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THE Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) recently sought to clear the air on the $90M issue in which they considered it necessary to make public the report recently received from the Audit Office, stating that “ no illegal or criminal act was committed.”. This report arose from an investigation by the Audit Office into an allegation made by the opposition APNU, AFC and others, including sections of the media, about “the missing/ misappropriation” of funds by the Ministry of Home Affairs amounting to some $90M.
The call by the political opposition for a probe into the “controversial missing funds” was to “uncover an area of corruption” and to pin it on a government minister, with the aim of making it part and parcel of its so-called anti-corruption campaign against the PPP/C Administration.
The PNCR, the principal ally of APNU, issued on March 19, 2012, a press statement in which they had this to say: “This leaves the PNCR with no alternative but to request, in the interest of transparency and accountability that the Auditor General be asked to immediately conduct an audit of this allocation of funds to the Guyana Police Force”.
This was followed by a statement purportedly made by the Auditor General in the Kaieteur News of March 19, 2012 to the effect that he has;
“every intention of probing the allocation which has garnered a significant amount of attention recently.”
Taken together these statements triggered a slew of negative and accusatory public comments and demands by certain individuals and media houses, in an effort to drum up support for and to sustain a malicious and unsubstantiated campaign to impugn the integrity and personal reputation of the MOHA.
In an effort to fuel the campaign, Mr. Christopher Ram, writing in the Kaieteur News on March 20, 2012 was quoted as saying:
“The Minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner of Police should be prosecuted”.
The day before, the Kaieteur News reported the Auditor General as stating:
“Uncovering any malfeasance will lead to a full scale police investigation aimed at prosecution”.
And in a press statement issued on March 19, 2012, the PNCR stated;
“The minister must come clean in the spending of this $90M allocation”
Further, in an Editorial published in the Stabroek News, it was pointed out;
“Done by the Audit Office or an External Auditor, the findings would have allayed any fears of a slight of hand, particularly against the backdrop of the former Government’s abuse of state resources in the recent Government elections campaign”.
Since then the allegation hung ominously over the MOHA. The ministry is appreciative of the fact that the report has vindicated its position from the inception when it declared that “no illegal or criminal act was committed.”
The ministry reiterates the concern it expressed at the inception about manipulation of information on the matter by political opportunists and elements of the media, intended to cause confusion in the minds of the public and unease among ranks of the Guyana Police Force.
The ministry concluded by stating that such efforts will not succeed. Predictably, their efforts did not.
The call by the political opposition for a probe into the “controversial missing funds” was to “uncover an area of corruption” and to pin it on a government minister, with the aim of making it part and parcel of its so-called anti-corruption campaign against the PPP/C Administration.
The PNCR, the principal ally of APNU, issued on March 19, 2012, a press statement in which they had this to say: “This leaves the PNCR with no alternative but to request, in the interest of transparency and accountability that the Auditor General be asked to immediately conduct an audit of this allocation of funds to the Guyana Police Force”.
This was followed by a statement purportedly made by the Auditor General in the Kaieteur News of March 19, 2012 to the effect that he has;
“every intention of probing the allocation which has garnered a significant amount of attention recently.”
Taken together these statements triggered a slew of negative and accusatory public comments and demands by certain individuals and media houses, in an effort to drum up support for and to sustain a malicious and unsubstantiated campaign to impugn the integrity and personal reputation of the MOHA.
In an effort to fuel the campaign, Mr. Christopher Ram, writing in the Kaieteur News on March 20, 2012 was quoted as saying:
“The Minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner of Police should be prosecuted”.
The day before, the Kaieteur News reported the Auditor General as stating:
“Uncovering any malfeasance will lead to a full scale police investigation aimed at prosecution”.
And in a press statement issued on March 19, 2012, the PNCR stated;
“The minister must come clean in the spending of this $90M allocation”
Further, in an Editorial published in the Stabroek News, it was pointed out;
“Done by the Audit Office or an External Auditor, the findings would have allayed any fears of a slight of hand, particularly against the backdrop of the former Government’s abuse of state resources in the recent Government elections campaign”.
Since then the allegation hung ominously over the MOHA. The ministry is appreciative of the fact that the report has vindicated its position from the inception when it declared that “no illegal or criminal act was committed.”
The ministry reiterates the concern it expressed at the inception about manipulation of information on the matter by political opportunists and elements of the media, intended to cause confusion in the minds of the public and unease among ranks of the Guyana Police Force.
The ministry concluded by stating that such efforts will not succeed. Predictably, their efforts did not.
