Berbice Bridge Company wants guarantees before agreeing to lower tolls

There should be no toll on any bridge in Guyana.

PNC is known to be a rogue regime so the BBCI is rightfully cautious.  I believe up to now they never honored the debts owed to places like Libya and the Govt there, even Gadaffi was non too happy.  The PNC are highway robbers, no pun intended!

Not sure about that.  Anyway, the current financing structure was put together by the PPP, not the PNC.  The toll regime was established under the PPP, not PNC, so you need to be equally unhappy with the PPP.

My thoughts, the PPP should have allowed for a subsidy for passenger traffic as economic benefits from the investment should accrue to the treasury through increased tax revenues.  The average commuter should not have to bear the brunt of the costs.

The Government should pass an amendment to the Berbice Act, turn up with the police and ensure that $1,900 is charged.

Ask the bridge to bare their books and pay them for their losses.

The Minister said $140 million.

If I was the Government, I would build another toll booth and every car can pass through and receive their $300 cash back.

So let the company carry their rass.

NO extension.

After 10 more years, this Bridge will be transferred to the State.

What an interesting case study in development planning. Hucksters...I tell you hucksters...hustlers were running that country. They were pulling projects out of thin air. I want to believe they don't have the volume. Nationalizing this thing will require reparation as they had to do for Bookers and the rest. It will send shock waves through the potential investment community. These morons working for Jagdeo would come here and proudly proclaim they don't need book sense. What a mess. This is what I wrote yesterday responding to Gilly.

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Since the Berbice bridge was made it is now a sunk cost. It is irreversible. So, I always said the subsidy is the right thing to do to offer relief for the poor. But I still have to point out that the Berbice bridge is an interesting case study of a bad investment choice. World Bank suggested a system of roll on roll off ferry that would be quick, cheaper to build and cheaper for passengers. Now anyone familiar with basic microeconomics will know if you don't have the volume you have to push up price to keep revenues and cash flows where you want it so as to influence discounted value. I said this 7 years ago in facetious tone in my "new science of jumbienomics" letter. Jagdeo and his crew decided they will make a bridge and charge the high price nevertheless. The same principle holds for Amaila. Engineers can build almost anything...but it is the final price consumers pay that matter. Now, in spite of the high price they are not making a profit to pay dividends to NIS. We know this crew has a very high propensity for lies and corruption...so by now I hope the new govt makes sure the revenues they declare are indeed what they are making at the gates. They have to man the toll stations. But I feel the simple hard-nosed laws of economics is at work here. Small market (low volume) means high price...fits right into my thesis. We will see in another year if they make profit.

As Riff posted previously, this is Sunday, not making a difference in Guyana, get a hobby. This is all about narrative. Move to Guyana and at least make a difference in some Guyanese life in Guyana. If you do already, great. Have a great Sunday.

What about building the roll on roll off ferry to offer an alternative....

This is the APNU. The PPP did not transform itself into the PNC when many of its principal agents were culled from the worse of the old guard in the PNC so why the craven if not racist yapping about a rogue regime? First, was it not a rogue regime that formalize the entity we are dealing with here and have to deal with because the nation sunk millions up front to facilitate the entity these crabs now co opts?

I say, let them go insolvent and liquidate the assets. Brazzington already forgo their paying of dividends owed to the state. Why should we now pay them on top of that? The forgoing of the dividend payment was illegal since only the parliament could have done that. The state should demand that the 110 owed it last year be taken as an up front payment with only 10 million owed. Henceforth no forgoing of taxes or dividends and if they fail so be it. Let the state liquidate the assets.

So bring back Burnham days.  You start there, where next and where does it end.  That is NOT the approach.

Are you being a clown or what?  There are legal obligations in place so the way out is not "kick down door" style you like.

You do not have to move to Guyana to make a difference bud.  This is the information age, it is ideas, advice and knowledge that make things happen.  If the government is willing to listen to experts in diaspora they could be better off.  There is a lot of nonsense floating in Guyana such as paying the CEO of GPL GY$6M per month.  I sent a letter to SN on this...I am playing my part. 

