By Rickford Burke
Guyana’s opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo Thursday had the audacity to criticize Guyana’s Minister of Youth Affairs Simona Broomes because she has two children who are Guyana scholars and attend attending Universities in the US on government scholarships. From press reports, Jagdeo claimed the government of Guyana allegedly paid tuition in the amount one hundred and five thousand (USD $105 ,000. 00) for both children. The Government said the Brooms children followed the established scholarship application process and were approved.
A cursory check revealed that average out of state tuition for universities in the ranking of the two schools the Ministr’s children are reportedly attending is USD $24,900.00 per year.
If each child were to receive a full scholarship, each would have been entitled to tuition of USD $99,600.00 each – a tolal of USD $199,200.00. Consequently it appears that the government may have only paid about half of the required tuition for both kids. My question therefore is why only half? Why not the entire tuition if they qualify for full titution? Aren’t the minister’s Guyanese and therefore entitled to the rights, privileges and entitlements as every other citizen? So long as the Minister is not unlawfully or unethically interfering with or influencing the process her children are entitled to apply for scholarships.
Bharrat Jagdeo, who ran one of the most corrupt and criminal governments in the world, has no moral authority to comment on these matters. His PPP government took away free education from young people in Guyana. His PPP government allegedly abused the government’s scholarship fund as a personal piggyback and political slush fund from which they reportedly swindled money like a drunken prostitute.
Moreover why didn’t Jagdeo tell the nation that his party’s executive member Dr. Frank Anthony and his daughter are under investigation for allegedly robbing the nation of millions dollars in an alleged $30 million scholarship fraud scheme?
It has been reported that Frank Anthony’s daughter was on govt scholarship in Grenada, where Guyanese tax payers dollars paid her rent of over UDS $7,000.00. Anthony also allegedly got corrupt officials at the Department of Public Service to unlawfully release his daughter from serving and fulfilling her contract with the people of Guyana as well from repaying her scholarship tuition fees. The government and people of Guyana have been once again defrauded by Jagdeo and his corrupt PPP cronies.
Worst, Jagdeo’s PPP Public Service Minister Jennifer Wesford was charged with embezzling over $600,000.00 when the PPP left office in 2015. She was rewarded by Jagdeo who reappointed her a PPP Member of Parliament. PPP Presidential candidate Irfaan Ali is facing 19 criminal fraud charges for defrauding the state of over $174 million dollars. Former accountant for the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), PPP member, Peter Ramcharran, is currently being prosecuted for allegedly stealing over $400 million from his agency and fled to Canada where he was extradited.
Furthermore PPP Permanent Secretary in the office of that President, Omar Shariff, was caught with over $10 billion dollars in his personal bank account. He has been charged for fraud and is being prosecuted.
The PPP is like a criminal cartel that thrives on corruption. Jagdeo has some nerve, in fact some balls, to accuse other people of corruption when he and his cronies are corruption
connoisseurs wallowing like wild boars in a cesspool of bribery, kickbacks, theft, embezzlement, fraud and plain husseling. Jagdeo’s band of PPP criminal have mustered the balls mouth off thrash and project nonsense about corruption because persons in the APNU+AFC coalition government have been protecting them from the wrath of the criminal justice system! It is time to jail these crooks!