Quite an ignorant column. This is the kind of trash that would only see the pages of the crappy Guyana Chronicle. Mr Demerara_Guy what role you played in the failure of the Upper Mazuruni hydro? Remember the one your boss President Burnham was eager to build? 

The PPP is paying a price of arrogance.  I don't agree with everything the opposition does, but do they (PPP) just expect support with they are less that forthcoming on many issues.  The PPP just have to learn to work within democratic constraints and deal with the opposition.

Jagdeo's arrogance still hangs heavy over the Ramotar regime.  Jagdeo is making governing difficult with his back-door politics using his entrenched camp within the party.  This guy has become very obstructionist.

Rickey singh is correct. Baseman, It is BLOODY time Ramotar grow some Balls and tell Jagdeo to go fly Kite!!!!!

Bai be careful how yuh talking from both side ah yuh mouth...yuh irritating yuh kera...yuh mek it start bleeding...

The loan from the Chinese is 8.5%. Had it not been for the very high perception of corruption World Bank would typically finance a hydro like this at 3% top, particularly for poor countries like Guyana. Guyana is suffering because of the arrogance of the PPP that helps promote the image of corruption. That's a 5.5% corruption premium for borrowing from the Chinese instead of WB. 

O rass like the jagabat cut aff yuh free rum supply....

I am not an ass kisser, soup drinker like you, a "******" of the lowest level. People like you are not only dangerous, Shameless and Scampish but are Low Lives!!!!

Mr Jagdeo gives him free rum? I am not surprised to learn he is connected to the corrupt cabal. Rum, a very cheap price for loyalty. 

It is sad to see our resident addict backslide. Your psychiatry fee will be very expensive.

Hey katahar, understand something, baseman always tells the truth and call a spade a spade.  It's not talking from both sides, it's talking from one side, the truth, regardless who is on the other side.

I have my sources, I can tell you, it's not as simple as that.  BJ has a well entrenched and loyal camp which Ramotar depends on to execute.  BJ could, and does, muddy the waters for Ramotar.

if u could hear me laffing.

To the Jagdeo camp the PPP is insignificant. Ram Karan should make a pitch to recapture the party. The Jagdeoites intends to stagnate the party whilst his chosen carry out their agenda.

It's not that easy and PNC instigated and threats of terrorism does not help either.  Such serve to strengthen the BJ camp.

Hydro-power is crucial to the development of SOME countries. Guyana is not one of those countries. For Guyana, the power maybe relialble dependent upon the attitudes of those responsible for providing an efficient service. Guyana is a corrupt and doan care country. They can not maintain a clean enviroment and provide functional kokers and sluices to control floods much less a hi-tech facility. Most likely GPL will manage it-as if their present managment is a hi-lustre one. 

The cost of hardware to maintain voltages and transmission would be on going expenditure.

It is hoped that Guyana would become a manufacturing base with hydro-power. Hydro-power is not cheap in any country. However those countries that manufacture with it, it is a benefit that offset the actual cost of generation. The infrastructure of a country improves in all aspects, the citizens enjoy a better standard of living. Countries with large populations are greater consumers in everything.

The government agencies in Guyana lack the confidence of the citizens in business ventures other than cake-shop type. The government have no plans for a BUsiness Bank, so they depend on the Chinese-who eventually would would royally screw the citizens of Guyana. 

To be the manufacturing base like China that has the world as its market place. Guyana has to be able smelt all types of metals very cheap like the Chinese do. And produce parts as cheaply as Chinese do. And ship them to their consumers as cheaply as the Chinese do. Just to ship today to Brazil is more costly than shipping to Florida from Guyana-and Guyana promotes trade with Brazil.

Guyana could gain a small portion of the global wealth-not in smelting, not in mining but intead in a well thought out balance economy.

Guyana needs an interconnecting railway system. It needs to develop an agressive agricultural plan and they MUST invest money and time in GUYANESE nationals for them to build a country.

And you think if the PNC is in power all the abovementioned will be realized?

The railway system, which was in operation for a long time, was removed by the Forbes Burnham.

