Something is fishy about this project

Jun 23, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
It is with interest I read an article captioned “Ministry seeks supplementary funding for GPL smart meter project published in your newspapers on Monday June 19th, 2017. From the onset let me express my appreciation to your newspaper and your contributing journalist who have wasted no time in taking a keen look at this project.
It is my belief that something is amiss with this project, and I believe even the Inter-American Development Bank and the European Union also believe that they have unwittingly supported a tender which is shrouded in corruption. I remember following the articles you published earlier in the year when this project which has taken over a year to be evaluated and was subsequently awarded to a Chinese company who bid over G$1 billion over the engineer’s estimate.
Added to this is the court case which followed the award which also adds to the disturbing nature of the award given the magistrates ruling. The real issue I am writing here today Mr. Editor is about the government’s move to ask for a 2 billion dollars supplementary for this project. It is stated in the governments paper that this supplementary is to facilitate “payment of mobilization advance and other areas under the programme, including supervision for civil works, management strengthening, and lot b works.”
I find it strange that the government will ask for a 2 billion supplementary to pay for the above mentioned components. I would be grateful if your newspaper can enquire from Government of Guyana if one billion out of this two billion supplementary is to pay for the difference in the engineer’s estimate. I would also like for your newspaper, to enquire from the IDB if its ethical or in keeping with their procurement practices that they can approve an award of this nature when the government offers to pay the difference in the loans budget to a favored contractor.
Mike Singh

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