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Nov 29, 2024 Editorial, News

…Editorial

Kaieteur News- Get a boat, get it going, get it done.  Get light to the people plagued by a rolling tide of blackouts.  No citizens who have felt the brunt of power outages would find fault with such energy from the PPPC Government.  The drive to get a powerboat to supply electricity to Guyanese is commendable.  But did the powerboat have to be filled with so many holes in its procurement, with revelations coming and the questions that are now taking shape?  This now developing Turkish powerboat issue is less about who is responsible, and how could this have been allowed to slip through the cracks.  It is all about why these matters related to procurement of anything in Guyana happen so often and so brazenly.

Guyanese long for a steady supply of electricity desperately to ease their anxieties, to reduce their woes, losses.  Expensive items lost through spoilage, work hours and precious study hours gone and not coming back.  When the PPPC Government first contracted with Karpowership of Turkey, the hope was that the lights would come on and that any controversy would be on the ‘off’ switch.  Whatever hope there was that Karpowership, obtained through UCC Holdings, would be only about electricity and nothing that resembles controversy is now dashed.  In South Africa, in Lebanon, and in Pakistan, disputes have dogged the company’s way of doing business.  Allegations of bribery have been leveled, court cases are on the record, and so are the fines levied against Karadeniz, the parent company of Karpowership.  How could all of this been missed by Government of Guyana officials tasked with identifying a reputable and capable source of power for energy-starved Guyanese?  Could this be viewed as a case of simple negligence, with people acting irresponsibly under the rush of circumstances?  Or was it more that, given its record that is now coming to light, Karpowership (the Karadeniz parent) was the kind of power company with which PPPC Government officials were only too pleased to seal a deal?  Focusing on its record, this could be a case of willful blindness, with the usual political corruption that haunts Guyana having an open field in which to operate.  The grim reality could be that while Guyanese were being battered by blackouts, the regular wheeling and dealing was in motion.  Again, it is baffling that the due diligence done on Karadeniz-Karpowership turned up a clean page.

According to renowned economist and Working People’s Alliance co-leader, Dr. Clive Thomas, the group’s research revealed that “the company has one of the most distasteful reputations for an energy company in the world. Not only by the type of fuel that it uses, to cause environmental hazards but by the behaviour of the ownership, management and so forth.”  That is enough to give pause to any sensible government official in the hunt for a trusted energy supplier.  Dr. Thomas then pointed to what should have led to the immediate discontinuing of any discussions with Karadeniz-Karpowership: “Every perceivable crime that a multinational can commit they have been accused of and we have a paper which we can make available to any of the people who might want to have it in the audience who are representing the media today, where some of these things are portrayed. (sic) It has (a) significant amount of it.”  Considering government’s own reputation in the local environment, this Turkish power supply group should have been the last partner that it would engage in a contractual relationship.

To be frank, this whole business stirs some questions that will not be met with calm by the PPPC Government.  Who in the government’s team knew about the Turkish company’s reputation?  How much did they know about the raps hanging on its head?  And when did they come by such knowledge?  The reputation of the company is so speckled with problematic issues that it is fair to ask what else could have been involved in the signing of a contract with Karpowership.  Was it a matter of casual recklessness, or was there what had lots of roguery in how that contract came about?  It seems that shabby practices are now so normal in the PPPC’s governance culture that it just doesn’t care.

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