Almost two months after General Secretary of the Rice Producers’ Association Dharamkumar Seeraj accused the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) of signing an underhand agreement for the procurement of $420M in fertiliser, a source says that the deal has collapsed.
Seeraj had told a news conference in early February that Cabinet had approved a contract for the procurement of about $420M in fertiliser from a known campaign financier of the APNU+AFC coalition during last year’s elections.
“This is in direct contravention to the laws, norms and conventions applicable to the acquisition of farmers’ inputs,” Seeraj had said, while noting that there was no advertisement or bidding, which is imperative in sourcing of farming supplies.
While Stabroek News had been trying to get a comment from the head of the GRDB Nizam Hassan for the past two months, the GRDB had remained tightlipped on the deal and refused to speak. At one point Hassan had said since he was hesitant to speak with the press, he would have issued a press release but such was not done.
However, Stabroek News has been told that the deal was done in secret and fell apart after reports about it started circulating in the media. “I don’t know exactly what had happened but I believe there was some confusion between the person that was supposed to be the supplier and the GRDB and the deal has fallen in,” the source explained.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jadgeo brought the issue up at a press conference yesterday and stated that the person who was supposedly contracted to supply the fertiliser had owned a Chinese Store. “…. And we saw somebody who owns a Chinese store now getting a $420M contract to supply fertiliser to Guyana without any tender,” he said.
Stabroek News was told that the now cancelled contract had been signed with HDM Labs Inc. whose address is listed as 153 Kingston Boulevard, Island Park, New York 11588.
