... we can readily agree that Guyana needs to reduce its approximately US$350M annual import fuel bill and that 750,000 Guyanese – private and business consumers – deserve a more reliable supply of electricity after almost four decades. So, if this Amaila project is supposed to benefit Guyanese, why is there so much secrecy about its details? Even in the ensuing months after Sithe Global announced its pull-out from the Amaila deal in 2013, Guyanese still don’t have answers to lots of questions about the project, especially how its estimates rose from an original US$450M to around US$900M without a single brick being laid for the generating facility or who will be running the facility after construction is completed. In fact, some have asked if the Amaila Hydro access road project could balloon from US$15M when the contract was signed March 26, 2010 in President Bharrat Jagdeo’s office to US$41M in 2014, what is there to stop construction costs of the Amaila generating facility from ballooning from an estimated US$900M to US$2B by the time it is finished. With Sithe Global out of the picture and the Chinese, from whom Mr Jagdeo secured a US$500M loan towards the project, being the single biggest investor, the next obvious question is whether the PPP regime would collaborate with the Chinese to force the project on Guyanese. If the Chinese will be funding, building, owning and operating the Amaila as part of the BOOT component of the deal, it will likely mean the nation’s entire electricity supply would be in the hands of the Chinese, because the Chinese-owned Bosai bauxite mining company in Linden, already supplies Region 10 with electricity. How can this not be a national security concern to private and business consumers, especially given that the nation does not know what is contained in the deals that have been or will be struck with the Chinese?
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 14:19:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015