Dear Editor,
Note is taken of the editorial titled, `The President’s brother and the procurement system’ (KW, August 20, 2026). Fair and balanced. Restrained and circumspect. This is where I stand.
The mere fact that a family member, one as close as the national leader’s sibling, is on the masthead of a company, that alone has inestimable value. In many places, there’s compelling power to such a name, such a presence. In Guyana, it rises high. To put differently, it cannot be ignored, pretended not to exist. Or unknown as to the clout that it represents, through the connection of a name, blood ties. Even if, for discussion sake, there is estrangement, there’s still some oomph to that name being around, and not in an obscure, coincidental, fashion. There’s a vision behind having former US cabinet secretaries on corporate boards, on the letterheads of law firms. It is that this name has a history. This name has reach, and that this name can get things done. Past relationships. Present wisdom. The arrangement of movement on a matter that ordinary citizens cannot make happen. The role could be passive, largely for decorative purposes, but there should be no claiming that the presence of that name is meaningless. Or lacking in energy. Or squeamish relative to scouting for opportunities that are beckoning. Or deferential in rising to full height to test what could be for his team.
The team itself is part of the story, a peer into the mystery. From Dhaka to Demerara is a journey of Columbus-like proportions. A point made in the KW editorial using different language. Then to land so quickly and so closely to lucrative procurement action is a small miracle by itself. Clearly, the Bangladeshi company has weight and it has pull. Could the connecting thread be the president’s brother?
On the separate issue of WIN’s Mr. Azruddin Mohamed and his prolific access to information, I remind fellow citizens of a standing position of mine, as presented before. Mr. Mohamed was part of the system. In many ways he qualifies as an insider, and one with rich, extraordinary linkages to the highest elevations in Guyana. He was in that system, knows how that system works, because he bent it to his visions and ambitions and made it work for him. Now that he has been cast into outer darkness, a seemingly forlorn but potent figure on the outside, he has brought that insider knowledge and uses it to his advantage. One with an edge, I inform citizens. There is a drive for transparency and accountability, which is an irony by itself, and embedded is more than a touch of getting even, and giving himself some extra leverage with the public.
Relative to the award of the contracts themselves, the pro forma defences have been furnished for public consumption. Everything was aboveboard. Everything was done by the book. I think that the latter is the key. Whose book is in operation? And what type of written, unwritten and unusual (philosophical) guidance does it provide? Because, as is common knowledge in Guyana, there is what the book says, and there’s what the Big Boys say must be. Whether it was a single contract, or a handful of them, what isn’t up for debate is that a considerable amount of public funds was plunked down into a firm from across that long road that starts in Bangladesh. A tremendous vote of confidence, no question about it. Several eggs dumped in one basket. I must remember to inquire how much waterworks improvements have been initiated over there in that corner of Asia.
Last, there’s the matter of the lowest bid. It is a fine way to manage one’s business and tangoing with the procurement raj that thrives in Guyana. Put in the lowest bid and recommend self to be the candidate that can’t be denied. Present the lowest bid, and there’s hell of a lot of explanation that would be required, should that be bypassed or defeated. I like the logic. Re the president’s brother, he could be one of those unfortunates. A man with a name in the right place at the right time for the right reasons, But one whose righteousness is subject to the wrong degree of dissension and discomfort.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
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