Well watered and ready to supply KM

Chief Executive Officer of Guyana Water Authority, Karan Singh, was yesterday dismissed when the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Cyril Solomon, gave him his marching orders.
Karan Singh was summoned to a special meeting to discuss the allegations of procedural irregularities.

However, Mr. Singh is not taking the sacking lightly. Late yesterday he consulted his lawyers with a view to mounting a legal challenge.

Singh claimed that he never had a chance to see the report prepared in the wake of the allegations made against him and neither was he given a chance to defend those charges.
He said that the internal auditor conducted an investigation over four weeks, threatening and terrorizing members of staff while compiling the report. At yesterday’s meeting Mr. Singh asked for time to study the report since it had not been presented to him although he was expected to react to the contents.

According to reports, the Board declined and proceeded to sack Mr. Singh.
Having been sent packing, the former CEO is now seeking legal advice on the matter. The Board had already sent Dhani Narine on leave after discovering similar irregularities. The Board has not yet summoned Narine.

On March 25 last, following his return from his annual vacation, the GWI Board of Directors sent Singh on leave.

The Board commenced investigations into the allegations and thought it best that Singh be absent from duty to speed up the process.

Singh has since said that he is not guilty of any wrongdoing. He said that he agreed to proceed on leave to allow for a fully transparent investigation.

The disturbing state-of-affairs came to light after it was discovered that Head of Procurement of the water company, Dhani Narine, had for some time been involved in a scam over the issuance of contracts.

Narine has since been sent on 30 days leave following allegations of corruption.

There are allegations that over a period of time he has been making deals to receive ‘drawbacks’ from contractors employed by the water entity.

This newspaper has learnt that Narine would allegedly demand that contractors advance him specified sums of money from the contracted sum before they were guaranteed the contract.
A source related that the contractors became aggravated and, as a result, decided to lodge an official complaint with senior officials of the entity.

It was at this juncture that the Board became involved and recommended that Narine be sent on leave to allow the facilitation of a proper and unbiased investigation.

However, investigations revealed that Narine was not alone in his practices but was rather aided and abetted by high-ranking official(s) within the very entity. On March 26 last, the reins of GWI were placed in the hands of Director of Operations, Yuri Chandisingh.

Along with the former CEO, his entire secretariat, including an Executive Assistant, a Clerk and driver, were sent off the job to facilitate the investigation.

As part of the ongoing investigation underway, the entity’s Human Resource Manager, Sabrina Panday, had her contract terminated.

She said that she was on the job for less than six months and was therefore not considered permanent staff.

All of the staffers that have come under scrutiny were also former employees of the Cricket.

Question it...would KM have saved this child?

The Guyana Police Force wishes to clarify aspects of an article published in the Kaieteur News of Sunday March 29, 2009, under the caption “Runaway teenaged boy rescued from bisexuals’ home”.

The article stated that the police had swooped down on a house at Victoria, ECD, and rescued the teenaged boy who was being held against his will by a group of bisexual men and a young woman.

The article also stated that one of the occupants of the home has been detained after he admitted that he had sexual relations with the boy and that police said that the man could face abduction and buggery charges.

Investigations into this matter have revealed that on February 22, 2009, the fifteen-years-old youth was sent on an errand by his mother to Leopold Street , Georgetown . After not seeing him return, she made a missing person report to the police on February 23, 2009, who subsequently located him at a house at Victoria on Saturday March 28, 2009. An alleged homosexual and his niece who were in the house at the time were arrested.

Further investigations revealed that the teenaged boy had traveled to Suriname and returned to the country on March 11, 2009, when he met the homosexual at the Stabroek Market area. He was subsequently invited to a house at Victoria where he went of his own free will and was reportedly not abducted and was free to come and go as he pleased.

It was also revealed that the teenaged boy was not sexually molested but had engaged in anal sex with the homosexual. Investigations are continuing.

BJ explains

Looks like BJ is trying to explain why he rebuked Former president JJ on the Sn issue, but her son JJ is having none of it. JJ looks like he preparing to unleash one of his potent threats of a slap across the upper region of the body.

Rohee we feeeeel yuh pain

In all we years of being aroundCde. Rohee, we never know him to be emotional. But, de man cry he soul case out while reading the eulogy at JJ state funeral this morning. We wonder if dem were tears of joy or of fright because everybody expected the real BJ to emerge after CJ is laid to rest.

