Opposition slams Govt over abuse of State resources

…after Granger arrives at political rally in GDF helicopter

While in opposition, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance for Change (AFC) had heavily criticised the then ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) for abusing State resources, now, the incumbent coalition is being accused of doing the same.

On Wednesday, President David Granger, who is the coalition’s Presidential Candidate for the upcoming polls and Leader of the APNU, arrived at a political rally at Hopetown, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), in a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) helicopter.
As such, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo at his weekly press conference on Thursday lambasted the coalition administration for abusing State resources.
“We’ve seen the abuse of State resources. I gather Granger has a hard time walking around too much [and] moving around, so he resorts now to using the helicopter,” Jagdeo stated.
He pointed out that the landing in a helicopter was a design to create a “macho image” of Granger as a leader. But according to Jagdeo, this does not matter.
“I wish he had a macho image when he was negotiating, on our behalf, with the oil companies from abroad. That’s where it matters – not to arrive as President on State resources at an elections campaign,” he posited.

The Opposition Leader went on to say that the incumbent Head of State is was using this “macho image” to compensate for his lack of leadership abilities.
“He is one of the weakest leaders/Presidents ever in our history, if not the weakest, and it comes from the fact that he did not head anything before came into office – not even the army… So he headed nothing and then to become the head of a country… at over 70 years old, is a big lift and that is why we’re seeing the drift at the national level – no vision. He doesn’t know what to do and he doesn’t have the energy to do it even if he knew,” Jagdeo stated.
He further outlined that as a leader, President Granger has openly violated the Constitution of Guyana, not once but several times, including in relation to the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) and events that followed, and the unilateral appointment of Justice James Patterson as the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) back in 2017 – both of which, Jagdeo said, had been rebuked by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
“This is a leader who has refused to live by the decision of the Court, tried to thwart the decision of the court by using executive power like the one with [Finance Minister Winston] Jordan by pardoning Jordan [from being jailed for failing to pay a US$2.2 million judgement to a Trinidadian-based construction company]. This is a low energy leader and this is a leader presiding over the most corrupt government in our history,” the Opposition Leader posited.
Moreover, Jagdeo noted that this abuse of resources continues even within the State media entities. He pointed out that following last weekend’s elections campaign launches, the APNU got an hour air time on the National Television Network (NCN) when the PPP was only given one minute.
The Opposition Leader went on to rubbish the explanation given by NCN Chairman Enrico Woolford, calling it convoluted and nonsensical. He pointed out that the rallies were not Government and Opposition events but political parties – PPP and APNU/AFC coalition – activities.
Even if it were Government and Opposition events, Jagdeo reminded of the fact that the positions of both the President and Opposition Leader are preserved until the hosting of General and Regional Elections, which is set for March 2.
Following the December 21, 2018 passage of the NCM against the governing coalition, the Granger Cabinet upped its political campaigning with massive ministerial outreaches dubbed “Bringing Government to the people” across the country.
Government had come under heavy criticism for misusing State resources for political purposes but the coalition had insisted that the outreaches were initiatives aimed at meeting and listening to the concerns of Guyanese.
In fact, former Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, had told reporters back in February 2019 that the outreaches are nothing but “normal Government business” in response to concerns that the coalition was campaigning with state funds.
Harmon, who is now the Director-General at the Ministry of the Presidency, had subsequently defended a move by his Administration to secure in excess of $300 million in supplementary funding from the National Assembly in May for ministerial outreaches across the country.
But while Government denied campaigning on State resources, Second Vice President and Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan had admitted during a live radio programme in June 2019 that the coalition had already started its campaign through the ministerial outreaches across the country.
“We had started our campaign in a sense. We were outreaching in all the areas, even having Cabinet in different areas, having lots of meetings on the weekends especially and carrying our Government projects and programmes for the people to see it themselves and promoting our accomplishments. And that is what part of the campaigning was all about during that time because there was always this 50-50 chance that we’re gonna lose [the court case challenging the validity of the NCM] and indeed, we lost it,” Ramjattan, the newly-elected AFC leader, had stated.