-says PPP will not tolerate corruption in GPF or anywhere else

THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration will not support corrupt practices regardless of relationship or high-ranking posts in public offices, the party’s General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has sternly affirmed.

Dr. Jagdeo who is also Guyana’s Vice-President was on Thursday, October 17, quizzed by the local media at a news conference about a senior police officer being at the centre of a financial crime investigation.

“We support the police force, we support the leadership of the police force, we support them to do their work, but they must comply with the laws of this country. The PPP will not tolerate corruption in the police force or anywhere else,” Dr. Jagdeo asserted.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (ag) Calvin Brutus is presently the focus of an investigation regarding purported financial irregularities. The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) led the investigation.

“When we find corruption in the police or anywhere else, there will be no attempt to cover it up. So, if you believe you have a special relationship with the government and we will [use] that relationship to cover up your misdeeds, you have it wrong; you don’t know the PPP,” he said.

Dr. Jagdeo highlighted that from the inception, the government has made it clear that the investigation would be impartial and called out the People’s National Congress (PNC) and Alliance for Change (AFC) opposition for its previous claims that the PPP government would attempt to thwart the investigation.

“When this matter surfaced, the same opposition was saying that these individuals or this particular individual was linked to the Government of Guyana and they did not trust there will be an impartial investigation.”

The opposition parties had also called for external parties to lead the investigation into the senior cop.
“We made it clear at that time that the investigations would be professional and there would be no interference from the executive to steer the investigation either way and that the chips may fall where they may.”

In sections of the media, it was reported that SOCU concluded its probe on October 1, 2024 and the unit recommended dozens of charges against the senior police officer.

While addressing the issue last Thursday, Dr. Jagdeo confirmed that relevant files have been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for legal advice on the way forward.

“In the investigation, impartial investigations done by an arm of the police force, there is a recommendation that went to the DPP [to] lay multiple charges for breaches of the law.”

The senior police officer has since filed an action in the High Court asking for a number of things.

Dr. Jagdeo while further limiting his comments on the probe noted that the government will be responding through the courts.

“If you did illegal things, you will face the consequences and from all that I have read, a lot of wrong things took place, a lot of illegalities took place.”

Jagdeo added: “We will respond to the constitutional motion in court. And since some charges were [recommended], trust me, our affidavit to respond to those charges may not be beneficial to the particular individual because we will go into great details about what our findings were in the procurement system when he was heading the administration of the police force.”