‘Nothing new from Vice News’ ...Glenn Lall says Opposition was silent when K/News was exposing corruption

‘Nothing new from Vice News’ …Glenn Lall says Opposition was silent when K/News was exposing corruption

Jun 22, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall has criticised opposition and other operatives who have opportunistically latched on to disclosures in a recent Vice News documentary on Guyana, saying that for years his newspaper has shone light on the shadowy deals with the PPP/C Guyana Government and Chinese companies, but the same people who are now speaking up were silent.

Kaieteur News (KN) Publisher, Glenn Lall

The Vice News documentary titled: “Guyana for Sale” which premiered on Sunday has as its main character, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. His Chinese tenant and “friend” businessman, Su Zhi Rong is heard in the interview accusing Jagdeo of allegedly accepting bribes for large developmental projects undertaken in the country. Jagdeo has denied the allegations and has since signalled that he will take legal action against the Chinese businessman and also promised to evict him from his property.
At his Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara home, the former head of state told the undercover reporters of the US-based media company posing as Chinese business investors that he gives his Chinese “friend” all the support needed to facilitate investment transactions and that he has no dealings with finances given his role in government. “No, no, no I’m not getting involved in business. Su is my friend. He gets all the support. Su deals with all the agreements. I don’t. The thing is that my thing is that I’m in government, so I assist from government side.”
The Vice News reporter was told that Su was the man that could get her a meeting with Vice President and so he did to prove his connection with the government official, and that any money reportedly paid for bribes to the VP would indeed get to him. When the Vice News team first met Su, he boasted about his relationship with Jagdeo and that he could secure the meeting since he has a close relationship with the government official. “If you want anything done in Guyana you have to have some connections,” he told the Vice team. “You tell me, it should be no problem. I am very close with the Vice President and the other officials,” the documentary’s subtitle read translating Mandarin to English.
Su described Jagdeo as his “boss.”
“If we are doing business together, my boss is not going to receive money directly. It’s going to be a service a processing fee then he’ll share some with me,” Su stated. The reporter noted that after a few hours with some Chinese businessmen she was informed by them that if they were investing in business they could help out, “because they have really good relationships with the head of state in this country.” The reporter was also told that service fees charged by the middlemen are really bribes for deals. “The consulting fee is the bribe. So, they include it in the consulting fee because they don’t do any actual consulting.” An individual identified as the General Manager for China’s largest state-run construction firm also pointed out that the middlemen were very important. “With just one word we can get something done,” the Chinese businessman said.
Where were they?
Meanwhile, speaking Monday night on his radio programme: The Glenn Lall Show, Lall said he observed over the weekend, Senior Counsel and Shadow Attorney General, Roysdale Forde calling on Jagdeo to resign. Lall told his audience those allegations have been in the air for years now. “Maybe Roysdale Forde was in nursery school when the Kaieteur News had reported how the PPP Government gave away to Bai Shan Lin half of Guyana’s lands that wasn’t supposed to be touched, lands that were to be preserved for future generations. The same coalition government had to come in and rescind that and take back some from the Chinese. These allegations are nothing new,” Mr. Lall detailed. He said the Vice News Reporter, Isobel Yeung spoke about the hydro falls project, with the Chinese “and we have been talking about that since Jagdeo announced it in 2007, down to the other day. We went into details to show it was a Ponzi- Scheme. The world was building Hydro back in 2007 for US$1M per MW, when Jagdeo wanted to tell us to build the Amaila Falls hydro for US$4B per MW. The Vice News [reporter] talked about your gold, diamond and bauxite lands that end up in the Chinese and all them foreign people hands; the Vice News and Mr. Su also talked about the oil blocks and the oil business and how big money had to pass…Isn’t that what Glenn Lall and the Kaieteur News have been saying all the time?” Lall queried. He said every year the Kaieteur News has been reporting on these corrupt deals and the Opposition did not take action. “They didn’t call for anybody’s resignation,” Lall declared.
“Every single day massive corruption and thievery going on in every project with y’all tax dollars, from a school toilet, to the Marriott Hotel corruption, don’t let us start with that never done airport that milking ayuh granny wha nah produce milk and Roysdale Forde and the rest of the Opposition don’t see that. A foreign reporter’s voice has weight on an allegation and the facts the Kaieteur News putting out every day, they not seeing that.”
Lall added that under the same Coalition Government, which Forde was part of, “our prime Ogle land ended up in Chinese hands, he didn’t call for resignation. Understand me; I am not defending Jagdeo, I just letting you people know that they only open their mouths when it suits them. I have said it many times before, these politicians we have ‘pampazetting’ themselves are incompetent, corrupt, and in most cases pennywise and pound foolish; talking about a single tree while the entire forest is on fire, focusing on local content pennies for the Guyanese people while your royalty disappearing back into the hands of the owners that give you the next day. Yes those same oil companies taking back that money and nobody knows anything about it. Another foreign reporter will come to shine that light and when people like Forde them hear that foreign voice, they gon put out a statement and call for another resignation,” Lall concluded.