The APA's let down of PPP

The Political manipulated National Toshaos Council allowed itself to be prostituted by the government when it stormed the APA meeting to protest.
The less than competent Minister Pauline Sukhai is been urged by High Government officials to help shut the Amerindian People’s Association up.
The aim? Well the government has realized that the APA is not being fooled by this Norway Agreement and has found a way to sensitize its people against those frivolous ‘consultations’ the government said it held on the LCDS.

What is at stake in the millions that the Norwegians are to give Guyana under this slop shot agreement to save our forests.

What has even more annoyed our dear government is that international groups, organizations and donors are paying attention to the APA.
They too may have realized that the government did nothing who fooled people calling their Cabinet Outreaches, ‘Consultations’.

What we do know is that the Jagdeo Administration has promised any of those association with the NTC, monetary contributions for their villages if they support the LCDS. Jagdeo himself, straggled himself with a few supporting Amerindians to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen but has never embraced the critics (usually egotiscal attitude)

But here is an interesting point Pauline Sukhai does not stress on, She tells the Chronicle that the members of the NTC are elected by Amerindians to represent them, right, but Pauline doesn’t the government provide an ‘unbudgeted’ subvention to this same group. The group does not have an independent office and have no other source of funding for the government, its no wonder they were prostituted in the way they were.

No severance pay for Guysuco Diamond workers

So, the NEWS is out: Guysuco is not willing to pay the hundreds of workers of the Diamond Estate their severance. Not willing or not able to? Sources said that the Management of the Sugar Company delivered the bitter news to the Sugar Union GAWU today in a letter.

The Company told the Union is will not pay the workers severance (totaled in millions of dollars) while the workers are expected to be relocated to other estates on the East Coast of Demerara.

Reports indicated that the Labour Ministry has been asked to intervene (lets see what will happen here since the same Ministry is yet to intervene in the Bauxite Workers issue after 6 months)

Diamond Sugar Workers simply want their monies to move on, hundreds have signed a petition saying that they do not want to work on other estates and would look for alternative work.

Guysuco should have made alternative arrangements to pay these workers their severance since it knew from its TURN AROUND plan that it was moving to close the Diamond Estates as part of its plans to close the East Demerara Estates.

TAP! TAP! Tap dancing the turn around plan!

Tap dancing seems more descriptive of GuySuCo TAP (turn around plan). Every year they come up with a new plan (blueprint, strategy, Business plan...you name it...like the movies..names and names), that is, 'till they realize they were dancing their way through a self-created maze. So they aptly named the last one, TAP.

Lets look at the art of dancing in the TAP.

While Guysuco is pretending that it is a worker oriented company that cares about the well being of the thousands of Sugar workers, these workers must remember a couple of things. Everyone knows about the low wages and salaries, harsh working conditions and refusal of the company to address several issues affecting workers.

But, workers must now remember PAGE 4 of the much talked-about Guysuco Turn Around Plan (2009-2013).

Int his plan, the Company proposes the transfer of community and health centres to the Government! Yes the government who already cannot pay its nurses and doctors much less care and run some of the community centers it has under its wings.

It is more than likely the heavily subsidized Sugar Company is trying to ease itself of some of the financial strains and at the same time accumulate some finances.

We know about the sales of lands to friends and family (oh NICIL!) and the disposal of Hermanston House and other so-called "non-performing assets"(one wonder if they had an opportunity to sell human beings too, what would happen)

But back to the ‘transfer’ of these centers to the Government. How is this exactly in the interest of the workers?

Let's point out a few things first, Nowhere in the Government's 2010 Budget (under the Culture Ministry) has sums been allocated for the operating and runs of ANY Community Centre, government or otherwise. A measly $25 million has been allocated for just a few youth oriented Training Centers and none of those are related to Guysuco.

We are sure that with this plan being presented in 2009, the government’s move to ‘help’ Guysuco out would have been calculated as catered for in the 2010 budget. (fishy)

There is no budgetary allocations for the take over or operations of new centers in the Budget under the Health Ministry either!