Was the letter posted? I did not see it.

de 'Burnham' magic not really as potent as back in the day bai . . . try to keep up

consult wan new obeahman pandit with fresher stuff if yuh waan remain useful to Freedom House

What a fool. Burnham days would have been Cheddi's days if he got into power. There is no escaping that conclusion. He believed in a dictatorship of the proletariat and the precepts of Comintern a or the third Leninist International conference. Left alone we would have had a the PPP as a vanguard party no less than Castro and all the woes that entail. Your prating on Burnham as the quintessential boogieman scares only the ignorant and the informed. You are the one in the clown car and with a cherry for a nose.

I sent it today.

Stalemate continues over New GPC, Hand-in-Hand controlled Berbice Bridge…Give us 20 years extension or increase the tolls August 30, 2015 | By

– private investors tell new Govt.

The current standoff between Government and the company that controls the US$40M Berbice River Bridge has taken a twist with the latter asking for its agreement to be extended another 20 years or for the administration to consider hiking the tolls.

The toll reduction for cars, from $2,200 to $1,900, announced during the budget presentation by Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, was set for implementation on Tuesday, (September 1). It seems to be in limbo at the moment.
Jordan had also indicated a 10 percent reduction on other categories of vehicles, in what he said was the first of a series of interventions.
Toll charged by the Berbice Bridge Company Inc. (BBCI) has been a sore point for consecutive administrations of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
The coalition Government, in the lead up to the May 11, 2015 elections, had accused the previous administration of hijacking the Berbice Bridge Company Inc., deliberately structuring operations in a manner that allowed investors and their close friends with the least investment to take control.
New GPC, a company with close relations to former President Bharrat Jagdeo, has been allowed to nominate the directors, thus taking control of the company, although Government and the state-owned National Insurance Scheme (NIS) are the biggest investors.

On Friday, Finance Minister Jordan disclosed that the prescribed toll reduction was in limbo because BBCI’s directors decided to take that matter to its shareholders.

Jordan believed that the Bridge company was deliberately delaying the implementation of the toll reduction.

The reduction is estimated to see the bridge lose about $120M-$140M annually with Government promising to provide a subsidy to meet the shortfall. For this year, Government has allocated $36M.

In a full page advertisement published in today’s edition of Kaieteur News, the company is denying that it is deliberately delaying the reductions.
“This is not so. The BBCI is as anxious as all other Guyanese to provide the best service to the Berbice Bridge commuters at an affordable price.”
BBCI, pointed out that just as the government was forced to defer several of its campaign promises based on the need to comply with existing laws, so too are the Directors of the BCCI constrained by the Berbice Bridge Act and Regulations.

The bridge company said that it signed a legally binding contract with the PPP/C called the “Concession Agreement”.

The statement noted that at the initial August 12 meeting, Government proposed a schedule of subsidies to commuters based on the existing toll structure.

BBCI said that it stressed during the meeting with Government that it would like further discussions to take place on the proposal and an extension in the concession period from 21 years to 40 years: or for the Government to give consideration to an application for an increase in toll made to the PPP/C Government on March 15, 2015.

The company said that no agreement was reached with BBCI.
“We cannot therefore understand why the Minister would suggest that “delaying tactics” are being employed. Other discussions also took place concerning the timing of subsidy payments but the BBCI team made it clear that nothing could be agreed until the matter is discussed by its full board and stakeholders.

The company said that Government proceeded as if it was a done deal, simply to fulfill a campaign promise on the BBCI tolls. This was made without any consultations.

BBCI also claimed that it lost $1.2B because it has not been granted an increase in tolls.

The company said it could face insolvency if the process is not done right.

The Berbice Bridge

“Directors of BBCI, have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the company. Any agreement to a subsidy without honouring the toll adjustment formula set out in the Concession Agreement will result in the BBCI defaulting on its obligation to repay debt in 2015 and possible insolvency.”

This year, over $500M in debt repayment to investors is required. ”Directors cannot change the agreements reached with the investors in the bridge as represented by the trustee for the debt and the shareholders for the equity. Such decision must involve an agreement with the trustee and the shareholders.”

