Solicitor General … PPP had agreed to pay off BK

–says US$5.7M represents payment for works completed

THE US$5.7M being paid to BK International Inc. is not an out-of-court settlement, but represents payments owed to the company by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government for the operation of the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill facility.

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams

This was revealed by Solicitor General Sita Ramlal in an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle.

Ms. Ramlal explained that while in Government, the PPP, through its Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, had acknowledged its indebtedness to BK International long before the May 2015 General and Regional Elections.

“They admitted owing him (BK) for work that he had completed. The invoices were all there, and were approved,” she told this newspaper.

Managing Director of BK International, Brian Tiwari

It was pointed out also that the claim initially made by BK International and agreed to by the previous government was substantially higher than the US$5.7M being paid by the APNU+AFC Government.

“He claimed a lot more, and we negotiated it down… There was no litigation in the sense (that) he filed an action on his own,” Ramlal further explained.

In light of a series of articles, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams made it clear that BK International did not file a lawsuit against the Government over the wrongful termination of the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill contract, but had challenged the decision in the High Court. The PPP Government, through its then Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, had belatedly

Solicitor General Sita Ramlal

terminated the contract, on February 27, 2015, due to non-compliance with the Operations Management Requirements and the Environment Permit which was granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That contract was for the period 2011 to 2021.

In response, the Managing Director of BK International, Brian Tiwari, filed an action in the High Court challenging the termination. The Attorney General’s Chambers represented the Ministry of Local Government (now Ministry of Communities) in that action.

On November 26, 2015, then Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang SC, CCH, ruled that the termination of the contract by the former government was not correctly done. The effect of this decision was that the contract continued, and Tiwari could remain on site.

On December 30, 2015, the Attorney General caused a Notice of Appeal and an Application for a Stay to be filed against the said decision; and talks were entered into with Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan and his team, Brian Tiwari and his team, and Attorney General and his team, with a view to resolving this matter. However, before any agreement was made to pay a percentage of the money owed, Cabinet first had to give its approval.

Minister Williams said it was important to resolve the matter, given the environmental and health risks the landfill sited posed under the watch of BK International, and also to retain funding. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) had refused to continue funding the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill (HBSL) project due to the poor services offered by BK; they wanted the company out. After a series of meetings, the parties agreed in January, 2016 to the reduced sum of US$5.7M in money owed for works that were satisfactorily completed by BK.

Minister Williams, however, noted that when the matter initially engaged his Chambers, he had realized that BK International had breached the contract on several grounds, but he was unable to proceed with the matter.

“I also discovered when I investigated the contract that BK had occasioned numerous breaches, and I said…that they should prepare some draft statements of claim and try to arrive at the notional damages that would have been occasioned by each breach… It transpired that the breaches were not followed up by the Government or whoever that was dealing with the matter…so BK continued performing under the contract, because the breaches that he made, in law it meant that they were waived.”

Nonetheless, with the matter between Government and BK International being solved, Government signed a new contract last July, this time with Puran Brothers Disposal Inc. for the management and operation of the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill Facility at a cost of $221.4M, but only for a period of one year.

With that hurdle crossed, it is anticipated that the safety and environmental issues that had plagued the facility and neighbouring communities are being addressed through effective management on the part of Puran Brothers Disposal Inc.

The new contract allows for new and improved features to be employed at the landfill facility to significantly enhance its ability to process and compact the waste, reduce the order, and combat fires.