Dear Editor-in-Chief,
MY attention was drawn to a screaming headline, “T&T company implicates Finance Ministry in allleged kickbacks scheme,” in Guyana Times, Tuesday, October 15, 2019.
In the substantive article, which appears on page 7, is written, “According to documents seen by this newspaper, the GUYOIL employee informed Commissioning Managing-Director Nirmala Rarnbharat, that the payments were on behalf of a senior official within the Finance Ministry.”

This assertion is patently and hopelessly false. It has no other purpose than to tarnish the image of the Ministry of Finance and, by innuendo or otherwise, impugn the integrity of senior officials of the ministry. I can state categorically that NO official of the Ministry of Finance had anything to do, directly or indirectly, with the transactions between GUYOIL and the Trinidad company. No official of the Ministry of Finance, whether senior or junior, requested any official of GUYOIL to procure any bribe or extract any concession from the Trinidad company. Indeed, without any checking of the veracity of the allegation, without a shred of evidence (for example, records of the dates and times of the phone calls, recordings of the phone conversation, WhatsApp or other forms of messaging), a senior official of the Finance Ministry is implicated.
The full chronology of events that led to the termination of the three contracts has been

elaborated in a press release by the Chief Executive Officer, GUYOIL. We note that the Trinidad company is using the court of public opinion to prosecute its case. The proper arena for ventilating grievance and seeking justice is obviously the courts of Guyana. The company has signalled its intention to sue GUYOIL. Once they do so, we intend to vigorously defend our rights. We will be vindicated.
Regards
Mark Bender
Chairman, Board of Directors of GUYOIL