In recent days questions have arisen about the business affairs of Aqtar Ali, the brother of President Irfaan Ali. It followed a video on Facebook by Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed who had earlier done an exposé on the farm owned by President Ali. Mr Mohamed is clearly being supplied with documentation from within government agencies. This is for the PPP a development that will bring much anxiety as its carefully constructed walls and silos are being breached notwithstanding the refusal to activate whistleblower infrastructure. The public will be better off for these streams of information.
It is clear that Mr Mohamed has thrown down the gauntlet to the PPP believing that it is foremost behind the efforts of US law enforcement to have him extradited to Miami to face various counts connected to the under-invoicing of gold exports. This is the classic Mexican standoff among erstwhile allies and confidantes.
There are two matters to be examined in this latest claim as it relates to the President’s brother. Is this a legitimate area for public examination? It is. As in the earlier case of the former Minister in the Ministry of Housing and now Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Susan Rodrigues the public has a valid right to learn whether or not the assets held by the Minister are in alignment with her financial strength and earnings. If not questions have to be answered by her and her filings with the Integrity Commission need to be perused. There also has to be a wider investigation. Close family members can often be enlisted to be pretend owners of property and other assets. Needless to say key questions continue to surround Minister Rodrigues’ case without the requisite answers.
The second issue is the handling of information provided by the Leader of the Opposition. Much of this information is coming in the backdrop of the confrontation between President Ali and Mr Mohamed so it requires careful evaluation. This is where members of the public and journalists are on the back foot. They have little access to data bases – like for example the returns submitted to the Integrity Commission – to parse and to determine discrepancies. Yet they must persevere.
In this case of Mr Aqtar Ali the questions which will have to be examined are whether he has significant shareholding in the company and whether any undue influence was brought to bear in the awarding of contracts to the company being described as Sigma Engineers Limited. The company is purported to have had a long history in Bangladesh. How did it migrate here and why? Georgetown is a pretty far way from Dhaka so it is quite unusual that a company of that type will he here and that a relationship has been established with the President’s brother. It would also be in competition with well established companies here with track records and who could likely bid lower than it. So what are the prospects of such a company seeking to make inroads here?
In the opaque and questionable procurement architecture here, one cannot convincingly say whether the company associated with the President’s brother was afforded preferential treatment. One would have to examine carefully all of the bids at the level of the evaluation committees of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to determine whether there were issues. As was seen in the case of the Tepui Group and the award of the Belle Vue pump station contract, evaluation committees of the NPTAB are not infallible and in that case a contract was improperly handed to an influencer friend of the ruling party/government. So while in the present case the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) can proclaim that all contracts were awarded after public tendering and that the evaluation committees had made scrupulous decisions, the reality is different. Those in charge of the NPTAB have not been forensically examined on these issues.
As it relates to the President’s brother, there is a discrepancy over when Sigma Engineers was first given a contract. The company is saying it was registered in 2022 and got its first contract in 2026. Other contracts were however awarded prior to 2026 to a company with a similar name. Could it be the case that Sigma Engineers spawned a local company which secured the 2026 contract and which company has the President’s brother as a key principal? Is Mr Aqtar Ali a natural fit with Sigma Engineers? Are his qualifications in alignment with the work that the company does?
This is a legitimate area of examination for the media and all parts of civil society and where various investigative tools can be applied. The climate here for such work is insalubrious but still the media must persevere. The government has largely stayed silent on these allegations involving the President’s brother. It must however make available to the public the widest array of information so that the media and others can interrogate whether undue influence was brought to bear in any contract award.
Discussion