Dear Editor:
Reading your news item, ‘Synergy chosen for road building through public tender – Jagdeo stresses,’ (June 1), I felt an urgency to respond because the President continues to demonstrate that he either lacks tact in framing impromptu responses to questions or he just says whatever comes to his mind and hopes it sounds right or makes sense when the media report it.
Without question, the Amaila Falls hydro project is an economic necessity, but it has fallen victim to reckless, poorly thought out political patronage with greater emphasis being placed on the contractor than on the actual construction itself. Putting everyone else’s assessments in the letter columns and opinion pieces aside, how can the President say at this stage of the award that “if the contractor for the road to Amaila Falls does not meet the standard required the bid could be terminated”?
At this early stage, he should be stoutly defending the contractor and the award, because since he believes “politicians should not be giving out contracts to people,” then he had to believe the people he appointed to oversee the tendering process did their homework in determining the contractor’s qualifications and suitability for the project before he ultimately approved the award. To be talking now about contract termination for failing to meet “the standard required” reflects the President’s lack of full confidence in the contractor and/or his own appointees.
Whether the project was part of a public tendering process or whether Mr Motilall’s bid was the lowest deserves a spirited debate based on their own merits, but when he was pointedly asked whether he was concerned given recent revelations about the US-based company’s experience and capabilities as these relate to road-building, he responded that Guyana is not exposed financially. Did he hear the question or did he just rattle off an answer hoping it would make sense?
Let’s also say, for discussion’s sake, that he did not bungle the answer, then the President seems to be saying that even if Mr Motilall lacks the relative road-building experience and capabilities and the project eventually flops, the financial loss will be offset by the fact the money advanced to him is covered by a bond. Okay, so who issued the bond and what is the exact nature of the bond?
More importantly, talking so early about project termination should make us wonder why the President is treating with public funds in what appears to be such a disturbingly reckless manner? Would he invest his own money in the construction of a house and then say if the contractor does not do a good job he will end the contract? I am sure he would do a thorough background check first before hiring the contractor so he won’t have to later talk about any premature contract termination.
Second, in defending the process through which the tender was awarded and for which the administration has taken a lot of flak in the media, the President said that “a solid evaluation team recommended the project and it was awarded it on that basis.” How can a “solid evaluation team” do a solid evaluation of the contractor’s road-building credentials yet neither the team nor the President can readily reel off examples of the contractor’s road-building accomplishments?
How can you hand a contractor a road-building project costing US$15M of scarce taxpayers’ money when he does not have the provable requisite experience or even the people with the provable technical know-how in major road-building involving our ecosystems? Like the LCDS, this seems to be yet another political gamble because of the political masterminds and not necessarily the practical motive.
Finally, though the President was right when he said that “politicians should not be giving out contracts to people,” the reality is that the political culture being nurtured in Guyana demands that he, being the chief politician, has the last say in major government contracts or projects involving millions of US dollars.
It’s a culture in which government uses money and projects for politically expedient reasons, but especially in the run-up to elections.
Editor, we need accelerated development in Guyana, including whatever hydro projects can be built, but with the PPP approaching 18 years in power without a working national economic plan (LCDS is a hare-brained scheme) and its government talking its way through the embryonic stage of a dubious hydro project, even as blackouts continue to plague Guyana after almost 40 years, I am reminded of the Habeeb Khan movie, If wishes were horses [beggars would ride].
For almost 18 years, Guyanese have been wishing on a star, while riding high horses in their dreams or simply being taken for a ride, but unlike Habeeb, who could make you laugh, the joke is actually on our political comedians whose poorly scripted jokes cause people pain. I just pray, at the end of the day, that the road to Amaila Falls will not become Guyana’s road to nowhere, or else there are some people who need to take that road out of Guyana’s political arena!
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
