Dear Editor,
I have noted the letter by Mr. Bulkan, Minister of Communities, in which he accused me of making baseless statement in relation the government’s payment to BK International of more than one billion dollars on a mere letter threatening litigation.Let me say that my statement was based on an article in the “Kaieteur News” of August 23, 2016. The headline read “Government pays BK US$5.7M on a simple threat” contained therein is the admission of Mr. Bulkan. Mr Bulkan never asked the “Kaieteur News” to apologise or to retract its story. Having not done so, I assumed that that report is accurate. Since Mr. Bulkan raised the matter I spoke to the editor of the Kaieteur News and he assured me that that newspaper was sticking by its story as being correct.
It is, therefore, clear that it is the Minister who is uttering untruths in denying what he said. Mr. Bulkan went on to point out what was the basis for the huge payment to BK International. That is not the issue at hand. While in government I was aware of those figures. The issue is BK International that violated the agreement several times. The PPP/C government felt that it was BK International that was liable and should pay the government instead.  We were ready to fight this in the Courts.
It was this APNU regime that quickly rolled over and gave BK International a huge payment. Many people are very suspicious of this, as well as many other cases, that are being settled by this regime. Mr. Bulkan took the opportunity to castigate me about Guysuco difficulties. Here again, he is displaying a huge gap in his knowledge of what is happening at Guysuco, or if he knows, he has once more chosen to be dishonest.
I mentioned before that Guysuco’s problems began when the price of sugar received from the EU fell by 36% in 2010. The PPP/C government was investing in the industry to deal with the new reality.  Our plan was working as could be seen in the 2015 results.
Had the PPP/C not been cheated out of office, Wales would not have been closed and Rose Hall would not be threatened with closure. The industry has huge potentials in value added products. This regime refuses to go in that direction and is closing the industry instead. This is a decision that will haunt this country in the future. Mr. Bulkan should be one of the last persons to speak or refer to anyone’s ability to manage. After all, his family business ran into bankruptcy. His pique with the PPP/C administration was because the government did not accede to their request for a bail out of some three hundred million dollars. The PPP/C government felt it could not use taxpayers’ money in that fashion. Technically, since he declared bankruptcy he should not be a Minister of any government.
Donald Ramotar
Former President