WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Sep 28, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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It would be unreasonable to ask the President of Guyana to simply annul all the existing agreements relating to the Marriot Hotel, the Berbice River Bridge and the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project. That would represent a major political blow for the ruling party, the fallout from which would smother his chances of securing a second term.
That is, if President Ramotar, is indeed interested in a second term. There is one view out there that suggests that President Ramotar, may not at all be interested in a second term and may simply be a one term president, holding the fort until an eligible successor is found.
Even if such a proposition is accepted, however, there remains the problem of whether President Ramotar would wish to be held responsible for the loss of political power by the PPP. It seems almost inevitable that unless he does something, and urgently, about the controversies that have mired the Amaila Falls Project, the Berbice River Bridge arrangements and the Marriott Hotel, his party will face difficulties in having a workable majority in the National Assembly.
These present controversies are threatening to cause greater alienation of PPP supporters come the next elections, something that may relegate the party to the opposition benches.
So what is to be done? The President does not need to reinvent the wheel. He just needs to examine how in other jurisdictions similar controversies were addressed.
Many years ago there was a similar controversy about major projects in Trinidad and Tobago. At the heart of this controversy was a political rupture within the then People’s National Movement (PNM) then headed by Patrick Manning.
The approach to that issue was not to deny or bury one’s head in the sand. Instead a commission of inquiry (COI) was launched to examine a number of issues relating to the functioning of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) which was responsible for the major projects that were the subject of adverse media speculation.
Initially the then Prime Minister had reservations about appointing a Commission of Inquiry indicating that no specific complaint has been made. However, when it was later pointed out that a conflict of interest charge had been made against one of the top officials of UDeCOTT, the Prime Minister agreed to the COI in place of the joint select committee of parliament which he had initially favoured.
A COI was announced and undertook its work. Apart from examining the construction sector in Trinidad and Tobago, it focused also on the operations of UDeCOTT and did an analysis of all of the major projects, including the major waterfront improvement project which encapsulated the construction of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
While for other reasons Patrick Manning was forced to call general elections which his party, the PNM lost to the People’s Partnership, the decision to go with a COI helped to diffuse the controversies swirling around him because of UDeCOTT.
There is no reason, no justifiably reason, why in the face of an almost total loss of public confidence in the manner in which the Marriott Hotel deal has proceeded and the implications of the financial model of that venture for the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project, that the President of Guyana cannot do the same as was done with the COI into the construction sector of that country.
If we can have a broad-based COI to examine all these major contracts under the Jagdeo regime and determine whether the public interest is being served, it will help not only to diffuse much of the political controversies within and outside of our parliament but will also provide a basis on how these projects should be pursued henceforth.
Many expected greater fireworks to come out of the COI into the construction sector. However, both UDeCott and the PNM came out looking much better after the report than had been anticipated.
The establishment of a credible COI to probe all of these major projects undertaken by the Jagdeo administration would seem at this stage to be a political masterstroke by the President. It will allow him to have an authoritative report from which to quell public displeasure about the manner in which public- private partnerships have been handled by the former administration and it will also provide him with a sound basis on how to proceed with these projects.
The President may have to be nudged into this direction and it would help if some of the leading members of his party begin to press him to appoint a COI into NICIL and the major projects and privatizations that took place under the control of that body.
This may well save Donald Ramotar’s presidency and save his party from returning to the opposition benches.

 

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