The government was less than enlightening last year about Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs Mae Toussaint Jnr Thomas being subjected to a secondary inspection by US Customs and Border Protection at Miami Airport. On April 8 they had seized her mobile phone, and two days later it was revealed that her visa had been withdrawn. It subsequently transpired that she was on a watch list. The public eventually was told that she had been en route to China, not on government business it might be noted, but on a PPP training programme with other delegates. Nevertheless, she had been travelling on a diplomatic passport with what is known as an A-2 visa, the issue of which is discretionary and gave the CPB the right to revoke it. It was also reported that she had US$9,000 in her possession, which it should be said is below Guyana’s required declaration level.
At the time it was thought that the government would have sent her on leave and instituted a proper investigation, but that did not happen. The public was told that the Permanent Secretary had written a statement, with a source telling this newspaper, “The Foreign Affairs Ministry has her statement and they are doing what they have to do.” Whatever that was, nothing more was heard about it. Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas herself said some weeks after the incident that, “Most of what has been reported is erroneous. I wish to clarify that I was referred for a ‘routine secondary check.’ There was a misunderstanding over my official cell phone without me being able to advise my officials.”
Her own Minister was no more informative, while the President too appeared untroubled by events: “There was no motive,” he was quoted as saying, “it was a normal routine procedure. People go to secondary [searches].” Unnamed government sources added to the fog by telling this newspaper that the US Embassy was unaware of why the CBP acted as it did, because that agency did not come under the State Department, but rather under the Department of Homeland Security. “There are many, many layers” in the US system, was the disingenuous comment.
Even a straightforward question like what the training mission in China was all about produced a thicket of words from PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo, but no actual explanation. And as for a government official going on a party training course, “People have multiple existences …” he said.
Whatever else can be said about it, the incident doesn’t appear to have done Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas any particular harm. She was confident enough to complain about Mr Joseph Rankin causing her cyber humiliation and embarrassment on WhatApp, and in late July last year he was charged under the 2018 Cybercrime Act. The court threw out the case. The following month, however, she found herself transferred to the Labour Ministry as Permanent Secretary, but her case was buried in a major reshuffle of permanent secretaries involving two new appointments and six re-assignments.
What attracted especial attention, however, was when at this year’s PPP Congress she was elected to the PPP Central Committee, albeit as a non-voting member. What, the uninitiated public wondered, had she done for the party to make herself so popular, when her only claim to fame as far as anyone knew, was an encounter with the US CPB at Miami airport last year. Even her initial appointment to a ministry which has oversight of the security services in addition to responsibility for a range of security related issues was never altogether clear. Her previous job had been as Assistant Accountant in the Office of the President.
Be all that as it may, where Ms Toussaint Jr Thomas was concerned, citizens knew no more about the Miami incident and its ramifications at the start of this week than they did in April last year. Until Tuesday that is. On that day it became public that businessman Nazar Mohamed and his son Azruddin Mohamed along with Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas had been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for alleged corruption.
The Treasury Department accused Azruddin and Mohamed’s Enterprise, which deals in gold, among other things, of being involved in extensive bribery schemes involving government officials in Guyana. The purpose was to ensure favourable treatment in criminal or civil matters, and in return corrupt officials would be given cash or gifts. Additionally, it said, Mohamed’s Enterprise had paid bribes to Guyana government officials to facilitate the award of government contracts.
One of these officials was Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas, who had served as Home Affairs Permanent Secretary from October 2020 to August 2023. The US Treasury alleged that she had used her position there to influence the award of contracts and the approval processes for weapons permits and passports on behalf of Mohamed’s Enterprise, and had received cash and high-value gifts. Permanent Secretaries, it was said, can act as the legal authority to sign contracts on behalf of their ministry, and a corrupt PS could give contractors insight into forthcoming projects and bids.
Among other things, sanctions will be applied to all property and interests in property of the individuals concerned in the US, or in the possession or control of US persons. These will be blocked and will have to be reported to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. In addition, anybody engaging in certain transactions with the sanctioned entities may also be subject to sanctions. Other prohibitions too are itemised.
This time the government did not procrastinate, stating that Ms Mae Thomas had been sent on leave with immediate effect and that they would be requesting additional information from the US authorities with a view to assisting local law enforcement agencies. They gave the assurance that they took the claims very seriously, and said the government would continue to work with the US on “all matters of mutual interest, including the respect for the rule of law and order.”
This is something which should have been done in April last year, and questions will now be asked as to why it wasn’t. Why especially was no thorough investigation carried out at that time? Did the significance of the revocation of a US visa not occur to the authorities? And why was Ms Thomas transferred to another ministry without an investigation first being undertaken? There were other possible signs too there might have been a problem, such as when sources said that a few months before a close relative of the then PS who was a US citizen had also had their phone seized at a US airport. And why too, was Ms Thomas elected to the Central Committee? It had the patina of a party endorsement. Will she now be asked to resign?
This will undoubtedly be a matter of acute embarrassment for the government and Freedom House. After all their recitations that it was the last government which was corrupt, but not this one, they will have to acknowledge that Ms Thomas’s period in office, since she was a political appointee chosen by the President, comes fully within their incumbency. It was when she was at Home Affairs, for example, that a $648 million contract was awarded to the Mohameds for the construction of the new Fire Service headquarters in Georgetown.
It is true that there have been allegations about passports and gun licences going back many years, but the current allegations, which have been denied by the Mohameds, are of a particularly egregious nature. What the government has to realise is that they cannot just paper over incidents suggestive of possible corruption with a view to promoting an image of integrity; international actors are watching, particularly the US where most despoilers expect to park their illicit gains.
On Tuesday the State Department stated: “Today’s actions support the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption which identifies the fight against corruption as a national security priority. The United States is committed to exposing corruption and promoting accountability for corrupt acts worldwide.” The government here would be well advised to start getting serious about corruption.
