of Justice, whether or not Mr. Williams or his party is in Government, the case will cost taxpayers a further five million dollars, conservatively.
The matter is now being investigated for over a week now by five officers of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU). They have, thus far, interviewed five witnesses. They have applied for and obtained two search warrants before a Magistrate. A criminal charge has been instituted against me. It will be dismissed. I will sue for Wrongful Arrest, False Imprisonment and Malicious Prosecution. I will win them all. The State (and Basil Williams, personally) will have to pay me millions in compensation. To hear and determine all these cases will cost the taxpayers, again, several millions.
It is also public knowledge that I have filed a constitutional challenge in relation to these law books. Again, it will cost the State a few million dollars to have this case heard, defended and determined.
From the above, it can be seen that this singular matter to recover books, which are valued less than $500,000, will cost taxpayers millions of dollars. As I said, this is but only one investigation. The Government has launched dozens of similar investigations. One must add, to this the nearly two hundred million dollars paid to forensic auditors and the several million dollars which would have been expended by dozens of Public Servants across the Public Sector in preparing the records, providing information and assisting in these audits. The stationery, electricity, meals, refreshments, overtime allowances, salaries, and wages, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses in relation to these matters must accumulate into dozens of millions of dollars. If charges are to flow from these investigations, then the cost to the State will run into billions. One cannot discount in this equation, the one hundred million dollars already budgeted for Special Prosecutors. One also cannot discount the millions of dollars which the State pays as wages and salaries to dozens of Public Servants whom they have witch- hunted and sent on Administrative leave. These people are doled out taxpayers’ dollars for staying at home.
The sad reality is that it is doubtful that any of the charges filed will yield a single conviction. The intellectual architects of these political persecutions are not expending a cent of their own, although most of these investigations have to do with settling personal and political differences, grudges and fueling egotistical urges. They have increased their salaries by fifty per cent, they drive around in new SUVs and most of their expenses are fully paid for, again, by the taxpayers.
The loser in this all is the taxpayers, whose monies would have funded everything described above. In the end, they are being asked to pay more taxes to the detriment of their welfare and that of their families. It is my duty to draw these matters to taxpayers’ attention. What they do about it is completely outside of my control. What I do know, is that the longer that they take to react, the greater shall become the wastage.
Yours faithfully,
Anil Nandlall