Question it

Maybe this might not be a good time to raise questions surrounding Mrs. Jagan's death, but we are left with no other alternative.

Could anyone say why was Mrs. Jagan admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital, a facility that has been discarded by senior officials of her party? Is this the care and attention she deserves as a fomer President? Was any effort made to remove her from the GPHC and fly her out of Guyana, maybe nearby Cuba? Did our political leaders determine that she had fulfilled her mandate and that it was her time to die? What exactly was the cause of death because the nation was unaware of any life threatening illness? Was she admitted directly into the Intensive Care Unit or was it to a ward? Why was the PPP/C so slow to react to her hospitalisation and subsequent death?

We are not insenstive to the mourning family, but someone has got to answer these questions...afterall this woman did achieve a number of firsts and one would certainly expect that such a political icon would have been treated better, especially with the party she helped steer to the seat of Government, still in full control.

Gail Teixeira on JJ's passing

I hope that for all of us as Guyanese, despite whatever has happened in the past that we would stop and to give this woman and outstanding leader her due respect and honour that she truly deserved and more particularly Guyanese women. I think that we need more people like her and we as women should strive to be like her, to be good leaders, passionate about our beliefs and honourable to our beliefs and principle and to also find the balance as women between dedication to country, and in her case, to her party and of course most importantly to her children and grandchildren. I just want to say thank you Janet for everything.

Grenada on JJ's passing

Minister of Tourism and Foreign Affairs, Hon. Peter David offered condolences to the Government and people of Guyana on the death of former President Janet Jagan, who died on Saturday.

The Minister said the death of Mrs Jagan was a great loss to the region and described the late Guyanese leader as a tireless fighter for the rights of developing countries.

“She served the Guyanese people with dedication, commitment and integrity. These attributes became the sustaining factor of her life’s work during the long battles with her husband, the late Cheddi Jagan, for an independent Guyana. Therefore it is heart-wrenching to begin to accept the loss of such a dedicated patriot of Guyana…”

Minister David said that Janet Jagan has been a very close friend of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government.

Finally, GINA on JJ's passing

Click to see

US Embassy on JJ's passing

Statement

March 28, 2009

U.S. Embassy, Georgetown

The death of former President Janet Jagan

The U.S. Embassy community is very saddened to learn of the death early this morning of former President Janet Jagan.

President Jagan’s U.S. roots and upbringing, as well as her Chicago-area courtship of then-dental student Cheddi Jagan, are well-known to the Guyanese people and a source of pride for the people of the United States. As a principal figure in Guyana’s successful struggle for independence, she embodied the fight for the right of people to choose their own destiny.

Born just two months after the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution first guaranteed women the right to vote in the United States, President Jagan was herself – both through words and deeds – a staunch advocate of the rights and role of women in society, politics, and government. Her lifelong commitment to this cause had a demonstrable impact on the lives of countless women in Guyana and throughout the world.

The entire staff of the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown expresses its condolences to the Jagan family, and to a mourning nation.

Guyana Government on JJ's Passing

Still waiting....

AFC on JJ's passing

The Executive and members of the Alliance For Change express their sympathy to the children, relatives and colleagues of former President Janet Jagan. Mrs. Jagan will be remembered as the woman who rose to the highest peaks of public life in Guyana through grit and determination. For her political activism she gained a reputation as a strong and fearless leader; never being deterred by her detractors and opponents, and by the controversy which shrouded her life. Though arriving in Guyana as the foreign wife of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, she embraced all things Guyanese and left an indelible mark on this nation.

It is regretful that genuine healing and reconciliation did not come between her and many who she was at odds with up to the time of her passing. With her death another chapter of Guyana’s history has closed without it being properly ended.

The AFC urges all those who have been a part of the political and social construct of Guyana in its formative years especially, since political independence was attained in 1966, to use the occasion of her passing to recommit to healing and reconciliation.
By our actions we must set the example that in Guyana there is no place for intolerance, bigotry and hatred and that a beautiful dawn awaits us if we begin to work together with mutual respect and appreciation for each other as true patriots.