Now the never-in-tune Minister Bheri Ramsarran wanted to fool the country when said that the Government is ‘taking away’ the Health Centers from Guysuco.

GAWU was quick to tell public that it never had any discussion about the government ‘take over’ of the health centers and that Ramsarran’s statement was ‘factually incorrect, and misleading’ (GAWU SAID that).

GAWU put over perfectly what we want to ask the government in that statement, it said that it “wonders whether the pressure of work, the already challenging state of government health services or an outright intention to undermine the two unions (NAACIE and GAWU) credibility is responsible for this false figment of the Minister’s imagination”

We wonder when the dancing will stop and the turn around of Guyana will start.

The spin artists of GoG

The innner works of the Government can be seen in its many incarnations. Groups like CREEP (3rd term) have been 'launched' with specific purpose.

Liveinguyana blog is the work of some Jagdeoites who believe that they are going to be rewarded for their vigilance and high praise for the government. Two of them will soon be sold as used tyres! They will never find themselves on the closer side of the PPP supporters.

One of them already has a record that stinks more than the Le Repentir Dumpsite. An alleged child molester who was caught on tape soliciting sex from a minor and who has been embroiled in many scandals is the number one writer of this pathetic idea of a blog.

The sometimes very market vendor behavior displayed by him shows a person who is battling with its hormones.

The second person is the son of a minister of the government who is known for his display of arrogance almost everywhere he goes. This young man strives off the name of his father since having returned from studying in England he was placed in a minimum wage paying job at the Office of the President to observe what critics are doing (look out Prem Misir)

With John DaSilva dead there is no doubt that this young ‘lawyer’ will be co-opt in the letter writing section of OP soon, as he already has one letter.

The Third person, a GGMC official- is the son of a man know as ‘The Hammer’.

The malnourished young man is infamously known for offering a policeman bribe on the East Bank Highway and then using his father’s name to have his matter dismissed in court. He apparently has been very active in getting pictures and updating this blog.

We understand that emails confirming their association with this blog are being circulated. We await our copies.

Spin! Fip! Brassnicil! Money gone!

Shameless !!
The government gives another other sweet heart deal, this time to Fip Motielall saying that Synergy Holdings was the lowest bidder for the road to Amaila Falls Hydro Project. Well, so says a NICIL source (look who opening his mouth) who told Stabroek News that the $15 million road building contract was awarded to SH since it was the lowest bidder !

Why worry about the future of Guyana when we have geniuses like these? What a combination! Lowest bidder with no experience wins contract. In this case lowest bidder, no road building experience! Wow!

NICIL (and We know damn well who got the ‘voice’ to speak on this project at NICIL) said that 4 tenders were submitted. We would like to hear names! Cause I know one big contractor who has been gunning for this project since 1999 feels cheated. Even though responded to Stabroek News last week about all these concerns, he has not uttered one word about his company’s road building capabilities.

At least two new agencies have reported on a Request for Proposals document. Stabroek News said that the documents said that the construction is based on a time of essence basis (after 15 years) and must be completed in 8 months !

But wait !!! The same document says that our Dear Fip’s company must reach various criteria!
- He must have done a similar project,
- He must list examples of previous works and
- he must submit details of the equipment he owns and human resources.

Fip must know that he has to repair an existing roadway and build a road on virgin territory. What is the default clause this time?

Sickly spin doctor Roger said last week that those who are questioning the awarding of this contract have sinister motives, So Roger put a spin on this one.

Spin! Fip! Brassnicil! Money gone!

(We have been watching the developments of this project as many would have noticed in out previous post asking FIP to flip the switch on this project. This project has been in an incubator for more than 15 years)

How will history judge Jagdeo?

His usual egotistical rants and premature dismissal of international reports and criticisms will follow him as a legacy as much as he wants to be remembered as a Champion for Guyana’s Forests and all time good guy.

