Former President Donald Ramotar has lashed back at European Union Ambassador to Guyana, who on Monday chided him for statements he made regarding the disbursements of funds for the sugar industry.

“I maintain my earlier position that Guyana had qualified for the budget support grants and that these were unjustifiably and arbitrarily withheld by the EU…” the former President said in a statement. Ambassador Jernej Videtic had made the comments in a letter to the Editor of the Guyana Times in which he responded to Ramotar who had written one earlier on the issue.
Responding to the letter which was published by the Guyana Times, the EU Ambassador said “I note that in his letter of 20 October, 2015 regarding Guyana’s sugar industry, former president Donald Ramotar claims that “the EU did not deliver the €25 million that we had earned and had an agreement on”.
The envoy said: “in fact, it was the previous government of Guyana that did not deliver on the terms of the agreement with the EU, by making little progress in public finance management reforms and by effectively suspending parliamentary oversight of the budget through the prorogation of the parliament.” Ambassador Videtic said, “It must be remembered that these funds are European citizen’s taxes, and we have a duty to carefully ensure all of our criteria are met before any funds can be released. The National Assembly is now sitting and parliamentary oversight is again in place, and we are working closely with the government to reestablish eligibility criteria to bring these budget support programmes back on track.”
The Ambassador also pointed out that Ramotar in his letter also implied that the sugar industry’s difficulties were caused “by the changed trading arrangement of the European Union”. “I would like to note that the EU sugar regime was changed not due to a unilateral decision by the EU, but due to a ruling by the World Trade Organisation. In order to mitigate the effects of this ruling the European Union has given over €110 million – that is 26 billion Guyanese dollars – to Guyana to restructure its sugar industry. The European Union has been a strong and reliable partner of Guyana for over forty years.
However, Ramotar in responding to the EU envoy said: “It is most regrettable that the Ambassador did not acquaint himself fully with the facts of this matter before pronouncing on it.” According to him in January 2015, his Government issued a release stating as follows: “Government now wishes to make publicly available the attached communication from the same EU Delegation, dated 8 September 2014, indicating clearly that Guyana had met the eligibility criteria required to qualify for disbursements totalling €25,858,025, and that the same Delegation had recommended disbursement of this sum to the EU Budget Support Steering Committee in Brussels which was due to meet on 17 September, 2014.”
Ramotar said at the time of making that release, his government pointed out that the EU delegation had stated in writing that the conditions were fulfilled and had further stated in writing that they were recommending the disbursement of €25.9 million on the basis of their satisfaction with fulfilment of the required conditions. “At the time of the January 2015 statement, it was further pointed out that Parliament was not prorogued until 10 November 2014, so the prorogation of Parliament could not possibly have been a basis for withholding a disbursement due since September 2014. In fact, after Guyana had qualified for the grants and encountered the first delays in their disbursement, in a meeting in my office with the then EU Ambassador, I was advised that the reason for the delay was the impasse over the anti-money laundering legislation. No mention was made about the prorogation of Parliament, not surprisingly because prorogation was only to come much later, and no mention was made about any conditions not being met. The sole matter mentioned was the delay in passage of the anti-money laundering legislation,” the former President said.
He added that the “indisputable fact is that Guyana did meet the conditions required for disbursement, the technical officers at the EU Delegation and the EU’s contracted technical experts were satisfied that these conditions were met, they confirmed this in writing to my Government at the time, but the disbursements were subsequently withheld with absolutely no legitimate basis. Indeed, with all that has transpired since, it is now evident that the withholding of these grants was an act of political interference.”
“I maintain my earlier position that Guyana had qualified for the budget support grants and that these were unjustifiably and arbitrarily withheld by the EU, and I reproduce hereunder the communication previously released publicly in January 2015.” Ramotar also referenced the Ambassador’s comments about EU taxpayer’s money, noting that: “perhaps he needs to be reminded that much of the wealth accumulated by Europe was built on the backs of enslaved and bounded labour, and as a result of the worst crime ever committed against humanity, leading to the very justifiable recent calls for reparations. In this regard, Walter Rodney’s seminal book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, is instructive in understanding European exploitation of the developing world, including the Caribbean,” the former President declared.