Govt. has not approach AFC on Amaila Hydropower Project

Jul 27, 2013 News

Even as Government says that it wants to have the Amaila Falls Hydropower project on the front burner it has contacted the Alliance For Change (AFC) for discussions.
However, the AFC, which holds seven seats in the National Assembly, is not surprised because of the known position of wanting to wait on the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to approve the project before giving theirs.
According to leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, the Government has not communicated with the AFC in any form to have discussions on the project. In fact, the party did not receive an invitation to attend the stakeholder meeting on Amaila Falls Hydropower Plant held on Thursday at the Guyana International Conference Centre.
On July 18, the AFC and A Partnership for National Unity voted down two Government Bills, the Hydro Electric Amendment Bill, and one dealing with increasing the debt ceiling. Subsequently, President Donald Ramotar said the Amaila Falls Hydropower Plant was in jeopardy.
On Wednesday, Government’s chief spokesperson, Dr. Roger Luncheon, said that it was important for this project to be put back on the front burner.
“I have sought to see in these engagements a bit more than railing against what has happened. We have to rail against it and condignly take these people to shred but we have to do more than that, we still have to put it back on the front burner because believe you me, this hydropower facility is transformative,” he said.
However, the AFC seems to have the explanation as to why they have been overlooked by Government.
“I think what may have occurred is that … the AFC has made it clear that it would not support the upping of $1B to $150B guarantee to public corporations. That has absolutely no tie with the Amaila Falls Hydropower the IDB never said that was a requirement when we met,” he said.
According to Ramjattan, the IDB indicated quite clearly that they would like to see the passage of the Hydro Electric Amendment Bill. But, the raising of the debt ceiling was never a requirement of the IDB for this project. As such, the AFC is waiting on the IDB to conclude its due diligence on the project.
Ramjattan said, that the IDB report on the project would conclude on September 23. It has to be presented to a technical committee for further refinement and in October it has to go to IDB Board for overall scrutiny.
“At that stage, we then get the green light whether the project is feasible first of all for IDB to put in (funding) of US$180M and whether the country has the capacity to pay for it. We are being prudent in the AFC,” he said.
Ramjattan stated that in Guyana the capacity to check quantity surveys and financials of the project are not available. As such, the AFC is piggybacking on the IDB that is equipped with intellectuals on finances and economists
“We in Guyana do not have the capacity to check out all these quantity surveys and the financials of the project we don’t have the money, capacity or resources to pay anybody to do the environmental studies neither do we have the capacity to check out the wherewithal of GPL (Guyana Power and Light) to run with 145 megawatts and whether it is going to make the thing profitable or not.
“We are in no capacity to compare today’s prices of electricity we are indeed going to have cheaper electricity then,” he said.

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Govt. has not approach AFC on Amaila Hydropower Project

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