– urges Guyanese to be wary of ‘false news, dirty tricks’

FOREIGN Secretary Carl Greenidge has urged the public to be wary of “false news” and “dirty tricks” which will arise during this election period intended to sway them politically.
Greenidge made the remarks at the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) rally held recently in New Amsterdam, where a large number of supporters turned out to hear of the government’s vision for the East Berbice-Corentyne region.
The former Foreign Affairs Minister drew the public’s attention to what he said is an ongoing attempt to sully the government regarding its management of the country’s oil resources.

“That attack suggests that the government has somehow engaged in arrangements that are improper; arrangements that will not bring the maximum benefit to Guyana,” he said.
He, however, rebutted the claims. “The government has gone to great efforts to ensure that the works carried out by its ministers are fit and proper and that the ministers themselves are fit and proper ministers,” the foreign secretary maintained.
He also pointed to attempts to smear the government through allegations that it operates without transparency in its decisions.

However, Greenidge pointed out that prior to 2015, the APNU+AFC, while in opposition, fought for transparency in decision-making at a time when friendship and family largely influenced the awarding of contracts by the then People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration.

He stated that the current government has made the greatest efforts in ensuring proper governance.

He urged citizens to reject the ongoing efforts to label the government as non-transparent and to pay keen attention as to from whom such messages are coming.
One such person he named was former Petroleum Adviser to the President, Dr. Jan Mangal, who the foreign secretary said had gone on Aljazeera, an international news channel, to name Guyana as “one of the most corrupt places in the world.”
Greenidge said such negative positions are not becoming of a person interested in advancing the best interest of his country. He also noted that Mangal’s actions against his country and government may stem from a grudge held following non-renewal of his contract by the state.

Even so, contrary to Mangal’s position, he reminded that in 2019, Guyana moved 20 places up the worldwide Transparency Index.

“Some of the countries that you see our friends pointing to as being better off are lower ranked in their index and yet we can have an official, or former official, appearing on the international stage disparaging his country,” Greenidge said.
“This man was silent when the previous government was in office; he said not a word even when the Exxon contract was awarded in 1999; nothing was said, but when Exxon found oil you suddenly discovered that they are the worse company in the world and that the government somehow is corrupt,” Greenidge posited.

The foreign secretary also lambasted Mangal for being silent on the fact that the largest contract awarded by Exxon thus far, in the country, was awarded to his brother.
He called on citizens to be keen enough to sift out opinions from facts and be wary of experts brought in by newspapers for their own agendas.

Greenidge then spoke specifically to Global Witness, an investigative company known for sourcing its information through questionable means such as secret filming, satellite imagery, drone footage and anonymous sources.

He chastised the company for having nothing to say on Guyana’s behalf when Venezuela laid claim to more than half of the country and its resources.
“Some set of Guyanese have sought to bring an NGO – a very controversial NGO – to present a report which will claim that this government has been managing its business improperly, corruptly, inefficiently and billions of dollars have been lost to the poor,” he said.

“When [the border controversy] was going on, this NGO called Global Witness was nowhere to be found. They had nothing to say on our behalf when another country was trying to steal our resources. If our resources are stolen they are lost to our poor. But now that oil has been discovered, this NGO has suddenly got a feeling for the poor,” Greenidge further added.

Since the foreign secretary’s ousting of international company, the government’s main political competitor, the PPP/C and known critic of the government, attorney Christopher Ram, have picked up on the same.