Dear Editor,
AS Mr. Jagdeo continues to make hysterical gyrations about the voters’ list and the GECOM chairman, we examine below what Guyanese can expect from an Irfaan Ali/Jagdeo-led Government so that we can better decide how to cast our vote when the time arises.
It should first be remembered that the PPP administration was removed from office amidst a host of corruption charges, lawlessness within the ranks of their ministers, and a wave of police brutality going into the latter days of their term. Mr. Jagdeo, who was president for two terms from 1999 and played a significant leadership role within the PPP, had managed to organise the PPP government under systematic campaign of corruption which realised the outright theft or misappropriation of in excess of G$100B just based on the few contracts/instances listed below. The Public Procurement Commission had been systematically sidelined.

Further, the decision by the former Minister of Finance to spend taxpayers’ funds to the tune of G$4.5B which had specifically been denied by Parliament strongly suggests that he may have received approval from within the leadership of the PPP, namely, Mr. Jagdeo himself. This act clearly demonstrates that Mr. Jagdeo and/or the PPP leadership have no regard for Guyana’s laws, our Constitution, or our Parliament, the very organ designed to maintain order and protect the interests of Guyanese.

In addition to organised corruption, administrations of the PPP systematically allowed Guyana to be used as a transit point for the shipment of illegal drugs globally (few can forget the case of the ship caught in Europe with hundreds of kilos of cocaine which had left port Georgetown, but for which no record could be found at the Guyana Revenue Authority. and for which no investigation was conducted). The PPP’s known liaison with convicted drug-lord Roger Khan, who is set to be released before year’s end, effectively disqualifies either the entire PPP or else specific members who they must identify as being responsible such liaison, from running for political office in Guyana and administering Guyana’s national affairs.

We therefore urge Guyana’s national leaders to examine any and all measures available, or which need to be implemented to ensure that Mr. Jagdeo and other members of his organisation, known to have been involved in corruption and illegal activities, to be at least barred from running for political office in Guyana at this and any other national election. We alone will be responsible for any actions of Bharrat Jagdeo and his acolytes, should they be allowed to reenter the seat of Government. There is every likelihood that Mr. Jagdeo will embrace and reinstate Roger Khan to the same or role he played prior to his capture in Suriname by US agents.

Evidence of Jagdeo’s corruption and lawlessness are set forth in the links below. Excluding the full value of the CJIA project, which is still a work in progress, the value of the misappropriated Pradoville lands, and the very probably hundreds of millions of dollars spent to build Jagdeo’s mansion, a rough calculation of the total corruption, misappropriation and financial waste is G$162,394 billion (or G$162,394,000,000). This is just the tip of the iceberg, for the last couple of years of the PPP’s administration.

1. G$372,000,000 stolen from rice farmers by officials of the national rice management authorities.
2. The US$200M (G$40B) spent on the factory at Skeldon that Jagdeo’s advisers told him was too big for the estate.
3. G$424,000 toilet bowl units for the CJIA (the same US$150M contract that is currently attracting a lot of attention.)
4. G$5,200,000,000 ($5.2B) misappropriated from NIS for CLICO.
5. G$2,600,000,000 ($2.6B) misappropriated from NIS to finance the Berbice Bridge.
6. G$29,000,000,000 ($29.0B passing through personal account of PPP Official).
7. Approximately G$80,000,000,000 (US$40M or G$80B) to finance road to Amailia Falls.
8. G$639,000,000 misappropriated by PPP Minister.
9. The US$41.6M (G$83.2B) taxpayer resources that were spent from NICIL’s accounts to finance the Marriott project.
10. The G$4,500,000,000 (G$4.5B) spent by the PPP which had been cut from the 2014 budget.
11. And then, there’s Pradoville, which are State lands misappropriated by the PPP administration to none other than Jagdeo and company.

We seriously question why Mr. Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali are asking us to vote for them again. This is because voting for Mssrs. Jagdeo and Ali is voting for corruption and the theft of tens of billions of taxpayers’ money, lawlessness of PPP ministers, police brutality, drug-running and drug-related crime and murders. How Guyanese vote this time will determine our future for the next 20 years.

Regards,
Craig Sylvester