Rejection of Berbice River Bridge toll…Government blind and deaf to the concerns of people and will pay for it – APNU

May 18, 2014 News

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“There is a problem and the Government is just being blind, it’s just being deaf to what the people on the ground are saying and they will eventually pay for it when Local Government elections come.”

Those were the assertions of Leader of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) David Granger who weighed in on the rejection of the Peoples Progressive Party led     Government of a resolution brought
According to Granger, Government refuses to implement resolutions brought by the Opposition. This he said is because the Government is not conscious and in tune with the concerns affecting the population.
“We would like to call on civil society because this motion was not pulled out of thin air, we were responding to the demands of the people on the ground particularly in East Berbice Corentyne, even in my own visits to West Berbice I have met students who have to pay $5000 or more to attend classes at the Berbice High school” said Granger.
Speaking on the way forward, Granger called for the “people of West Berbice and East Berbice Corentyne, Regions 5 and 6 respectively to continue to agitate” so that their concerns can be acknowledged by the Government that was put in power by the people and which is supposed to represent their interest.
Granger recalled that “the Government was able to relax the fees during the PPP Congress in August 2013 and we feel they could relax the fees to allow people to live normal lives. Right now the toll is extraordinarily high and it is worst than a nuisance, it is a burden which the residents of East and West Berbice cannot bear.”
“What happened too and you should know this, is that once the Bridge was opened the ferry was discontinued, so there is no alternative, they are almost forcing the people of West and East Berbice to use the Bridge because there is no alternative” said the APNU leader.
The Motion was piloted by A Partnership For National Unity’s (APNU) Joseph Harmon, who argued that the tolls being charged by the Berbice Bridge Company Inc was excessively high and meant to only enrich  a few.
He said that arguments that the company is a private one are nullified by the fact that under the Berbice Bridge Act, the Minister of Public Works has responsibility for the setting of the tolls.
Harmon said that the Bridge earns an average of $1.5B annually, and as such the company can afford to reduce the tolls charged.
He said that with Government holding some $950M in shares in the Bridge, it is incumbent of the Administration to have its Director on the board call for the reduction of the toll.
Harmon noted that when the toll was calculated, then President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that it was done to cover operating costs, make repayments and earn a profit.

The APNU Member of Parliament lamented that there was nothing in the consideration of the toll “about public good, only money”.
Government’s contention however was that the company is a private one that is operating to clear costs and make its payments.
Minister of Tourism Industry and Commerce, Irfaan Ali, who was the first to refute claims made by Harmon, categorically denied that the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) has any ownership stake in the company.
In fact, it was pointed out during the debate that NICIL has sold its 950 million shares in the company to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
In fact, NICIL retains only one single share in the company and has no directors on the board whilst NIS only has a single director.
The single largest shareholder behind the NIS is Former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s best friend, Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop through the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation and Queens Atlantic Investment Inc.
He has two directors on the eight member board; namely Avalon Jagnandan and Ravi Ramcharitar.
Ali had argued that “The Government has no direct ownership stake in company”.
He further stated that if the Government were to intervene it would be a breach of contract and “take us back to those dark years when Government imposed its heavy hand on private capital”.
Public Works Minister, Robeson Benn, under whose responsibility the Bridge Falls, was adamant that he would not reduce the tolls as is called for by the motion without any consideration of the various market forces.
“I will not reduce the toll for any person in Guyana until we have determined economically that it will be a benefit,” asserted Benn.
The comment by Benn was condemned as arrogance, to make such a statement even before the motion was voted on.

According to Minister Benn, the motion brought by APNU represents a shot fired across the bow of all who want to invest in Guyana.
He said that for Government to interfere with the private company would be a de facto nationalization of the bridge.
Benn argued that this time around it would not be the nationalizing of foreign owned companies that would have run roughshod over Guyanese: “we would be taking away from our own people…the very people you want to help in a short sighted way.”
The Minister argued that if Government were to impose on the company to reduce the toll it would be “the worst thing that ever happened in Guyana…we would be taking away from our own people; unheard of.”

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