Dear Editor,
Your Saturday, December 13 news article, “Ministry announces steps to tackle illegal gold trade,”[1] really begs the question: Why only now? Some may be quick to respond: better late than never, but after decades of gold smuggling, haven’t we gone past the stage of never late is better? In all seriousness, the first step in tackling the illegal gold trade is to address government corruption, as pointed out in the June 2024 OFAC news release that implicates Government Officials as facilitators in the Mohameds’ muddle because the problem is two-fold: the smugglers and the facilitators.
In fact, if the 2022 Vice Media reportage of a senior government official and a private associate in facilitating and negotiating illegal government contracts is any indication of how high up the government chain corruption reaches, then we know where to start tackling the problem. Smuggling of an assortment of Guyana’s natural resources and foreign currencies, and awarding of red-flagged government contracts are two of the main sources of the network of corruption with the brains located right inside government.
OFAC is fooling no one by going after only the Mohameds when the father-son duo were mere operators in a well-established network. The only reason why the foreign smugglers have never been caught by OFAC is because those guys ship their loot from Georgetown to their home countries. Nothing for them passes through the United States. Doesn’t OFAC see the Guyana-China connection between Permanent Secretary Mae Thomas and the Mohameds? She had US$9000 in cash when she was pulled over in Miami enroute to China on a PPP training program.
When asked by Stabroek News to explain about the training mission for a Permanent Secretary to be released from her government job to travel on a government issued diplomatic passport, stamped with a purported A-2 visa, this was General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo’s response: “People have multiple existences…about PS’ trip to China,” Stabroek News, April 28, 2023. Anyone can refresh their memory by Googling and reading the article to get a sense of how Jagdeo viewed that incident in real time, then look at how different Thomas has been treated compared to the Mohameds. This was a network operation.
OFAC even said the Mohameds were facilitated by Government Officials, as in plural, yet only the Mohameds are facing the legal firing squad. What is wrong with this freaking picture? In December 1999, Bharrat Jagdeo promised to stamp out ‘contract-splitting’, which features government officials and government contractors splitting government money. Turned out government contracts have become a major source of concern to Guyanese who question signs of corruption. Some matching Ralph Ramkarran’s 2012 description of pervasiveness.
After winning a second term in September, Stabroek News reported on September 10, “President promises dedicated anti-corruption unit.”[2] So, why after past failed promises, would the government announce new steps to tackle illegal gold trade? The network of corruption covers all illegal activities that have made operators and officials rich. It is called The New Guyana Games in which some race to the top and others get pushed to the bottom.