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Dear Editor,
I support the call by Jillian Adams in another paper calling for “Allegations of corruption to be investigated by an independent body (Aug 27). The following are suggested projects and acts (list not exhaustive) that should be queried:
fishing trawlers fiasco;
-purchase of GDF helicopters;
-granting or not environmental permits without proper studies or not conducting any studies for various projects of government or favored companies (how was clearance done without impact statements);
-Guysuco operations and management as well as its land grants and grabs;
leasing of US$14 M packaging plant and building a new packaging plant for higher cost than the combined receipts of the lease;
-awarding of contracts to build road (many of the roads are falling apart with huge potholes), to procure pumps, steel sheet piling (tendered multiple times) and varied movable equipment, and to build pump stations (contracts were given to inexperienced, unqualified contractors);
-flood relief grants (why no accounting and auditing for fraud);
-denial that oil and gas production is impacting fish stock yet government agrees to compensate fisherfolks;
-Mr. Su’s revelations; Demerara River Bridge (why switch location from what was planned by coalition government and why the sudden switch of contractor; is it characterized by features that Su talked about in Vice revelations? Did Su revelation lead to a change in company);
-shore base being constructed at mouth of Demerara River (why is Exxon constructing it with government oil revenue and state not owning it? Why aren’t details of this transaction made public);
-gas to shore and the Wales Industrial complex;
-allocation of land as well as permit to grow hemp;
-granting of land in Uitvlugt and Leonara (President’s home town);
-non opening of the four closed estates;
-making contract payments without validation of work by engineers and scrutiny by accounting departments; and many more deals.
And while we are at it, the public would be interested to know: Given the glaringness (and boldness) of aspects of questionable award of contracts, is there organized corruption by a few individuals at the top? Are individuals fronting for gov’t executives? Can the President or VP say whether the summoning to Washington has now led to American companies getting contracts that are being steered away from Chinese companies?
Yours truly,
Justin Defreitas
