MUCH ado is being made of the recent procurement of a vehicle by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). This however is a smokescreen being created in a less-than-sophisticated effort to detract from the real SUV scandal which the public needs to know about.
What the political opposition is attempting to do by focusing on the cost of the vehicle acquired by OPM is mask the obscene numbers attached to the vehicles which were purchased by the PPP administration and which, to this day, are still being utilised by their senior members.

Here are the indisputable facts:
1. 1. Former President Donald Ramotar utilizes a Toyota Landcruiser Prado which cost taxpayers approximately GY$17,000,000 (SEVENTEEN MILLION DOLLARS)
2. 2. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo utilizes a Toyota Landcruiser Prado which cost taxpayers approximately GY$15,000,000 (FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS)
3. 3. Former Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh utilized a Toyota Landcruiser Prado which cost taxpayers GY$23,000,000 (TWENTY THREE MILLION DOLLARS)
These three vehicles – two of which are being currently used by Opposition Leader Jagdeo and former President Ramotar – cost the state a total of GY$55,000,000.
That is FIFTY FIVE MILLION DOLARS of taxpayers’ money.

The vehicle procured for use by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo for non-coastland trips cost a mere GY$13.5m in comparison. This is a whopping $41,500,000 LESS than the three vehicles purchased during the term of the previous PPP administration circa 2013/2014 as listed above.
The cost of the vehicle recently procured by OPM is less than each of the three vehicles listed above. It is $3,500,000 LESS than the cost of the vehicle currently being used by former President Ramotar. It is $1,500,000 LESS than the cost of the vehicle currently being used by Opposition Leader Jagdeo. And it is a whole $9,500,000 less than the vehicle procured under the OPM budget, but which was utilized by Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh instead.
And these vehicles were purchased several years prior, at costs which were still far in excess of the vehicle procured in 2016 for the current Prime Minister. There is an additional dimension of ‘scandalousity’ to this issue.

The facts are disturbing as they are instructive of how the previous government conducted business.
A sum of $23,000,000 was budgeted for the purchase of a single SUV vehicle for then Prime Minister Samuel Hinds. The SUV luxury vehicle was purchased for the full amount of $23,000,000, but it was reported to the new government that former Prime Minister Hinds was not permitted use of the vehicle. The obvious question now is whether the PPP government had second thoughts and did not believe that then Prime Minister Hinds was worthy of this $23million SUV and reverted him to an older model more befitting of their view of his relegated ribbon-cutting stature. When the government changed in 2015, this $23M vehicle was not handed over to the OPM. It was reported by the OPM staff that the vehicle was assigned to the Ministry of Finance for use by then Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, whose challenges and troubles with vehicles were widely reported in the press.

The fleet of vehicles handed over at OPM included one vehicle which broke down in the middle of a street in Georgetown with the Prime Minister on board. Another vehicle could not navigate the elevation of the Berbice Bridge. I personally witnessed the front light falling off of another on the Linden-Lethem trail while en route to the Rupununi. On the return leg of this very trip, I witnessed the gas tank of another vehicle in the fleet coming loose and a disaster was narrowly avoided by a combination of luck and swift action. Lives could have been lost. The entire OPM fleet consisted of katamuses and corkballs, which were given fresh paint jobs to give the illusion of newness.

With a $23MILLION SUV missing from the OPM vehicle pool and a fleet of old and dilapidated vehicles, the sum of $22M was therefore reinstated to upgrade the prime ministerial fleet. The monies were used not to purchase a SINGLE vehicle as was done by the PPP administration, but rather to purchase TWO vehicles PLUS a motorcycle and the balance was RETURNED to the treasury. Following is the breakdown:

1. 1. SUV – $13,819,648
2. 2. Cars – $5,382,468
3. 3. Motorcycle – $203,000
TOTAL – $19,405,116

RETURNED TO TREASURY – $2,594,884
Two years later, under the new Coalition Government, less monies were being expended for the purchase of vehicles than was done by the PPP at an earlier time when vehicle prices were less than they are now.

FIFTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS for three SUVs under the PPP – the cheapest of the lot was $15,000,000, $1.5MILLION MORE than the cost of the vehicle being used by PM Nagamootoo. And this $15MILLION ride is being used by none other than Opposition Leader Jagdeo, yet total silence on this, as there is total silence on Mr. Ramotar’s $17MILLION auto-chariot and the one, which was used by former Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, which costs a fantastic $23MILLION.