Former President Bharrat Jagdeo is to be interviewed by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) today at 2 pm as part of the long-running probe into the Pradoville 2 Housing Scheme.
Jagdeo’s office made the disclosure of the appointment last night.
This would be Jagdeo’s second encounter with SOCU on the matter. In March last year he and other former Cabinet members were questioned by SOCU on the matter. He visited SOCU after being arrested at his Church Street office
On Thursday, Jagdeo said at a press conference that appearing before SOCU in relation to the Pradoville 2 issue with the expectation that charges will be laid against former Cabinet ministers of the previous government will set the precedent for a new People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government to pursue corruption charges against the David Granger government.
Once members of his former government are charged, which he expects would happen, Jagdeo told the media on Thursday, “Once that happens with former ministers then we set a precedent. Hopefully that would be followed when we pursue their other contracts. Trust me. They don’t know what they have just done.”
He said that not only would the PPP deal with the $14 million a month contract for a bond in Sussex Street and the $150 million contract for the feasibility study for a new Demerara River bridge but Granger’s Cabinet would also have to answer for the D’Urban Park project and “tons of other things.”
The Pradoville 2 matter, he said, “is becoming like one of those long series, you know, with periodic episodes like different plots and different twists to the plot surfacing.”
The iteration of the Pradoville affair, he said, “is that all the ministers, members of Cabinet who were there in 2010 are being invited into SOCU.”
He was told, he said, that the former ministers are being asked mainly about a $13-million dollars contract and vesting orders including whether the Cabinet and individual members knew of the law governing the vesting of properties.
Asked if he was prepared to settle before going to court the land issue in which lands at Pradoville 2 were undervalued, Jagdeo reiterated, “Absolutely not.”
He said, “I am expecting charges to be laid and I will deal with it in court.”
Pradoville 2 was a 2015 pre-election issue, he said, and it remains the biggest issue for the Granger Government. “Pradoville is the biggest thing after 23 years in Government. After they claim $300 billion was stolen. I suspect if I wasn’t living there they would have dropped it already.”
On claims that State Assets Recovery Agency aims to recover US$10 million from people who have bank accounts abroad, Jagdeo said, “I don’t see them filing any case.”
He said he has urged President David Granger to hire an internationally reputable firm specialised in this area to trace assets in banks, real estate and shares among other assets.
“They can do that quickly then make a report to the nation about all of that,” he said.
Addressing procurement fraud, he said, could be addressed easily.
“If you are stealing $28 to $35 billion a year it must have happened through contracts awarded.” If government were serious about finding evidence, he said, forensic audits would be done to dig up evidence.
On the other hand, he said, the Opposition has already gathered a lot of evidence about corruption under this government. There was evidence, he said, to convict five government members but the private criminal charges were thrown out by the Director of Public Prosecutions on the grounds of ensuring good governance in Guyana.
On the award of the $150-million contract for the feasibility study for a new Demerara River Bridge, which the Public Procurement Commission has found violated the Procurement Act and which the PPP has asked the SOCU to investigate, Jagdeo said, he hopes SOCU does not delay the investigations. “This is a straight forward matter.”
When SOCU is investigating the award of the contract, he said, they would have to invite every member of the Cabinet, including Granger, to ask them whether they knew that the procurement laws did not give them the right to approve such a contract.
“The issue is that Cabinet has no right of approval by law. We removed that right when we passed new procurement laws. Cabinet under our laws now only have a no-objection role. The Cabinet acted illegally when they approved Patterson’s unsolicited bid,” he said.
