A failure that could have been avoided

Jan 15, 2012 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Some days start beautifully. Yesterday was one such. However, there are days that contain things that would either anger or frustrate you. Of course there are those days that would bring you pain and sorrow. Thursday was one of those days that brought me pain, sorrow and anger. It started beautifully and then I got a telephone call to attend a press conference.
I have grown to become accustomed to being invited to press conferences at short notice, so this was nothing strange. It turned out that the press conference was to inform me that the government had terminated the Amaila Falls road building contract that it had with Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall.
I first met Mr Motilall more than a decade ago in the office of Prime Minister Sam Hinds. He was there with a group of people to propose a plan to bring hydroelectricity to Guyana. I was excited because I was there in 1974 when Forbes Burnham attempted to get Guyana on the hydroelectric circuit.
Way back in 1974 Guyana was enjoying a golden harvest from the proceeds of rice and sugar. There was money in the Treasury and the country was going to invest it in further development. On that occasion the drive was to harness the Kumerau Falls in the Mazaruni.
Had it not been for Venezuela with its power on the international scene— a power it used to block funding for that hydroelectric project, we may have been in a far superior position than we are today. When the Venezuelans moved to block that project, Burnham decided that the national economy was good enough to support it. He set about releasing funds from the public treasury to build a road to the hydro falls site.
That road is there today to the benefit of the miners who can now easily access locations like Puruni and the other Middle Mazaruni locations. But we lost a lot. Equipment was left in the interior. The good thing is that those bridge panels came to good use along the coast. Most of the bridges along the East Coast Demerara railway embankment and on the Corentyne were built with these panels.
So it was that more than twenty years later, when ‘Fip’ Motilall came with the plan to introduce hydroelectricity to Guyana I was excited. I sat and I heard him promise that by 2005, Guyana would have hydroelectricity. That was a failed promise. I heard that he could not raise the money.
I often wondered why the plan was not to harness the Kumerau Falls since the groundwork had been laid, but I suppose that no one in the present administration wanted to walk where Burnham had trod. Money had already been spent.
This time the drive was to harness Amaila Falls. Motilall, rather than be the man behind the harnessing of the falls, was now the contractor for the road project. Eyebrows went up and I, with support from Glenn Lall and Harry Gill, found that Motilall had never built a road as was argued when I asked about due diligence on this man.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh and Mr Winston Brassington accused me of trying to tarnish the reputation of a professional road builder. Brassington suggested that I be at the receiving end of a lawsuit for tarnishing the reputation of an excellent road contractor. He assured me that Motilall would finish the road; that the proof of the pudding would be in the eating.
Suffice it to say that had I depended on that pudding I would be hungry. There is no pudding. Motilall would not finish the road.
Motilall later said that he built roads on concessions owned by Synergy Holdings. I, at one time, built a bridge leading to my yard. I wonder whether that would have qualified me for a contract to build bridges for the government on the highways. Perhaps I should tender, but that would be an exercise in time-wasting. The government would never consider me. It would say that I just do not qualify.
I had a look at the most recent contract he signed. I also learnt at the press conference that the government pulled the contract because Motilall failed to secure a Performance Bond. A Performance Bond is an instrument that would allow the government to claim money in the event that the project is not properly done.
Motilall secured a prior Performance Bond from Hand in Hand Insurance Company. This time he could get none. I asked myself how it is that a man like Motilall who had the support of the government in this project could not get any financial institution to back him. Local contractors must find their own Performance Bond.
Motilall’s Synergy Holdings certainly did not have the money. What did he put up to secure the bid other than the Performance Bond from Hand in Hand?
In the most recent contract I noticed that he was to build a road through Toolsie Persaud’s concession at Butukari. There is a road there and Toolsie Persaud maintained it. Motilall had to upgrade it. I learnt that he could only upgrade two kilometres and that the government took back 47 kilometres of this project. How could a man not properly build on an existing road?
The money for the project was supposed to have come from the Norway Fund which has so far not reached Guyana. The funding for the road project came from the taxpayers of this country, courtesy of the Value Added Tax. Money from the Norway Fund was supposed to have replaced that expenditure.
I want to see hydroelectricity. I have seen a lot of money spent in this area. It is time I get some results from the expenditure. Already I am not getting results from my past labour. That money has been sitting in the Finance Ministry for the past 20 years.
‘Fip’ has got his, and I hope that he has to pay back some. I notice that he is claiming that he is owed. He wants more.

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