Legal-political showdown: Jagdeo, Harmon say govt, PPP officials to face more criminal charges
Even as the Guyana government slammed the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) filing of private criminal charges of misconduct in public office against two government ministers as an effort to distract the public from its record of corruption, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said more charges would be filed against other ministers.
“The charges that were filed today against the current and former Minister of Public Health is the PPP’s cowardly attempt to draw public attention away from its own sordid record of corruption while in office,” Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said in a statement.
However, Jagdeo recalled that his party had long spoken about private charges, and his party was now merely using government’s standard of misconduct in public office by way of three counts connected to the sale of three large tracts of land of more than GY$900 million by former Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh and former Head of the National Industrial, Commercial and Investments Limited (NICIL).
Reiterating that Singh and Brassington had acted on his Cabinet’s approval, Jagdeo put the David Granger-led administration on public notice that more charges would be laid against political functionaries. ‘This is not the end so we are not stopping at these charges. There are several others who would be charged,” he said.
And the Minister of State also said more charges would be laid against former functionaries of the Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar-led People’s Progressive Party Civic administrations. “The PPP is aware that more charges are soon to be filed against high public officials who served under the Jagdeo and Ramotar administrations. These charges are a result of months of intense investigation by Commissions of Inquiries and evidence gathered by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force,” said Harmon.
The State Minister said Guyanese would “not be swayed by the legal shenanigans of the PPP, which, in effect, make a mockery of the legal system.” “This Government will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure that those who held public office and engaged in malfeasance while in office are brought to justice.”
With the Special Organised Crime Unit of the Guyana Police Force having already arrested and questioned Jagdeo and several other former government ministers about the sale of housing lands at Goedverwagting-Sparendaam (Pradoville2), the former Guyanese leader said he was not worried about being charged in connection with those transactions. “I don’t care! They will do what they have to do. I made it clear: you go ahead and you throw the worst at us because that is the expectation. They have approached this politically from the beginning,” said Jadgeo who enjoys immunity from legal action for acts carried out as president.
Now that summons have been issued for Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence and former Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton to appear in court on April 24, 2018 to answer the private criminal charges, the Minister of State said he was confident that they would win their cases.
… more
Image: 3839153 (Pixabay)