General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, staunchly defended his assertion that former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran lacked integrity, while addressing the slander lawsuit brought against him by Goolsarran on Friday.
Addressing the media at a press conference, Dr. Jagdeo reiterated his position, stating, “I can substantiate that, [in] my view he, [Goolsarran] has no integrity… and I will defend this because there are numerous, numerous cases.”
Responding to claims made by Goolsarran’s lawyer, Khemraj Ramjattan that eight attempts to serve him with legal papers had been unsuccessful, the General Secretary denied those allegations, stating it was “a bunch of lies.”
He went on to say, “but that’s Ramjattan… he shattered after his betrayal of all that he stood for. This is the man who defended stealing elections. I think he’s shattered intellectually and mentally. So, he’s just looking for something now to get in the public domain.
“All they could do if they can’t serve me, drop it off by the AG department and I’d consider it as being served, just give it to him and we will respond to it because I will defend it.”
He continued to challenge Goolsarran’s integrity, highlighting his tenure as Deputy Auditor General under the PNC in the 1980s. During this period, Goolsarran was responsible for drafting audit reports for the central government accounts.
According to Jagdeo, there were no such reports during Goolsarran’s tenure, raising questions about the proper utilisation of public funds allocated to the Auditor General’s office.
“You collected money from the taxpayer’s treasury for all those years, if you couldn’t perform your tasks and you had integrity, you would say, Listen, this is an unaccountable system, I can’t perform my job, I resign. He did not resign, in fact, they hired him as Auditor General…”
“I remember when he was seconded…I was president, came to me for wage increases numerous times. I said to him, I couldn’t it would trigger a generalised increase, he said you could give me alone and he was willing to throw his staff under the bus, I did not agree to that. Many times, he wanted to keep the job, work abroad in the UN and hold on to the post of Auditor General here,” the General Secretary stated.
Jagdeo also criticised Goolsarran’s professional conduct, particularly his involvement in estimating corruption through procurement fraud during the PPP’s administration.
Professionally, Goolsarran made an estimation of corruption through procurement fraud during the PPP’s administration. This estimation was cited in the 2015 APNU manifesto document.
According to the document, Goolsarran estimated that corruption accounted for approximately 28 to 35% of the total procurement spending, which amounted to $140 billion. In essence, this estimation suggested that nearly $50 billion of the $140 billion spending was attributed to procurement fraud.
“Now, we invited him several times to tell us which projects only for $1 billion, just account for $1 billion of procurement fraud, not $50 million. Until now, he has not done that and the media should ask him, how come you estimated this? Is this not…I think malfeasance to some extent, maybe, but definitely no professional integrity,” the General Secretary said.
Dr Jagdeo maintained that the former auditor general’s failure to substantiate these accusations clearly indicates a lack of integrity, signifying a complete absence of credibility. (DPI)
