QATAR
The above picture: The Standard Operating Practice (SOP) in Diplomatic Protocol, is for “cutting of the cake”, to OPEN the Embassy is a HUGE Event. Noticeably missing is the Accredited Ambassador to Qatar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Secretary/Director General, at this most important picture and symbol ???. Many in Qatar, GCC and around the World have sent to me, their 63 WhatsApp questions, and their NEGATIVE comments on the missing persons, who no explanation in Guyana’s official media reports.
Why is George Hallaq ( 2nd from right) representing Guyana in the GCC and elsewhere and a Guyanese citizen is not? Did dog bite Guyanese? or another brazen case of 3Fs over the years PPP is in Government ???. Reportedly from my back channel at Guyana MoFA, on the very lavish gifts from Hallaq are given to the PPP’s top persons, which was seen by attending MoFA persons, at the meetings. Payback ? Patronage ? Pay to play ? are some of the questions that need answers in Parliament, the media, and the nation.
I know from my experiences since 2001 at George Washington University with the Ruling Family, that Guyana’s apparent pandering to the Qataris will be easily seen by them, as they are very rich, educated, experienced, with book and street smarts. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, has a CAMPUS in DOHA, and recently had graduation ceremony for GRADUATES in master’s in diplomacy and international Relations, which included Ruling Families children. I received an invitation to attend an eldest Son’s Graduation.
KN May 16, “At that meeting, he was accompanied by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh; Presidential Assistant and Personal Envoy to Greece, the Middle East and Africa, Ambassador George Hallaq and Director of Presidential Affairs, Mrs Marcia Nadir-Sharma.”
A Presidential Assistant and Personal Envoy (PA & PE) is of higher rank than an Ambassador. Why is Guyana marginalizing its PPP selected FSO 111 in 2014 to Kuwait, then to Qatar as Ambassador FSO 1 in October 2021 ?
Is there an ulterior motive with the PA & PE to the PPP Top leadership? Do know before my arrival in Kuwait in 2016 Amb Hallaq served under most, if not, all the past PPP administrations, and reportedly is known to ALL PPP past and current Presidents.
His Highness in Kuwait asked me 3 times questions on President Jagdeo and Amb. Hallaq on an item’s existence, and my response to His Highness, 3 times were, “to be the best of my knowledge, NO such item existed.” This item was reported in my monthly reports to MoFA, in detail, repeatedly, also discussed at this meeting was for a Kuwait Embassy in Guyana, IF Guyana, can provide the land.
Learned from Guyana MoFA, Very Senior Official in 2016 at the Heads of Missions Conference in Georgetown, , that Amb. Hallaq, Diplomatic Passport will NOT be renewed, at the expiration date. Amb. Hallaq was not around in Kuwait during my tenure 2016-2020.
With the totality of my Global work and travel to 80 countries, and especially my 2016-2020 in Kuwait and IsDB, and with Guyana’s HUGE OIL and GAS Wealth, WATER, Mineral and natural resources, my recommendations are for two NEW Embassies, at Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and at Oslo, the Kingdom of Norway, for their best practices’ relationships, et al.
Why NO Minister of Foreign Affairs, PICTURE on the Embassy’s Wall ? 63 WhatsApp SMS’s Questions to me why ? and Why 2nd, VP. Dr. (h.c.) Jagdeo’s picture on the wall.?. My response, Amb, Safraaz on the left, knows, saw, and should have learnt better ONSITE Protocols from Kuwait, during my four years tenure, and he is the responsible person for the Embassy. Maybe the Ambassador is caring to Past President Jagdeo’s ego? and should be corrected to be the President, Prime Minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs at the KEY area at the Embassy.
Guyana Embassy in Kuwait under my tenure. 3 TOP pictures, President, Prime Minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, which is the CORRECT Protocol.
PPP is in office for almost three years and NO BIG GCC investments, to date, from the huge amount of taxpayers’ monies spent for trips, per diem allowances, air tickets, conferences, and visits. To date ONLY the IsDB Loans from the Middle East.
FACT, It is the APNU+AFC who , nurtured, and developed a very close working relationship, for the loans from the beginning with the IsDB, USD $900 Million Credit and Grant for 2018-2022.
Guyanese OFF- SHORE privately owned Corporations.
From my back- channels was informed that some Guyana Corporations Executives have establish personal privately owned corporations in the USA, UK, EU, Dubai, etc., and PRODUCTS from Guyana, are sold at a transfer (under) pricing, by their managed Guyana Corporation to their PRIVATELY OWNED Corporation TO themselves, families, or associates.
Headquarters’ invoices pass through TO these privately owned corporations with high commission fees, and markups, and the customer is billed for the combined amounts. IF there is NO middle person/off-shore Corporation, many in the Global businesses are of the opinion, that Guyana’s products will be more competitive with a LOWER pricing with a much HIGHER demand. Guyana is losing with LOWER production, employment, taxes, and economic activities.
USA IRS Tax Codes IRC 482.
“Accurate price-setting lies at the heart of transfer pricing best practices. Section 482 of the USA IRS code protects government tax revenue by requiring transfer pricing determination is “at arm’s-length,” meaning transaction pricing between two related parties should be the same as it would be between two unrelated parties on the open market. IRC 482 applies to all nature of economic transfers for both COGS and direct costs including: material movement, long-term assets, intangible assets, intercompany loans, and services.”
