Jagdeo urges Gov’t to release PPP contracts
Jun 30, 2016, , http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....lease-ppp-contracts/
Bharrat Jagdeo, the Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition – the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), is urging the David Granger-led Administration to release to the public and the media, several controversial contracts that were signed by the PPP/C.
Jagdeo made this disclosure during a press conference hosted by the Party at its headquarters located on Robb Street, Georgetown yesterday.
These contracts include one for the construction of the road to the Amaila Falls; the contract for the Marriott Hotel; the Speciality Hospital among other contracts.
Jagdeo said that when A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) were in the opposition, they were pressing for the release of these contracts which they had labelled as “corrupt.”
Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo.
Now that the proverbial shoe is on the other foot and the Coalition Government is claiming to walk the line of transparency, it should release these contracts to the public.
However, he did not disclose why the PPP never released them when that party was in Government.
“In the light of the call for greater transparency by the President and the Minister of Finance, we have asked for all of the contracts that were signed by the PPP that they said were corrupt, to be released,” he said.
The former President made reference to a particular contract – the Road to Amaila Falls which was undertaken by Makeshwar “Fip” Motilall.
“You would recall that they said with the Fip Motilall contract – that is the road to Amaila Falls– that that was a corrupt deal. The government, now, is in the possession of these evaluation reports when that project went to tender. Will they now release the evaluation report for the road to Amaila Falls to the public?”
Jagdeo said that since it was deemed by the then opposition that the Specialty Hospital was corrupt, the Government which now has possession of the contract, should make it public and prove to the public that it was corrupt.
He continued that the evaluation report for the Marriott Hotel should also be released since an evaluation was also done after bids were submitted.
“So in light of this, the Government – which claims that it (Marriott Hotel) was a corrupt deal, (has) now decided to expand the facility to put in the casino,”.
The Opposition Leader continued that since the then Opposition had said that the PPP was sole-sourcing the supply of drugs from the New Guyana Pharmaceuticals Corporation (New GPC), the pre-qualification evaluation report should also be released to the public and the media.
The Coalition Government had made several attempts to release contracts that would have come under scrutiny. However, for several reasons – one being “confidentially clauses” these contracts never made it into the public domain.
