China Harbour denies history of corruption … ‘Direct questions to your govt’

Jun 29, 2012 News

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– we don’t know of any review – CJIA contractor

The Chinese contractor involved in the US$150M Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion project yesterday refuted allegations of corruption against the company.
Zhongdong Tang, China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC)’s Regional Director, also revealed that it was his company that first approached the Guyana Government with the proposal.

During a press conference at the Pegasus Hotel’s Essequibo Room, Tang advised reporters to ask Government about the feasibility study and other factors of the project. He did say that his company undertook the feasibility study at its own cost. He said that CHEC was an investor company seeking business opportunities all over the world.
CHEC also denied that the Guyana Government has halted the expansion project, saying that it was never officially informed of any halt in the venture to facilitate a review.
Government, in response to newspaper reports on the project, had said that it has halted the CJIA project to facilitate a probe into the allegations of corruption against CHEC. Despite those statements, CHEC has reportedly been continuing to conduct geotechnical in areas around CJIA.
The company also denied that the project was signed secretly in Jamaica in November last year. Rather the signing was done in Guyana in the Ministry of Works.
CHEC, under heavy scrutiny by Guyana and Jamaica for two major multi-million-dollar contracts and a string of media reports of bribery, decided to meet with the local media to answer all questions pertaining to the project.
Accompanying Zhongdong Tang, the CHEC’s Regional Director; to the press conference were Colvin Heath-London, Senior Business Manager; Jennifer Armond, Communications Manager, and Huntley Medley, Communications Consultant.
The Chinese company insisted that it is in the business of finding projects to invest in and had approached government in early 2011 to rebuild CJIA. Government agreed and after several meetings in Guyana, the final designs were approved and a feasibility study was started. In all, the process took around nine months from start to finish for CHEC to seal the deal.
In September, last, the company claimed, China held a major economic forum in Trinidad establishing a US$1B fund to help develop the Caribbean. It was this fund that Guyana sought for the project.
In November, days before the end of the two-term limit of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, a US$138M contract was signed between CHEC and the Government of Guyana. The Guyana Government has since said it is putting some money on its own, pushing the final costs to over US$150M.
The company denied that the deal was secret, arguing that it only came out in the Jamaica press because its headquarters are located there. “We had no intentions to hide it.”
Works Minister Robeson Benn, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of CJIA becoming a corporation, earlier this year, explained that the deal was signed in his office but before he could take it to Cabinet, Jamaica released the information, catching the government on the back foot.
According to Tang, CHEC has now come to Guyana to meet with government and sector groups to clear the air on media reports. Meetings have been held with the board of CJIA, the Ministry of Public Works, government, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and the Private Sector Commission.
Regarding reports that the World Bank has debarred CHEC and its parent company from projects from that entity, the Chinese company said that this was an issue that was in the news since 2002 and has to do with China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), a company which has since been taken over CHEC’s parent company in 2005. CRBC was accused of collusion in bids for a roads and bridge project for Philippines funded by the World Bank.
Regarding reports that CHEC paid bribes to two Bangladeshi citizens, including the son of former Prime Minister, the company argued that it was a consultant that it hired that was involved. The PM’s son has been jailed in his absence.
CHEC also denied that it was involved in giving bribes to a Chinese port official who has since been sentenced to death. Instead, according to Tang, “this matter, which is still in court in China, is not directly related to CHEC. China Harbour is not guilty of any wrongdoing in these matters.”
Questioned about how it arrived at the feasibility study to justify the CJIA expansion, the officials said that Guyana’s strategic location at the northern point in South America makes it the closest place to Brazil which could provide a crucial link to the US and South America and between the South American mainland and Africa.

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