What Is Transfer Pricing & How Does It Relate to Intercompany Accounting? (blackline.com)
BANK OF GUYANA (BoG): Board of Directors
Dr. Gobind Ganga (Chairman) (Economist)
Mr. Leslie Glen (Deputy Chairman) (Biochemist, Nutrition, Director)
Dr. Maurice Odle (Economist)
Dr. Patrick Kendall (Economist)
Mr. Rawle Lucas, MA. (Economics & Accounting)
Mrs. Sharon Roopchand-Edwards, BSc. (Social Science)
Ms. Sonya Roopnauth, MSc ( Economic Policy Management) (Ex-Officio Member)
Mrs. Jeanenime Munroe-Forde (Corporate Secretary)
Bank’s website does not state Tenure duration 3, 4 or 5 years, and with the recent currency exchange snafus, there may be need for NEW persons with Global Banking Experiences to join this Board to cope with OIL revenues in the billions.
With due respect it is time to include people with achievements, deliverables, and outcomes, with business, education, and banking experiences in place of the current majority on the Board being theorists and economists. The need for a judicious balance with varied skills will be wise for the management of Guyana’s Prime Bank. A pity the APNU-AFC President and Minister of Finance did not improve this, especially when the Chairman/Governor’s contract was up for renewal.
It must be remembered the huge difference of responsibility for owning and managing a business, providing goods and services, and signing the FRONT of the CHECKS for staff, materials, and services. Whereas NON-OWNERS receiving checks do sign the BACK of the checks. This is usually my constant reminder especially to students in MBA Financial & Managerial Accounting, International Accounting, Financial Accounting, and Corporate Financial Accounting, at DeSales University, Center Valley, Pennsylvania, USA, and other Universities, to emphasis the SKILLS needed for successes.
Board of Directors (bankofguyana.org.gy)
CORRUPTION and the need for Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE)
Saudi Arabia says it has seized over $100 billion in corruption purge.
Saudi Arabia says it has seized over $100 billion in corruption purge | Reuters
With due respect, SOCU, should urgently recruit Graduates from The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) which is the world’s largest anti-fraud organization. The ACFE reduces occupational fraud worldwide by empowering anti-fraud professionals with leading-edge training, resources, and professional certification. CFEs are trained professionals who possess a unique set of diverse skills in preventing, detecting, and investigating fraud. Skills such as:
- Knowledge of complex financial transactions
- Understanding of investigative techniques and legal issues
- The ability to resolve allegations of fraud
- Designing effective anti-fraud programs
I know of one Guyanese lady based in Maryland, USA, who served with Distinction as an International Officer at a Global Bank with the CFE, qualification. She and her husband also a Guyanese to the bone, a Certified Public Accountant (UK and USA), with many clients in the USA and Guyana, including the OIL and GAS Industry. They spent three weeks in Guyana, offered their CFE & CPA services, with no responses, now over 3 years.
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (acfe.com)
Reminder on the VERY LONG ARM of the USA Government for data mining evidence for their continuing investigations in multiple cases on Guyana>>> April 3, 2023, Village Voice: “The incident should concern all government officials and representatives who could find themselves subject to similar actions.”
This will be a reason, many Ministers and high Government officials, who know themselves, their guilt, will not risk travel at this time.
17 May, 2023: SINGAPORE – “An Angolan tycoon, who has been sentenced to nine years’ jail in the southern African nation for embezzlement, money laundering and tax fraud, on Wednesday failed in his bid for $2.6 million to be released from his Singapore bank account. Carlos Manuel De Sao Vicente had a Bank of Singapore (BOS) account containing more than US$558 million (S$749 million) that was seized by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) on Feb 19, 2021.
The white-collar crime unit also seized two other accounts with the same bank – one belonging to De Sao Vicente’s wife Irene, which contained more than US$5 million, and the other belonging to his son Ivo, which contained US$10.5 million.”
USA recently arrested Barry Dataram, and it is up to our imagination to reflect on the evidence with documentation that is being given to the USA law enforcement authorities, in New York.
February 1, 2023, KN, “ Kaieteur News – Self-confessed drug trafficker, Barry Dataram, was last Thursday arrested by Federal Agents at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in the United States of America (US). The 45-year-old man is being housed at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention; the US Federal Bureau of Prisons has confirmed.
Convicted drug trafficker Barry Datarm nabbed at JFK – Kaieteur News (kaieteurnewsonline.com)
In many countries, there are laws for “ill-gotten wealth”, which is separate from “secret profits”, money laundering, bribes, and tax evasion. Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE) will find ALL these corrupt wealth .
HE Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham Esq. OE, and HE Dr. Cheddi Jagan, reportedly, both had ZERO tolerance for this societal menace of money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and corruption and those who were very close to these two Founding Fathers, will confirm this. My back channel, informed me, that “USA’s many DEA agents will confirm that BOTH had ZERO tolerance for money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and corruption.”
Hope the current leaders of ALL Political parties, reflect on this “narco and corruption curse” in Guyana, and make the decision today for CESSATION of ALL narco trafficking, money laundering, corruption, and for all TAXES DUE, be paid to GRA, promptly, without any falsification of manual and computerized accounting recording systems. Falsification of records to pay less taxes, and then give charity, employ writers to prepare glowing tributes are false, and the public knows the truth, and so does the Almighty.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…”
In Arabic, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and corruption is “HARAM” = Forbidden, which is known to all true, obedient, and faithful Muslims.
In Hindi, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and corruption is “BHRASHTACHAR.”
Onward and Upward towards One People, One Nation, One Destiny.
