A PRIVATE BRIDGE BUILT MAINLY WITH PUBLIC FUNDS

May 27, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The opposition continues to waste its time in calling for a reduction of the tariffs to cross the Berbice River Bridge. It has failed to grasp an important legal truism: there is nothing that the government can do to reduce these tariffs.
This call for the reduction of tariffs was first championed by the Alliance for Change. It has since been picked up by APNU.
The AFC is desperate to have the tariffs reduced. This was one of their campaign promises to the people of Berbice. Since they now are part of an opposition that holds a one seat majority in the National Assembly, they know that they will be questioned as to how with this one seat majority they were unable to force the government’s hand to have the tariffs reduced.
They will also be questioned why if they were so interested in having the Berbice tariffs reduced, a campaign promise, did they not insist that this be the condition to be satisfied in exchange for their support for the Anti- Money Laundering and the Countering of the Financing of Terrorism Bill (AMLCTB).
They will have problems explaining this because instead of demanding the reduction of the bridge toll in exchange for their support for the passage of the AMLCTB, they have instead linked their support for the passage of this key legislation to the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission.
The opponents will make political hay out of this issue. These opponents will argue that instead of attempting its support for the AMLCTB linked to its campaign promise to have the bridge tolls reduced, the AFC wants it linked to the Public Procurement Commission because it was arguing that another contractor should have won the bid to build the specialty hospital. In other words, the AFC has opened itself to criticism that it is more concerned with vested business interests rather than those of the people of Berbice who gave them the votes that allow them to be in parliament.
Yes, it was the people of Berbice that was responsible for the AFC’s improved performance in the 2011 elections. It was in Berbice that the AFC stole sufficient votes away from the PPPC to ensure that they got those extra seats that allowed them to hold the balance of power in the National Assembly. The people of Guyana should be told that the AFC’s support in Region Four, the most populous region actually declined in 2011 as compared to 2006.
APNU which was the direct beneficiary of the loss of support in Region Four by the AFC would have seen the advantage of lending its support to the AFC’s call for a reduction in the bridge toll.
Unfortunately, no amount of pressure is going to change anything. There is nothing, short of outright nationalization of the bridge that the Donald Ramotar administration can do to have the bridge tolls reduced.
The Donald Ramotar administration did not build the Berbice River Bridge. The bridge was built during the tenure of the Bharrat Jagdeo regime. The bulk of the financing of this bridge came from the government. But the financial model, like the one used to construct the Marriott Hotel was flawed and flawed to the extent of being used to benefit the private investors in the bridge.
These investors now have the majority on the Board of the company that owns the bridge. They have the most votes on the Board despite the fact that the government was the major financier of the Bridge. The flawed financial model has allowed for the government to cede control of the Board to a handful of small private investors.
This issue was highlighted in the Kaieteur News series, The Heist of Guyana. This series showed the flaws of the financial model that was used in both the Berbice River Bridge and the Marriott Hotel. Under that model even though the government is injecting the most resources into these projects, it is the equity investors who have the controlling interests. This is what Glenn Lall was saying all along– that ownership of the bridge was ceded to private investors by virtue of a flawed financial model.
And he who owns the bridge controls the tolls. It is as simple as that.
There is nothing that the government can do to have the bridge tolls reduced. It cannot do anything because the Donald Ramotar administration does not have a voting majority on the Berbice River Bridge Board. And the private investors are never going to allow the government to have that majority.
The AFC knows this very well. This is why not so long ago it made the demand to the President to nationalize the bridge.
That of course is dangerous ideological territory especially for a capitalist party like the AFC.
APNU has now joined the AFC’s bandwagon in demanding that the tolls be reduced. It will not happen because the government has little say in the management of the bridge. For all intents and purposes this is a private bridge built mainly with public funds, via the genius of the Jagdeo administration.

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