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Chairperson of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan is critical of the manner in which the administration is spending taxpayers money and he made no qualms about expressing his views recently in the last sitting of the National Assembly when he said that some of the requests did not fit the requirements under the laws of Guyana.The parliamentarian in a subsequent interview with this newspaper opined that there was an illegitimate misuse of taxpayers’ monies being spent to buy votes in impoverished communities in the run up to next year’s general elections.“This is quite evident in the Financial Papers in which a number of items are wholly being misused for this exact purpose of buying the votes- $54M for excavators for Wakenaam and Fisheries, $8M for Amerindian Hostel, $124M for street lighting in Berbice, $1.5B for certain roads under a surreptitious characterisation shamelessly called ‘programme activities’,Troy Brouwer Jersey, $184M for paving tarmac at Stadium…Not a cent, however, for garbage collections in the City when a dengue crisis is imminent…Is this not good reason for the Contingency Fund to be activated in an area of over 150,000 people?”Ramjattan was also critical of the recent decision to sell the 20 per cent shares owned in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company by the Government of Guyana.Ramjattan said that the sale of the government’s GT&T 20 percent shares,Johnny Gaudreau Team North America Jersey, at this time of highest profitability,Brandon Mashinter Jersey, reveals a total irrationality by the Jagdeo Administration.“How could this be a rational economic decision…Why sell a goose that lays golden eggs?He posited that, “We all know, if we did not know before, that this Government is not rational in its economic decision making…But there is an undoubted method behind all this madness …. it is corruption and nepotism. This,Connor McDavid Team North America Jersey, by force of logic and experience,Dylan Larkin Team North America Jersey, could be the only rationale behind such a sale.”The ACF Chairman said that he is willing to bet that some close associate of the Government will get the asset.“One of the Big Bs most likely,CM Punk Jersey, as I mentioned in Parliament in the Budget Debate…And even worse, it may not be for the highest price…Guyana has now been taken over by the oligarchic Big Bs.”He also spoke to the fact that the dividends earned are not being placed into the Consolidated Fund,Pavol Demitra Jersey, rather it is in, “NICIL’s coffers …a special account which is not scrutinised by Parliament but by NICIL’s Chairman, Ashni Singh and its CEO Winston Brassington.”He said that this account is one of the, “political trough from which patronage is parceled out to the partisans… Gorging from this trough will be more manifest and rampant in the coming months…Monies from this trough will be used to bribe and induce voters to the PPP. It has started already.”He said that it is not just NICIL’s coffers,Al Macinnis Jersey, but now the Consolidated Fund and Contingencies Fund, “are shamelessly abused,John Gibson Team North America Jersey, too.” |
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