Specialty Hospital Saga: Gov’t fires back at Teixeira
[www.inewsguyana.com] – The saga over the re-emergence of the Specialty Hospital construction continues with the APNU+AFC government saying that the renegotiation of the deal with India cannot be credited to the People’s Progressive Party.
This is after PPP Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira said that the plans by the new government to proceed with the contract, fully vindicates the PPP of any alleged wrongdoings or corruption.
“The PPP/C has been vindicated in that we have now lost two years thanks to the behavior of the APNU+AFC in the Opposition,” she stated later adding “it was stymied deliberately, obstructed deliberately in the last Parliament and now they come back to the same point that we started with in 2012,” she stated at a press conference on Thursday, November 12.
But the Government in a statement noted that it was the PPP, despite the vehement protestations of the then Combined APNU and AFC opposition, which concluded and forced through a shady deal with Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL).
“This deal cost the Guyanese taxpayers over $900 million, which represents the amount that the dubious SECL drew down before disappearing. The renegotiation of the medical facility contract by this Coalition Government, with the Government of India has not vindicated the PPP but rather has been further indicted that reckless regime for signing off a major project with this highly questionable company against whom a high court judgment was given to the tune of $902,192,483,” the government release stated.
Government says that for Teixeira and the PPP to now suggest that they have been vindicated is an “absurdity of no ordinary kind.”
“The credit for this new extended package of the construction of a specialty hospital along with the upgrade of three major medical institutions – Suddie Hospital, Bartica Hospital and the West Demerara Regional Hospital – ought to be given specifically to the Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton and his team and the Coalition Government in general.”
The Government also made a commitment that consistent with its policy, these newly negotiated projects will be executed with the highest level of transparency.