Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 25, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
This week we see another mind-boggling APNU+AFC conspiracy. It is not hyperbole, but each new day exposes yet another shameless act. What is even more reprehensible is that leaders of APNU+AFC so bare-facedly defend APNU+AFC with reckless and arrogant excuses.
Citizens of Guyana are genuinely concerned that the Procurement Commission is on the sidelines, SOCU is taking another convenient hibernating nap, significant members of civil society, such as Transparency International and the Private Sector Commission, and the diplomatic community is silent.
The latest scandal is the exposure that the feasibility study for the Demerara Harbour Bridge which cost more than $146M was sole-sourced to a Dutch Company. The facts are clear:
· The government tendered for a feasibility study for the Demerara Harbour Bridge. A pre-feasibility for this bridge was completed under the PPP previously.
· 22 companies submitted expressions of interests
· APNU+AFC considered the 22 submissions and short-listed 12 of these 22 companies as having met the legal and technical requirements to bid for this contract
· Two of the 12 short-listed companies submitted bids
· APNU+AFC considered the two bids and disqualified one because the price exceeded $US800,000. I have to presume that APNU+AFC had indicated that the price-tag could not exceed $US800,000.
· This must mean that the second bidder, one which was previously cleared as legally and technically eligible, must have submitted a bid under $US800,000.
· Instead of awarding the contract to this company, APNU+AFC SECRETLY annulled (cancelled) the bidding process.
· APNU+AFC then proceeded to SECRETLY sole-sourced a company that never expressed interest in the feasibility study for the bridge and SECRETLY awarded them a contract for $146M
· No one in Guyana, other than Patterson and some of his APNU+AFC colleagues, appears to know where and how the Dutch Company became part of this process.
There are many questions.
· Why was there a need to annul the original bidding?
· Why was there a need to sole-source a new contractor?
· Why was all of this a BIG SECRET?
· Why is it that Minister Patterson is only now informing the Guyanese people that the original tender and bidding was annulled for APNU+AFC to sole-source the Dutch Company?
Clearly, the process is so bad, that it is threatening Guyana’s democracy and good governance. The stench from this corrupted deal is emanating from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance. Various Guyanese institutions are required to become engaged.
The PPP, through its Parliamentary Whip, Gail Teixeria, has called upon the Public Procurement Commission to immediately investigate the circumstances surrounding the sole-sourcing of the Feasibility Study for the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
The Public Procurement Commission cannot continue its silence on this matter. It is their obligation to question why $146M of taxpayers’ money was expended with clear abrogation of the procurement laws of Guyana. The Public Procurement Commission is a constitutional arrangement that many people proclaimed as an anti-corruption imperative. In Opposition, APNU+AFC demanded its establishment. Today, there are many among us who are becoming disillusioned thinking that the Public Procurement Commission is not playing its role as an anti-corruption instrument.
This is a transaction that must be immediately publicly debated in Parliament. None of us should hold our breath for this or we will surely die. First APNU+AFC will never agree to a public debate and second, the Speaker will never allow a motion to urgently debate this matter.
Civic Society also must play its role and all of us must speak up. The Private Sector Commission, Transparency International, other organizations must allow their voices to be heard.
In the midst of the everyday orgy of corruption playing out in Guyana, the diplomatic corp whose voices were loud pre-May 2015 is totally silent today. They have no eyes to see, no ears to hear and definitely no heart to feel the pain of the nation.
The diplomatic corp., particularly the ABC countries, each passing day is further confirming their complicity with APNU+AFC in solidifying dictatorship in Guyana.
Lastly, where is SOCU? It is in hibernation presently. It only wakes up to harass and intimidate people it sees as former or present PPP supporters. If there is a matter that clearly calls for a SOCU investigation, it is this matter.
This is not just a simple case of corruption gone-amok. Based on what SOCU has been investigating as criminal matters or potential criminal matters, this present transaction is more than qualified to make its case-list.
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy
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