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Guyana’s Vice President, Bharat Jagdeo in an August 17, 2023, Press Conference attacked the Opposition: A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) The Vice President inferred that the APNU/AFC 2015/2020 Government stifled African Guyanese contractors. Jagdeo specifically cited contractor Courtney Benn and another contractor as bearing a five-year drought from receiving contracts from Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).
Jagdeo outlined that the Contractor(s) went into bankruptcy as a result. Jagdeo said, “Courtney Benn General Construction Services were tendering and doing well in GWI up to 2015. He said, “Out of all the bids only two Guyanese company bid, Afro Guyanese Companies and the one that bid twice said after APNU came into office I stopped getting work at GWI.”
Our publication in an interview with Dr. Van-west Charles, the former Managing Director of GWI during October 2015 to 2020, said “No decision which was made by me was driven by any preference for any one of the ethnicities of Guyana.” He added that his “preeminent identity is Guyanese. And as the Managing Director critical decisions of management were the quality of water and equity of access by the citizenry in Guyana.
He added that “It is important to note that no contracts for well maintenance were awarded between 2016 and 2020.” The former Managing Director of GWI also noted that he had recused himself from the direct involvement in the procurement process in 2016 by way of letter to former Finance Minister Winston Jordan. The former Managing Director outlined too that “Mr. Courtney Benn was a contractor with GWI in the area of well maintenance. Teams which included staff and contractors, of which one was Mr. Courtney Benn, were sent to Oklahoma and the Netherlands to improve the effectiveness of the systems related to the delivery of potable water across the country.”
Dr. Charles further explained that the new management team during the APNU/AFC Government commenced examining several issues directly related to the quality of water delivered to citizens and the efficiency and effectiveness of that delivery. “One of the issues was the time taken for the maintenance of wells and its impact on the length of time citizens were without access to potable water.” Dr. Charles said the duration for the maintenance of wells was approximately 6 weeks and outsourced. However, a decision was taken to affect the maintenance of wells as an in-house activity as a means of reducing the time and saving resources. Additionally, equipment was bought specifically from the Netherlands to bring greater efficiency to the maintenance process and the equipment are presently in use.
The Managing Director said decisions were also in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) signed on to by the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana on behalf of the people. “The purpose of the procurement process is to ensure fairness, justice and equity coupled with competitiveness, efficiency and effectiveness. At no time under the Management of GWI between October 2015 and August 2020 was ethnicity a driver for procurement.”
