When ‘no risk’ is the ultimate in misleading

Mar 02, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News- The front man for the President and Vice President on the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project (AFHP) is already falling on the slippery job they gave him to do. Mr. Winston Brassington has been given a leaky basket to bathe a flock of ducks. As we observe his efforts, as he flails away like the good soldier that he is for leaders alone, it is clear that he has failed to bathe one duck, much less a whole flock. Too many Guyanese have grown accustomed to the deceptive ways of this PPP/C Government, and the foxy craftiness of those entrusted to be the public faces and voices of projects that house high risks for Guyanese.
Winston Brassington might be due a speck of credit for effort, though he contradicted himself and made a mockery of the very things he was trying to sell to Guyana. The project head, his new official working title, said that the AFHP has ‘no risk’ for Guyanese. We don’t know what was going on in Mr. Brassington’s head when he dared to utter that phrase (‘no risk’), given how everything he said before and after that clashed heavily. But what he said is there for the record.
This newspaper and its publisher did some digging through the debris that Mr. Brassington piled on Guyanese. Sifting through his presentation before assembled big shots, and his camouflaging chatter about ‘no risk’ for Guyana, unearthed the opposite. There are half a dozen risks of the most burdensome kind that Mr. Brassington saw fit to pretend do not exist. (“Chinese-owned Amaila Falls hydro project…Guyana given six most dangerous risks in the deal …nation should be enraged”, KN February 28). The dunce cap that the Project Head was attempting to place on Guyana’s head is now his to wear. It fits most perfectly.
When the “six most dangerous risks” belong to Guyana, it baffles that anyone could think that those would neither be discerned nor drilled down and dug up. We cannot laud Mr. Brassington for giving it the old college try, and we will neither boo him nor heckle him for making a spectacle of himself. But we do ask, as we look at some of those six risks, how could he? How could those who sent him as their messenger think that they would be able to get away with what is not only leadership trickery, but more governance sleaziness….?
In no particular order, the Guyana Government is guaranteeing the performance of the GPL. That is, any payments due to the Chinese for this project will come out of taxpayers’ dollars, should the GPL be unable to fulfill its side of the deal, as enshrined in the contract provisions. It is a deal that was signed four months ago, but Guyanese are only learning about it now. When leaders in the PPP/C Government operate with this kind of secrecy, Guyana can be assured that the underhanded is already at work.
Then, rather incredibly, the same strapped GPL, which struggles to deliver on a steady and reliable supply of electricity to the nation is now responsible for hydrology risks. Mr. Brassington may have entertained the thought that he was being smart (or funny) by using that big word ‘hydrology’ which ordinary Guyanese might have difficulty figuring out what it means. But what is important is that the GPL, which fights a largely losing battle in delivering consistent power to Guyana’s household and businesses, is now the owner of water (hydrology) risks associated with the AFHP. To put it differently, if for some reason the Chinese-owned project runs out of water, or does not have enough of it, then the GPL is responsible to make the Chinese good on any financial shortfall from such water deficiency, which could run into the millions of American dollars.
But this is what Mr. Brassington and his political handlers want us to believe and accept holds no risk to the nation. It is either that they pretend not to know what risk is, or they think that Guyanese don’t care anymore. Guyanese may not care, but we do, and we will wage this war without letup on dangerous and costly deceptions like these.

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