–matter never merited police action
–Minister Teixeira tells UN Human Rights Committee Dr Jagdeo already responded publicly to this issue
–affirms local systems being constantly strengthened to enhance accountability, transparency
–points to Opposition’s delay in nominating persons for Human Rights Commission

FURTHER attempts to revive the discredited allegations against Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo surfaced at the UN Human Rights Committee. However, this attempt was quickly shot down by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, who responded to questions around these fabricated allegations by Vice News.

The minister dismantled claims of corruption in her response to questions posed by UN Human Rights Committee Member, Laurence Helfer.
Regarding the Vice News allegations, Teixeira immediately clarified that the matter did not even merit a police report, as the claims did not meet the basic threshold for pursuing such recourse.

“There was no follow up because there was no police, there was no report made by Vice News or anybody else. And so the police cannot investigate without some form of report or complaint. However, the Vice President has answered this issue several times publicly in the same media that carried the report,” she said.

As it relates to anti-corruption measures, the minister stated that a Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has been appointed and is functioning. She pointed out that robust systems for accountability and transparency are working perfectly.
She said: “The comment that it is slow must be taken in context; the commission that had come [in] found that files were missing,” while highlighting there was also inadequate staffing.

Moreover, while the government is prepared to set up the Human Rights Commission, this is stagnant as the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, has not submitted his six nominations.

“And in relation to recent [Leader of the Opposition], he has announced that he will be submitting names, but that was about three months ago and we’ve not heard from him on this issue,” Teixeira disclosed.

Also, in her opening remarks, she noted: “Since the submission of our report in August 2021, Guyana has changed and is changing daily, significantly, palpably and rapidly.”
She said that the government is laying the foundation for Guyanese to benefit from prosperity and this is being done with investments in the education, health, infrastructural sectors, etc.

“Guyana is working to ensure that no one is left behind,” the minister said.
Vice-President Jagdeo has continuously shut down allegations of corruption.

As it relates to a documentary by Vice News titled, “Guyana for sale,” Jagdeo had stated it vindicated him as being upright in his dealings with business officials, since the report produced no evidence linking him to collecting bribes.
Jagdeo sought to bring clarity to certain aspects of the Vice News episode, which featured a 15-minute segment on Guyana, and included several accusations but no evidence.

He said that while only a short clip from an interview with him was used in the documentary, in reality, the actual sit down lasted approximately 15-20 minutes. The Vice President noted that during the sit down, several attempts were made to implicate him in cases of corruption, but nothing could be found since nothing exists.

“Vice came into my house with the sole purpose of catching me engaged in something illegal or taking a bribe and they couldn’t do that in my most unguarded moment. So, that is the key issue here. As I said before, they are never going to find anything of that nature,” Jagdeo said.

He added: “That was the moment when this country saw me unguarded and with an international news agency trying to implicate me in a corruption scandal, when I didn’t know I was being taped and they saw what happened. I think it worked in my favour, frankly speaking.”

Also, Jagdeo related that the Vice News reporter could not see the situation for what it was, given that their judgment was clouded with a pre-determined agenda to get Guyana embroiled in the geopolitical issue between China and the US.
The Vice-President also reminded of several inconsistencies in the reporters line of questioning and in the story.

Examples of those included her lack of knowledge about the existence of the country’s Integrity Commission and a claim that Su has a stake in the oil and gas sector; this is despite CNOOC being the only Chinese company involved in Guyana’s oil and gas sector. CNOOC is a partner in the Stabroek Block along with ExxonMobil and Hess.

According to Jagdeo, the documentary fell way short of its aim, and while many, including the opposition, had expected the documentary to be an explosive expose, they were instead left with a lukewarm story.

Following remarks made in the broadcast implying that he had accepted bribes, the Vice President later filed a multi-million-dollar defamation case against Chinese billionaire Su Zhirong.

In his statement of claim (SoC), Jagdeo is seeking damages in excess of $50,000,000 for what he says were slanderous and defamatory statements Su made against him in a VICE News interview.