GTE and secret payment

May 18, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Prime Minister Mark Phillips did himself an injustice. He did citizens a bigger injustice. The worst injustice was inflicted on the PPP/C Government and the president. The Prime Minister dug a hole for himself with his April 7, response to whether secret payment was made to Lindsayca-CH4 as part of a Dispute Avoidance and Adjudication Board award. In his favor, the Prime Minister corrected himself and the record five weeks later. A mistake was made, it is admitted, and everyone moves on, with valuable lessons learned.

The first is come clean and come straight right from the beginning. There is no need then for any of these messy, embarrassing, cleanup exercises. It is helpful to let Phillips’ own words of April 7, speak for themselves. “There are no secret payments made to the contractor. All payments are made via the consolidated fund and reported to parliament. For the record, the parties have not advanced the arbitration process and as such there is no arbitration ruling. Arbitration continues to be an option available to the parties. It is therefore incorrect to suggest that the GoG has lost the arbitration.” Phrase by phrase, “no secret payments” and “the parties have not advanced” and “there is no arbitration ruling” and “therefore incorrect…that GoG has lost the arbitration.” When a national leader with the title and stature of Prime Minister takes such risks, not once, but in four instances within the same denial, then the people who pay that bill, in one way or another, are mocked and dismissed as being of no standing. Not deserving of a clear answer, one that holds water, passes any scrutiny.

We think that Prime Minister went too far. He spoke too much, in his effort to deny what couldn’t be because it existed. He carried on too long in his efforts to defend what, he as a soldier should have known, was indefensible because it was so filled with landmines. In the language of military men, he set a minefield for himself, then had a lapse in judgement and walked in it. It was inevitable, regardless of how long it took, for he to blowup himself. Hence, this admission from Prime Minister Phillips exactly five weeks later.“…the Government and Lindsayca Guyana Inc. have reached a resolution on two matters decided by the Dispute Avoidance/ Adjudication Board (DAAB) in January of 2025 relating to soil stabilisation works required at the Wales site and to delay-related provisions…the settlement represents a 12.8 per cent increase over the original contract sum of US$759M.”

What was so hard about saying that from the inception? What was so difficult for the PPPC Government to deal squarely with the media and citizens, on matters of this nature? Why did Prime Minister Phillips still thought it skillful and astute to resort to the cleverness of “a 12.8 per cent increase over the original contract sum of US$759M? ”When ordinary Guyanese who are paying attention to this project (due to its long-delayed promise of cheap electricity) hear “12.8 per cent” it does not sound like an exorbitant amount of money. But 12.8 per cent of US$759M is US$97M.Why engage in a clever verbal hedge? It could not have been that fatiguing for a man of Phillips’ years and varied exposures to put the US$97M before citizens. It is because of too clever by half constructions such as this that many political figures are looked at skeptically, if not dismissed outright.

Th US$2B Wales Gas-to-Energy project is using up too many millions, freighted with too many promises, that it should be treated as just another guard hut erected, or an overpriced fence built. The project has been too overloaded with secrets and setbacks for anyone involved to be trusted. To be taken at full face value. Delays should be a second name for the project. Leaders taking responsibility has been cast aside, and political evading is now the norm. Surely, the energy-starved people of Guyana deserve better, at least to be treated with more respect. For a project about to cost more than US$2B, as originally priced, Guyanese are due more. April 7, 2026 was not Prime Minister Mark Phillips’s finest hour. He collapsed miserably.

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Editorial, GTE, Lindsayca-CH4, secret payment

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