Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 15, 2010 Features / Columnists, My Column
By Adam Harris
When a government treats its people with scant disregard, it is sending a message that it is prepared to use everything in its power to justify its actions, whether wrong or right. Another message is that there is nothing anyone could do to change the course determined by the government.
In recent times these messages have been clear and disturbing. Indeed Guyanese have become apathetic, perhaps because many feel that they have been beaten into submission. Some who are gainfully employed feel that if they are to challenge anything then they would join the bread line. And everyone knows that it is not easy out there without an earning.
For months now the newspapers, particularly Stabroek News and Kaieteur News, have been raising serious questions about the contract awarded to Makeshwar Fip Motilall for the construction of the road leading to the Amaila Falls hydroelectric project. In the early stages, both Mr Motilall (in comments to Stabroek News) and Mr Winston Brassington offered that the project was properly conceived and that everything was in place for a smooth execution.
However, despite those assurances, many questions loomed. One of the most important centered on Mr Motilall’s ability to undertake such a project. Mr Brassington, in company with Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, insisted that the man was duly qualified having constructed roads in the United States. The sad fact is that nowhere do records exist to support such a claim.
Persistent questioning by the press brought forth a spew of anger, the likes of which were never seen coming from a government, except the days when Forbes Burnham responded to what he saw as a threat from Walter Rodney, and when the late Fr Andrew Morrison kept publishing the wine list that Burnham ordered on his overseas travels.
Kaieteur News has borne the brunt of these attacks for its persistence in seeking to determine the fate of the Amaila Falls road. Mr Brassington accused the paper of being anti-national and of seeking to railroad the project. He ignored all the signs that the contractor was incapable of delivering on the contract he signed.
When cornered all he would say was, “Wait and see. Everything is on track and you people will have to eat your words.” I am hungry and I eagerly await the day when I would have to eat my words. I want to.
Today, more than two months after the road construction was to have begun, nothing has happened. The forest remains in its pristine state and those animals that live where the road has to be constructed go about their business as usual, ignorant of any Fip Motilall and a road project.
There is more to this saga. The political opposition, which has the role of keeping the government in check, is silent. It came as no surprise, then, that President Bharrat Jagdeo dubbed the media as the new opposition.
The opposition parties should have been the ones asking the questions. They are the elected representatives of the people and they have to oversee how the taxpayers’ money is being spent. But they are silent. Have they abandoned their electorate? Are they in cahoots with the government over this perceived scam on the Amaila Falls road project?
Nowhere in the world would a contractor be allowed to breach his contract with seeming impunity. Fip Motilall has succeeded in doing this. He accepted US$1.6 million as an advance and has provided nothing to show.
He listed in his contract bid the names of people who are supposed to have the requisite knowledge about road construction. He was supposed to present these people to the government months ago. He has failed to do so.
He committed to a startup date and a completion date. He has honoured none of his commitments. Meanwhile, those in the know have been gagged. Walter Willis openly says that he will only comment if President Jagdeo gives him the permission. Two weeks have passed and he is still awaiting that permission.
The country has been told that there is a dire need for cheap power and that it needs this power, urgently. Perhaps, the urgency has gone out of the project. Perhaps Fip Motilall holds some secret for the government and is therefore immune from any action.
He had entered into a memorandum of understanding to provide hydro power by August 1, 2010. That date passed and nothing emerged. But he still got another contract. Mr Brassington later said that the government had announced that the construction phase of the hydro project was awarded to Sithe Global and that the requisite announcement had been made.
There was no such announcement. Not even the government information arm could have provided any record of such an announcement. Certainly, the authorities are taking the people for a ride.
I did hear President Jagdeo say that this situation has caused him some embarrassment. However, he is doing nothing about it. He should sack all those who foisted Fip on the nation and rescind the contract. Put Fip in the public glare. Let the press question him. Is he a confidence trickster who has inveigled his way into the government’s bosom?
Sad to say, there are many other things that have gone the way of government silence. The Supenaam stelling is just one. To this date we do not know who is going to pay for the cock-up. We are hearing, though, that the guilty parties will pay.
Prime Minister Sam Hinds is also caught up in the cover-up. Asked to comment on the Fip Motilall road project, he said that he would prefer to focus on other issues. That was an insult to the reporter. It was a case of saying “Mind your own business.” The hydro road is our business.
It was the same Prime Minister who told the national assembly that the award of diplomatic passports was a state secret. And the political opposition sat and took that answer like children in a kindergarten class.
Fortunately for some, there is escape from the grim realities of Guyana. There are those who leave and there are those who escape into the world of television soap opera. But people like me must face the reality every day.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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