NEVER in the history of Guyana did we EVER get the sort of government as a Colonial ppl endowned with progress. Instead, we get Jagan who go out and entice Burnham to come back to BG. And the two of dem like dogs fighting over a bone and we get to watch as we c a once progressive colony go the way of Haiti.

Did Cheddie ever think that Forbes Burnham was stupidee or he thought that because communism claims everybody was one and of the same, Forbes din have no ambitions.

Under PPP, I hope the ppl can pickup from 1953. Under a person coming from outside the present cabal.

Ricky Singh keep Quoting word for word what Kit Nascimento said...(De Spokesman for Public Service Commission - PSC)

Ricky really losing it....he do not know... it was the same man who fired him as a reporter at the Graphic ....under the PNC Govt.....

who besides the PNC Hydro Engineer......

would believe Ricky kissing up to Kit Nascimento today.)

 The ironies of life! 

HEHEHE Bunham Bruk the entire Railway System.

Yes. Just like how Jagdeo bruk up the sugar industry. 

Really?? Suh only salt available.

Add sugar. Mr Ramotar + Mr Jagdeo = Bruk Up Guysuco

Look in the mirror and you will se TRASH.

Ricky is now saying....he is being made a Donkey.....

all the one sided info he got came from Freedom House.....

He did not know he is siding with a PNC Thug...Kit Nascimento....

who Minister of Information under Burnham when he was fired.

the APNU/AFC coalition chose to vote against the bill and motion without offering any reason for so doing.

The country deserves an explanation, perhaps with specifics.

President Ramotar accused the APNU/AFC coalition of calculated "economic sabotage" and "political terrorism

Very undiplomatic language and very unbecoming of a head of state which can only rub egos and raise the opposition ire. Everyone should be rational with their words and actions. One can catch more files with honey than with vinegar.

the PSC disclosed its awareness of the valuable documents that government had shared with the opposition, and declared:

"What the PSC is not sure of is what aspects of the (shared) documents the opposition is unhappy about

Again a fair question.

The PSC has called on the opposition parties to publicly explain "what are their concerns" that could have so surprisingly prevented them from supporting the bill and motion to move the process forward for the hydro-power plant at Amaila Falls to become a reality. Silence to this challenge from the PSC has remained the opposition's stance at the time of writing this column.

 

A fundamental difference is that President Burnham was assured of support for his envisaged hydro-power project in the Upper Mazaruni region from the then parliamentary opposition People's Progressive Party of the late President Cheddi Jagan.

Cheddi Jagan, may have been an honorable man, however, politics can be played differently sometimes for the common good of a country, if the opposition today are making reasonable requests in the national interest in exchange for their support there is nothing wrong with that and the government of the day can accede to those demands all in the national interest

you dummy ramotar hands was in the cookies jar 

BOARD Chairman of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) Ltd, Senior Counsel Mr. Robin Stoby, has pegged the current state of political gridlock as a constraint on economic progress. GBTI, with a capital base of nearly $88B, is the largest Guyanese-owned bank.
In his half-yearly report to shareholders, Mr. Stoby cited the parliamentary imbroglios, particularly over the National Budget estimates and the anti-money laundering legislation, as being among a number of factors responsible for a recent “noticeable slowdown in our economy.”

if you guys give back 10% of what you thief it will make up the budget

Gov’t discredits Hydro Power comparison made by APNU, AFC

The Government last evening issued a statement debunking claims made by members of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance for Change (AFC), as it relates to the controversial Amaila Falls Hydro Project.

In an article published by Kaieteur News on Sunday, Opposition members Joseph Harmon and Khemraj Ramjattan presented a Pakistani hydro project as comparable to Amaila.

In response, the Government stated that Pakistan’s Hydro Project cannot be compared to the Amaila Falls Hydro Power Project.

According to the statement, the Pakistani project, called the Patrind Hydropower Project, could not be more different than Amaila.

“The result is yet another example of the Opposition trying to use apples-to-oranges comparisons to purposefully mislead the Guyanese people.”

