AG misled nation on BK settlement

Aug 22, 2016 News

The controversial US$5.7 Million settlement between Government and construction firm, BK International, was brought to the attention of the nation by this newspaper on April 8, last.
When the revelation was made at that time, the Attorney General, Basil Williams came out the following day stating that Government had not yet finalized a settlement with BK.
He insisted that negotiations were still ongoing with the final approval to be made by the Cabinet. Williams even demanded an apology from the publishers of the Kaieteur News for the said article.
However, recent comments from some of his cabinet colleagues clearly show that the Kaieteur News article was grounded in truth.
According to Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, the US$5.7m settlement was hammered out since last year. He said it was agreed that BK International would receive the payments for the US$5.7M settlement in three tranches; two this year and the other which will be part of the 2017 budget.
Jordan said the first tranche of $350M was already part of the 2016 budget which was passed February last. He said it was paid over to BK in keeping with the agreement. The second part of $500M would be paid in the second quarter of the year.
In addition to this, some members of the Government have been for some time, harping on the tune that had it not entered into a US$5.7M out-of-court settlement with BK International, it would have risked losing double the amount.
The impression given by Government officials was that the company, BK International, filed court proceedings against the Government demanding compensation in the sum of US$10M after it was found that the company’s contract on a multimillion-dollar project was arbitrarily terminated.

Owner of BK International, Brian Tiwarie

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan

Attorney General, Basil Williams

To date, such supporting documents cannot be found. And the parties involved have offered little to no help in locating them.
The administration which came to power last year, ending a two-decade reign by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), had vowed to be more transparent than the previous Government.
However, a number of transactions, including this settlement, have been placing them under fire.
BK is said to have close ties to the administration after a falling out with the PPP/C.
According to Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, the settlement was “designed” to allow the government to pursue a better project that would see another company managing the landfill site.
Bulkan said it was crucial for Government to move forward with the development of the Haags Bosch Landfill site.
The facility was opened in early 2011, replacing the dumpsite at Le Repentir Cemetery in the city, which had to be closed because of health and capacity reasons.
Under the arrangements, BK was supposed to be paid for every tonne of waste processed.
The matter came to a halt when the administration of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic on February 27, 2015, terminated BK’s contract for the construction and operations of the landfill. The government said that the company missed deadlines and committed other breaches.
On March 13, 2015, BK through his lawyer, Davindra Kissoon, filed a lawsuit asking the former Chief Justice (Ag) Ian Chang, to overturn the decision and claimed instead that he was owed hundreds of millions of dollars for the construction and for the daily management of the Eccles site.
Chang ruled that Government was under a public law obligation to afford BK an opportunity of being heard before it made any decision to terminate the contract. He also ruled that BK was entitled to compensation for the works he did in the management of the Haags Bosch site. Chang however did not state what amount BK should be compensated.

4 thoughts on “AG misled nation on BK settlement”

Emile_Mervin August 22, 2016 at 5:01 am

Today, I am reading stuff about the Coalition that confirmed my rejected views that there are corrupt elements in the Coalition. In fact, these elements were corrupt while in the Opposition.
It is what it is: Guyanese who have lost interest in Guyana are not being unpatriotic; they are frustrated and no longer care. So have thousands still at home who must live with the crap politicians are doing, regardless of which party is in power.
rs dasai August 22, 2016 at 12:41 pm

Bad headline
The AG only said what he knew at that time and if his statement is untrue, it is unintentional. No AG of any Party will deliberately make a statement which he knows to be untrue.
Dennis Mckenzie August 22, 2016 at 5:23 pm

I believe,CONSULTATION on ANY ISSUE MUST BE HAD,BEFORE ANY STATEMENT OR INFORMATION IS DIVULGED TO THIS NATION.TO DO OTHERWISE,LEAVES QUESTION SIGNS.
Muhammad Raoof August 22, 2016 at 8:03 pm

Why is everyone acting so surprised? The writing was written on the wall for quite some time now. The Collation is no different from the past Administration who they criticized so much. Read my published article, “The Coalition Govt. is faltering”
Jul 14, 2016