The ship is sinking, SOS is ignored

THE SHIP IS SINKING for the troubled Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) and its Secretary,
Ms. Valerie Patterson, is urging the Irfaan Ali administration to throw it a financial lifeline.
“LEN is in dire straits for finances according to my report from the CEO. Letters were written to
the Finance Secretary concerning the financial state of LEN right now. There is not enough
monies available to take care of LEN’s expenses which includes salaries and other benefits, bills
such as GTT and GPL,” Secretary Patterson said.
Patterson said LEN’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms. Tanniza Gasper, recently sent a report
to the government reminding them that the company is going down and desperately needs
monies to keep the operations afloat.
She said the Government is fully knowledgeable that LEN is going under, but unlike other
agencies or departments, the agency is still without a new Board of Directors, since last
December. Patterson concluded the Irfaan Ali administration is on a calculated mission of
ensuring the ‘ship’ is completely buried and is content to be a passive onlooker as the people of
Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten) are punished and destroyed.
Ignoring LEN’s plight is deliberate and well-calculated.
“The Ministry of Finance is well aware of this. The Ministry of Finance has put LEN in a
position and I dare say this, where it was prior to the 2015 national and regional elections and
that has to change,” she declared.
“LEN Board has expired as of December 31, 2020 and to date a new board has not been named. I
am the only person as the Company Secretary who is there signing cheques and overlooking
LEN at this point in time.”

There is still money in an account that LEN can use to give applicants loans, but according to
Patterson, because of vindictiveness of the government, they keep manufacturing excuses to
withhold disbursement and let the financial firm submerge.
“It is not a positon that we don’t have money to give loans. We do have millions of dollars in the
loan fund. What is needed is the establishing of the new Board…that will have the credit
committee that approves the loans. Requests that are above the limit of the credit committee goes
to the entire board. That is all that is needed and to make these monies available to the people of
Region Ten for the establishment of new businesses and the expansion of existing businesses
which I think is very much needed right now,” she explained.
“We are not short of requests, but after loan approvals were put on hold, we stopped
taking applications. But at that point there were several applications pending and even
several loans approved pending disbursement. In some cases, the cheques were already
written and everything was put on hold,” Patterson complained.