Guyana’s Ambassador to Kuwait asked to provide answers about US corporate legal troubles

Last Updated on Wednesday, 5 October 2016, 22:56 by Denis Chabrol

Ambassador to Kuwait, Sahmir Ally presenting a publication to President David Granger. Partly hidden is Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge. (File photo)

Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge Wednesday night said Guyana’s Ambassador to Kuwait, Shamir Ally continues to serve, even as the envoy, regarded asset in that Islamic Region of the world, has been  asked to provide some answers.

“We are looking into the matter and we need from him answers to some things and then we will take a decision,” he told reporters.  Greenidge said the approach is to give the Guyanese envoy the benefit of the doubt in the first instance and allow him to explain the reports.

Asked why Ally was not sent on leave pending the outcome of the probe, the Foreign Minister “as far as I am concerned there is not a danger in him being on the job at the moment.”

The Foreign Minister said Ambassador Ally would be asked why information about his legal troubles before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission were not made known during the interview.

He shrugged off suggestions that one of government’s major considerations in deciding Ambassador Ally’s fate is the fact that he has been a major financier of the Alliance For Change (AFC), a governing coalition partner. Greenidge highlighted the positive attributes and qualities of Guyana’s envoys rather than being merely party supporters. “You look at all these things when you are making the appointment. You don’t look at somebody and say we rule him out because he happens to be  a member of a party or made a contribution.

We differ from the previous administration in that we are not seeking to employ people based solely on a political allegiance of political activism. These sensitivities have a role but they are not the main criteria for appointing persons and they have not been the major considerations in this appointment,” he said.

Without prejudice to the outcome of the probe, the Foreign Minister said Ambassador Ally is an asset to the post of Guyana’s top envoy to Kuwait, one of the Gulf States with religious and cultural sensitivities. “Dr. Ally in particular- and I am not coming to his defence- he does have a background, he does have some skills. Those skills are relevant to the job,” he said.

The AFC has already said that Ally did not deliberately commit fraud at an American transmitter manufacturing company.

In all of his correspondences to the SEC and Acrodyne since 2002, Dr. Ally, according to the AFC, has said that he “most vehemently disagrees with the SEC’s charges”, and that he had agreed to pay the US$10,000 penalty under protest!  The CFO also paid a US$10,000 penalty and the company’s President US$50,000.

Ally was employed by Acrodyne, a public manufacturing company, for a short period, from February 2, 1999 to May 9, 1999 as the Cost Accounting Manager.  On May 10, 1999 he was promoted to Controller and he served in this position for 15 months up to July 10, 2000.

In May 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the United States agency for maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets in-country, served notice on Acrodyne Pty. Ltd. and its former principals of its intention to take CIVIL ACTION.

The charge read that the SEC was accusing former President A. Robert Mancuso and former Chief Financial Officer Ronald R. Lanchoney, along with Controller Shamir Ally, of disseminating false financial information in press releases and Commission filings in 1998, 1999 and 2000.  Dr. Ally was first employed at Acrodyne in 1999.