Even when the lives of Guyanese are at stake during this COVID-19 pandemic that has already taken seven lives and climbing inexorably, the PNC continues to turn Lord Acton’s aphorism on its head. Corruption is now power and absolute corruption is absolute power. Their corruption is writ largest with the most blatant rigging exercise since the Ukraine government had voters use pens to mark their ballots in their 2004 elections with ink that became invisible in fifteen minutes.
The corruption of democracy does not end with the public comedy of errors that is unfolding for the world to see with the latest instalment involving the decision by Moses Nagamootoo that the recount is not “essential” enough to waive the curfew to expedite the exercise. The PNC operatives, in and out of government, who have to pretend that the lie is the truth soon cannot distinguish lies from truth.
The PNC would wish their supporters close their eyes to their corruption because, they insist, this is the only way to keep out the PPP, and of course, they cannot “allow” that to happen. Not only is the irony of equating democracy with measures to rig elections lost on the PNC’s supporters, so are their moral moorings as the immoral means inevitably transmute into immoral ends.
We can see this playing out in the “efforts” of the caretaker administration to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. There was the case of an order for medical HIV testing kits granted to a company without any bidding in 2015, delivered recently and found to be expired. Brought under the microscope, it was discovered that the same company had been granted a sole-sourced contract for respirators late last year. To deflect from its clear corrupt dealings, officials implicitly claimed they were ahead of the rest of the world on the respiratory challenges of COVID-19, which had just raised its profile in China.
But what takes the cake in corruption are the unfolding revelations coming out of the efforts to convert the Ocean View Hotel into a hospital to deal specifically with the expected wave of COVID-19 patients that simulations predict imminently. There was no public announcement of the decision and the country only learnt of the decision when massive dismantling activities were observed on the structure abutting the Atlantic Ocean just outside of Georgetown. Then after private individuals started to speculate on the costs the former Minister of Finance revealed that more than $1 billion would be spent on just the physical structure.
On one hand, one may concede there is certainly the need for a hospital to address the coming COVID wave, but the manner in which the decision is being executed raises red flags in the wake of a similar secret and unilateral decision to rent a pharmaceutical warehouse. The first question raises concerns on the ownership of the private facility into which so much money is being poured. What will be the ownership structure of the COVID Hospital?
The last owner of record of the Ocean View Hotel is revealed to be businessman Jacob Rambarran, who threw his hat into the political ring in 2015 as a candidate of APNU/AFC. The venture had been struggling after Rambarran acquired the facility in 2008, which was encumbered with hundreds of millions in debt to utility companies as well as the GNCB. It is still not clear whether these debts were ever cleared. The question has to be asked as to whether this is a billion-dollar bailout of a political supporter and former candidate.
Another question has to do with the location of the facility which has been subjected to persistent flooding and was completely inundated in the severe overtopping experienced in 2013. In addition to structural damage to the foundation a hospital cannot afford to be continuously under threat of floods. Finally, it is also understood that there was also no bidding for the rebuilding efforts and the major contractor is another PNC/APNU member.
PNC/APNU/AFC is corruption personified.
