Waltzing over Wales

Dec 05, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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…Hard Truths

By GHK Lall

 Kaieteur News- I begin with a question.  What’s happening over there in Wales?  Specifically, what’s up with that loan from the US Export-Import (EXIM) bank?  Yeah, what’s going on with that US$660 million for that highly touted gas-to-energy (GTE) set-up?  I know I said one question, but sneaked in two more, since nobody was watching or counting.  For the uninitiated I learned that from the Hon. Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s oil commissar.  Ask him one question for one factual, structured answer and what results is a monologue that is longer than the Canterbury Tales.  I am appealing to Her Excellency, the British High Commissioner to enlighten Guyana’s wisest son as to how these things are done, proper form and all.

Meanwhile, I am appealing to anyone who will listen to set the record straight.  Come straight and clean with what is accurate about the money from the EXIM bank that is set to gush over the Wales GTE project, really three in one.  Perhaps, that explains why VP Jagdeo is having such difficulty in refining his sales pitch, and makes it more complicated that it (the three components) should be.  The EXIM loan, remember that starting point of this fireside chat?  Here is the trail to date.

During one of his recent press conferences, Dr. Jagdeo was all smirks and smiles: EXIM has approved the loan.  In characteristic fashion, Jagdeo opened his mouth and by some unknown law of physics (or mandibular dexterity) kept his lips sealed.  Here is the lowdown.  How much is the loan amount approved, sir?  ‘It is somewhere upwards of US$500 million.’  Now, all Guyanese should be doing cartwheels across the floor, for what qualifies to be a grand leadership revelation.  Hooray, for Jagdeo.  It is anyone’s guess about why not the rest.  Be patient, it’s coming.  Nonetheless, thank goodness for the Yanks, they can always be counted to carry the day in a crunch.  Or, as a quick aside, was that more about keeping the encroaching Red Chinese bottled over there by the South China Sea?

Whereas Jagdeo was tightlipped, SN unzipped its printing presses and there was the kind of specificity that would make a prosecutor drool.  It is US$509 million.  The devil is in the details about the disposition of the difference, over US$150 million.  The people at EXIM were diplomatic tactfulness itself and priestly restraint in combination.  It was the small matter of a few loose ends not adding up, not making sense.  Unsubstantiated, is a word that big bankers and bigger bureaucrats derive great joy when they are putting such to use.  In the vernacular of the street: where the hell yuh goin wid dah, buster?  No wonder the blasted Wales gas-to-energy project and papers are such a closely guarded PPP Gov’t secret.  Truth be told, if anyone dares to put that before President Ali, he would rail that that is transparency.  Are there any other Tuesday morning (day clean) contractor and comrade roundups in the works?  Since it is December, I could use the lighthearted fare.  It has been a tough year.  Not for Jagdeo and company.  For me, folks.

Forget about all this expensive education chatter about things not adding up nor making sense, it is that somebody in Guyana is trying to pull a fast one.  On an even eerier note, that US$150 million differential (US$660 -US$509 million is US$150 approx.).  It looks awfully close to the 20% shakedown (or padding) practiced in one PPP Government after another.  Local tender, local award, foreign loan, same ole, same ole.  Except that the ever-alert Yankee bankers took a nail and spiked Guyana’s US$660 (669?) loan balloon.  Tek dah.  Tek US$509 million.  At least, SN got that right, for by my schooling that is upwards of US$500 million, so everybody should be happy.

Well, not everybody, for there is former Coalition Government minister, Mr. David Patterson.  Unlike the VP and SN, Patterson is holding up his hand, as if he is some traffic cop.  Slowdown, start over.  And it has everything to do with US$500 million or US$509 million supposedly approved by EXIM.  When Mr. Patterson should be seeing green (loan millions) he is seeing red (cut the nonsense out, Jagdeo).  Hold horses, nothing was approved by EXIM, and there is a process that involves others, up to the U.S. Congress.  The US Congress is in what is called a lame-duck session.  Plus, it is that most wonderful time of the year, when it snowed Gee Whiz, it’s Christmas (full control) for the Republicans.  Who’s got time for some rinky-dink loan app from Guyana that has been languishing in the pending basket for over a year now?

Whether there is time or not is irrelevant.  Regardless if all three (the VP, SN, or DP) think that they have this EXIM loan matter right, somebody has got it wrong.  We can all agree that it is not US$660 million.  After that, everything else is murky, snowy, smoky, and slippery.  There are only a few Guyanese who those majestic words could fit to a tee when a loan is the issue up for discussion.  I am not in such esteemed company.  Conclusion: there is something funny going on with this Wales GTE project.  Historically, funny has been politically deadly (financially also) for Guyanese.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

(Waltzing over Wales)

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