Minister Bharrat denies Govt. rehired controversial Canadian, Alison Redford

Dec 15, 2020 News

Former Alberta Premier, Alison Redford. (Stuart Gradon/Postmedia News/Files)

Kaieteur News – Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, on Sunday denied that the Government of Guyana has rehired the controversial Canadian consultant, Alison Redford to do additional work.
Kaieteur News reached out to the Minister after another newspaper quoted former Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Lilian Chatterjee, as saying that the government hired Redford for technical assistance in the oil and gas sector, based on Canada’s recommendation.
Bharrat said that the report is “not true.”
Kaieteur News also reached out to Chatterjee on Sunday, but the former envoy to Guyana did not offer a comment. She had already left Guyana.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, could not be reached. Prime Minister, Mark Phillips referred Kaieteur News to Minister Bharrat.
Redford recently headed a team for the review of the US$9B Payara Field Development Plan (FDP). She was expected to review the work already done by the consultant hired by the David Granger administration on the project, Bayphase Oil & Gas Consultants. That company is a client of ExxonMobil and some of its sub-contractors have raised concerns about a conflict of interest.
Redford’s re-hiring would have been problematic for multiple reasons.
Scandal plagued Redford’s former political career. As Premier of the Canadian province of Alberta, she drew widespread public controversy in Canada when it was discovered that during her attendance of the funeral of Nelson Mandela the State footed the CAD$45,000 cost of her trip, including about CAD$10,000 for a privately chartered return flight from South Africa. Redford reportedly refused several calls to repay the money spent for the South Africa trip, but eventually bowed to pressure in 2014 and delivered the funds back to the public purse, with a public apology.
Redford announced her resignation in March 2014 as Alberta Premier, and as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in August, a day before an Attorney General (AG) report on her spending practices was scheduled for release.
The AG report found that she and her office had “used public resources inappropriately”; “used public assets (aircraft) for personal and partisan purposes” and that Redford “was involved in a plan to convert public space in a public building into personal living space.”
The AG determined, in short, that Redford abused her power and fostered a culture of entitlement.
A month after the Government’s approval of the Payara project, reviewed by Redford, Kaieteur News discovered that she, like Bayphase, appears to have had a conflict of interest in the execution of her review.
Elections Alberta, an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly there, keeps records of donations made to political parties.
According to its data, Redford’s party, Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (PCA), received donations from an Exxon subsidiary called Imperial Oil over many years, while she was a member.
In the period during which the donations were received, Redford quickly moved up in the PCA, eventually becoming its leader and Premier of the Canadian province of Alberta. The donations to the party, since Redford became active in the party, up to the months after her departure from politics, amounted to nearly CAD$70,000.

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