Select Committee to probe sale of Govt. shares in GT&T

Mar 04, 2014 News

---

…insider information being used to create capitalists-Ramjattan  

The ruling Administration under the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has abused the laws of Guyana, together with insider information to create their own capitalists, something that the party’s founder, the Late Cheddi Jagan, preached against.
This is according to Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, who said that this is exactly what transpired with the telecommunications industry where the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) was barred from expanding its operations, while others such as E-Networks were allowed to do so, and have been mandated in the proposed telecoms law to receive telecommunications licences.
When the stage was set, Government, through its Holdings Company, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) headed by Winston Brassington sold all of its shares in GT&T.
According to Ramjattan, it is widely known that what the Administration does is to use insider information to benefit their own so that they can take over industries, enriching themselves in the process.
He reiterated that it is instances like these that demonstrate the critical need for an independent Public Procurement Commission to be put in place immediately.
Ramjattan said that what Government would do is block large investors such as GT&T and share inside information along with contracts to friends and family, thereby positioning them to capitalize.
Meanwhile, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Parliamentarian Joe Harmon, when asked to weigh in on the situation, said that he would prefer to reserve his comments until after the Special Select Committee would have had a chance to go though the lengthy and racy submissions made by GT&T, Digicel and other stakeholders.
He did point out however, that the timing and motive behind the sale of shares that Government had owned in GT&T is of particular interest which will also have to be addressed by the Committee.
GT&T’s Chief Executive Officer, Radha Krishna Sharma, recently complained to media workers that the US-owned company applied to Government four years ago for new spectrum to allow for significant investments in Third and Fourth Generation (3G/4G) technology, and which would have seen the provision of faster internet service to smart phones and other devices.
This was after the company had already spent $6B to bring a fibre optic, high speed data cable from Suriname.
The company also criticised Government’s involvement for a US$37M E-Governance project to connect its agencies with the internet; using towers and a fibre optic cable from Brazil.
“Such a project should have been handled by the private sector,” he said.
In 2011, the sale of the shares was finalized for US$30M with China’s Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group.
The name had been kept obscured as a result of the confidentiality agreement which was entered into in early 2011 with the Guyana Government.
Another of the Chinese Companies associated with Guyana’s telecommunications industry is Huawei Technologies Ltd.
This is the company that has been contracted to undertake the Guyana LTE network which comes with the Government’s fibre optic cable and both Chinese telecommunication providers have been linked to the Peoples Liberation Army – the Chinese military.
Eyebrows were raised in October 2011 when a US Pentagon report fingered both companies as being linked to the Chinese Military and as a Chinese Government ‘Espionage’ Ministry.
According to a 2011 Washington Times Publication, “A U.S. intelligence report for the first time links China’s largest telecommunications company (Huawei Technologies Ltd.) to Beijing’s KGB-like intelligence service and says the company recently received nearly a quarter-billion dollars from the Chinese government.”
At the time of the report, the Huawei Technologies Ltd was attempting to break into the US market and had been blocked on three previous occasions.
See Washington Times report http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/11/chinese-telecom-firm-tied-to-spy-ministry/?page=all
The report by the CIA-based Open Source Center stated that Huawei’s chairwoman, Sun Yafang, worked for the Ministry of State Security (MSS) Communications Department before joining the company.
Huawei’s links to the Chinese military had been disclosed previously. The Open Source Center (OSC) report provides the first details of its links to Chinese intelligence, which U.S. officials have said has been engaged in a massive effort to acquire secrets and economic intelligence from government and private-sector computer networks around the world.
The co-Presidents of Huawei are on record as saying that, Huawei is an “employee-owned” company, and China’s government and military do not hold any shares or control the company.
“However, the Pentagon’s latest annual report on the Chinese military said China’s industry, including Huawei, is closely integrated with the military. “Information technology companies in particular, including Huawei, Datang and Zhongxing, maintain close ties to the PLA [People’s Liberation Army],” the report says.”
Datang is the company which has been identified as the buyer of the GT&T shares, but this has not been confirmed by the Government of Guyana close to one week after the announcement was made.
Datang is one of China’s showpiece hi-tech companies that specialises in the development, production and sale of electronic information systems and equipment. Founded in 1999, the company is reportedly managed by the Chinese State-run Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

---

---