Ali to APNU’s Harmon: Stop dirty politics

Housing Minister Irfaan Ali said it is time the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) come clean and break the trend of playing gutter politics, after the opposition coalition accused the Housing Ministry of corruption and having a defective “One Stop Shop” system, which is frustrating the lives of Guyanese.
During the coalition’s press conference last Thursday, APNU parliamentarian Joseph Harmon said for the past three weeks the party has been inundated with reports from aggravated citizens who were complaining about the poor houselot distribution system as he made reference to the last exercise held at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, on June 14. After receiving letters of allocation, in excess of 2000 persons had flocked the stadium in the hope of receiving their dream land, after hours of waiting they left empty-handed, Harmon alleged.
He claimed that on average, 400 persons were allocated house lots and in the case of some, the cost for these properties jumped significantly. “Persons who were allocated house lots in the Gy$300,000 range were thereafter told by ministry officials that they had to pay Gy900,000 or Gy$1.2 million per house lot. The result is that the hopes of many Guyanese citizens were dashed by the incompetence of the Ministry of Housing and Water officials,” he alleged
He contended that the ministry and the Central Housing and Planning Authority have been “seriously mismanaging this vital aspect of human development in Guyana”, stressing that an urgent and independent inquiry should be launched.

However, the housing minister debunked the claims. During an exclusive interview with Guyana Times International, Ali said: “Mr Harmon is just being mischievous and we are asking him to come clean, we are asking him to stop this football politics,” as he denied the allegations.  He said the “One Stop Shop” was strategically designed to ensure transparency, noting that the Housing Ministry and its staffers have been very effective in this regard.
“We distributed more than 1000 [house lots]… to say that only 400 house lots were allotted that is dishonest, distasteful and ridiculous,” Ali stressed, noting that “at 1:30h, we had finalised all our transactions”. The opposition had said that citizens were at the stadium from 06:00h on June 14 up until 02:00h the following day.
The housing minister said that it is quite shocking that Harmon would table these allegations, especially when he, as the shadow housing minister distanced, himself from the entire land distribution process; a system that is open to all. Minister Ali added that Harmon had consulted him on a number of issues, but never expressed concerns about the “One Stop Shop” exercise.
The minister has since promised to make available to the media the list of persons who benefited from the “One Stop Shop” since its initiation.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, while addressing the issue of corruption and the opposition’s recent attacks on the Housing Ministry, said, the Donald Ramotar administration has been trying to assess the rationale behind this “corruption crusade” driven by the opposition. He stressed that Guyanese should also try to ascertain why the opposition has been tagging all of the government’s developmental activities as corrupt, despite their tremendous benefits. “We are bringing to the attention of the Guyanese people… we are pointing to the major projects and asking what is the intent in crusading against these projects?”