Guyana Chronicle
June 19, 2001

HOUSING and Water Minister, Mr. Shaik Baksh yesterday refuted charges by Opposition Leader, Mr. Desmond Hoyte in the wake of the fire which Friday night destroyed the Housing Ministry complex on Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown.

Baksh, at a news conference Saturday, raised suspicions about the cause of the fire noting three attempts before to torch the building.

"I don't think this destruction of the building by fire is by chance because three attempts were made to destroy this building before and there is a reason why this is happening", he told reporters.

He pointed fingers at Hoyte's People's National Congress Reform (PNC/R) but Hoyte yesterday levelled corruption and other accusations against the ministry which Baksh later rebutted.

The exchanges came as the ministry yesterday continued efforts to relocate at least 120 employees displaced by the fire and keep the Government's flagship housing programme on track.

At a news conference at the PNC/R Congress Place headquarters in Georgetown, Hoyte said the attempt to incriminate his party was "typical of the obscenity" of the governing People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).

He said the PNC/R declined "to dignify it with a reply but wishes to raise some serious questions of its own".

"Neither the Police nor the Fire Service is even now in a position to give an opinion on the cause of the fire, but it was significant that Baksh and the PPP/C were aware of its origin", he argued.

He charged that the ministry "was a den of corruption involving millions of dollars."

"The Auditor General has pointed to flagrant breaches of the financial regulations", the Opposition Leader stated.

He cited the Auditor General's report for 1998 claiming the Ministry of Housing and Water understated its expenditure for $l6l.5M; did not update its stock records; did not account for $159M paid over by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security; overstated expenditure on the capital side by $21M, among other irregularities.

"It is well known that it has no proper financial records of payments made for lands it has allocated and has been under severe embarrassment when two or more citizens turn up with receipts for the same plot of land but the ministry had no record of their payments", Hoyte said.

According to Hoyte, many of these persons have been requesting a comprehensive audit of the ministry including the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).

"It is logical to conclude that if indeed the building was deliberately burnt, it would most likely be the work of those who managed the ministry and the beneficiaries of the massive corruption for which it has become notorious", he alleged.

Hoyte said that in February 1996 when the Auditor General attempted to audit the Roads Contracts at the Ministry of Works, the building which housed the records was mysteriously destroyed by fire.

"While the fire was raging, Prime Minister Sam Hinds opined that the cause of the fire was electrical", he said.

The PNC/R leader stated that since then neither the Police nor the Fire Service has published its findings as to the cause of the fire.

In a press release, Baksh said Hoyte's accusation that the ministry was a "den of corruption" was "a serious indictment of the hard-working and professional staff of the ministry."

He accused the PNC/R of making a poor response to the charge that the fire at the Housing Ministry may have been related to the PNC/R statement that the walkout from Parliament Friday afternoon was only the "initial response".

Baksh had hinted Saturday that the fire may have been triggered by actions of Parliamentarians of the PNC/R who walked out of Parliament over the appointment of Mr. Doodnauth Singh as the new Attorney General.

Responding to Hoyte's accusations, the minister pointed out that the $159M mentioned is part of the $161.5M referred to and not two separate sums.

He said the Permanent Secretary explained the position in 1999 stating that the sum was never paid over to the Ministry of Housing and Water since the new ministry became operational in April, 1998. (Housing was part of the old Ministry of Human Services and Social Security).

He said that in fact, the Auditor General, in a letter dated November 3, 1999 to the Permanent Secretary stated, "our audit of the expenditure of $161,506,891 was focused on the internal payments totaling $159M made to local organisations. The completeness, accuracy and validity of these payments were verified".

Baksh added that the non-updating of stock records is not an irregularity and the Permanent Secretary explained that this was not done since accounts staff were not recruited into the new ministry until late in 1998.

Added to this, he said the Permanent Secretary explained that the $21M which was part of capital funds remaining at the end of 1998, was retained by the CH&PA to meet expenditures for the on-going capital works and were all fully committed.

The ministry has "fairly accurate records of all payments made for house lots and was computerising the Central Housing and Planning Authority to ensure a higher level of accuracy in its management information system (over 30 computers were destroyed in the fire)," Baksh said.

He said that the PNC Government under Mr. Hoyte, and following his predecessor, had never laid in Parliament an audited report of the Public Accounts of Guyana during the period 1985-1992 and as a result, billions of tax payers money cannot be accounted for during these years.

On the other hand, the PPP/C has laid in Parliament reports of the Auditor General every year since 1992 and up to 1999 ensuring public accountability of its expenditures, Baksh said.

The minister Saturday said the housing programme under which thousands have been allocated house lots for the first time, will be set back by the fire but some key records were saved and the ministry is working on an action plan to keep the housing drive on track.

Recalling the three attempts to destroy the building, the minister said a fire bomb was first thrown at the front of the building, then at the southern section facing the Botanical Gardens.

And in the third attempt, a bomb was lit and left in the washroom of the building, which resulted in minor damage, he told reporters at the GTV studio across the street from the fire site.

"...these attempts were made by forces envious of the great strides made by the Ministry of Housing to provide shelter and settlements to the population", he said.

Baksh said he learnt that the fire started in the upper flat of the building which housed the Drainage and Irrigation Department.

He said, "...only (Friday), there was a walkout of the People's National Congress from Parliament and a statement has been issued which states, `In the circumstances, the PNC Reform, as an initial response...'. I am wondering now whether this is not a further response to the action they have taken in walking out of Parliament."

"...clearly forces are operating and they are targeting the Ministry of Housing.

"I hope this will not continue because we are working very hard to get back on stream in the shortest possible time to continue the housing drive", Baksh said.

The fire was reportedly started on the top floor and left millions of dollars in damage.

Baksh said that apart from some 500 transports lost in the fire, information kept on diskettes of the housing operations there was intact.

He said that together with other government agencies, the Deeds Registry, municipalities, the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, the Lands Commission, all of which have records and copies of records, the Ministry of Housing will be moving aggressively to reconstruct the records lost.

"The greatest damage has been done in terms of our records and it will set back the work of the ministry..."

He said that luckily for the ministry, information was secured on diskettes and kept at the home of some officials including the Systems Manager of the Land Administration Department.

He said the manager was one of the persons very careful with the records and took home a large number of discs.

Another official of the Conveyance Department also has information on diskettes on transports and land titles.

Baksh added that he Saturday morning convened a meeting with the top managers of the ministry and it was decided that they will be working over the weekend to set up an action plan so that in a short time they will be able to recommence the "very proactive work the ministry is doing in housing the nation".

Other offices housed in that building were the Ministry of Labour's Industrial Relations section; Empowerment - Recruitment and Replacement; Occupational Health and Safety; Drainage and Irrigation; the Board of Industrial Training; Hydraulics, among others.