Below is what the government had to say about the two projects:

Here are the simple facts, which had the Opposition members bothered to research might have steered them away from making such a blatantly incorrect comparison:

1)        The cost of a transmission line is not included in the Pakistan project cost.  For Amaila, this cost is approximately US$ 155 million.

2)        The cost of an access road is not included in the Pakistan project cost.  This cost is estimated at approximately US$ 30 million for Amaila.

3)        The Pakistan project’s cost is actually estimated at US$ 436 million and not US$ 362 million as presented by the Opposition members.  This is based on an UNFCC project design document dated December 17th 2012, “the capital cost required for the Patrind Hydropower Project is currently estimated at US$ 436 million or approximately US$2.9 million per MW installed capacity.”

The UNFCCC’s Secretariat has conducted thorough research on the project as part of registering the project under one of its clean energy development mechanisms.

4)        The project is “low tech” when compared to Amaila.  The Pakistani project uses simpler technology called run-of-river because of its natural conditions.  A run-of-river hydro project is cheaper to construct than a normal hydro because it does not require the significant civil-engineering works such as the construction of an underground tunnel, which is a sizable portion of construction cost.  Amaila will have a three (3) kilometer underground tunnel from the reservoir to the turbines, whereas the physical conditions of the Pakistan project does not require such a tunnel.  The cost of constructing the Amaila power tunnel and headract tunnel is approximately US$ 85 million.

5)        In addition, because the Pakistan project is a run-of-river project, it has a small reservoir—56 hectares vs. Amaila’s reservoir of 2,330 hectares—a metric that clearly shows the complete difference in hydro-dam type of the two projects and why they should not be compared.  We will not try to estimate the increased cost for clearing the larger reservoir, although this is obviously a factor for the cost comparison.

6)        The Pakistan project benefits from concessional financing.  According to the aforementioned UNFCC project design document, “the fact that the financing for such huge projects in Pakistan is difficult is evident as the multilateral banks (MLBs) are willing to consider the financing for the project below a competitive margin of 4.75%… If same project would have to be financed based on local sponsors and no Certified Emission Reduction revenue, the MLBs would not have agreed on such terms given the risk profile of the country and local sponsors.”

7)        Longevity – the power generating equipment of the Pakistan projected is expected to last for 30 years.  Amaila’s equipment on the other hand is expected to last 50 years, and if well maintained with proper major maintenance overhauls, 75 to 100 years.  Obviously longer lasting equipment will command a premium.

Aside from taking into consideration the facts specific to the two projects, the Opposition members failed to, purposefully or not, reveal to their audience the large difference in the settings in which these two projects are being developed.  Pakistan currently has 21 hydropower plants that are providing energy to its national grid.  As a result, Pakistan has extensive experience in building and operating hydros, giving that country certain advantages, such as in-country expertise, on-going relationships with hydro developers, etc.  In 2011, Pakistan had a total hydro installed capacity of 6,720 MW.

Guyana on the other hand is in the process of developing its first hydro.  This is the first time Guyana is able to tap its large water resource to deliver power to its citizens.

However, the Opposition seems to be pulling out all stops to try to prevent this, even if it means distorting the facts and telling the public that they should continue to wait for hydropower by presenting false comparisons.

It is terribly ironic that the Opposition is making a case for the Guyanese public to wait for hydro by presenting a misleading comparison to a hydro in Pakistan, a country which has had over 100 MW of installed hydro capacity since 1958.  The public cannot fall for that.

Amaila Falls Project flawed, represents waste, mismanagement

Professor Clive Thomas has come out to discredit Guyana’s largest financial undertaking—the Amaila Falls Hydro Project (AFHP.)
He identified numerous shortcomings and discrepancies linked to the Amaila Falls project. Professor Thomas advised that “painful as it may be, it is better to get out of flawed business deals sooner rather than later.”
He said that if the private sector is as enamored as it says about the profitability of this government project, it should stand the cost; such a shaky project should not be the burden of taxpayers.

Professor Clive Thomas holds his recently completed comprehensive study on the Amaila Falls project.

