THE following letter was written to the Kaieteur News in response to a publication made on Sunday and Monday 23rd and 24th August, 2009 edition, front page captioned “Bridge Cost taxpayers 26.3 million”.

This letter was written to that newspaper and was not published. On realising it was not published, the contractor (Mr. Roopan Ramotar) called Mr. Glen Lall to find out if it will be published, to which he responded in the negative.

As such for the public we feel this response is necessary and would appreciate publication.

We wish to inform that the captioned headline in the Kaieteur News Sunday and Monday 23rd and 24th August, 2009 edition, front page captioned “Bridge Cost taxpayers 26.3 million” is totally inaccurate. This 26.3 million mentioned is for the rehabilitation of all the bridges within the contract and for the construction of two new bridges.

It is felt that this is very irresponsible journalism since simple checks  can be made with the Agriculture Sector Development Unit (ASDU), Ministry of Agriculture (client) or/and the SRKN engineering (supervisory consultant) before making such publications.

The bridge in the said photograph was not constructed by our company (Roopan Ramotar Investment) nor is it part of our contract and that there is no such cost for any single bridge within our contract.

We wish to have the article corrected/retracted and the caption placed in the same place/ position it was (front page) as that with the said article.

The continued inaccurate publications by Kaieteur News are causing damage to our company and I urge that they immediately desist from making such claims without first authenticating same.
ROVIN BHOOKMOHAN
Engineer