One thing is sure about Bharrat Jagdeo, he does not like to acknowledge that he has led one of the most corrupted governments in this hemisphere and one of the most sinister administrations in the history of this country.

Will corruption in Guyana be his legacy?

When the PPP inherited office it inherited a miserable state of affairs of Guyana. There was 100million central reserve and many of the state assets were under-performing and cried out for recapitalization.

Then came the wave, nay, the tsunami - first evidenced by Pradoville. The PPP fell prey to the changing times, the demand for money and its impact on the socialist-mind-capitalist-lifestyles.

Then one contact after the other, one scam to another, one bank account start feeding the other. This became visible under the jagdeo-led PPP as the PPP started to accessorize itself with the indulgence envied even by the Guyanese rich-and-famous.

The Jagdeo-run administration now has proved itself as an ‘indulger’ to massive corruption.

Some would argue that some of the scams may not have been committed under his direct leadership. The fact is that he has done LITTLE to ensure that prosecution was in the name of the day when others occurred. What he did do was launch into market-woman-type-'busing’ of local critics and international organizations who spent considerable time in assessing our still very corrupt government.

For instance, as we well know, Transparency International continued to rank Guyana as among one of the most corrupt countries in the world, Jagdeo was quick to they were coming to the country and making “blanket statements”.

But a number of scams and frauds committed has left one asking where are the serious investigations and prosecutions.

Here is a list of SOME of the early days scams that rocked us:

STONE-SCAM:
This is a multi million dollar mission - Importation of poor quality stones from a Trinidadian Construction Company for an Essequibo Road Project. And we supposed to 'gat stones'.

MILK:
Low-grade vegetable milk was supplied to SIMAP in place of cream milk by Hanson Import and Export. The multi-million scam saw PPP MP Hugely Hamnoman resigned from his seat and migrating, missing out on police prosecution while a low level officer was dismissed.

CANE GROVE BREACH:
After being paid million of dollars the infamous BK International’s shoddy work on the Sea Defense left Cane Grove farmers (all diligent supporters of the PPP) at the mercy of the sea.
BK was not prosecuted but was rewarded with more government projects.

CHARITY WHARF FRAUD:
Well it sank, after billions of dollars was used to build it. (what a fraud - but evidence is underwater!)

LAW BOOK:
Over US$200,000 dollar contract to update law books given to PPP friend Kawal Totaram’s company New Global Consults Inc.
Never advertised locally; the contractor was no legal expert and a law student reviewed the sample copies of the laws. Please Don’t Ask!

RE-MIGRANT VEHICLES:
This saw more than 50 vehicles being imported by persons who falsely declared remigrant status - some of these were/are PPP supporters and businessmen who evaded millions of dollars in duty.

WILD LIFE:
Export of precious wildlife amounting to more than $50 million and who gets blamed? EPA’s head Bal Persaud was blamed but jumped to the media to refute the claims and guess who is the advisor to the President named in this one?

EXPORT OF DOLPHINS:
Thug, soup drinker, miner and Adviser to the President Lumumba spare headed this one. But we rather not comment on this one when we could send you to http://www.biodiversityreporting.org/article.sub?docId=13762&c=Guyana&cRef=Guyana&year=2005&date=January%202005
More to come on this guy who was given a concession by Jagdeo and promptly sold it for US$2million.

POLAR BEER:
$300 million fraud that rocked the Guyana Revenue Authority after cashers, customs officers and a broker were fingered in this scam. Most of them, (some plead innocence) were dragged to court - while CHIEF CULPRIT, an already Shady character and one of the persons behind the defunct LEAP and Caricom Insurance( also of the Scared Heart Church fraud) Mr. Joshua Shafeek blamed all the wrong doings on the broker and cut himself a sweet deal and skipping prosecution. (remember the Plea bargaining Legislation).

These are but a small list of the many scams of the proud PPP administration. This is where my money is going!

How will history adjudge Jagdeo?