Jagdeo slams public entities for intimidating whistleblowers

Corruptive acts in the public sector have been brought to light in recent times through whistleblowers within these entities.
On Thursday, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo directed that it is the expectation that these persons’ rights are protected to safeguard a continuation in these reports.

In Guyana, however, individuals are being intimidated to report wrongful activities in their workplace through the use of the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
“What are they blowing whistle on? It’s corrupted acts. When the world is going in a direction, when you strengthen the rights of those individuals because it’s part of your fight against corruption, in Guyana we want to intimidate these [persons]…They want to use the coercive power of the Police to stop this,” he stated.
On May 31, 2019, the personnel staff and chief accountant at the Public Service Ministry were sent packing by Minister Tabitha Sarabo-Halley shortly after she was appointed to that post.
When the news broke about the arbitrary firing of these employees, the Government initially denied firing them, but one week after, Director General Joseph Harmon confirmed that, indeed, the workers were sent home.
But he said higher authorities had since intervened and the dismissed staff were eventually sent on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He had maintained that the staff in question are still employees of the Government as the decision by Minister Sarabo-Halley to terminate their services has been halted.

Jagdeo had contended that they were sent packing since it is presumed that they had exposed cases of corruption in the Government. One of those revelations are that the children of a senior Minister allegedly received over US$86,000 in 2018 monies that were transferred from the Department of Public Service. Then again this year, another transfer of millions reportedly took place.
According to him, the Public Service Minister rushed to illegally fire all the staff in the department that had access to this information, since the Government believes that those fired workers had sent information to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
A special Board of Inquiry (BoI) was later commissioned by President David Granger to probe the actions of Sarabo-Halley. Guyana Times understands that the investigation has been completed but the report is yet to be revealed.
Meanwhile, he also relighted similar events which have been unfolding at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and urged the Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, to release pertinent information to the public, which have instigated suspicions.
“We have asked them to disclose issues surrounding corruption. I’m sure it is not an offence and Guyanese would want to know. That is not protected by the secrecy surrounding people’s tax files. Guyanese would want to know from the Commissioner General, in his tenure, how many luxury vehicles were seized and not placed on public auction [and] given or sold cheaply to individuals associated with this Government. You should be able in light of transparency. This is not a secret thing,” he related.
During an earlier press conference, he revealed that hundreds of motor vehicles were being imported into Guyana and were not being placed on the register for Want of Entry and, therefore, were never gazetted and put up for action. In fact, Jagdeo posited that these motor vehicles were finding their way on to the streets.
Meanwhile, at the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GS&LC), alleged corrupted activities surrounding the giveaway of lands were recently revealed. Instead, Commissioner Trevor Benn called on the Police to conduct a probe where he promised that liable staff members would be “condignly dealt with”.