By Derwayne Wills

CABINET Secretary Joseph Harmon is calling on the nation to be patient as both the Police Force and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) begin investigating procedural breakdowns which forensic audits unveiled have occurred under the Donald Ramotar administration.During a time-constrained post-cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency on Friday, Harmon was made to respond specifically to the findings made at the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), which falls under the Agriculture Ministry. The NDIA forensic audit, which began sometime after this new administration took office, has, among other things, revealed that a considerable number of contracts were sole-sourced, thus ignoring procurement procedures for awarding multi-million-dollar contracts.

Harmon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and State Minister of the Ministry of the Presidency, said there were cases in which auditors were denied access to information. He said the State must nonetheless take the findings “and determine whether some would have to go to the police or some will have to be dealt with administratively.”

Harmon said that while some cases have been sent to the police for further investigation, efforts are being made to deal with findings that could be remedied through administrative adjustments.
In this regard, he said, President David Granger met on Thursday with Permanent Secretaries of the various Government ministries and “made it very clear to them what their responsibilities are in relation to these audits.”

“You will see some action being taken with respect to administrative recommendations, and some actions will be taken with respect to police work, which has to be done,” Harmon explained.

He drew a comparison between investigations done by the police and those done by auditors. For auditors, he said, the standard is not as stringent as is expected of a police investigation, which must be able to withstand scrutiny in a court of law.

The Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has repeatedly challenged the David Granger administration to prove the substance of the Government-sponsored forensic audits; and Harmon has said that since the forensic audits are in the open, “it is then up to us now to take it to the next level; and that’s what we are doing.”

He said, however, that none of this can be done unless “we have enough information — and solid information — that when we act we act wisely and we act justly.”

Harmon’s comment comes at a time when Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has been quoted, at a press conference some time ago, as insisting that Government should “put up or shut up” on the allegations made from forensic audits. Jagdeo’s position was that the administration was not affording persons named within forensic audits an opportunity to respond to those allegations.

Former Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon, who sat on the Board of Directors of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), has also written in the media that many of the members who sat on the board with him have not been given an opportunity to respond to allegations levelled against them.

In similar vein, former NDIA top official Lionel Wordsworth also complained, by way of letter to the press, of not being allowed to respond to allegations made against the NDIA while he served as Chief Executive Officer.
Wordsworth was sent on ten months’ administrative leave while the NDIA was being investigated. An announcement was made just last month that the Board of Directors has opted not to renew his contract, which would have ended by August month-end of this year. Wordsworth has been compensated for the remainder of his contract.