Answer the questions, Mr. President

May 05, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
The courage of your staff to ask the hard questions and your refusal to succumb to overwhelming pressures to only publish articles favorable to the PPP/C Administration, is the reason most Guyanese support Kaieteur News.
Your continuing probe to find evidence of prior experience in road construction by Synergy Holdings Inc. must be commended.
An article in KN of Sunday May 2, ‘Makeshwar Fip Motilall: Contractor or Grocery Salesman’, refers to a Confidential Review of Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project Feasibility Study Report that was done for the Government of Guyana. It was based on a Feasibility Report and a Final Environmental Impact Assessment Report submitted by Synergy Holdings.
This brings me to some hard questions that require total transparency:
According to this article, the Confidential Report was prepared in 2002 by Kaehne Consulting Ltd., a reputable Canadian electrical engineering and project management firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia (http://kaehne.com).
This company has been involved in a wide range of industrial projects, internationally, since 1986. The majority of completed projects involve mining or power generation. They are experienced in conceptual planning, budgeting and scheduling, equipment specification and selection, basic and detailed design, contract preparation and negotiation, construction supervision, site commissioning and operator training.
In the report they concluded, “With due respect to Synergy, it is obvious that this corporate entity does not have the financial or technical capability or the project development experience to develop the Amaila project.”
Question: If President Jagdeo read this report, and one must assume he did, why did he not heed this warning?
When asked if he was satisfied with the road construction experience of Makeshwar Fip Motilall who was awarded a US$15M road contract in preparation for the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project (KN of April 29), President Jagdeo said, “In this case from all that I have gathered from the technical evaluation team… and these are technical people…. they said that the appropriate experience was there.”
Question: Was the ‘Technical Team‘ privy to the content of the Confidential Report from Kaehne Consulting? And if so, it is prudent to ask the names of Jagdeo’s technical team to ascertain what knowledge and experience they possess to justify over-ruling the professional assessment by Kaehne Consulting that Synergy Holdings has no financial or technical capability.
The fact that Hand-in-Hand had to bail out Synergy Holdings by guaranteeing the security bonds of US$3 million which was a prerequisite to secure the contract, is another reason for concern.
Question: What criterion was used by the directors of Hand-in-Hand and what due diligence did they do on Fip Motilall and Synergy Holdings Inc. to justify this risk? Were they under any pressure from the government to do so?
Those who feel that Kaieteur News is maliciously misrepresenting the facts, I defy President Jagdeo to deny the content or existence of the Confidential Report referred to in KN of Sunday, May 2, last.
Surely Mr. President, you should understand why Guyanese are very suspicious of Synergy Holdings Inc. and their ability to build a super road through the jungle, and why we have been demanding more than just a vague explanation of the trust you seem to have in the developer.
Although I admire Motilall’s entrepreneurial spirit, his courage should not be rewarded at the expense of the Guyanese people.
Harry Gill

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