‘Mis-statements in Linden news report’

Dear Editor,

Please allow me to correct mis-statements made in the Stabroek News report of Thursday, July 9 under the caption ‘Control of Mackenzie-Wismar bridge returned to Linden Town council’, written by Jeff Trotman.

Paragraph 1: I did not express an opinion on the issue but merely outlined what the Bridge Act states about revenue collection. No mention or suggestion was made about change of control of the bridge.

In paragraph 4 no mention of the former Minister of Finance was made at the meeting.

In paragraph 7, my recollection of the meeting was that Mr Gordon did not say that $4M disappeared from Nicil’s account, but that the operating expense for the bridge in April was $4M.

I also wish to state that I did not have the authority nor did I agree to any redistribution of revenue as suggested by the author.

I trust that these corrections will be made forthwith.

Yours faithfully,
Horace James
CEO
Linmine Secretariat

Editor’s note

Our Linden correspondent informed us that he made a recording of the more than five-hour statutory meeting held in June, and the following response is based on that recording.

Paragraph 1: Mr James did not actually say he was happy about the change in the control of the McKenzie-Wismar bridge, although that was the implication of his general remarks. Stabroek News regrets the statement indicating he was pleased with the new arrangement.

Paragraph 4: The former Minister of Finance was not actually named in the meeting; however, for the clarification of readers so they would understand the context, a qualification was inserted after ‘Minister of Finance’, namely, “under the former administration.”

Paragraph 7: Mr Gordon’s actual words were as follows: “That is an account of NICIL. So, all that money is taken out as I pointed out in my letter, for the month of April – I think $4M, wap, out. He [the Minister of Finance] kept insisting that they should not do that. When they are taking out lump sum money, they should make contact with the people who sit on the committee…”

With respect to Mr James’s final point, he is recorded as saying: “I was asked to look at what was an acceptable monthly operating expense and after reviewing that, the net cash flow was to be divided as follows: 60%… for the town council, 20% for maintenance/rehabilitation and cash services and 20% for the Linmine Secretariat…” He then went on to expand on this.