OLD BROOMS DO NOT SWEEP CLEAN

Feb 27, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Why is it that the people of Guyana which has a democratically elected government, and has had such governments for the past nineteen years, should have to learn about a major investment/deal for the country via the foreign media?
Just before the elections of November 28, 2012, this newspaper exposed the fact that the government of Guyana had signed a deal with a Chinese company for the expansion of the country’s main international airport. This was a multimillion dollar contract that the then rulers did not feel necessary to advise the Guyanese people on. It has to take a foreign report for the people to know that a deal had been signed.
Normally governments are excited to inform the people about major investments, but one characteristic feature of this administration has been its unwillingness to voluntarily report on certain major deals that it had signed. Why?
Even when the cat was let out of the bag, the government was still frugal with the details. Why?
The details of this agreement to extend the runway of the airport are still very much under wraps.
The people of Guyana will understand that if the Chinese are providing the funds for any contract that their firms will have to be awarded the contract. This goes without saying. This happens even with the American government. They provide funds for consultancies and it is expected that the services under those contracts will be sourced from their nationals. It is one of the ways in which external governments use foreign aid to support business activities in their country.
What, however, is totally unacceptable is for agreements to be signed in secrecy and for the people to be informed of this through the foreign media. This is disregard for the people.
While most agreements demand some form of confidentiality in that the government may not be able to report on the details during the course of negotiations, once the options have been weighed and a decision taken to enter into a contract, the details of the agreement should be made public at the earliest opportunity afterwards, and once the agreement binds the people of Guyana to substantive obligations, it should be made public.
In the case of the construction of the proposed Marriot Hotel there has been inadequate public disclosure. In fact for years, the authorities have been dodging the media which have been seeking more details of just what is taking place with the construction of this hotel. This makes the entire investment appear less than transparent.
While there was a public tendering for the One Lap Top Per Family Project, this initiative was also riddled with controversy. The project was first advertised and some firms entered bids. Some of the bids were rejected on stated grounds but  the government was very vague as to why one bid was not rejected even though it was deemed to be substantively responsive.
Then the specifications were changed. This change in specifications was unfair to the original bidders because they would have shown their hands already as to what price they were prepared to come in at. As such when the new revised specifications were made and placed to tender, the new bidders knew the price that the old bidders had bid and therefore had an advantage in this respect.
The latest revelation about what took place in the final days of the Jagdeo administration is that a major deal was signed with a Trinidadian firm to establish an ethanol plant in Guyana. Hundreds of thousands of acres are likely to be committed for this project.
What is not clear is whether persons have lands in the said vicinity and whether they will benefit. If so who are these persons and are they connected to the government?
This deal was signed two months before the general elections and clearly therefore tied the hands of the new administration which must now signal whether it is prepared to go ahead with this arrangement. Why would the outgoing administration so hogtie the incoming new administration with such a major deal? Not only is this wrong but it is improper for any government to sign a major deal months before an election. On that principle alone the opposition should signal its outright rejection of this loan, instead of the lukewarm response by the leader of the opposition that he would like to see the contract reviewed.
Again in this deal, the news broke in the foreign press. Yet the Chronicle which is still operating as if the government is still being run by Bharrat Jagdeo has the gall to speak about transparency when it comes to major investments in Guyana. Where is the transparency?
The new government cannot be blamed for these deals. The new president did not sign these deals. But the incumbent president has an obligation to take responsibility for these deals, to make them public by laying them in the National Assembly, and if needs be to discard or renegotiate them in their entirety.
The Guyanese people would expect no less from Donald Ramotar. If he wishes to be hogtied to deals in which he had no say and which were signed unknown to the people of Guyana he is free to do so, but he has to face the political consequences of his decision and those consequences could mean a loss of popularity.
The president has been trying to mend political fences since he came into office and he has been trying to settle in. But he has to realize that in order to be comfortable he has a lot of spring cleaning to do.
And when it comes to cleaning he should know that old brooms do not sweep clean. He has a job to do and he needs to do it faster. He is Donald and he should be Donald.
He is someone who people expect change from. He is considered even by his political rivals as an honest and decent individual.
It is not always easy to put distance between yourself and the policies of your predecessor on whose record you achieved the presidency.
A lot of good was done in the country but many of the deals that were entered into have now attracted a foul scent and it is time that the new president looks, thinks and smells differently from his predecessor.
The people are watching out for the change. They are waiting to see how things are going to be different, and they do not want to wait until two years from now. They want change now!

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