PRESIDENT David Granger is being accused of failing to stamp out corruption as promised during the lead up to the May 2015 General elections.Former President, now Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo at a press conference on Thursday told reporters that the president needs to step up to the plate and deliver on his promise to eliminate corruption.

“The President said he wants to stamp out corruption and …this is a lofty goal,” said Jagdeo, who noted that if President Granger is serious about stamping out corruption he would make public commercial contracts. He pointed specifically to the settlement between the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) recently over outstanding monies owed to the Revenue Authority for a number of years.

In April, DDL and GRA reached what was described as an amicable settlement resolving a longstanding dispute over Consumption Tax that began in 2002.This settlement follows an extended legal battle between DDL and GRA arising out of the January, 2009 Consumption Tax assessment levied against DDL by then Commissioner General Kurshid Sattaur.

Jagdeo, just after the announcement of the settlement said that DDL had use of the money for 15 years. “If one were to calculate interest on this sum at a rate of 10 per cent per annum, using only the past 10 years, the liability would amount to $10.6B. The GRA assessment of $5.392B was based on a formula handed down by the court, but yet DDL refused to pay,” Jagdeo stated.

According to Jagdeo, the settlement also writes off all possible liabilities in respect of Excise Tax up to March 9, 2016. “So if the same situation obtains with regard to the Excise tax between 2006 and 2016, then the liabilities would run into tens of billions more,” he contended. Jagdeo believes that President David Granger “is living in a bubble because all that is happening in his government runs contrary to what he is saying.” He said if the President is serious about the issue of corruption he would make a “proper pronouncement” on the matter.

“We have been asking who made this agreement. Is the staff of GRA, the board, the Cabinet? …is it not time for him to disclose this agreement too…” said the former President who made it clear that nothing that his party, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) did has come “even remotely close to giving up $60B of revenue.”

That aside, Jagdeo said there is massive corruption within the Guyana Oil Company (GuyOil). He told reporters that former head of GuyOil, Badrie Persaud was sent home to “facilitate widespread theft.”

Jagdeo alleged that there is a “fuel smuggling racket” ongoing at the entity and claims that Ministers of the APNU-AFC government are involved in corrupt activities. “We know what is going on in GuyOil — many of the political people they put in Guyoil and some ministerial people have been involved in this racket. They are syphoning off the fuel… everybody knows this—this is large scale theft,” alleged Jagdeo. He called on President Granger to launch an inquiry into the alleged fuel racket but the inquiry must exclude ministers of the government. “…get an external group to look at it,” he said. Attempts to contact Minister of State Joseph Harmon for a comment on the allegations proved

Additionally, the Opposition Leader said while there were allegations of corruption with respect to the Specialty Hospital under PPP rule, the APNU+AFC government chose to use the PPP evaluation to award a contract to the second ranked bidder for the project. “We then pointed out, no, no, no… the technical evaluation under the PPP had Fedders Lloyd disqualified. Nevertheless they persisted,” Jagdeo reminded, noting that government was persistent in single sourcing. “We complained about it, the transparency body here complained about it and President Granger turned a blind eye and he talks about stamping out corruption. It was only stopped when the World Bank disqualified that company,” said the former President.

Indian contractor Fedders Lloyd Corporation Limited, was selected late 2015 by the APNU+AFC Government as the alternate contractor after the previous one, Surendra Engineering Company Limited, was fired in 2014. Fedders Lloyd was the second most qualified bidder for the US$18M project; however the World Bank has debarred the company from participating in any work between April 6, 2016 and April 5, 2020.