Dear Editor,
I would take this opportunity to voice my disgust at the PPP administration which has disappointed me in many ways. They shout Cde. Cheddi but they have betrayed his legacy and his slogan and practice of lean and clean government. The PPP even outshone the PNC which is also corrupt. The fact is they have a bigger pie to steal from.
It is a shame that after promising, foaming at the mouth about Exxon and the bad contract and promising to renegotiate the contract they then became the meek of the earth and not only did they not renegotiate, Bharrat Jagdeo went out of his way to expedite all projects and EPA permits.
I do not think there is an international nor local organisation that did not condemn the contract. Under these circumstances it was clear that the contract had no sanctity. It was hypocritical for them to talk of sanctity of Exxon contract and say this would have scared away foreign investors but at the same time go after BK for the purchase of the wharf at Kingston at a low price.
The international community and businesses would have understood that Guyana was right to question the contract. Re BK purchase I would like, in the interest of transparency for President Irfaan Ali to tell us how much he paid for the property at Leonora which Guysuco valued at $17M.
Our President, the most powerful man in the country with the backing of the vast majority of Guyanese and the world’s condemnation of the crappy PSA should have called Exxon to sit at the table and say to them, we need to discuss this contract. That was the least they could have done. Instead, they argued the contract cannot be renegotiated Bla Bla Bla. Fact is that the contract was adjusted before when President, David Granger ensured that the royalty is not treated as an expense by Exxon.
Two other projects did not come to fruition because of Bharat and the silence of the President. One is a modern cargo facility at Cheddi Jagan Airport which was to be built by a Guyanese American Owned company which had a modern facility at JFK Airport New York. It is not difficult to understand the benefit of such a facility to the farmers of Guyana
The other is an oil Refinery. There was a press release that the developer of the refinery project, another Guyanese American from Canje Berbice, finally obtained five Billion USD to finance the project. Four Billion USD for the refinery and one Billion to resuscitate the Skeldon Estate to produce ethanol to supply to the refinery. This would have benefitted the people in the upper Corentyne. A lot of money had gone a into developing this project having obtained an MoU from the PPP Prime Minister and a provisional EPA Permit from the EPA with land allocated by Guyana Land and Survey Commission.
After the press release the VP said that is nonsense, someone introduced him to the Leader of the Opposition. End of Project. For these two projects alone Berbicians and Guyanese should not vote for those who prevented these two projects from becoming a reality.
WIN Leadership would definitely Place these projects on the agenda.