SN reports on JJ's passing

Link (Please ignore the google ads, which appear to ask if JJ was like Sara Palin (SP)

PNCR on JJ's passing

DEATH OF MRS. JANET JAGAN, O.E.

The People’s National Congress Reform has learnt of the death of Mrs. Janet Jagan, a leading member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Central Executive Committee, Former President and a long standing Journalist and Editor. The Party extends its sympathy to Mrs. Jagan’s children, Joey and Nadira, the relatives, friends and other leaders and members of the PPP.

Mrs. Jagan played an important role in shaping the early political culture of the nation, helped to push the issue of women rights and liberation to the top of the national agenda and was a fighter for Independence . As a Minister, she made her mark in the field of Health, Housing and Home Affairs. As a Legislator, she was a Senator and member of the Legislative Assembly. Mrs. Jagan made an important contribution to our national development.

Mrs. Jagan was also known for her interest in literary and artistic matters. She wrote several books for children. This interest ensured that she played a part in the development of Castellani House, as a focal point for the artistic endeavours of our citizens. Equally, it is well known that Mrs. Jagan had an abiding interest in the collection of documents, manuscripts and photographs relevant to the history of Guyana .

As a Journalist, Mrs. Jagan was known for her hard-hitting articles. She was ill in her later years but used her pen to oppose her own Party when she thought that, the withdrawal of advertisements from the Stabroek News was wrong. Mrs. Jagan was instrumental in the founding of the “Thunder”, which became the Party’s theoretical organ, and later, as its Editor, the “Mirror” newspaper.

The death of Mrs. Jagan represents the passing of an era. She was the last, but one, of the original founding members of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the precursor to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

Once again the Party extends its condolences.

May her soul rest in peace.

People’s National Congress Reform

Congress Place, Sophia,

Georgetown, Guyana

Saturday, March 28, 2009

GC reports on JJ's passing

Former President Janet Jagan is dead

Former President Janet Jagan died at the Georgetown Public Hospital this morning at 12.35 hrs.

She was admitted to hospital around 17 hrs. yesterday after complaining of feeling unwell.

Janet Jagan, Guyana’s fourth Executive President, was a woman of a number of firsts in her long history of involvement in her adopted country’s politics.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, USA on October 20, 1920, she was to become Guyana’s first woman Deputy Speaker, first woman to be elected in the Georgetown City Council, first woman cabinet minister under self-government, later first woman Prime Minister and then the nation’s first woman President.

She was educated at the University of Detroit; Wayne University; Michigan State College and Cook County School of Nursing.

She married Cheddi Jagan on August 5, 1943, then studying dentistry and travelled with him to then British Guiana shortly after to become involved in a lifetime of politics.

Within three years of her arrival with her husband in the colony of British Guiana in 1943, she was instrumental in the formation of a Women’s Political and Economic Organisation and later a co-founder of the Political Affairs Committee that was the forerunner to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

She worked with the country’s legendary labour hero, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, particularly in organising domestics, and was also a leading figure in organising of strikes by sugar workers in 1948, a period when a group of workers were shot by the police and came to be known as the “Enmore Martyrs”.

In 1950 she became a co-founder of the PPP, along with her husband, the trade union expert and lawyer, Ashton Chase and the late Jocelyn Hubbard, another trade union figure, Ram Karran, Sydney King and others.

Also in that year she was elected General Secretary of the PPP, a post she was to retain for two decades until 1970; and became the first woman elected to the Georgetown City Council.

She entered the House of Assembly for the first time in 1953, when she was elected Deputy Speaker. She was among the political prisoners of that year - others included her husband and the late national poet, Martin Carter - following the suspension of the Constitution by the British Government on allegations of a “communist conspiracy”.

In 1957, when fresh elections were held and the PPP returned to office, she was appointed Minister of Labour, Health and Housing. In 1963/64 she served as Minister of Home Affairs and Senator, following the death of Minister Claude Christian. She quit as Home Affairs Minister declaring non-cooperation from the then British-controlled Police Force, and subversion of her government.

Splitting her time and energy between party headquarters, Freedom House and as editor of the PPP-backed “Mirror” newspaper, she was to return to parliament at successive elections in 1973, 1980, 1985 and 1992

She became First Lady of the Republic with her husband’s inauguration as Executive President in October 1992, and then served for a six-month period as Guyana’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

In March 1997 when President Jagan died, she became the country’s first woman Prime Minister and First Vice-President. On December 19,1997, she was sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, when the PPP won the elections. She resigned due to ill health in 1999.

