Dear Editor,

I HAVE never written a letter to the press, but the situation as it relates to the behaviour of one of our RDC councillors has now become unbearable to me, a supporter of this Government in Region 5.This man has a full-time job working for a most senior Government functionary, and is also the Chairman of a Government-owned company at Burma. He belongs to the AFC: and for him, that party can do no wrong.

It pains me to hear how he sometimes bad-mouths a senior Government Minister from APNU as corrupt, even though I understand he smartly chooses when and where to do so, and with whom. He does the same with the MMA and a few people of the Regional Administration.

Last Sunday evening (May 8th), having just left a Chinese drinking place which he frequents, and driving the MARDS vehicle which he took away from the manager since February, he ran off the road at Bath, bulldozing people’s properties (stall/shed/ fence) and extensively damaging (some say ‘written-off’) the Government vehicle.

When I visited the scene, soon after, I was at first very mad, and I must admit even supportive of the sentiments being expressed by the people there as to what should have befallen him; only to be proud later of the way another councillor was trying to take care of the situation.

Strangely, there has been no report of this matter in the press, with the chap claiming that his boss will be taking care of things, including the media. It would appear that he knows why he is saying so, since recently he wrote a letter to the press saying how much the people of Bath Settlement love his boss, although he knows fully well that the Bath people love his boss as much as they love him.

As one person was to point out to him soon after that letter, “If the people of Bath love you all so much, why did you all not contest the Local Government elections there?”

Now, one would have thought that at least shame would have caused this man to stay quiet; but instead, in the signature style of his boss, he writes to the press again, attacking someone who apparently said he was using MARDS money to favour chosen contractors for the building of a cenotaph and fun park at Fort Wellington. (The Chairman of the Board clarifies — Kaieteur News of May 11th)

In true Orwellian Squealer-like fashion, instead of properly justifying the decision to do so, he praises himself and announces that tens of millions were transferred from MARDS to do the MMA road at Onverwagt and purchase machines which were given to the MMA.

Now, this caught my interest, as I am now associated with MMA. On finding out, however, I realized that he dishonestly manipulated the issue and omitted that the MMA had rehabilitated the entire MARDS lands, most of which were tied up in an arrangement with a Libyan Government company and unused for years. MARDS was then able, through an arrangement facilitated by MMA, to lease those lands to farmers so as to pay off its debts.

The money transferred for the road was for the works that the MMA had done, and it was not paid to contractors, but to the Force Account Unit of the Ministry of Public Works, which did the job.

As regards the machines, it was a decision taken by the Minister that the MMA should operate, maintain and repair them, and meet the operational costs to do so.

MARDS had, and still has, no capacity to do so. Strange enough, as was pointed out to me, he has not moved to change this arrangement, even though he has been the Chairman of MARDS for a year now.

While I should make it clear that I have no objection to MARDS financing the cenotaph and fun park at Fort Wellington, I have noticed that both the road works and the machinery operations are directly related to the agricultural development of the Region, within the mandates of both MARDS and MMA.

Finally, all the people I spoke to are of the view that the man wants the top job at MMA, which is the reason why he is attacking MMA. Well, my resignation is on hold, waiting for that to happen.

I believe the time has come for Government to do something about this gentleman. He needs help.
I end here, until I see his next shot – from pen, or glass.

Yours faithfully,
CONCERNED BOARD MEMBER