Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 24, 2016 Letters
Dear Editor,
The June 20, 2016 editorial in the Kaieteur News is a classic example of Goebbels-like propaganda. The principle is ‘tell big lies and repeat them as often as possible and people will eventually believe them.’ That editorial is filled with half truths, distortions and downright inaccuracies, all repeated for years even though many have been answered more than once.
I refer to the headline of the editorial ‘Anarchy at City Hall.’ Instead, more than half of the editorial criticizes the PPP/C for projects and procurement under its administration. The misrepresentation of the PPP/C’s record is to soften the anger of the people as to what appears to be corruption in the handling of the parking meter issue at City Hall and in the APNU+AFC regime generally.
In passing, the editorial spoke about the ‘reign’ of the PPP. We know that the PPP/C served ‘terms’ of government and not ‘reign.’ That word was deliberately used to once again paint the PPP/C administration as a dictatorial one – a characteristic that was totally absent during the PPP/C in office. Indeed, the twenty years of the PPP/C was the freest and most democratic period in our country’s history. Already, many are complaining of the reversals under the APNU+AFC regime.
It is true that intense work by the Kaieteur News and likeminded media did a lot to distort and lie about that as well. Without doubt under the PPP/C government, Guyana was one of the freest countries in the region and the world. Let’s get back to the facts of the PPP/C government’s projects and procurement matters.
The process of awarding the government’s projects and procurement of goods and services in a transparent manner via the tender procedure was introduced by the PPP/C administration from the inception of its administration in 1992. Before that, the PNC regime issued these contracts to whomever it wished. There was no open and fair process. It was totally discretionary. All were given to friends of the PNC.
Therefore, the use of the term ‘secret contract’ is absolutely unjustified, but it is being repeated and drilled into people’s heads as a fact. The whole idea is to create a perception that is different from reality. Under the PPP/C government, contracts for projects and procurement were publicly advertised. When the tender box was being opened, it was done in the presence of the media, the contractors and other persons who had an interest in the contract being awarded. It was open to the public.
The Tender Board then evaluated the bids and made an award. That award was sent to Cabinet for its ‘no objection’. The result was then announced publicly. So the public had full knowledge from beginning to end. What then is so secret about this process? It is also apposite to point out that the Kaieteur News always had its reporters present at both the opening of bids and when the results were announced.
We can only conclude that the Kaieteur News speaking about ‘secret contracts’ is dishonest and is designed to deceive to mislead and to slander. Take for instance the Skeldon factory. That project was subjected to an open tendering process. Guysuco had bids from contracting firms in Japan, China and India. All the companies were evaluated by a Booker Tate specialist and it was concluded that all of these companies had the capacity to build the factory. Price therefore became the most important consideration. On that basis, the decision was taken to go with the lowest bidder.
The Marriott Hotel project had two bidders – the Chinese company and a French company. The Chinese company was $US10M lower than the French company. The contract was therefore awarded to the lowest bidder. The result is there for all o see. The Amaila Falls access road project was also awarded to the lowest bidder. If any of these were awarded to a higher bidder, that too would have been contentious and made an issue by the Kaieteur News and the then opposition.
We can go through in detail the processes involved before a contract was awarded to show the reasoning behind the granting to this or that company. It is also a distortion to say that …”the building of the Specialty Hospital and the Enmore Packaging Plant by Surendra Engineering was suspicious because they did not have the necessary experience needed to do the work.”
The fact is that these projects were being financed by concessionary loans from India. The Indians also had to give its ‘no objection’ because they are more familiar with the companies. Surendra Engineering had the lowest bid. To be fair also, the Enmore Packaging Plant was completed and working well as far as we know. It is true though that some of these projects had problems at the implementation stage.
In the case of the Specialty Hospital, the PPP/C government ended the contract and took Surendra to court. The company’s representatives was not allowed to leave until the PPP/C won the case and got judgment. The PPP/C was also pursuing this matter in India. The PPP/C administration in an effort to recover the money from Surendra, took possession of eight containers of steel that the firm had on the wharf. The PPP/C government paid the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for storage etc., and placed the containers in the Ministry of Health’s compound.
The value of the steel was far more than the $400M that Surendra owed the government. So, the PPP/C had recovered the money owed by the company. It was the PPP/C government’s intention to execute the judgment by levying on those containers. The APNU+AFC regime turned over those eight containers of steel to BK International. So our taxpayers lost due to the act of this APNU+AFC regime.
A lot of distortions and lies are being spread about the Skeldon Project. Attacks have been continuous on the PPP/C administration and the Chinese company, much of which has been misplaced. The Skeldon project was supervised by Booker Tate. It was on Booker Tate’s recommendation that payments were made. To appreciate the Chinese company’s position, at least the journalist/s writing on the subject should have sought their view as well. True, it had its problems, but the corporation did a lot to correct it. An assessment of its performance in 2015 will clearly show that it was well on its way to fulfilling its promise.
This APNU+AFC regime has not supported the industry enough and has allowed it to slip back. Maybe it is a ploy to close the industry. It is now time that the APNU+AFC- controlled and friendly media stop distorting the progress made under the PPP/C government. We need honest journalism here. We need professionalism in the media. To re-emphasise, all the projects were subjected to a transparent tender process and everything could be explained rationally.
The APNU+AFC regime audits, even though they were conducted by mainly anti-PPP auditors, some actively involved in politics, were unable to produce any substantial evidence of corruption. Even though the auditors did not interview some of the CEOs and/or refused to publish their responses, they have come up short. They now use their friendly media, like the Kaieteur News, to spin, distort, lie, etc., to create false perceptions and poison the minds of people. In the case of the editorial mentioned above, they are doing this now to disguise the corruption taking place in government at all levels, including City Hall.
Donald Ramotar
Former President of Guyana
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That view exist only because in your mind, the lives of certain population segments do not matter. You discount their rights, their humanity, and the gross injustices of their experience. And because most of your peers with this kind of mindset always echo the same kind of views, reproducing them just cements that fact in the minds of those who see you from the inside.
More than 400 men were denied the right of due process under the PPP. This is proportionally unmatched anywhere in the Western World. In fact, only in societies like the former apartheid South Africa, the the Sudan’s use of janjaweed militiamen to cleanse the country of indigenous Christians, Sadaam Hussein’s purge of the Kurds, and the behaviors of regimes like Syria, can one find events of a similar nature.
The most free nation in the world would not have had assassinations of political activists like Ronald Waddell and Courtney Crum Ewing, and no one is called to account for it. The cockeyed and morally disfigured patterns of thinking exhibited by Mr. Ramotar renders his sojourn as President of Guyana one of the most insidious infamies to have occurred in the Western Hemisphere in a century.