Mrs. Jagan, who has been Editor of “Mirror” for about 24 years, has written a number of publications, largely children’s books, including stories of Guyana’s struggle for independence.

She is the recipient of the country’s highest honour; Order of Excellence (OE), the Woman of Achievement award from the University of Guyana, and in 1997 the Gandhi Gold Medal for Peace, Democracy and Women’s Rights by UNECSO.

(More on the late Mrs. Janet Jagan in tomorrow’s Sunday Chronicle.)

What is NCN doing for JJ

JJ was close to Fuzzy and as the CEO of NCN, he has got to marshal his employees better. We are not watching, but reports suggest that so far, only Donald ramotar has said anything on JJ's passing. The woman played an integral part in moulding and establishing the PPP. Is this the thanks she gets?


Or BJ is so happy about JJ's passing that he has instructed NCN to downplay it. After all, he did rebuke her once when she wrote about his style of management.

JJ gone but not forgotten

JJ, oh JJ

Ramlall should be fired...

The United States Embassy in Georgetown has revoked the visa of Supreme Court Registrar, Sita Ramlal. The revocation followed an investigation by the embassy into a case of forgery of documents purporting to represent the adoption of a female child.
A police source said that at the centre was an application for immigration purposes for a female said to be the adopted daughter of former Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force and Human Resources Manager of Bosai, Norman McLean.

The police said that the embassy reported that dates were changed to make the adoption papers appear to have been done before the actual date.
During the investigation by the embassy, staff attached to the Supreme Court Registry testified that Ms. Ramlal instructed them to make the changes in the records of the Supreme Court.
The embassy called in the local police when Mr. McLean approached them with the forged documents on Wednesday. He was detained.

McLean, who this newspaper understands also holds a United States of America passport, had filed for permanent residency in the United States on behalf of the adopted female.
Mr. McLean, who is also a former Deputy Commissioner of Police, was detained at the Criminal Investigations Department Headquarters, Eve Leary, and has since been put on station bail pending charges to be instituted by the embassy.

Late yesterday afternoon, Ms Ramlal was at the CID headquarters with her lawyer, Nigel Hughes.

Ms Ramlal, the Supreme Court Registrar, is the equivalent of a High Court judge.
At the time of her alleged involvement in the fraud, she was locked in a court battle challenging the Chancellor and the Judicial Service Commission for attempting to question her right to leave.
She had been forced to seek medical attention in the United States. She had another medical appointment in the States but with the visa revocation, that appointment can not be kept in the future.

Ram, Ramsaroop, not Peter Ram is singing

Christopher Ram and another Ram...Peter Ramsaroop have all had gloomy predictions of the current situation regarding the Clico crisis and have been extremely critical of the Government's handing of the situation. Government has tried too long to cover up its failings. minister Dr. Ashni Singh has been too quite and lacks the leadership this crisis so deserves. Below are some notable events leading up to yesterday's firing of several Clico employees.


In Early February President Jagdeo, at a press conference, announced that Government was monitoring the domestic situation closely. He also indicated the existence of short-term risk through potential mismatches in the maturity of the company's assets and liabilities that could arise in the event of significant changes its overseas investments.

SN February 26:

“We want to ensure that people here, their interests are protected so we are watching this closely,” Jagdeo declared on February 5th. The President said he had looked at Clico (Guyana’s) liquidity position as well as its assets and liabilities.

On March 12

The National Assembly unanimously supported President Jagdeo’s guarantee to CLICO Guyana policyholders.

Clico staff sent packing

From SN: Several employees of CLICO (Guyana) were yesterday issued with letters terminating their service, while moves were made to shut down the company’s Lamaha Street branch as the troubled insurance company faces its financial predicament.

Stabroek News was told that in excess of 30 staff members from various departments were issued with letters of termination. Among those who have lost their jobs are the entire staff of the Marketing Department as well as several members from the Financial and Underwriting departments, as well as cleaners and receptionists.

Quote of the year

From KN:

“They told us the company solid and now when we do find out they don’t have money to do anything…is we does have to interact with the clients not them…wha we gun tell de people now” - Agent