T

it for tat politics have arrived with a vengeance. The APNU+AFC police has charged PPP supporters and the PPP has struck back by charging APNU supporters. The charges against former members of the past PPP/C administration will be seen as a political vendetta and will kill any possibility of movement towards a political solution.

Reports broke on April 12 that former Minister of Finance and Chairman of NICIL, Ashni Singh, and former NICIL Head, Winston Brassington, were jointly charged in absentia by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) with three counts of misconduct in public office between December 2008 and May 2011 contrary to the common law. They were charged for: firstly, having sold 4.7000 acres of government owned land at Liliendaal to Scady Business Corporation for $150M when they knew that it was valued at $340M by Rodrigues Architects; secondly, having acted recklessly in selling to National Hardware Guyana Limited in December 2008 government owned land at Turkeyen for $598,659,398M without procuring a valuation; and, thirdly, having sold 10.002 acres of land at Turkeyen to Multicinemas Guyana in May, 2011, for $185M without procuring a valuation.

The announcement that the charges had been read by the Magistrate caught many by surprise. Because of the lapse of time, the charges were no longer expected. The public had grown suspicious that the allegations of corruption against the past PPP/C Government appear to be unfounded. The commissions of inquiry had produced little and investigations dragged on. The government surprised the public by finally making good its threats by charging two of the most prominent officials of the last government. It promised that there is more to come. The tone of the opposition changed from gleefully claiming that the talk about corruption was mere propaganda to