Dear Editor,

I MUST state categorically that Mr. Ramotar has so far failed to address pertinent issues raised by me regarding the acquisition of state property by his relative at grossly under-valued costs.There are two salient issues at hand — two issues Mr. Ramotar MUST answer:
1: Where is the $800M in steel referred to by the former President? And 2: As President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, what did Mr. Ramotar do to prevent his brother from acquiring state property in the form of land, tugs and barges at ridiculously low prices?

What Mr. Ramotar chose to do, instead, was to initiate a low-blow by creating a smoke screen, by publishing a private correspondence to him. That correspondence was in fact authored in an effort to prevent further victimization of the BK International Group of Companies; more specifically, the eviction of Jags Aviation, a subsidiary of the BK Group, from the GuySuCo Hangar at the now Eugene Correia International Airport.

If one were to follow the events leading up to my forceful penning of the said letter provided to the media by the former president, it would show clearly (that) it was a case of responding to a threat and demands for an apology. In fact, it was (done) on the recommendation of a former senior minister, (who said) that I should go beyond a formal apology and restate my allegiance to the party; (a move) which would have quelled the anger of the former President.

His anger in this instance was as a result of a flight provided by the aviation department of the BK Group -– Jags Aviation — for Mr. Ramotar to conduct election campaign activities in the Essequibo region. Our aviation consultant at the time, Mr. Bobby Vieira, had called and informed me that the company had, a day before, provided a flight to the same area (for) a team of APNU/AFC campaign officials headed by Mr. Raphael Trotman. Mr. Trotman’s team was due to return to Georgetown the same morning that Mr. Ramotar and his team went in.

As suggested by Mr. Vieira, it would have been much more economical for the aircraft taking in the then president (as this was a one-way charter) to ferry Mr. Trotman and his team back to Georgetown.

Since this operation apparently annoyed the former president — which he displayed on several occasions later — we were advised to write and offer an apology for any discomfort we may have caused him. This was immediately done by Mr. Vieira and sent to the President.

However, this did not quell the anger of Mr. Ramotar. His rant continued, with threats to evict my airline operations from the GuySuCo hangar where we were conducting our operations. It was as a result of the continued abuse and (his making) significant claims of my contributions to the APNU in the (form of) millions of dollars that a former senior minister suggested that I pen the letter, part of which he made some suggestions so as to quell the issue.

Clearly, I simply wanted to alleviate the situation at that time. Jags Aviation further went the distance to waive the fee for the former President’s one-way charter.

The said letter released by Mr. Ramotar (brings) further into question his integrity as a person, moreso someone entrusted to lead this beloved country of ours.

My consultant was on several occasions subjected to Mr. Ramotar’s rants and claims of us backing the APNU and the AFC. We run, with significant costs, an operation involving aircraft; we never discriminated against anyone or political party which requested our services. Maybe the ex-president felt this should have been standard procedure.

Editor, many persons were born with political affiliations. However, it is one’s democratic right to choose his/her political direction. My support for change was (because I wanted change) as (much as) any or most Guyanese; thus my choice to (support) whom I choose and would support. My point is (that) we should put Guyana first.

By (the time of the letter in question), Hubu Backdam road and Haags Bosch dump site contracts were already taken away from BK Construction. The Barge referred to in my initial missive was purchased by Jules Cranningburg at a cost of over US$1M, and resold to former President Donald Ramotar’s relative for a paltry G$3M.

Let us deal with the issues at hand: I challenge Mr. Ramotar to refute this; I further challenge the former president to refute the denial of BK International of the Aremu Interior Road project, which was in turn “gifted” to the Vulture Construction Company even though BK International was awarded the contract. Strangely, Mr. Ramotar personally and genuinely advised me to sue his government over this injustice.

Sincerely,
BRIAN TIWARIE A.A.
Managing Director
BK Group of Companies