Dear Editor

THE Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) wishes to offer the following information on a number of projects. This is in light of recent allegations levelled against the ministry by the Opposition. The Opposition has publicly stated that the ministry has been tampering with the bidding process for a number of contracts. The ministry strongly refutes these allegations and calls for the Opposition to cease in its deliberate misrepresentation of facts. The media is also urged to remain vigilant.

“What the Opposition does is present half of the facts and fill in the rest of details with their own fabrications,” Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson said. He continued, “The Opposition presents these documents that are indeed official, because the ministry publicly puts the information out there; this is information that is in the public domain. But then what they do is extrapolate and insinuate that something underhanded is happening and present half of the details to make it seem like there is a semblance of truth.”

The Facts
The Georgetown Prisons — The Opposition stated that the process was annulled in order to allow for cronyism. The process was indeed annulled, the cries of cronyism by the Opposition are more of their mischievous attempts to spread falsehoods. The annulment was to allow for the project to fall under the relevant ministry, which in this case is the Ministry of Public Security. The MoPI was simply responsible for technical support.

· Pedestrian overpasses — The Ministry of Public Infrastructure went out for tender for the pedestrian overpass projects and, at the same time, MoPI also went out for the tender of the vehicular overpass project. However, when it was discovered that the land initially marked as reserved for the latter project was sold under the previous administration, this project’s tender was annulled in a bid to not lose any more funding.

As a result, there were residual funds remaining under the loan and the ministry sought and subsequently received approval for the construction of two additional overpasses. These two additional overpasses were awarded to S. Jagmohan Hardware Supplies and Construction Services.

Furthermore, the bidding process for this project saw bids being received for the first three overpasses. The ministry was subsequently given the No-Objection from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to tender for the two remaining overpasses using the same procurement process as the previous three. It must be noted that B&J Civil Works was excluded from this procurement process.

We must emphasise that this process was undertaken following IDB approval. This approach was done to keep within the timeline; the new process would not have allowed for the project to meet its November 2017 deadline, the time at which the loan agreement with the IDB would come to an end.

· Kitty culvert works — Once again, the Opposition’s statements are rife with inaccuracies. This project was one which did not have its process annulled. These works were ones that required an emergency approach and saw the ministry seeking and receiving approval for said emergency works via selective tendering. This is in keeping with the procurement laws of Guyana.

Wismar Bridge
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure also notes with concern an erroneous article published by the news outlet, iNews Guyana, under the headline, “Investigation reveals IDB falsely implicated again, not funding Linden Bridge study.”

The ministry wishes to strongly repudiate the erroneous statement made within the report, which states that no provision for funding of the Linden Wismar Bridge was provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The ministry wishes to firmly maintain that the IDB did indeed provide funding for the project. In a letter dated July 27, 2016, the IDB provided its No Objection to the Revised Request for Proposal (RFP) and Terms of Reference for the Feasibility and Design Studies for Construction of a Bridge across the Demerara River at Wismar, Linden. This funding was being provided under the LO-2741/BL-GY loan agreement and the ministry subsequently went to tender.

However, due to a decision taken by government to have this loan agreement reformulated so as to include the housing sector, it is currently under review by the IDB. As a result, the bidding process for the Feasibility and Design Studies for the Wismar Bridge was cancelled. It must be noted that the government is seeking funding to have the studies completed.

The ministry also notes reference to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) within the article and wishes to state that the CDB, under the United Kingdom Infrastructure Fund, is not providing funding for any component of the Wismar Bridge project. This project was included in the list of projects put forward by the ministry to the Ministry of Finance in our 2018 submission for its consideration.The CDB at no point in time had been funding the bridge, as erroneously stated by iNews Guyana.

Therefore, the ministry is calling on iNews Guyana to retract the grossly inaccurate article and to publish this retraction with the same gusto it with which it had published the original article. The ministry further denounces all attempts by the news outlet to cast doubts on the character of Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.

iNews Guyana is also encouraged to undertake more responsible journalism and to desist from its deliberate perversion of facts, under the guise of “investigative journalism.”

Regards
Ms. Desilon Daniels
Public Relations Officer
Ministry of Public Infrastructure