Resources donated to the government’s Public Education Transport Service (PETS) belongs to the government and are, therefore, not the personal property of President, David Granger. Clarifying this today, was People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Executive Member, Rear Admiral (Retired) Gary Best.
The official made this clarification even as the President’s name is emblazoned upon the buses and boats donated to the programme.
The former Chief-of-Staff told the Guyana Standard at Congress Place, “So, President Granger has reached out and created an initiative, where various persons can come forward and donate resources to ensure that children reach to school – these are not personal assets of the president. These are assets that are donated to the party à la government so that they can be used to get children to school. But they are not personal to the president.”
The coalition government launched its “5Bs” programme after its ascension to office in May 2015, which saw private citizens and corporations – amongst others – donating boats, bicycles, buses, breakfast, and books to schoolchildren across Guyana. That programme later became known as PETS and to date, more than 4000 bicycles have been distributed across the country, with some 29 buses and 14 boats also up and running; taking children to and from school across the country free of charge.
The parliamentary opposition, however, is suspicious of the project; raising the question of ownership and claiming that the programme has the potential to give rise to corruption.
Just two weeks ago, Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo told a media conference, “That’s his big initiative with a few buses donated, and even in the donation process, we don’t know if they were donated to the PNC[R], or whether they’re donated to the government…If they’re donated to the government they should not be handled the way they are…But we don’t know if they’re in the assets register of the government, or in PNCR’s ownership because they were donated at party events.”
