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An overdose of confidentiality

Sep 24, 2013 Editorial

The issue of confidentiality seems to be overused in Guyana to the extent that once a Government official does not wish to comment on an issue that individual cites confidentiality. Recently, the nation has been fed a daily diet of confidentiality.
The work on the Marriott is just the latest to attract the issue of confidentiality. What the nation finds repugnant is that the person representing the people’s interest, in this case Winston Brassington, feels that he does not have the right to tell them how he is spending their money.
This is the case when reporters asked him the other day to name the investor. Anyone investing in a project would readily indicate not only his interest in the project but how much he proposes to spend. If the investor is a shareholder company then it would be duty bound to inform its shareholders.
In every corner of the world companies announce their plans to invest. Daily we are fed a dose of companies pursuing mergers. The media would report of the size of the merger right down to the last penny. If the merger fails it is not because of lack of information.
The stocks rise or fall depending on the nature of the merger or takeover. There is no secrecy or confidentiality, even in societies where many companies may be chasing after the same entity. There is no issue of confidentiality.
Indeed, a public company entering into an agreement or a deal would need to inform its shareholders. We have all read of big companies losing their bosses because of bad deals. Even if the deal is pursued in secret, when the details emerge, the fallout would be greater.
That is why when Brassington talks about confidentiality people know that he is being less than honest. On one occasion he claimed that the company was cognizant of the scrutiny that the opposition parties bring to bear on contracts and agreements and that the company wished for everything to be secret until the deal has been signed. That is rank dishonesty.
We still remember the occasion when a company out of Grenada reported that it was dealing with the Guyana Government for the construction of the Marriott hotel. It was the Guyana Government that lost its cool. In fact, it became so angry that the Grenada company told the local press that it would no longer be speaking about its involvement, that all communication would come from the Guyana Government.
Why would the government be angry at disclosures of an interested party? Certainly Brassington could not claim that the confidentiality clause was in effect because the other party was prepared to talk. When Guyana signed the agreement with China Harbour Engineering Company for the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, again the company released the information and again Brassington was angry. As could be expected the company said that it would no longer be providing information to the local media.
There must be something wrong with Brassington insisting on confidentiality. He is spending the people’s money and the least he could do is to tell them what he is doing but like a king unto himself, he says that he has no right to talk to the people about their own money which is being spent on projects.
Perhaps if he had been more open the nation would have seen some of the horrid agreements he signed for the Amaila Falls project. Some of them are so bizarre that people are now wondering whether there was not a move to give away chunks of the country.
There is supposed to be an agreement in the works for a private sector share in the Marriott. Brassington says that the talks are confidential because someone could hijack the project. One would expect that if the Guyana Government is talking to someone then out of decency it would see the talks through to completion. If the information gets out the only fear is that someone would tell the investor to desist from dealing with Guyana. And Brassington cannot say that this is not a real fear.

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