—Says ‘It takes a lot to worry a politician’

By Derwayne Wills

EVEN with allegations continuing to flow against the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, the party’s General Secretary Clement Rohee says he is not worried about the revelations of the audits and bemoaned the failure of auditors to seek responses from those implicated in their reports.

“We have always maintained that audit reports should be shared with the former chairmen of these boards and with those members of the boards who served,” Rohee told the press corps at his party’s Robb Street headquarters on Tuesday during his weekly press briefing.

“I don’t think we can give any kind of objective response to the audit reports,” Rohee continued.

The PPP General Secretary was responding to the audits of the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) and the National Communications Network (NCN) in Berbice, where PPP members Shaik Baksh and Faizal Jafarally were respective heads of the entities being audited.

$22M IN FREE ADVERTISING
Similarly, the PPP was implicated in an audit of the National Communications Network (NCN), where it was disclosed that some $22M in free advertising was given to the party during political campaigns since the network had not sent the necessary invoices.

“We have asked for the data, we have asked for the invoices, we have asked also for the materials to be attached as proof of evidence for these debts,” Rohee told reporters.

Asked whether he was worried about the allegations that his party used their role in government to access free advertising on the state-funded network, Mr Rohee responded “It takes a lot of stuff to worry a politician… especially a politician who has been around for a long time.”

“I know the party pays for whatever services it purchases or solicits or procures or that is outsourced. So we need to make a distinction… whether it’s the government ministries or whether it’s the PPP,” Rohee added.

There were revelations some time during the 2015 elections that the PPP had brandished their logo on billboards paid for by the GWI.
Responding to the question whether his party will move to repay monies owed to the communications network, Rohee said the network is currently in possession of correspondence from his party but there has been no response so far.

‘GHOST WRITER’
Some time ago, Rima Rohee, daughter of the PPP General Secretary and a member of the PPP’s list of candidates for the 2015 elections, had been fingered as a “ghost writer” in an audit of the National Communications Network.

Rima’s responsibilities came under a body referred to as the “Media Monitoring Unit”, whose job it was to locate and respond to negative comment on social media about the then PPP Government.

The NCN audit also outlined a system which compromised the employment policies of the state-funded network by giving priority employment to persons associated with the then ruling party.

When asked about these allegations, Rohee distanced himself from his daughter being named in the probe, saying, “I am not my daughter’s keeper, she is a grown woman. She is free to apply anywhere for a job. She applied for a job, she got a job and that’s it. She never asked me to write a recommendation to get a job.”

And asked whether he had sought an explanation from his daughter on the issue, even as she is a member of his party, Rohee responded in the negative.