Govt. pays BK US$5.7m on a simple threat letter

Aug 23, 2016 News

…Tiwarie’s US$10M claim never went to court – Minister Bulkan

For months, several Government officials sought to defend the US$5.7M out-of-court settlement with

Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan

BK International, claiming that had the government decided to challenge any suit, then it would have risked losing double the amount.
The Government officials also suggested that BK International’s initial claim of US$10M was made before the courts, hence the haste to hammer out the deal and pay the contractor off as quickly as possible.
Relentlessly, this newspaper tried to get a hold of documents to that effect, but all efforts proved futile. Court officials said that no such records existed. Attorney General Basil Williams refused to cooperate with the newspaper, and the owner of the company, Brian Tiwarie, made numerous promises to provide the mystery document, but failed to do so.
Kaieteur News again contacted Tiwarie, last Tuesday, for a copy of the related documents. Tiwarie replied that his assistants were not in office at the time. He said that he could not confirm, also, how much in compensation he was “demanding from the Government via the court.”
He skirted the question and asked to be contacted at 10:00 am the following day. Even when this was done, the businessman failed to honour this commitment. He subsequently asked for an extension to do so on Saturday. When contacted this time around, Tiwarie disclosed that he had already travelled to Miami, Florida, since Thursday, and that calls should be made to his office for the document to be uplifted. But even those efforts proved futile.
Meanwhile, Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams said: “I am not going to cooperate with Kaieteur News.

Manager of BK International, Brian Tiwarie

Kaieteur News attacks me all the time and I see despite the fact that (Former AG Anil Nandlall) said he gon kill all ah y’all, he is back in y’all good books on the front page attacking me.
“Unless you can show me a different approach, how could I give you a document with BK matter? And then you try to use the document…So if you disparage me as Attorney General, Chairman of the PNC, wha’ else? Member of Parliament…then y’all come and beg for me to pull back the case I had against y’all. I don’t know nothing about BK. Go ask (Minister of) Communities.”
Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan was able to shed some light on this controversy.
In an interview with this newspaper, the politician explained that indeed the court said that BK International should be compensated after its contract for the management of the Haags Bosch was arbitrarily terminated.
Bulkan said that the company however never moved to the court for compensation. He revealed that by way of letter, BK made a claim for over US$10M to the government.
The Minister of Communities said he is not sure who, what or how the issue of BK going before the court to make his claim was manufactured.
Furthermore, the controversial US$5.7 Million settlement between Government and 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 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.

Attorney General, Basil Williams

Williams even demanded an apology from the publishers of the Kaieteur News for the said article.
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 last February. 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.