Any change in the Concession Agreement and the Toll Order which is made by the Government –the last one was made in 2009 by the Minister of Public Works–requires the approval of the Trustee and the Shareholders, BBCI claimed.

The company said that it expects government to fully commit to honouring the legislation, concession agreement, and the rights enshrined in the various agreements related to the Berbice Bridge. “A subsidy divorced from honoring the BBCI Concession Agreement could very well result in bankruptcy for the BBCI.”

The current directors of the company are said to be Keith Evelyn, Ravi Ramcharitar, Avalon Jagnandan, Gillian Burton, Egbert Carter, Paul Cheong, Cecil Kennard, and Maurice Solomon.

Jagnandan and Ramcharitar are both directors in New GPC.
Government’s lead negotiator in the toll increase is attorney-at-law, Chris Ram, while for the BBCI, Ravi Dev, is representing New GPC on the board.
Ram, earlier this year, wrote that Government, inclusive of the NIS, owns 76 percent of the issued shares of the company.

NICIL, Ram said, owns what is called a Special Share in the company and according to the Articles of Amendment of the company “no action can be taken by the Bridge Company, without the affirmative vote” of NICIL.
While NIS has $950M in shares, Secure International Finance Company reportedly has $80M; Demerara Contractors $40M; Hand in Hand Motor & Life Insurance Company $40M and Colonial Life Insurance Company with $80M shares.

Oddly, the shares that were held by CLICO (Guyana) remain in the name despite the fact that CLICO is in the process of liquidation.

Government reportedly was supposed to collect $104M annually in dividends from the Berbice Bridge but waived it after BBCI said it could not afford to pay because business was bad.

In 2010 the company took in $1.1B in revenue.
The Berbice River Bridge was designed by a European consortium, Bosch Rexroth B.V. and Mabey and Johnson.

Call the Company to the Ministry of Finance and read the riot act to them.  We will pay you $140 million to reduce the tolls.  If you fail to implement, the police will run the toll booths and will transfer the money to the private companies.

You should join the PNC clan of this Govt.  This is Burnhamism all over gain.  If the PNC knows what's good for them, they will not go making more trouble with the PPP. The last thing the PNC wants is for the PPP to stir the cauldron.

Haul yuh ignorant ass dah side. We in the Diaspora got the PNC out and put the PPP into to power only for Bharat and gang to fluck up de country. We in the Diaspora helped to oust them. We in the diaspora make a difference. Our Remittances help to prop up the economy. Have a great Sunday.

Would you support Nationalization and removal of current PPP leaches?

what the hell you babbling about 

they should take that  money and pay for your mental problem 

Warrior, you seem to have PTSD if not PMS.

oh that what u mean next time english

You are just another constipated moron. Here you are in the face of some crooks leeching the life blood of your people and you are upset that there are attempts to mediate the problem and ease the burden on the poeple.

It is not their bridge. They paid in less than ten percent o the initial investment. The nation put up the rest. They are are managers not builders/ owners as is sold to us.

They already took in more than the put in. and they have another 30 years of such leeching. They are resistant to adjusting their proboscis in the blood stream of the poor. And to top it off...they got where they are by being Super leeches on the state!

As I said, let the bridge go insolvent. Let them build up debt and then force them to liquidate.

Yea, and you got the runnings.  Now go chump down on some Cassava.

I do not mind cassava. I like it. I hope you are satisfied with your daily side dish of bigannie!

and katahar. 

baseman prancing round antiman land issuing threats on behalf of the PPP . . . lol

my interest is piqued by the brew being prepared in the witches' "cauldron" of the Sanata Complex . . . hmmmm?

oh, and banna, the FBI got yuh files . . . be careful

and please tell de big tiefman and he consiglieri that if he want to go back into the terror bizness, it ain't gon be pretty in GT either

the Lot 12 annex will be completed soon . . . nah tek worries

Bobby want guarantee to mek 23% profit off the poor man.

yEH right!