Wales Estate PPP gas project
DEAR EDITOR,
One month after announcing a proposed gas project for the Welsh Estate and we still haven’t seen the promised feasibility study. Despite repeated calls in all media for Jagdeo to release any study that has been conducted on the proposed project since its publication, it is not forthcoming. Will it be another white elephant? Is it practical? Is it a project for plundering taxpayers’ money? Will another fraud be listed on the people? These are relevant questions. Mr Glenn Lall warned on his radio program about an upcoming PPP project. Will there be boyfriend bargains?
What is the financial cost? Some estimate over US $ 1B. Can we afford it?
Vice President Jagdeo had indicated that the Wales onshore gas project would be a PPP project. No, not the project owned by the People’s Progressive Party but a public, private, (PPP) partnership similar to the Berbice Bridge and the Marriott Hotel. Those two projects benefited friends, cronies and lovers. A media owner invested in both of those projects and recouped many times his minority investment while the government is yet to recover its majority investment, which exceeded all private investors combined. There should be an audit of Marriott and Berbice Bridge of actual financing and return on investment. How much did the government invest and how much did each private investor invest? Since the government has invested money, the public must be informed of each investor’s investment percentage and rate of return.
The Wales Estate was due to be reopened for sugar as promised by the government. Will the Wales Estate and associated lands be transferred to pools? Will Wales be another crony project for friends and party funders? The names of two people are referred to as private investors for the PPP Wales project – both are said to own cricket franchises. The one in Guyana invested in the bridge and the hotel.
Investors in PPP Wales need investigation. There is no reason why the government can’t float a company to buy shares in public to raise the money for setting up the project – let the people own the gas and oil business rather than the friends and cronies of corrupt politicians .
As with the Marriott and Berbice Bridge, the PPP predicted that the government will offer the majority of the investment and that the majority shares will be owned by private investors.
For Wales, as in the other two PPP projects, wealth is likely to be transferred from government (taxpayers, the poor, private businesses, and the working class) to the handful of private investors under the guise of shared ownership. by government and private entities. As was the case with Marriott and Berbice Bridge, the public is not allowed to become shareholders to reap rewards as the preferred investors in the PPP. Watch out for the sweet heart bargains, as Glenn Lall warned!
Truly,
Jagnarine S. Kumar