By Abena Rockcliffe
The government must understand its responsibility to ensure that all criminals are brought to justice. The struggling masses will lose all faith in this administration if it fails to bring white collar criminals to justice.
Pegasus Hotel owner, Robert Badal
That is the sentiment expressed by prominent businessman, Robert Badal, the owner of the Pegasus Hotel.
Yesterday, he made reference to revelations in the media about the contractual agreement between the then People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government and the Berbice Bridge Company Inc. (BBCI).
The businessman said that it was indeed a sad day when he learnt that a select group “routinely favoured by the former Jagdeo administration,” was given controlling interest of the BBCI when they were only financing less than five percent of the cost of the Berbice Bridge.
According to Badal, news about the arrangement sent shock waves throughout the local business community. He said that the arrangement has a striking similarity to the former administration’s planned ownership structure of the controversial Marriott Hotel.
Badal said that the Marriott deal will be remembered as one “which saw taxpayers putting more than US$40M while a ghost investor was invited to pay US$8M for a controlling two-thirds majority.”
He lamented that in both cases, the former Chairman of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, and the former President were the architects of such corrupt arrangements.
The businessman said that questions must be asked about the intent to defraud the people of Guyana.
Badal said that it is in the public interest that the cost of these projects as well as the financial architecture to the benefit of the friends of the PPP be known. He said, too, that Jagdeo must be made to answer for the abuse of public office. He opined that this sort of behaviour also characterized the former Jagdeo administration.
The businessman said that to date, many aspects of these NICIL-funded projects are not clear to the Guyanese public. He said that these include the capital structure of BBCI, its creditors; the amount of debt incurred thus far and the total loan from Republic Bank to construct the Marriott.
“These are serious questions, the answers to which the new administration must deliver. In doing so it has a duty to unravel the vicious cycle of fraud and abuse of public office and bring those responsible to justice. It has made this pledge. Guyanese demand it and the government must mobilize international expertise if necessary and act without delay,” Badal stated.
He said that those who seek public office and are given jurisdiction over public resources must be held to the norms of basic accountability. The Pegasus Hotel owner stated that when this duty is breached, they must be brought to justice.
He added, “We have helplessly tolerated this kind of wholesale looting of state resources for more than a decade, and given the opportunity that a change of Government brings, it must now ensure justice in the interest of the struggling masses. Otherwise the people of this country would lose any faith they may now have in our democracy and public officials.”
Badal admitted that it is a heavy burden for the new administration having inherited a broken economy with the major revenue earners, those being rice, sugar, and gold, facing certain challenges.
He emphasized nonetheless, that the government must bring closure to the systematic cycle of greed and the wholesale plunder of state resources by a few in the country.
The businessman said that as a first step the continuing retention of Winston Brassington, the common denominator in many of these corrupt deals, needs to be reviewed.
Given the multitude of these deals and all that was revealed since the May 2015 general elections from the Berbice Bridge, to insider land deals, to the Marriott Hotel and many others, Badal contended that the retention of Winston Brassington is incomprehensible.
