Govt. is not legally bound to the contract Sithe Global now holds

Dear Editor,
Your editorial of August 3rd titled: “The needless problems with Amaila”, seems to suggest that the contract Sithe Global now holds is valid and Guyana Government is legally bound to it. (Fip Motilall sold it and “…… Guyana now seems to be saddled with the cost of the project&rdquo.
Consider this anecdote. I recently contracted with a builder to build a house. Lo and Behold. Another man whom I did not recognize showed up and demanded a first installment to start the construction. He explained that the man I signed up with did not have a license and passed the contract over to him. I told him the contract is not transferable and ordered him to get lost. This true story encapsulates in a remarkable way what is now going on between GG and Sithe Global.
In what has become known as the Amaila fiasco, Fip Motilall “won” the contract to build the hydro power plant. Fip Motilall, as it turned out is a free lance operator and good talker (not a builder of anything, not an engineer), sold the contract to Sithe Global. And, even though the Guyana Government is still negotiating with Sithe Global, and pretending that the contract is transferable, it is not.
SG spokesman once said he did not know how SG got into this deal, and then added, “It just fell into our lap”. This is so shocking even as it is revealing. Is this how sovereign countries do business? And, what does it say about the power plant builder? Can this be a reputable builder?
Well, the original stated price has already more than doubled from $340 million to $840 million. And, if it is a partnership, how much equity is SG putting up – Is it 20 percent equity for 60 percent controlling ownership rights? And, is there any guarantee that SG will put up the actual dollars for the 20 percent equity? (They may not put up any – and GG will have no way of knowing).
The facts in the public domain – and the reasoning we can apply to these facts – suggest that this contract that SG now holds is not transferable and is therefore invalid. GG should scrap this deal – and re-tender the project.
GG has good or excellent relations with Brazil. Brazil has a wealth of experience in building and operating hydropower plants. It is much better and easier to work out a deal with a sovereign government like Brazil than with a so-called global company that says “the contract just fell into our lap”.  The watermark written in shadows all across this contract spells “graft”.
GG should seek out at least three valid tenders from reputable power plant builders. Evaluate these tenders carefully and select the right builder. This simple principle was not followed in this case. A sovereign government cannot ever deal with a builder that shows up on your doorstep and says: “I have a contract to build. The contract fell into our lap”.
I should remind the reading public that I once met Fip Motilall – at the Pulish Junction Bar at Better Hope in the Summer of 2010. I had six rounds of beer with him and his American engineer named Osteen. Fip boasted of Building, Operating and then Handing over the power plant to the Guyanese nation – a deal that would cost the nation “not a cent”.  I thought this guy was some kind of a “loco”.
At all times Fip talked about building a power plant, never about a road. For the next few months I read the papers and wondered: Is there some confusion here? What is Fip really building? A power plant or a road?
It turned out Fip was no loco. He was indeed given a contract to build a power plant, in addition to also building a road for $15.4 million. Fip’s bid, placed under something called Synergy Holdings, was indeed evaluated. Brassington had visited Fip Motilall where he resides in Florida – and presumably would have seen that this man owns no road-building company, was running a pooja shop – but still thought that the man deserves to be given the road-building contract, to say nothing about also awarding him a contract to build a hydro power plant. Brassington, personally, as head of Tender Board and the GG generally are complicit in a very shady deal with Fip Motilall. No less a person than PM Sam Hinds once published a lengthy letter in Stabroek News defending the contract given to Fip Motilall, saying he deserves to “win”, to be awarded the contract, almost forgetting that a contract is supposedly awarded on the merits of what is written in the tender-bid documents and on the results of the evaluation of a company involved in building powerplants and roads. Motilall’s Synergy Holdings existed only on paper – and had never done any business.
If a thing smells of graft, it usually is graft. Scrap this deal. Retender it. Or go to Brazil.
Mike Persaud