…as boondoggle
Another day, another PNC scandal…this time, concerning the “Sustainable Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) Initiative” launched in 2015. Now, rather than put into their mouths and let them wash their mouths on your Eyewitness, let’s quote from SLED’s website as to what they claimed they were up to.
“Given the importance of micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) and the advantages they offer to the local economies, Government has introduced the SLED programme.
“This is in line with Government’s policies to introduce job creation measures that include promoting MSMEs as well as providing opportunities for local entrepreneurs and investors and the huge diaspora to develop the abundant natural resources locally. The goal of SLED is to provide support for the expansion of the local economy in communities across Guyana, and assist MSMEs, both existing and new start-ups, to create jobs and promote local economic development.”
Got that?? They were to help depressed communities – of which they evidently identified 585 – to move up the economic ladder. Quite laudable, don’t you think??
For instance, in 2017, Amna Ally announced in Parliament, “Among projects executed by the groups include poultry, pig, and sheep rearing, garment construction centres, multipurpose complex, block making establishments, shade house cultivation, and baking and catering establishments.”
Now, the PNC Govt threw in some real money int these projects, starting with some $54 million in 2015, $40M in 2016, $100M in 2017, $150M in 2018, and a whopping $250M in 2019! That’s over half a billion bucks to catalyse local businesses.
Your Eyewitness says “thrown at” because, as their website informs us, “SLED works by distributing INTEREST-FREE GRANTS to registered groups and associations, needing the economic boost to improve their economic enterprises.”
And this is where we come to the initiative of Christopher Jones to become the Guyana version of Ice Cube in the movie “Barbershop”. You know, that spot in the hood where everyone passes through eventually to plug into what’s really going down!
The man collected $4.9M out of the 2019 funds to supposedly launch his PERSONAL barbershop on an open lot with 18 chairs and be really “cool”, since he also purchased a humdinger of an air conditioner for $1.5M!! The question that immediately came to your Eyewitness’s mind was: “Did Jones have no confidence in his party to win the elections and was preparing for a life outside the national trough??”
When the Police went to seize the property – clearly obtained under false pretences, since Jones clearly doesn’t qualify to benefit from the programme – the man had the gall to claim he’d gotten a LOAN from SLED!!
SLED doesn’t give loans, just grants to the needy!! And not hustlers!!
…and weaponising them
Not unexpectedly, the PNC made a big hullabaloo against the PPP for the POLICE trying to recover the state’s property!! They clearly have repressed the incident in 2015 when SOCU seized those used computers from an Enmore NGO!! In this case, some of the Granger-rejected PNC MP-hopefuls – Volda Lawrence, Aubrey Norton and James Bond – seized the opportunity to get some limelight in the blackout! They demanded the Police show them a warrant – when the fact of the matter is that in a simple larceny, which they concluded this was, once they have evidence, the Police don’t need a warrant to seize the goods!! And for the same reason, the stop-order by Justice Brassington Reynolds – of CoA fame – was of no effect, and was rightly ignored by the Police. Jones was charged, and Granger has finally joined Volda in crying, “PPP victimisation!!”
The incident will now be used by the PNC to prove who’s the leader who can be most strident!!
…versus business icons
Foundational lumber tycoon Toolsie Persaud passed away. He was one of the Guyanese pioneers to demonstrate what hard work and perseverance can do against insurmountable odds.
Burnt out at Wismar in 1964, he achieved even greater heights afterwards.
