Revelations that a PPP central committee member and Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Mae Toussaint-Thomas, and PPP local government representative Nazar (Shell) Mohammed, are among three Guyanese sanctioned by the United States for corruption and gold smuggling have once again exposed PPP’s involvement in, support for and protection of corruption. The PPP continues to embarrass Guyana, deprive its people of their fair share of our wealth and put the country’s economy at risk due to greed and disdain for the rule of law.
The Opposition noted that this scandal literally goes as high up as President Irfaan Ali. It should be recalled that it is alleged that one of Mohammed’s vehicles was President Ali’s mode of transportation during and after the 2020 elections. The President has to speak on this matter. His silence is deafening. President Ali cannot have his puppet master, Bharrat Jagdeo, saying one thing while we as a nation are left to believe he is doing something else quietly. President Ali has to man up and let us hear from him.
This has been long in the making, with Mrs. Toussaint-Thomas being detained by US law enforcement personnel last year was the most recent warning that the PPP was aware, complicit with and protected her, a clear indication that the PPP is unwilling to and cannot afford to fight corruption in Guyana. She should have been sent on leave since then, in order to carry out a thorough investigation, but the PPP encourages corruption, so these serious indications of potential wrongdoing are always swept under the carpet. We are aware that she is but the first of a long list of senior PPP officials who are likely to face sanctions as the US policy of investigating corruption in Guyana continues.
We want to urge that the government take these sanctions seriously and act within the confines of the law to root out such corruption involving other party members that may have been involved in corruption, smuggling or any other illegal activities. We also urge the government to carry out a risk assessment, so that it can advise Guyana’s financial institutions on an orderly way to approach these sanctions. The PPP, through negligence and further corruption, must not turn its face from a threat to the entire local financial system. We need to carefully navigate this crisis without provoking further sanctions on any other financial institution.
As recent as last week we spoke at length about the PPP’s poor management of the gold industry, as well as its disinterest in preventing gold smuggling. The United States is alleging that a major factor which has resulted in Guyana’s anaemic gold declaration figures for the last several years is gold smuggling. The PPP has allowed gold smuggling to undermine our revenue, diverting money from education, healthcare and other critical areas, to enrich their elite, friends, family and favorites. It is no small wonder, then, that they continue to refuse to pay nurses, teachers and other public servants a competitive wage.
We remind Guyanese of Su Zhi Rong’s confidence in the Vice News Guyanese corruption documentary when he said that he and a potential briber would go and give Jagdeo the money together. At his press conference this week, Jagdeo claimed that the PPP does not engage in quid pro quos, but Guyanese now have every right to conclude that the PPP has been regularly receiving bribes so that it looks the other way when it comes to gold smuggling. When coupled with allegations that a company associated with Guyana Critic (a known friend of Jagdeo) received a US multimillion pump contract due to corruption, this demonstrates that citizens must fear corruption right across the PPP-run government. Guyana’s government has become a leaky bucket under the PPP, and the moment it is lifted from the well; all our resources are gobbled up by the PPP’s corruption. The international community has demonstrated little patience for PPP greed, and at the next election citizens must make it clear that the PPP’s time is up.
It is also critical to note that the high level of PPP corruption has serious implications for the security of our nation both internally and at our border and therefore the government’s unwillingness to tackle corruption has placed the security of our nation in jeopardy. Guyana needs a government that can root out corruption. We need an APNU+AFC government.
