Jagdeo dismisses Duncan’s ‘Labour of Love’

WHEN VICE PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo last week attacked three current opposition
legislators as benefitting unfairly, through cronyism, from the Sustainable Livelihood
Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) initiative designed to assist struggling Guyanese, he used
that as merely symbolic of endemic corruption common in the A Partnership for National Unity
and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.
www.aroundtheregions.com contacted two of the three MPs singled by Mr. Jagdeo for a
response to his allegations and both, not surprisingly, dismissed his charges as non-sensical,
laughable, and worst, misleading by the Russian-trained economist who has unimpeded access to
official government records.
MPs Mr. Sherod Duncan and Mr. Ghanesh Mahipaul have brushed-aside the VP’s fulminations
and have spoken on the record to this media outfit. The former has spoken at length, since it is
not the first time the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) coalition has levelled serious
allegations about his financial integrity.
Duncan denied he held a million-dollar-per-month ‘cushy job’ under Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan,
who at the time was Minister in the Ministry of Public Security (which from August reverted to
its original name, Ministry of Home Affairs).
“When they (PPPC) went in they had the impression that I was earning a million, as a matter of
fact I was the only person…that wasn’t terminated by them (PPPC) because my contract had
come to an end. Incidentally, at the end of September, and even though it was renewed, I think
the minister had pulled back on it. My termination was probably the only one that was not
publicised. Why you think they didn’t make mine publicized, because the renumerations were so
low that there was nothing to publicise,” MP Duncan asserted
Duncan said he earned a monthly gross salary of $230,000 and, after deductions, a take-home
pay of $195,000. For Duncan, his job was ‘ordinary’ more “a labour of love” when compared to
its paltry remuneration.

“I can send you a copy of my pay slip as those things aren’t private to me. The two significant
posts that I held under the government – and I wouldn’t really say that the post in Khemraj
Ramjattan’s Ministry was a significant post – but the most significant post that I held was as
General Manager at the Guyana Chronicle,” the MP said.
Duncan’s salary was 50 percent less than Mr. Michael Gordon earned under the Bharrat Jagdeo
PPP/C administration.
“I have no secrets, Michael Gordon was paid over $700,000.00 as General Manager at Chronicle
I was given $350,000.00 as take home, it might have been about $430,000.00 or something if so
much. The take home was $350,000.00. There was $25,000.00 that separated me, who was
managing the company, and the Finance Controller who was managing a department,” Duncan
disclosed.
The chasm in salaries earned under the two governments characterise the difference in value
placed on labour between the two governments. While the PPP/C rewards their appointees,
APNU+AFC Finance Minister, Winston Jordan never found the “fiscal space” to pay workers
when his party formed the government from May 2015 to August 2020.
The education sector, widely believed to form part of the APNU+AFC reliable political
stronghold, had to strike for a raise in salaries. However, when the party won the 2015 polls, they
gave themselves a salary hike, without the public’s knowledge.
Financial controversy swirled around Duncan in his brief stay as General Manager at the Guyana
Chronicle, the once-popular newspaper which has been in a nose-dive for several years, and the
government removed him.
By now, he is accustomed to Jagdeo and his party’s antics and is not worried by their threats of
litigation against him.
“The government got to do what they have to do if the government feels that there are matters
worth investigating,” he said.
The Auditor General investigated claims of financial impropriety by Duncan while he headed
Guyana Chronicle, and he said “there is a review on it, so if they wat to go after the auditor
general again to look into the matter I have no qualms.”

He continued, “I fight for justice. I fight for what I want for my people.”:
The Home Affairs Ministry has so far, denied Duncan his gratuity and other monies he is owed.
“The Ministry of Public Security now Home Affairs has monies for me because my gratuity has
not been paid since I left last year. I would have made representation to the last Permanent
Secretary (PS), but I choose my battles. I will choose the appropriate time when I am going to
approach the Minister on the matter,” Duncan asserted.
The Opposition MP and former Deputy Mayor of the Capital city, Georgetown, will make his
contract and other related documents public in an effort to correct what he said is a deliberate
attempt to mislead the public by VP Jagdeo.
“In my contract there was a $2,000.00 phone allowance. As a matter of fact, I will publish it. I
will look for the contract and the other documents as they are not at my hand reach, but I will
look for them and I intend to make all of it available for the public.”
Duncan is outraged by the storm-in-a-tea-cup controversy manufactured by Jagdeo and his
PPP/C colleagues over his services at the Ministry of Home Affairs and the struggling Guyana
Chronicle.
“This has been so since they have gone to Chronicle and all this stupidness in parliament talking
about throwing hints about money. They have the Chronicle, I am certain that they have the
auditor general’s report on this money that they always claiming that was stolen. It’s far from the
truth. Why have they not made it pubic as yet?” Duncan queried.