Government’s decision to terminate negotiations with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) raises serious issues of due process, contract evaluation and probity by the administration, the Alliance for Change (AFC) yesterday said.
APNU+AFC Member of Parliament David Patterson, who is former Minister of Public Infra-structure, said the announcement on Tuesday of government terminating talks with the Chinese company is suspicious and requires a proper, detailed and coherent explanation.
In a party statement Patterson said the initial reason given by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo — that the financing costs were too high — was rubbished by the project evaluation process, which the Cabinet received and granted in a “no-objection” approval to the Ministry of Public Works to engage CSCECL from November 2021 based on a Design-Build-Finance (DBF) model.