Embarrassment, pressure, force Contractor Harrychand Tulsi to lie

Aug 11, 2009 News

---

Some are of the opinion that objectivity is a myth and that it is about as reliable as judging character by the firmness of a handshake. We at Kaieteur News will always let the public know the truth in as balanced a way as possible, regardless.
We also know that opinions form the basis of editorials or political fixations for favors.
On Monday, July 20, 2009 this publication did not devote three pages to create an impression that there was corruption involved in the executing of the contract for the Stanleytown Pump Station.
It simply published the facts as were presented and as some farmers opined that the cost of that $78.2 M pump was laughable given what they were experiencing at the time.
Contrary to the contractor’s take of things, our reporters did visit the pump station after hearing complaints from irate cash crop farmers.
The farmers had gone to the pump station earlier and were peeved that while the koker was closed, and waters were backing up in their yards and the seven-mile long Number Two Canal, damaging their cash crop, the brand new pump was not turned on.
Farmers did take the reporters to the back of their farms and showed them where the water was and what it had done to their cash crops. One of the photographs taken was published.
The reporters then visited the pump station about 30 minutes after talking to the farmers.
There, the reporters saw a man in a blue shirt in the compound and sure enough the pump was on and working. The gate was open and a vehicle was parked in the compound. Both reporters asked to speak with whoever was in charge.
The man in blue identified himself as a pump attendant who had come from Strathsphey, East Coast Demerara to turn on the pump.  He did not give his name as he said he did not want to get into “any trouble.”
He spoke to the reporters without even asking them about the media house from which they had come. The reporters however told him who they were and that they were checking on these projects.
The noise from the pump was such that the man from Strathspey had to repeat himself many times to ensure that the reporters heard what he was saying.
He complemented the farmers’ earlier comments that there is need for a permanent pump attendant at the site and that this temporary situation was the same around the country.  He also said that the pump could not be turned on at first because “it would dry out the area.”
“There was never any talk of GINA or the Minister.”
While talking to the Pump attendant, a shirtless man came out of the pump station and identified himself as the security guard. “Me ain’t know nothing me is just the guard…we ain’t got no permanent pump attendant here,” he voluntarily said.
Without prompting from the reporters he also said that some farmers had visited earlier complaining of the water backing up in their yards.
He also did not give his name for fear that he too “would lose he lil wuk.”
He reiterated the need for a permanent pump attendant.

“Never did we at anytime on that day enter the pump station itself. The operator did not at anytime explain why the station was not in operation earlier and the Sluice was not operational at the time.  There was neither talk about any inlet channel to the pump station nor any talk about any sump.
“Nothing was said to us about the water stains on the trash racks in the photograph which the contractor in his letter says shows that the water was about four feet below the normal ‘high level.”
The reporters said that they did take many photographs a few days later of what they now know are two engines, two pumps, gear drives.”
The article stated that the excavation works were stopped because the area was flooded due to the pumps and sluices not being in operation.
We leave everything else as mere politicking for points on the contractor’s behalf. The big question that is still to be acceded to is “Will Contractor Harrychand Tulsi ever breakdown the costs in dollars and cents, minus the major inflations and mark ups in the publics interest?
Can the contractor stop politicking and say with a clear conscience that taxpayers are getting value for the monies being spent?
The big question is when will Contractor Harrychand Tulsi please give a breakdown of the costs?
Contractor Tulsi challenged KN to present a single bidder for this project that offered a lower price, regardless of whether the bidder was qualified or not.
The contractor also challenged KN to present the resident who was so stupid to compare his house with a pump station. “The gear drive alone shown in the photograph is worth significantly more that his six million dollar house, if he exists outside of Mr. Glenn Lall’s imagination,” the contractor wrote.
On the issue of Glenn Lall seeking help to bring down the government, the publisher said that such a conversation represents a figment of Tulsi’s imagination. He said that Tulsi is perhaps embarrassed that his contract has come under scrutiny.

---

---