At State House Press Conference…
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday lashed out at the misrepresentations, innuendoes and outright lies consistently being touted by the privately-owned Kaieteur News newspaper, instead of facts that can be verified. According to the President, Kaieteur News has replaced the ‘New Nation’ as the PNC propaganda machine.
Referring as a case in point to yesterday’s Kaieteur News editorial, “Laptop Plunder”, the President said it seems as though there is a campaign to ‘kill this project’, which he will not allow to happen.

Citing several editorials and letters published in that newspaper castigating the government for alleged misconduct and peddling outright lies, Mr. Jagdeo paraphrased the contents of  yesterday’s KN editorial, wherein it is alleged that “Government is prone to making many mistakes, with the Hope Canal being one of those colossal mistakes that, in spite of many engineers saying that it is going to be a failure,” that government is still moving ahead with the project.

“But what Kaieteur News cleverly does,” averred President Jagdeo, “is that it does not reflect the many, many explanations that we have given to this same issue.”

Addressing a news conference at his State House residence in Georgetown yesterday,  the President pointed out that Kaieteur News was represented at the launch of the project, and as such would be privy to information – issued then, there, and elsewhere, repeatedly, that the project was designed by Mott McDonald, a British firm of international repute, which was partnered with major local engineering firm SRKN, working in collaboration with CEMCO.

The President explained that these three engineering firms did studies on water flow, on the conservancy, on designing the projects – and every related aspect, and then the ensuing design was put online, with a copy sent to the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers (GAPE), soliciting the comments of the members of that body on the design of the project.

After all the foregoing was done, and after the widest consultation with the technical engineering experts in the nation that constitute the GAPE body, the government then proceeded with the project.
President Jagdeo further indicated that, although the government showed how doing the construction in-house, using the engineer’s design with Guyana’s equipment, the cost could be cut significantly; yet, despite knowing the facts, Kaieteur News continues to issue its regular denunciation of the project, citing assessments by “some engineers”, whom they could never identify. The President also averred that Kaieteur News creates controversy over every government project, including the Berbice Bridge.
According to him, immediately before the commencement on construction of the Berbice Bridge, ‘some engineers’ were reported as advising against building the bridge because the location was wrong.
“Had I listened to these ‘some engineers’,” lambasted the President, “(who) often don’t have a name, we would have never had the Berbice Bridge.
“It was dishonest of the  Stabroek News (Kaieteur News) to start the editorial on the one laptop per family, with citing this as an example.”
When it was drawn to his attention that he had said Stabroek News when he meant Kaieteur News, the President said that one is interchangeable with the other in the way they disseminate (mis)information.