–Vice-President says

IN a move which is reflective of its intention not to arbitrarily take action against persons from the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), the Government of Guyana has discontinued its case against Dr. George Norton, who was charged for his conduct in the arrangement for the rental of the controversial Sussex Street Bond.

Dr. Norton, the former Minister of the then Public Health Ministry, was in April slapped with a Misconduct in Public Office Charge by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force.

He appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, where he was not required to plead to the indictable charge, and was placed on $400,000 bail.
In December 2020, Auditor-General Deodat Sharma recommended that the Guyana Police Force conduct a thorough investigation into the rental of the bond by the then Ministry of Public Health, under the former APNU+AFC Government, and to institute charges where necessary.

The warehouse facility, situated at 29 Sussex Street, Albouystown, Georgetown, was rented from Lawrence “Larry” Singh at a cost of $12.5 million per month to serve as an offsite medical storage facility for the Public Health Ministry, and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The agreement for rental of the bond was signed by Larry Singh, on behalf of Linden Holding Inc. and then Ministry of Public Health Permanent Secretary, Trevor Thomas for three years, from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019. The report highlighted that there was no evidence to conclude that the contract was advertised, which is a breach of Sections 10 (1) and 25 (1) of the Procurement Act of 2003.

Investigations conducted by SOCU also revealed that Dr. Norton, in 2016, instructed Thomas “not” to engage the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) with respect to the tender and/or any submission of any justification for the award of contract for the rental of the bond, in turn single sourcing the contract.

While this was the case, Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo said that Dr. Norton was acting pursuant to directions from the then Cabinet.

“We had a case against (Dr.) George Norton… [but he was] acting pursuant to the Cabinet, and we are dropping that case. It does not make sense prosecuting him for something the Cabinet ordered him to do,” Vice-President Jagdeo related during a recent interview aired on his official Facebook Page.

Further, he said: “We are not rushing to charge everybody willy-nilly; we have not called SOCU and said every member of the other side must be charged.”
To this end, the Vice-President affirmed that the government does not have an “enemy image,” so it will not be pursuing actions unnecessarily.