Govt. not inclined to honour CPL $100 million invoice

Jul 23, 2015 News

– No documentation can be found to support the claim by the company

Since no piece of evidence could be found to justify a claim of US$500,000 by an agent of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) which is said to be owed by Guyana, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said that Government was not inclined to pay the sum.
He made this declaration yesterday, during his post Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency. This was in response to a question on whether during his recent meeting with CPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Damien O’Donohoe, they were able to settle the said matter.
The Minister said that Government believes that since no contract could be produced at this point to show what monies needed to be paid, the Granger administration is not inclined to honour the claim.
He added, “CPL made a claim on the Minister of Finance, myself and the Minister of Tourism that there is money that is outstanding to them. I met with the CEO of CPL and made it very clear to him that in the absence of any agreement in writing, between the Government of Guyana and CPL, we were not inclined to pay any monies.”
Harmon told the media fraternity that he indicated to O’Donohoe that if he can produce that written agreement, then the government would consider the claim.
“Everything starts with a written agreement and that is the way governments work. When you are dealing with the resources of a state, there must be some documentary evidence, some trail you can look at and so we couldn’t find any such documentation from them,” the Minister of State said.
He said, however, that Government has committed to providing any assistance in the form of waivers for equipment to be brought into the country to support the cricket matches.
Harmon said, “We believe cricket is important to this country and we are committed to negotiating with CPL in the future… but at this point, we can’t understand what this money was for and what we were supposed to benefit from the expense. “Since we have no paper trail, we cannot commit ourselves to paying anything.”
The Minister of State said that in every other Caribbean jurisdiction where the CPL tournament is played, the company has a written agreement with those countries and as such, does not believe that Guyana should be treated any differently.
The recent claim by a CPL agent was also raised by the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Clement Rohee, at his most recent press conference. Speaking to various contradictions of the current administration to date, Rohee said that while Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, had said that the bill would not be honoured.
Harmon later said, “The current Administration will not in any way hamper… how the CPL and its franchise holder are treated.”
Harmon had made that statement, among others during the meeting he conducted with the CPL Chief Executive Officer.
He had also told O’Donohoe that the ad hoc manner with which the previous administration engaged the entity with regard to matches hosted in Guyana is regrettable and vowed that this time around, business will be done differently.
Harmon had said that Government would be prepared to take the requisite steps to ensure that a structured and legally sound, Cabinet approved agreement is in place.
He had said, too, that Government is prepared to commence negotiations in this regard, at the earliest opportunity.
Harmon had assured O’Donohoe that the government will commit to ensuring that all the usual exemptions and concessions for the hosting of international cricket in Guyana will be granted to the CPL for the hosting of the matches in the ongoing tournament.
He had said, “Guyana is not only a cricket loving country but a cricket crazy country so we have every reason to welcome the CPL back to Guyana. I want to reaffirm the government’s full support for the CPL specifically, and cricket in general.” :

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Govt. not inclined to honour CPL $100 million invoice

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