GBTI slams Ramjattan, Kaieteur News for ‘grossly reckless’ secret bank account article

A senior official at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) has described leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan and Kaieteur News as “grossly reckless” and “highly irresponsible”, following an article which maliciously claimed that Presidential Adviser Keith Burrowes and head of the Privatisation Unit, Winston Brassington were signatories to a secret bank account worth some US$25 million.
On Sunday, the mudslinging tabloid Kaieteur News carried a story about a US$25 million account that was only recently discovered in the accounts of GBTI. The story misleadingly stated that the money was in an account under the control of Brassington and Burrowes, and quotes were attributed to Ramjattan as having received the information from a “whistle-blower”.

Ramjattan was quoted as saying the whistleblower disclosed that Brassington and Burrowes are the main persons controlling the GBTI account. “We are being told by a reliable source… a whistleblower… that the account has G$4.9 billion in the name of National Cooperative Financial Services. AFC is extremely concerned about this since nowhere has the government told the National Assembly that it has this money sitting in an account,” he said in the article.
So convinced was the AFC leader about his information from the whistle blower, he said that “such monies can be used to pay public servants a much needed increase in wages and salaries”. However, on the subject of the “secret” account, the GBTI official said there was no such account with Brassington and Burrowes as signatories.
“There is no account for which Brassington is a signatory and there is no account to which Burrowes and Brassington are joint signatories,” said the official, who also pointed out that the Kaieteur News carried a correction on Tuesday. The senior bank official spoke with Guyana Times International on condition of anonymity.
The official said the AFC leader owes the bank a public apology, as well the two gentlemen who would have had their image tarnished by the article and by the claims of Ramjattan. “As a commercial bank and a major player in the financial services industry in Guyana, we thrive on the security of information regarding individual accounts and all other details of transactions at the institution,” he said.
“As a newspaper, the Kaieteur News should also be in the habit of checking information before publishing sensitive information so recklessly,” he added.
Meanwhile, prior to the bank official’s comments, both Burrowes and Brassington had issued statements contradicting the Kaieteur News article. Burrowes, who is currently overseas receiving medical treatment, denied the charge during a comment to this newspaper on Monday. “The facts of the matter are: there is no secret US$25 million bank account at GBTI or any other bank for that matter that Burrowes is a signature to,” he insisted.
Further, Burrowes said he is unaware that he is a signatory and is unaware that he is a joint signatory to any bank account anywhere with Brassington. Burrowes said he is surprised that the information was not verified with him or a senior staff and asserted that politicians and the media must verify their information before going public with such damaging statements.
In a statement, the Privatisation Unit said “these claims are blatantly untrue and unfounded”, and is “another mischievous attempt by Ramjattan and the Kaieteur News to fabricate information for cheap political and journalistic purposes”.