PRESS RELEASE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF GUYANA
Joseph Harmon, in an attempt to camouflage the bungling incompetence of the APNU+AFC as a political Opposition and his inexperience as a politician, has issued one of his erratic, baseless and absurd statements to the press. The statement claims that Mr. Harmon is “disturbed” by recent developments in the investigations of the heinous killings of Isaiah and Joel Henry. This is the very Harmon, who after meeting with the relatives of the deceased, issued certain irresponsible and inflammatory statements, which were shortly followed by blockages of the Public Road, the beating, robbing, sexual molestation and inconveniencing of thousands of Guyanese, along the West Coast Berbice roadway. There was also loss and damage to public and private property to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Even the family of the deceased were forced to publicly rebuke Mr. Harmon and his cohorts for using their family’s tragedy as a platform for politics, robbery and violence.
It is understandable why Mr. Harmon is disturbed by the investigations because, in the report of the Regional Security Service team from CARICOM which assisted in the investigations, it was revealed that one of the officers was informed by a relative of the deceased that a politician asked the family to lie and say that the killings were politically and racially motivated and that if the family did so, they would be “looked after”. Mr. Harmon should reveal who this politician is.
Mr. Harmon next contended that the Government of Guyana spent $220M on the purchase of new vehicles for the President, Vice-President and the Prime Minister. The Government rejects this allegation as both false and reckless. To date, there has been no procurement of any new vehicles for any of the aforementioned persons. A sum of money was budgeted for the acquisition of new vehicles for the entire governmental apparatus in the 2020 budget. This was as a result of the Government being unable to conduct a proper inventory of the fleet of vehicles it inherited by the time the budget was ready for presentation.
In contrast, the APNU+AFC Government blew out billions of dollars in the acquisition of motor vehicles, overseas travels, meals, other luxuries and unnecessary expenditures. Some have been made public. Much more are still to be disclosed. For example, Mr. Harmon seems to have forgotten that former President David Granger carted off a fleet of vehicles, including one purchased for G$35M.
The Government of Guyana has already promised a Commission of Inquiry into the killings of the Henry boys and Haresh Singh. The Government does not need sanctimonious outpourings from Mr. Harmon on this issue. However, it calls upon Mr. Harmon to stop playing his cheap and insensitive politics with the pain and sorrow of the grieving family.
No doubt when the Commission begins its inquiry, Mr. Harmon’s and the APNU+AFC’s conduct will be the subject of scrutiny, having regard to the clear role played in the resulting mayhem, and possibly, prior events.
In conclusion, the incendiary and inflammatory undercurrents contained in the Leader of the Opposition’s Press Statement, have not gone unnoticed and Mr. Harmon will continue to be held responsible for any future violent outbursts along the roadways of West Coast Berbice.