“MR David Granger (Brigadier ret’d), the leader of the PNCR (People’s National Congress Reform) and APNU (A Partnership for National Unity), has said that he would like to hold inquiries into a whole host of things. He can start with Mr Greenidge and the actual evidence of corruption provided.”These were the sentiments of Attorney General and Minster of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, who dismantled a defence mounted by former finance minister, Carl Greenidge, after questions on a ‘less than transparent’ property acquisition of a house by him in 1993, were raised.

The questions were raised by former president, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, who, last Saturday, responded to allegations of corruption that Greenidge levelled against the People’s Progressive Party/Civic(PPP/C).
Jagdeo’s response included the production of a Transport dated January 25, 1993, which details the acquisition of a house at Bel Air Gardens for $4M, as well as references to the lack of accountability and transparency during Greenidge’s tenure as finance minister.
The former president stated too that according to the Transport, a property owned by Guyana Stores Limited (GSL) was transferred to Greenidge as ‘Minister of Finance’, months after he demitted office.
However, Greenidge maintains that there was nothing corrupt about his actions. “If Mr. Jagdeo thinks that it was corrupt he should pass the details to the DPP and the police,” he challenged, in a comment recently made public.
GLIB RESPONSE
The Attorney General charged that Greenidge’s call for the matter to be reported constitutes a “glib response” given that the allegations he himself has levelled against the PPP/C have not been reported to the police.
Nandlall said, “Over the last 22 years, the PNC has made allegations of corruption against almost every government minister, government functionary and senior officials of the state. Not once can I recall them ever making a report to the police in relation to these charges.
“They simply make these charges publicly, provide not a scintilla of evidence and repeat them ad nauseam with the hope that they become fact. Indeed, they have deluded themselves and unfortunately others with their propaganda.
“When allegations are made against Mr. Greenidge and the proof, the evidence, is actually produced, his glib response is ‘did you report it to the police’.”
The Attorney General questioned why, despite the numerous allegations, Greenidge and his colleagues in the political Opposition did not make a report to the police.
“The obvious question is why they have not reported the tons of allegations they have made of corruption over those years to the police,” he said, adding that the answer is clear – there is no evidence, only rhetoric.
PNC FACILITATED CORRUPTION

Nandlall also highlighted the fact that, like the 1993 property acquisition, the lack of accountability and transparency, during Greenidge’s tenure as finance minister, from 1980 to 1992, resulted in corrupt practices being facilitated by the PNC.
He said, “There was absolutely no defined process or procedure in relation to the disposal of assets of the State and, of course, no transparency and accountability, in respect of those transactions, which includes the very house, which is the subject of contention.
“That is why the Alesie Group of Companies was able to purchase several rice milling complexes and hundreds of acres of rice land from the confidential secretary of President Desmond Hoyte. There was absolutely no advertisement inviting other persons to submit a bid and no one knew that the assets were up for sale. Mr Greenidge was the finance minister then.”
The Attorney General was emphatic that for a man whose interest is becoming the next finance minister, if the political Opposition were to secure power, his ‘dismal’ record is his undoing.
“The truth of the matter is that Mr Greenidge never submitted an audited report for any of the years that he was a finance minister. The then auditor general, Anand Goolsaran, publicly stated that Mr Greenidge, as finance minister, instructed him not to audit certain Government agencies,” Nandlall said.
Greenidge was finance minister under the PNC administration from 1980 up to October 1992 when the ruling People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) came to power.

By Vanessa Narine