Take the Berbice Bridge from the greedy bastards and return it to its rightful owners, the people

Sep 06, 2015 News

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By Ralph Seeram

My taxi had just arrived at the Rosignol Stelling, or I should say at Rosignol, as we were nearly half a mile back of the line to cross the Rosignol/New Amsterdam ferry.
It would have been no less than a six hour wait, to cross a one mile river, longer than it took me to travel from Florida to Guyana.
My friend who was travelling with me saw how worried I was, and said don’t worry he will take care of things. He came back and told the driver to drive up to the gate, the attendant open the gate and I was first in line. My friend asked me for G$3000, which I presumed he paid to get me to the first of the line.
Such were the days before the Berbice River Bridge. You either bribe your way to get a priority crossing, or wait hours.
So it was with great enthusiasm Berbicians welcomed the news that the Berbice River will be bridged, and when it was completed, it was a complete relief and less stress to passengers and drivers.
It made access to Berbice a pleasant drive not to mention its economic benefits to the region.
That was then, little did people know the exorbitant tolls that the greedy bastards that control the bridge would impose, little did we know of the crooked if not criminal deal that was made by the PPP government and cronies to deprive the people of what is rightfully theirs.
Let me explain what I mean by depriving the Guyanese people of what is rightfully theirs.
The Berbice River Bridge cost approximately G$9 Billion. You know how much the private investors put in; G$400Million. But you know that those who invested the $400M control the Bridge? They are the directors, they are calling the shots. Now who ever signed off on this deal on behalf of the Guyanese people needs to be imprisoned. There is a thing called FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY, and that was not exercised and deliberately I may add, to rob the taxpayers of what is rightfully theirs.
I read a press release where the Directors of the Company in their call for increase tolls said they “have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the Company”.
Well, well since they are talking about acting in the best interest of the company, this new Coalition Government has a FIDUCIARY responsible to act in the best interest of the true owners of the bridge, the Guyanese people.
Recently, the Government proposed to reduce toll by $300.00 for cars and 10% for other vehicles. The government would have subsidized the reduction. You would have thought that is an easy solution. Show us proof of how much you lost by reducing tolls and we will reimburse you. Oh no, it could not work that way. I can travel over 200 miles on the Florida Turnpike for about the same$2,200 they charge to cross that one mile bridge.
First they want a 50% increase in toll, then want to extend their stranglehold on the bridge for another 19 years.
This is not only eye pass, this is beyond r***s pass.
First they cry out they are losing money; well pardon me, if you’re losing money and can’t pay your debt. Why do you want to hang on?
Then they threatened bankruptcy; good, go ahead. Who do these crooks think they are bluffing? You are not making money, you can’t pay your debts, but you still want an extra 19 years to run the bridge. These people “tek” Guyanese for jackasses.
A wise investor would be glad to get their money out of a bad investment, and lucky to get back all their investment.
New GPC invests G$180M and gets a 23% return and he has two directors. The Guyanese people invested billions of dollars, have no directors and get no interest.
Let’s look at some figures researched by Kaieteur News.
Government made 90% of the investment, which includes $100M to compensate persons who had to move to make way for the bridge. Remember the Government contributed the land plus built the road approaching both ends of the bridge.
Now here is the obscene part of this deal. The private investors, which include Dr. Bobby Ramroop’s company invested only $400M of the nearly $9B cost of bridge, but (and believe me, you are going to read correctly) they CONTROL the Company.
Original investors also included CLICO. There is a saga to that also. CLICO, which was headed by Geeta Singh-Knight was collapsing and the New Building Society was approached to buy their shares, we know three NBS managers, including Maurice Arjoon were fired because they did not go along with the idea.
NBS subsequently bought CLICO shares, and that money was secretly paid out to certain people before CLICO collapsed.
The same Geeta Singh-Knight is on board of the Berbice River Bridge— the same Geeta Singh-Knight who thought she owned the Berbice River a while back when she wanted to charge vessels for passing under the bridge.
You know of the problem why the bridge officials are using delaying tactics. Well, now they have to provide figures of vehicles crossing to receive the refund. It means we will know the real figures and how much money is being raked in.
So if we are to believe the directors of the bridge that they are losing money and they can’t pay their debt, well it would be in their interest to get back their investment (don’t forget that 23% return on investment has already returned their original investment), they should be glad to get back their money.
The APNU/AFC government needs to make moves now to take back the people’s bridge, after all they invested 90% of the money. Yes, I know there will be cries of the PNC nationalizing again.
This is not the 70’s and this will not be a government taking away someone’s property, it is the property of the people, they are only taking back the administration of the bridge and compensate those who feel they are about to lose money.
In fact they should be happy to get back their investment.
Could you imagine the greediness of these people, claiming they are losing money, but still want an extra 19 years to run it?
Fortunately there is a new Sheriff in town. President David Granger needs to show who the boss is.
Reduce the toll or we take control NOW, there are legal ways to do it.
For those in the PPP, they had better keep their mouths shut when it happens. And as I said, this is not taking over private property, this is the property of the Guyanese people.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email; [email protected]

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