— by contractors keeping duty-free vehicles in breach of contractual terms,says VP Jagdeo

VICE-PRESIDENT, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has highlighted some glaring infractions on the part of contractors who benefitted from duty-free concessions under the previous A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government.
“Some people connected to the [then] Government, if they have a contract from the Ministry of Public Works for $2 million, they get a Landcruiser for duty-free for the project,” Jagdeo told a press conference hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Friday.
He explained that when vehicles are acquired under such duty-free terms, there are certain guidelines that apply in relation to a person/company keeping the imported item.
“When the project comes to an end, they are supposed to either… re-export it, or pay the taxes,” the Vice-President highlighted.
He informed that under the previous Government, the guidelines for returning/keeping the vehicles were not adhered to. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes are unpaid there, and these are friends of a lot of the [former] ministers, and the Members of Parliament now,” Jagdeo informed.

The Vice-President was at the time highlighting a number of controversial matters relating to APNU+AFC’s tenure in office [2015-2020]. He reminded that under the former Government, in excess of one trillion dollars were expended, with at least “419 million spent without parliamentary oversight”.
Jagdeo also pointed to several instances where sole and single-sourcing of medical supplies were implemented in a manner which benefitted “certain people”.
“We have cases where the people – facilities maintenance managers were told to allow… equipment to rundown,” Jagdeo told reporters.
He also lamented the fact that presently, the Georgetown Public Hospital has equipment that does not work, including the X-ray machine. “We are using portable ones; we are trying to get people now to come in and service those,” Jagdeo said. He also made reference to the dumping of billions of dollars’ worth of expired drugs that were still being stored away. “We are [still] cleaning that out; it will take a while,” the Vice-President informed. He also made reference to the controversial D’Urban Park project, which was constructed, in a substandard manner, at a cost of $1 billion. That project remains under investigation.

Dr. Jagdeo also pointed to the controversial Sussex Street drug bond, which was being rented at an exorbitant cost of $12.5 million per month. It was only in April this year that former Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, was slapped with a Misconduct in Public Office charge by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force.
Norton’s charges followed a December 2020 recommendation from the Auditor-General, Deodat Sharma, that the Guyana Police Force conduct a thorough investigation into the questionable rental agreements. The warehouse facility, situated at 29 Sussex Street, Albouystown, Georgetown, was rented from Lawrence “Larry” Singh to serve as an offsite medical storage facility for the MoPH and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). “One man got more money for renting a building as a drug bond, than the entire [medical] capital budget for Region Four,” Jagdeo said on Friday. He reiterated the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government’s commitment to prosecuting public officers responsible for illegally tapping into the State’s coffers. “A lot of people were asking me, ‘what are you going to do about all these illegalities? What will the PPP do if it gets into Government?’ I said to you then, that we will take action against the people who have siphoned off State assets,” the Vice-President posited.