Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 08, 2014 News
With the motion brought by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) in the National Assembly to reduce the Berbice
Bridge toll falling on deaf ears, the opposition coalition has announced that it will be putting more pressure on the government to get the much complained about toll reduced.
APNU’s Shadow Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Joseph Harmon, who tabled the successful motion in the National Assembly for the reduction, said that he is under the impression that “this government does anything unless they are pressured into doing so.”
Taking that into consideration, he said, “We are going to take some other steps to ensure that people are more involved in bringing to the government’s attention the fact that they have spoken and they need a reduction in the bridge toll.”
Harmon said that Parliament has answered the calls of the people and the government “cannot continue to disregard the cries of the people and the action of their representatives in the National Assembly.
“So within a short space of time we will be taking other forms of political solutions to bring some more pressure to bear on the situation and ensure that the government recognizes what is taking place on the ground …political actions will be taken, we can guarantee that,” said Harmon.
Harmon did not want to disclose all the details as to the approach they will be taking, suffice it to say that it will involve the people.
“It is not that we took a motion to the Parliament and the government says that it is not doing anything and that’s the end of the matter. I think the government will soon recognize that we will not just pass these motions and leave them to languish in the National Assembly.”
According to Harmon, these are matters that affect the daily livelihood of ordinary people “and the extent to which the
government continues to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to their concerns, the people will have to become more involved in the process to ensure that the government responds and respects their concerns and wishes.”
The Bridge issue is a contentious one that has been in the public sphere for a while now. Harmon had stressed that the toll being charged by the Berbice Bridge Company Inc was excessively high and meant to only enrich a few.
Government’s contentions was that the company is private and whatever shares Government had in the bridge through the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) (approximately 950 million) was sold to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
It was further highlighted that NICIL retains only one single share in the company and has no directors on the board. NIS only has a single director.
The single largest shareholder behind the NIS is former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s best friend, Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, through the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation and Queens Atlantic Investment Inc.
He has two directors, Avalon Jagnandan and Ravi Ramcharitar, on the eight-member board.
Government’s argument was that it had “no direct ownership stake in company”.
Harmon, however, argued that Government is saying that “We don’t even have a director; we have no representation on the board. Now how could that be when you put all of your money in there and the government now decides that there is no
need for government representation, and decide that they are going to forgo the payment of your money that is in there.
“So you have no representation? According to the Minister, you have no board director there and then in the absence of this representation, there are all of these shares, and you have no say?” Harmon inquired.
He said that the government is really trying to save face, since any “investor would know that this is something that can be adjusted; the investors know that but what happened is that the government under former President Bharrat Jagdeo passed an Act in Parliament (the Berbice Bridge Act).”
This act, according to Harmon, gave “certain concessions; it elevated the concession agreement to the level of a government contract. It’s now binding the government by what they have done there. They have given 21 years of concessions on all sorts of things. In addition to that no taxes are to be paid by the investors who have invested and no taxes on the interest. So what you have are concessions all the way to the Bank.”
APNU’s leader, retired Brig. David Granger, had called for the “people of West Berbice and East Berbice, Corentyne, to continue to agitate” so that their concerns can be acknowledged by the Government that was put in power by the people and is supposed to represent their interest.
Granger recalled that “the Government was able to relax the fees during the PPP Congress in August 2013 and we feel it could relax the fees to allow people to live normal lives. Right now the toll is extraordinarily high and it is worst than a nuisance, it is a burden which the residents of East and West Berbice cannot bear.”
“What happened too and you should know this, is that once the Bridge was opened the ferry was discontinued, so there is no alternative, they are almost forcing the people of West and East Berbice to use the Bridge because there is no alternative,” said the APNU leader.
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