Thrashgate, the new game in the country

Nov 20, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
It appears as if a new scandal that can be referred to as “Trashgate” is in the making but which perhaps may have been averted thanks to a vigilant and inquiring media. Trashgate refers to an MOU entered into between a phantom company Natural Globe Guyana Inc (NGI), registered a mere three months ago and the Government of Guyana (GoG) for a US$30 mln investment for the establishment of a recycling plant in Guyana.
It appeared that the proposed plant would have recycled waste or trash and in the process, create “final products”. A missive from the Ministry of Local Government published in your paper today states that the proposed operations will have “no monetary impact on the State!”
It has to be asked, therefore, where will the revenue needed to sustain this operation come from? The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development needs to share this information with the public. In the fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold. In seemingly like manner Mr Mohammed Osman will convert Georgetown‘s trash into treasure; enough to sustain a $6 bln investment.
We have, however, seen the likes of Mr Osman and his cohorts before as this government seems to have an inexhaustible capacity for engaging and awarding concessions and contracts to fly-by-night “investors”.
There was the case of Fip Motilall who was awarded a contract valued US$15.4 for building a road through virgin rainforest when he had never built so much as a driveway before. Before ‘Fip‘ we had the scandal of Bernard Kerik who was to have been hired by the GoG to oversee security reforms had he not been convicted and jailed for corruption in the USA.
Another criminal Edul Ahmad has acquired property belonging to the state under questionable circumstances. Then there is the case of a company –Surendra– awarded a contract to build a Specialty Hospital when they have no prior experience in building any. The mother of all disasters, of course, is the ‘new’ Skeldon Sugar Factory.
This factory was touted to be the centerpiece of the modernization of the sugar industry and to guarantee the viability and sustainability of Guysuco. At a cost of more than US$200 mln it now represents a monumental failure and threatens to destroy the sugar industry. How many sugar factories did the company build before the Skeldon one? The answer is NONE ! How many waste recycling plants has Mr Osman built or operated? None.
In the meantime an associate of Mr Osman, Michael Mosgrove, President of Panther Recycling Corp. of Ontario, Canada is quoted as alleging that Mr Osman is courting trouble and could “find himself in serious hot water in Canada” and that the MOU signed with the GoG was not done in “good faith”.
Mr Mosgrove went on to say that “Minister[Ganga] Persaud at the very least should throw out the MOU … which is a major embarrassment to the entire country”. Local policymakers are known, however, to be impervious to calls for transparency and accountability so it remains to be seen how the government will proceed on this issue.
Finally, thanks to KN we are now learning that one of the directors of NGI is Adrianna Webster, daughter of Human Services Minister, Jennifer Webster, and according to CEO Osman, Ms Webster would be injecting money into the venture.
Minister Webster may see it necessary to issue a statement clarifying her daughter‘s involvement in this company as well as if she in any way lobbied her colleagues in government to give preferential treatment to NGI, in order to assuage any possible charges of impropriety.
No doubt the Canadian authorities will conduct investigations to ascertain if Mr Osman and Ms Webster have access to or are lawfully able to raise the kind of money to finance this start-up operation in Guyana. But this ought not prevent Guyanese officials from having done so.
Given that leading Government officials are shouting from every rooftop of theirs and the government‘s commitment to address the scourge of money-laundering, the public would welcome assurances that this is not present here nor that the proceeds of crime are involved.
Recall that it was just recently that another investor Sonny Ramdeo stole to finance a start-up airline which immediately obtained the blessings of the GoG to operate flights between Guyana and the USA.
In this instance trash is just the vehicle, corruption is the game. The MLGRD‘s letter seeking to quell the public‘s concern raises more questions than answers. Let‘s hope that Minister Ganga Persaud and his  colleagues will come clean with the public.
Ronald Bulkan
APNU

 

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