One year later… VP Jagdeo yet to be investigated for corruption allegations in hydro deal, oil sector

Jul 02, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

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“Other amounts of money we’ve handled before have been much bigger, like from the oil company. The hydroelectric power plant needs tens of millions of dollars. He’ll never admit that he’s involved in this.”- Su

Kaieteur News – More than a year has passed since Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo was accused by his friend, Su Zhi Rong in an exclusive Vice News documentary of accepting bribes in the oil sector and for the planned Amaila hydro project, but to date an independent investigation is yet to be conducted.

In the 24-minutes documentary, released by Vice News, a New York based under cover reporting agency that exposes corruption by political leaders, Jagdeo was recorded in his home having a conversation with two Chinese; one was his friend Su and the other, an undercover reporter, Chan, posing as an investor.

In the recording, Jagdeo was heard saying, “You’ll get the support. Su is my friend; he gets all the support…Su deals with all the agreements. I don’t, I don’t…the thing is that my thing is that I’m in government so I can, I assist from government side. That’s it.”

Su then interjected in Mandarin, urging Mr. Chan not to talk about the bribe there but was assured by Su in the foreign language, “Don’t worry, I will give him [Jagdeo] the money with you.”

The discussions however took a more damning turn as the Chinese duo left the home of the Vice President. In the hidden camera that continued recording, Su was heard telling the reporter that the Vice President’s hands are “very clean”. He went on to tell Mr. Chan, “Other amounts of money we’ve handled before have been much bigger, like from the oil company. The hydroelectric power plant needs tens of millions of dollars. He’ll never admit that he’s involved in this.”

In Su’s conversation with the Vice reporter, he claimed to have brokered among other deals, the Amalia Falls Hydro project reportedly won through the payment of a massive bribe.

Vice News reporter, Isobel Yeung had interviewed Jagdeo in February last year to question his involvement in corruption and bribe-taking as alleged by his friend. Jagdeo later updated the full interview with Vice News on February 7, 2022.

It wasn’t until later that year that Vice released its documentary. See link below (The conversation quoted above can be found 14:00 into the video.)

The reporters were also told by a timber exporter that “Everything in this country is under the table…the whole country is like that. It’d be more worrying if they weren’t corrupt…basically as long as you have a good relationship with the Vice President, you are set. You don’t need the president, the Vice President. One phone call will take care of everything.”  (This can be found at 6:00)

Meanwhile, in the conversation with Su, the Chinese businessman told the undercover reporters that the money he receives from the transaction will be split with his boss, whom they later confirmed was Jagdeo. Su said, “Yes, the boss is part of it. If we are doing business together, my boss is not going to receive the money directly.” (8:00)

Following the release of the interview in February 2022, President Irfaan Ali said during the sidelines of an event that the reporter from Vice News merely came with allegations and no solid proof against his VP. He said, “It’s an allegation” and when further pressed about his position on the matter, responded, “Of course (I would defend my government). My government is above board but I am just saying this to say people are just doing this for sensational headlines”.

The President posited that even though the allegations are untrue, the matter continues to be sensationalised.

In July, following the release of the Vice News documentary, the President said that the allegations should be probed. The Head of State told reporters, “Any allegations against a system has to be taken seriously…what is clear is that there are some people there who are saying that they are involved in such activity if you look at the video…that definitely requires an investigation. It’s a no-nonsense! It’s a no-nonsense and I am hoping that the relevant security and the relevant agencies are looking at this because it is clear that someone said that they are involved so definitely they will be looking at that.”

Despite his support for a probe to be conducted, an independent investigation into the damning allegations that has cast a grim light on the future of Guyana’s resources is yet to commence. In fact, business as usual has continued with the VP still functioning in his capacity.

Jagdeo, who was never sent on leave, pending an investigation, had filed a lawsuit against his Chinese friend for the statements he made while interacting with the reporters.

In the meantime, the Publisher of this newspaper, Mr. Glenn Lall has called for the President to immediately probe the allegations leveled against the former Head of State.

Lall explained, “These are serious allegations against him and it should be investigated thoroughly by an independent commission. It’s frightening that these allegations were made in the Vice News documentary in which the men are heard saying that they deal with the bribery money for oil companies along with the hydro project that Jagdeo is still pursuing. What else is not happening behind closed doors with the gas to energy project and more so the oil sector?”

The newspaper Publisher went on to point out that while the former Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman who signed the lopsided oil contract with Exxon has said that the deal can be renegotiated, Jagdeo instead of embracing the development has chosen to mock the citizen.

To this end, Lall has said, “Our resources are not safe under the management of this man. I hope the people of this country take note. I have seen what happened throughout Africa and Asia where hundreds of millions of people can barely scrape a single meal when the day comes in some of the richest countries in both continents.”

“The President of Guyana should and must order an independent investigation into these revelations and do so quickly. Time is not on the Guyanese people side; our resources can be depleted in a jiffy with today’s technology. Everything can be gone before he wakes up,” the businessman added.

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• allegation, corruption, investigation, probe, Vice

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