Juan Edghill rejects Minister David Patterson’s explanation

Feb 19, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
We refer to the articles, “Edghill’s figures on Wartsilla are grossly inaccurate” in Stabroek News, “Minister David Patterson responds to Juan Edghill” in Kaieteur News and “Patterson slams Edghill’s statements on Wartsilla’s operation in Guyana” in Guyana Chronicle, all of 2017-02-17.
Regrettably, this response penned under the name of Minister Patterson is nothing but a Public Relations exercise, a sleight of hand, an attempt at deception. We, the PPP/C were astonished when the Minister proclaimed that Wartsilla received its contract payment for just “checking off” from time to time what the skilled Guyanese workers had done. The question was not the contract figure but what were the goods and services being provided by the Wartsilla contract.
A question the Minister studiously avoided. To conform with the public, a figure for a sense of what was at stake, we the PPP/C, put the Wartsilla contract figure at approximately US$7.5million per year. The Minister’s response lists figures of US$6.2million from 2008 to US$9.6million for 2015, averaging US$7.9million per year over the period, close enough for purpose – neither of the charges against MP Edghill of gross inaccuracy or that of “slamming Edghill” is justified.
Recall that the Honourable Minister Patterson had claimed in Parliament that Wartsilla received US$25,000/day for just “checking off” the work done by the 194 skilled Guyanese. We, the PPP/C, have maintained that the Wartsilla Contract paid the wages and all benefits including the training of the 194 skilled Guyanese as well as all additional expert services and paid for the running spares. The Minister has totally bypassed this issue and we are now even more fearful of a scam being perpetrated on the people of Guyana.
To claim, maintain and justify the savings of switching from Wartsilla to PPDI the Minister must tell us forthrightly:
I. Who are PPDI and whom might they have retained (we need to know the names), and whether they can and would provide a similar level of skilled, experienced oversight and continually interactive management, and that they are all being paid from the contract? So far we have only been told that there are two Directors, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Mr. Balram Balraj and Attorney-at-law Mr. Ronald Burch-Smith. This, thus, appears to be a Government owned company. Are we to see it being transitioned to a public-private partnership or a totally private company? One would need to keep an eye on any transition to see the movement of risks, obligations and responsibilities.
II. Whether the 194 skilled Guyanese and all additional expert services, as required from time to time, are to be paid by PPDI from the contract as was with Wartsilla?
III. Whether the “running spares” and expert services are being provided (paid for) by PPDI from the contract as was with Wartsilla?
IV. Whether the attainment of similar efficiencies (conversion of fuel to kWh), lube oil consumption and availability are included and whether the penalties for shortfall are the same as in the Wartsilla contract?
If the answers to questions II, III and IV are not all affirmative we have a scam: and if any is affirmative, the Honourable Minister must retract what he said in Parliament. I look forward to the Honourable Minister responding subsequently on AFHP, (the NORAD/ NORCONSULT report), the Wind Farm project.
Bishop Juan Edghill, MP/PPP

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