Guyana Observer News

A visit up the East Coast today to visit our friend Dale Andrews...(from left: Dale Andrews, Freddie Kissoon and Mark Benschop)

The findings of the accounts of Guyana remain almost unchanged, according to Auditor General, Deodat Sharma. Sharma recently presented the 2009 Auditor General’s report to Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran. This report would be made public on Thursday when the Speaker presents it to the House. Asked to comment on the report, Mr Sharma said that he would decline to make any profound comment. However, he said that while there have been some improvements, the conditions remain grave. He said that investigations of the 2009 accounts have revealed a lot of irregularities. For example, he found that there was the abuse of the Consolidated Funds. Mr Sharma declined to detail the abuses, choosing to await the presentation of his report to the National Assembly. Mr Sharma said that his auditors have also found that contractors were overpaid.

By Stella Ramsaroop

Today is the last day of October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I have dedicated all of my columns this past month to the topic of domestic violence and have received many positive responses from victims, survivors and those who care about the issue. Allow me to extend my heartfelt appreciation to each and every one of you for your encouraging words and support. For this last column of the month, I want to highlight some of what is being done to protect victims of domestic abuse, counsel those who have escaped it and to prevent future abuse from ever happening. On November 25, a rally is planned at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Bourda, and it is free to everyone. This event, “Break the Silence, Say No to Violence”, is being organised by local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) I.M.R.A.R.C (Cane Grove), Kids First Fund (Georgetown), Red Thread (Georgetown) and many other groups.

By Adam Harris

Sometimes people come up with thoughts and ideas or they make comments that set others to thinking about the reality of some situations. I happened to be talking to Glenn Lall about the way forward for the newspaper when the power went. Like me, he became angry. Unlike me, he lashed out at the direction in which the country is heading. “This is eye pass. The government has no respect for us,” he exclaimed. He is already peeved at the over-priced contracts and the shoddy work that some people produce despite collecting the kind of money that would transform some communities. So there we were sitting with Glenn fuming and me simply listening. Then he said something that fashioned this column and set me thinking. “Adam, after air, food and shelter, the next most important thing is electricity.” I travelled back to the days when most of Guyana was without electricity and people thought nothing of that. Of course, there were no blackouts and people like me did school work by lamp light and candlelight.

The Alliance For Change will today, at its Special National Convention at the Ocean View International Hotel, announce who the party has selected as its Presidential Candidate. At a retreat earlier this year, the party’s executive had agreed that the candidate be the current Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan. Michael Carrington had also recently signaled his intention to be considered by the Convention as the party’s Presidential Candidate. Earlier in the year, the party had announced a decision that the executive would back Ramjattan. The party executive members had said that to give effect to the decision, the party’s current leader, Raphael Trotman, would endorse Ramjattan as the presidential candidate and Ramjattan would endorse Trotman as the Prime Ministerial Candidate. Sheila Holder, the party’s Vice Chairperson, had said that the party’s National Executive Committee reaffirmed its commitment to the principle of the rotation of the Presidential and Prime Ministerial Candidates.

With reports of negligence in hospital wards, callous treatment of patients and a string of recent maternal deaths in the country the image of the nursing profession has been bruised. President of the Guyana Nurses Association (GNA) Joan Stewart says they will work on repairing it, but the problems are chronic. The majority of nurses in the system have less than ten years experience and migration continues to cripple the profession. Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy is on record as saying that about $600M is spent on nurses’ education annually and about half of that is lost in migration for the same period.

- 5 injured

Twelve people, including a two-month-old baby, died yesterday afternoon in one of the worst accidents the Corentyne Highway has ever seen. According to reports, shortly before 16:00hrs minibus BHH 1842 carrying 17 people collided with a truck, GLL 8863. Those identified among the dead were the minibus driver Odit Narine Babulall, 33, of Number 48 Village, Corentyne; Selma Razack, 23, of  104 Main Street, Cumberland, East Canje; Orlando De Mattos, 35, of Kildonan, Corentyne;  Salima Juman, 40, of Burn Bush, East Canje;  Marquest Ault, 14, of Rose Hall Town; Talita Mendonca, 21, of Kildonan Village; her infant son, Joseph Khan; Cindy Jaggernauth, 37, of Nigg Settlement, Corentyne;  of Kildonan, Janet Baker, 42, of Number 19 Village, Corentyne, and Patricia Asgarally, 28, of Albion.