THE China Railway First Group Company Limited (CRFG) on Saturday called out U.S.-based media entity, VICE Media, for its recent reports which they denounced as an attempt to defame Chinese enterprises.

In a press statement, the CRFG recognized that in the contentious report, VICE attempted to connect the company with Guyanese citizen Su Zhirong.

“CRFG hereby solemnly states that CRFG has never signed any agreement with Su Zhirong, nor has it conduct [sic] any actions that were shown in the footage,” the statement said.

The statement added that in relation to the Amaila Falls project, a U.S.-based company, Sithe Global, which was the investor in the project and beneficiary of the concession rights, had publicized the invitation to bid for the project in 2008.

Following this process, CRFG participated in the bidding process, and in November of that same year emerged as the successful bidder in that process.

To this end, China Railway stated that it was in July of 2021 that the Guyana Government publicized the Request for Proposals for the project. Among all the proposals submitted by the various companies, CRFG’s proposal was selected as the lowest responsive bidder.

The statement said: “Therefore, in November, 2021, the Government of Guyana expressed that it would proceed to [the] next round of negotiations for the project, preferably with CRFG.

“Similar procedures were followed for the fulfilment of the ‘East Coast Demerara Public Road Widening and Improvement Project-Better Hope to Belfield Village’ (ECD Public Road Project) by CRFG.”

Further, the company noted that since its presence in Guyana in 2008, they have strictly abided by the laws and regulations of the country while conducting business operations.

As such, CRFG expressed strong concerns about the report which, it said, spread untruths which can damage the reputation of the company.

To this end, the company expressed further concern about what it saw was the defamation of Chinese-associated enterprises.

Additionally, they said that CRFG reserves its rights to seek legal action against VICE and Zhirong for the reputation-damaging behaviours, and further its rights to claim compensation for loss incurred to the business.

In early February, Vice-President (VP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, was interviewed by a VICE News reporter, who made several allegations about the VP’s involvement in Guyana’s public procurement process. VICE News is VICE Media’s current affairs channel.

All of the claims against the VP were unfounded, and attempted to paint the VP as culpable in corrupt preferential practices.

VP Jagdeo, maintaining his transparency from the inception, released the full one-hour, 39 minutes, and 16 seconds interview with the international reporter.

VICE News, however, reduced that interview to a soundbite.

Even before the publication of the VICE reports, Dr Jagdeo questioned not only the anti-China agenda of VICE News, but also the anti-blackness that emerges from global indices that report, annually, on global corruption, which consistently cast countries with non-white national leaders as more corrupt.

VP Jagdeo maintained, throughout the soundbites published by VICE, that he is not part of these procurement processes, as he is in government.

Lobbyists swindling potential investors by posing as legitimate interlocutors is a concern raised at least twice by the VP during his press conferences.

The Guyana Chronicle reported on June 1 that a man accused of being a fraudulent lobbyist was arrested after claiming to be able to use his connections with the government to get preferential treatment for companies.

The VP said then: “A few months ago, I had cause to have someone arrested here in this building [Office of the President]. Someone who met me in the [International Energy Conference and Expo], took a picture with me [and then] went to a number of people and collected money from them. He said he had a close relation with me; I’ve never seen him in my life…

“This is going on; it has become almost like an industry now, where people [are] claiming they are representing companies, and I don’t know what they are representing to these people… If any of these companies believe that meeting government officials would give them improved chances when the bids are evaluated, they are wasting their money and their time.”