The economist has completed the first comprehensive study prepared on the project by any entity other than the government of Guyana. The publication is titled “Eight essays on the political economy of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project.”
It was reiterated that the WPA differs on many opinions held by the parliamentary opposition parties including A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) of which the WPA is a member.
The party said that it will stand its grounds on its ideologies and will fight in the APNU what they feel is the better position to be taken in parliament.
Professor Thomas concluded that if with all the questions being raised on this project, private investors still believe that it is worthwhile, they should be the ones making the entire investment.
The economist was adamant that smart people should pull out of the project before it is too late, but noted that if there is so much hope in the project, the ones with all the hope should be the ones investing. He said that the taxpayers should not be the ones feeling the squeeze.
Thomas pointed out that there are disconcerting reports that the parliamentary Opposition plans to make its decision on whether to support the Project, or not, by piggy-backing on the Inter American Bank’s willingness to commit funds to it, after reportedly the World Bank has walked away from the Project. Towards that the economist expressed that “Guyanese deserve leadership of better quality and more national dignity.
The Economist said that he does not know the politics of the IDB. He added that the simple truth is that any study can be made to service what the investors have in mind. “What we need is an independent study,” said Thomas.
Thomas noted that the WPA believes that strategically, hydropower is indispensable to Guyana’s economic transformation and development. However, Thomas noted that “this strategic value does not automatically translate into the selection of a specific hydropower project, including the AFHP, as the economically efficient choice. That has to be separately established.”
Thomas said that the AFHP is identified as one in a class of “troubled public projects”, with several distinguishing features, including: the absence of publicly available systematic project evaluations for independent assessment of these; prolonged delays; escalating costs; questionable financing arrangements; waste and mismanagement; public controversies; non-transparency; and signs of “opportunistic rogue investing”.
The economist asserted that the project turned out to be such a “disaster” because it is not presented as a “stand-alone project.”
Thomas said that as a standalone hydropower project, the AFHP is ill-conceptualized and mis-specified in its ecological-economic dimensions.
Another point was that while the AFHP’s technical-engineering specifications can only be fully verified after it is up and running, today’s technical/engineering challenge is to minimize, within tolerable limits, the likelihood of failed outcomes. He said that there is doubt about achieving the aforementioned.
He identified, too, that the government’s promotional literature identifies the government of Guyana as the Project Guarantor. “This instantly raises its contingent external liability by US$750 million (as indicated in the Motion before the National Assembly) or about 30% of GDP.”
Thomas added that, the Project has always been promoted as a public-private partnership (PPP), and was initially welcomed by the IMF-World Bank because of this. Cynically, Government and private sector spokespersons are relabeling it now as a private project!
However, the most recent official promotional literature (June 2013) still cites the government as Project Guarantor!
Noting that the AFHP will be executed through Amaila Falls Hydro (AFH) Inc, Thomas said that this is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) created as an off-balance sheet device by its parent company Sithe Global.

Amaila Falls Project flawed, represents waste, mismanagement

Professor Clive Thomas has come out to discredit Guyana’s largest financial undertaking—the Amaila Falls Hydro Project (AFHP.)
He identified numerous shortcomings and discrepancies linked to the Amaila Falls project. Professor Thomas advised that “painful as it may be, it is better to get out of flawed business deals sooner rather than later.”
He said that if the private sector is as enamored as it says about the profitability of this government project, it should stand the cost; such a shaky project should not be the burden of taxpayers.

“We had three technical presentations-first in March 2012, then in March 2013, then in June 2013; we shared the three major agreements for the transaction along with the legislation; we had visits to the road; we had the Caribbean Country Director for the IDB meet the Opposition on July 17; we had the debate on July 18.”

Despite President Ramotar requesting questions and offering to have advisors answer questions, the joint Opposition did not raise any or seek answers outside of these discussions.

Amaila Falls is being progressed as a public-private partnership.  But first and foremost, this is a private sector led project, and much of the information is commercially sensitive and confidential until the transaction is finalised.  Since the Opposition voted against the project, confidential information provided only to the Opposition is now being disseminated opportunistically.”