Just a few months after calling on the government to charge members if irregularities were unearthed, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has now back peddled and condemned a move which saw two of its Members of Parliament (MPs) and four other supporters being charged for financial irregularities at the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).

On Thursday, the six persons, all of whom were former GRDB Board members, were slapped with five separate charges totaling over $400 million to which they were not required to enter a plea.

Despite the charges being brought against those individuals by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), the PPP has since blamed the coalition government, describing the move as “political victimization”.

“Guyanese have witnessed [yesterday] the depths to which the Coalition government has sunk, in continuing with its political victimization” the Opposition party said in a statement.

The PPP said that SOCU had “admitted” that its investigations are incomplete and, as such, was unable to provide statements to the court. As such, the party is questioning on what basis were the six persons charged.

The party also lamented that 12 persons would have acted as Directors of GRDB between 2011 and 2015 (the period during which irregularities were alleged to have occurred) but that only the six who are linked to the PPP were charged. “…while there were 16 persons in total who acted as directors for the GRDB for the years cited by SOCU, the six persons charged are only those who have been linked to the PPP” the statement read.

The party reasoned too, that the charges made are matters of “accounting” and not issues that the Directors would have been directly responsible for. PPP also reiterated its position that SOCU is “being used as a tool to continue the witch hunting of political opponents,” and it being diverted from its intended purpose.

“The PPP will not be not be intimidated, nor will we be silenced or cease our efforts to expose the wrong doings of the APNU+AFC government. The actions of SOCU reflect the latest ‘act of desperation’ by the Coalition Government, more so coming after the publication of its list of ‘non-achievements’ in its two years in office” PPP said.

It was just a few months ago Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo had called on the government to expose corruption which the latter had accused the PPP of, during its time in office.

Jagdeo had said that if the government had evidence of malpractices or irregularities, then actions should be taken against its members. The financial irregularities at GRDB were discovered after a forensic audit was conducted into that agency.

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