I refer to Mr. Emile Mervin’s letter in Kaieteur News on June 7, 2009 with the caption, “Govt. is not the only source of information in Guyana.”

First and foremost, I did not set out to initiate any spin, but rather the provision of facts. I am merely using the letter column to reply to Mr. Mervin, since his letter was polluted with inaccuracies. I think I have the right to respond to any letter in any type of column.

Mr. Mervin states that there are a number of glaring discrepancies in the Auditor-General’s Report 2006. As a former Permanent Secretary, I want to reinforce the Minister of Finance’s statement, that the Auditor General’s Report of 2006 failed to show both sides of the story for issues raised, omitting explanations proffered by various Government Ministries and Departments. By law, the Auditor-General’s Report should include explanations for any issue it raises, but clearly this was not done with due diligence.

Over the years, the Government has improved the financial management system, in an effort to advance Accountability and Transparency. The Standing Orders necessitate that the Treasury Memorandum be presented in the National Assembly within (90) days after the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) Report is placed in the National Assembly, providing information on explanations and actions Government has initiated, or will take to resolve the pertinent issues.

The last PAC Report covered 2002 and 2003, and the reports were presented to the National Assembly on July 1, 2008. The Chairperson of the PAC is generally a member of the Opposition. The last Treasury Memorandum presented to the National Assembly was on December 3, 2008. For the most part, outstanding deficiencies identified in the Auditor-General’s Report were corrected, as indicated in this Treasury Memorandum. Incidentally, the auditing report is a mere management tool to correct deficiencies in the financial system; the report is not a prosecutorial tool.

Also, the Government faces the abuse of press freedom daily, whereby issues are exaggerated and sensationalized, without appropriate verification to substantiate queries.

I already addressed the CLICO matter; and so, it is inappropriate for the Government to intervene at this time, since the matter is sub-judice. And Government through its agency, the Commissioner of Insurance, already effected a timely intervention by filing the matter in Court, resulting in the appointment of the Judicial Manager. Furthermore, in my letter titled “The Chimera of Mr. Mervin”, I stated, “The CLICO Guyana issue was ventilated at the highest forum of this country, that is, Parliament. And so, Parliament was privy to all the aspects of the issue plus the matter went to Court where the Judicial Manager was appointed and pleadings had to be made by interested parties.” Mr. Mervin continues to be a broken record, repeating stuff that already received responses.

Mr. Mervin states that his allusion to foreign remittances to Guyana was intended only to show that I boast of progress and development in Guyana, but remittances were actually a major factor in helping Guyanese survive. I want to restate what I said in my last letter titled, “Wild and sweeping unsubstantiated allegations will not do”: “Mr. Mervin continues to allude to remittances as wrong, but I want to reiterate the following: presently India is the leading recipient of remittances in the world, and received $24.6 billion in the fiscal year 2005-2006 from overseas Indians. The World Bank estimates for 2005 put India in the lead at $23.5 billion, with China and Mexico close behind at $22.4 billion and $21.7 billion, respectively. In 2007, remittances represented 3.08 percent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In addition, remittances have rescued the Jamaican economy .Given that these countries see remittances as a positive for development, then why not Guyana?” And then, we can speak of remittances as a response to brain gain and brain circulation within the context of migration issues; I will not speak to this issue here. But just to say that remittances have become an important transformative developmental tool for large sections of the developing world.
PREM MISIR