A Stabroek News report, published April 20, 2022, featured an analysis done by Former Auditor General Annand Goolsarran that examined seven mega-projects that commenced under the Jagdeo Government.
These seven projects are: The Skeldon Sugar Factory modernization, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion, the Specialty Hospital Project, the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, the One Laptop per Family project, and the Fiber Optic Cable Project.
Goolsarran focused specifically on the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project; the One Laptop Per Family Project; the Fibre Optic Cable Project; and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Project. All of these were contracted under former PPP administrations. He said that the first three “failed completely” to deliver in terms of their objectives, outputs, outcomes and impacts, thereby “encumbering Guyana’s public debt to the tune of US$115.4 million, with little or nothing to show for the expenditure incurred”.
In the case of the airport project, he noted that the works are still ongoing after ten years, with a revised completion date of June 20, 2022. The original construction cost was estimated at US$150 million. This, he says, has now been revised to around US$200 million. He argued that the main reason for this situation is the absence of feasibility studies prior to the contract award, to determine the precise nature and scope of the works to be undertaken, coupled with a lack of effective supervision as the works progressed.
He pointed out that the contract was awarded in November 2011 in the sum of US$138 million to Chinese construction company, CHEC, a mere ten days before the November 2011 national and regional elections.
Goolsarran pointed out that the Specialty Hospital Project was another failed project contracted under the PPP and this time financed by the Exim Bank of India. Apart from the controversy over the award of the contract to Surendra Engineering, the contractor was paid a mobilization advance of US$4.3 million and because of unsatisfactory performance, the contract was terminated by the then PPP administration. Attempts to recover the amount advanced from the performance bond that was lodged as a guarantee for unsatisfactory performance were unsuccessful because of a dispute over the bond’s authenticity. This amount is reflected in the public debt of the country, Goolsarran told the Stabroek News.
The Stabroek News report also identified the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) and Fibre Optic Cable Projects as major failures under the Jagdeo regime. Both of these were financed by the Exim Bank of China – the former from a grant of ¥50.267 million, equivalent to US$7.686 million; the latter, from a loan of ¥215 million, equivalent to US$32.874 million. Numerous irregularities relating to the acquisition, storage and distribution of the computers were uncovered by the auditors, Goolsarran said. While the Fibre Optic Cable Project which was awarded to the son of former President Donald Romotar, had to be abandoned.
“Criminal behavior “
Former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan had told the National Assembly in 2016 during the Budget debates, that the PPP had signed away Guyana’s future by engaging in what he called “reckless borrowing.”
Jordan had disclosed that the then Jagdeo-led PPP Government failed to conduct feasibility studies on nearly all major projects signed while Jagdeo was President. He posited that if those studies were done, the Guyanese people would have been saved billions of dollars. According to Jordan, the studies would have warned us of the non-viability of the Skeldon Sugar Factory Modernization plan among others.
Jordan warned that it would be “criminal” for the APNU+AFC then government to continue with these projects as currently configured. He insisted that it would be a betrayal of our children and grandchildren’s future to burden them with debts they won’t be able to repay.
More, In The Ring.
