Latest update January 18th, 2025 4:15 AM
Oct 02, 2009 Letters
Dear Editor,
I am responding to a letter in Kaieteur News in which the acting Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Works and Transport accused me of a criminal violation of which I am not guilty.
I hope this gentleman knows he is in the vicinity of libel. I did not tell anyone that Minister Benn Gave me permission to visit the site neither was I asked to leave. Here are the facts. I approached the gate with senior Kaieteur News reporter Dale Andrews and the Head of the UG Student Society, Jason Benjamin. I spoke for the group and I identified each of us for the gate security. We told him we are doing a story on the plant. He asked to see some form of ID and I showed him my press pass.
He allowed us to drive in. Inside the compound, Dale Andrews engaged the engineer on the machine and requested permission to have a photograph. We then left. There was absolutely no hostility on the part of anyone there. It is absolutely untrue to say that I told the security detail at the gate that Minister Benn gave me permission to visit the plant. Once inside we were treated professionally and no one was hostile to us. We left after Dale snapped the machine
As to a retraction of the article and an apology, that will be forthcoming when the PS does the professional thing. I will await his invitation to visit his office. I cannot retract the article and apologise based on a letter written by an interested party. My lawyers have advised me that a retraction must be done when proof is supplied that the published information was wrong.
My lawyers have further advised me that since the PS is an interested party that I must fully apprise myself of the documentation involved. I will request to see all the documents myself that substantiate the total cost of $36 million. Even if I want to apologise, my lawyers have said that I should only do so on verifying the information the PS wrote about. The PS has my assurance that will be done once I am supplied with the proof that would have proven me wrong. I await his reply
Frederick Kissoon
Jan 17, 2025
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