Opposition feels snubbed by IDB president

Feb 19, 2012 News

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…wonders if move was orchestrated by Govt.

With the single largest project ever to be undertaken by Guyana now hinging

on an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan, the local Opposition parties are flabbergasted that the entity’s President visited Guyana but did not meet with them.
Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan says that he finds this to be even stranger given that in the past the IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno has shared an amicable relationship with Guyana’s political opposition.
Ramjattan opined that it could be that the IDB official did not want to meet with the opposition or “it could very well be that the government of the day did not want to consent to them meeting us.”
The AFC Chairman also suggested that the IDB delegation believes that notwithstanding the magnitude of the project, relative to Guyana, they did not require opposition consent or consultation, even though they (the opposition) have a majority in the Parliament.
He said that maybe the IDB believes, “There is no requirement for that kind of consultation before the project can proceed.”
Ramjattan asserted that if this is the position then it is a case where the IDB obviously believes that as long as the Executive Branch of Government is proceeding with the project then they have no obligation to meet with the opposition.
He did say that he finds it very strange that an International Financial Institution (IFI), which over the years has been cultivating relationships with civil society and opposition parties, “has seen it fit to visit Guyana and not talk to the opposition parties”.
Ramjattan suggested that so secretive was the engagement that he was not aware of when the delegation arrived in Guyana or left.
He said that his party will undertake to find out from the Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, through the parliamentary question, as to why the opposition was not allowed to meet with the IDB delegation, headed by its President.
This publication was also informed by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) that they did not have an opportunity to meet with the IDB President.

The ever controversial Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Plant which has been in the pipeline for more than a decade now, hinges on the go-ahead for the loan to the tune of US$175M from the IDB.
The company contracted to undertake the Project is Sithe Global and its CEO Bruce Wrobel, during a recent visit to Guyana, explained that the main concerns of the IDB are with the environmental studies and the impact of the project, as well as the Guyana Power and Light (GPL)’s ability to manage the project and to make the necessary repayments, taking into consideration technical and commercial losses already incurred by the power company.
Funding for the project comes from a variety of sources, including US$100M in equity from the Guyana Government.
Guyana has already committed US$15.4M for the construction of the access road as part of the equity, with the remainder of the equity coming from the LCDS initiatives such as the Memorandum of Understanding signed with Norway for some US$250M
Wrobel explained that some 70 per cent of the total funding will be coming from the China Development Bank and the IDB.
The IDB is being sought after for US$175M, while China Development Bank will be providing some US$413.2M. Guyana’s equity is expected to be US$100M and Sithe Global is providing US$152.1M, bringing the total project cost to US$840.3M.
IDB President Moreno and staff from the bank arrived in Guyana two Fridays ago to commence a one-day visit to the country that included a meeting with Guyana’s new President, Donald Ramotar.
Moreno was welcomed at the airport by Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh who updated him and his team on recent economic developments in Guyana, and lauded the Bank’s support to this country’s developmental efforts, including in such areas as infrastructural growth and institutional reform.
Minister Singh also reportedly saluted the longstanding relationship between the Bank and Guyana, and extended special thanks to President Moreno for the close attention paid during his presidency to the Bank’s smaller members such as Guyana and the other Caribbean countries.
Currently, the IDB supports a project portfolio of US$250 million in Guyana covering a wide range of sectoral interventions, including infrastructural development, competitiveness, justice reform, health, education and agriculture among others.
The IDB also granted Guyana debt relief amounting to US$365M in the context of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative in March 2007.

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