Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday admitted that government had rejected the contents of a feasibility report and eventually sited the Berbice River Bridge at Palmyra—a largely Indian-Guyanese populated village—but he denied that there was any attempt to deprive other areas as a result.
In testimony under cross-examination in the $10 million libel case brought by President Bharrat Jagdeo against Kaieteur News and columnist Freddie Kissoon, Luncheon said that US-based company Figg Engineering Inc conducted one of the first feasibility studies on the location of the bridge, but he could not recall whether it was a pre-feasibility study or feasibility study. “I know it was one or the other,” he said in response to a question posed by defence attorney Nigel Hughes. He added that either five or six such studies were done.
According to Luncheon, who is Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Cabinet deliberated on the Figg report but he