SENIOR official sources confirmed last evening that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) is yet to make contact with Leonard Gildharie, a former senior reporter attached to the Kaieteur News, in connection with a report made by the paper’s publisher, Mohan Lall, also known as Glenn Lall.

The Guyana Chronicle has been informed that the police need Gildharie to assist in investigations currently underway, but up to press time last evening, police ranks have been unable to locate him.

Lall reported on Monday to the Deputy Police Commissioner, Mr. Balram Persaud, after making public a 19-minuute recording of a conversation alleged to have occurred between Gildharie and Attorney-General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, last Saturday, October 25. The Kaieteur News publisher is alleging that the contents of the recording indicate that his life and those of his family and staff members are under threat.

FIRED
Gildharie was reportedly fired on Monday following disclosure of the contents of the recording. His dismissal was confirmed yesterday by sources close to the Kaieteur News.

In the controversial recording, a voice — purportedly that of the AG — is heard making the newspaper’s senior reporter an offer of a job. Gildharie is recorded as saying, “Wha deh (expletive excluded) you gun offer me?”
The other party responded, “Better than Kaieteur News…Send me a proposal of what you working for.”
Gildharie then responded: “Ah gun have to discuss it with the wife.”

It is believed that the discussion of a job offer contributed to the Kaieteur News’ senior reporter’s dismissal.

ILLEGAL SPYING
Gildharie’s dismissal follows concerns raised since last week over Lall’s illegal surveillance of telephone calls and other communications of his staff, Government officials and private Guyanese citizens. The senior reporter himself, in the recorded conversation, indicated that he could not disclose certain information for fear of his phone being tapped by his boss, Lall.
“Me gun tell you. Ah can’t tell you on the phone, man. Oh (expletive), you wan (expletive) me up?” Gildharie was heard asking at one point. At another point in the conversation, Gildharie is heard saying that he stepped out of his office to take the call, when asked where he was.

“Me just deh at the back; I deh at the back of Kaieteur News…Ah just come fuh tek dis call heah,” he said.

As a result of the recent development, several stakeholders of both the public and private sectors who spoke to the Guyana Chronicle yesterday have expressed reservations about communicating any information over the telephones or via emails, in fear of having private conversations distorted and made public by Lall.
Kaieteur News has earned a reputation of being focused on the sensational at a risk of fair news reporting. In the last year alone, the local daily has been slapped with several libel lawsuits and injunctions, and has been involved in other pending court matters as a result of the material published.

Attempts by the Guyana Chronicle to contact the embattled reporter have proved futile.