Dear Editor,
On Thursday, I was astonished by a report on an online news agency under the headline; “US$2.2M contract signed for Kato Hydropower project”.
The news article stated that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure announced the signing of a contract for the design, supply and installation of a 150kw Hydropower plant on the Chiung River at Kato Village in Region 8 valued at US$2,251,880.
This information was also published on the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s Facebook page.
It would appear that this illegal government is engaging in another shameless act.
Editor, I wish to remind that the Kato Secondary School Project with accompanying electrification, was part of the PPP/C’s formidable drive to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Access to Secondary Education and to enhance hinterland electrification.
While the PPP/C remains supportive of this and any other initiatives that will advance the lives of our people, there must be transparency and accountability.
However, this announcement is a cause for worry and demands closer scrutiny.
The media reported that the contract, which was awarded to B&J Civil Works, was signed on Thursday September 26, 2019, eight days after the David Granger government slipped from its caretaker status to unconstitutional rule, totally ignoring the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice and its Consequential Orders.
The Agency funding this project is the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under the Sustainable Energy Programme for Guyana.
Therefore, the local office of the IDB needs to explain to the Guyanese people, why funds are being released to an unconstitutional regime.
Is the local IDB office complicit in this illegality?
Editor, I would also like the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to inform this nation of the relevant experience of the contractor who was awarded this highly technical project.
Based on the news report, the contracted signed on Monday is way over the estimated cost of the project when it was conceptualized under the PPP/C administration.
Already other international donors have been taking action to correct propaganda coming out from the APNU+AFC illegal government.
One such example is the recent correction by the United Kingdom’s Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UK CIF) regarding propaganda on the Linden to Lethem Road, the Kingston-Ogle Seawall Project and the Kurupukari Bridge.
Editor, it leaves me to wonder how low will this unconstitutional government go with its trickery?
Yours faithfully,
Bishop Juan A. Edghill
