Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman, who met officials from China Communications and Construction Company (CCCC) last week, says that while the National Assembly is appreciative of the efforts of the company to tell its side of the story, it is insisting on an independent investigation by either a Special Select Committee or the Economic Services Committee.
Trotman, along with members of the Alliance for Change Trevor Williams and Moses Nagamootoo met Vice President of CCCC Zhou Gao at Parliament Building on Saturday. The VP was accompanied by other officials of the company.
“I received a request to meet with them and they acknowledged that there were these concerns,” he said. He said they spoke of being a billion-dollar, Fortune 500 multinational company.
“But we are more concerned about how serious is this matter,” said Trotman of the World Bank blacklisting the Chinese company. “There has to be some investigation on our part separate and apart from what they are doing,” Trotman said. “[This stance] should not be interpreted as anti-China or anti-investment. We both have a responsibility – [to the shareholders in their case and to the people of Guyana in ours],” Trotman said.
“While we appreciate the fact that they have sent people out [on a public diplomacy campaign] we still would want our own review,” he said. “It would have to come through a Special Select Committee – which could co-opt experts – or the Economic Services Committee,” he said.
Nagamootoo said if the review of the contract award shows that there was no compromise on the part of the government with regard to procurement or no contamination of the company, then the AFC would have no problem in welcoming the project’s execution.
He said that it was the actions of the government in awarding the contract and not the actions of the World Bank debarring the company that provided the initial cause for concern over the project. He called it a cloak and dagger operation.
“We have concerns about the process and the procedures involved. The government must not be free to do what it wants,” he said. “It must answer why there was no international tendering. It is the government’s conduct that concerned us [initially] not what the World Bank said about the company being blacklisted,” said Nagamootoo.
“The AFC is not anti-development. We don’t see a position taken by the World Bank or the IMF or the IDB [to mean that we must not work with a contractor],” he said. “Our position on the airport expansion contract and any other is that it must meet the best standards and international best practices for transparency and competitiveness,” he said. “Our position is not that we do not want the airport expansion project,” he said. “Government needs to tell the people if it knew of the World Bank indictment. [But] the World Bank’s edict against a company must not be a sanction against our country and a hindrance to our development,” he said.
Over the past days, former president Bharrat Jagdeo urged the government to review the contract that it awarded to China Harbour Engineering Company – a subsidiary of CCCC – for the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
Jamaica’s Office of the Contractor General had recently revealed that CCCC and its subsidiaries had been put on an eight-year blacklist by the World Bank since January 2009, under the Bank’s ‘Fraud and Corruption Sanctioning Policy.’ This means that the Chinese company cannot undertake projects funded by the World Bank until after 2017.
Cabinet has approved a US$138 million design and construction contract with CHEC for the CJIA. The project includes an extension of the runway to a total of 10,800 feet to accommodate large transatlantic aircraft, along with construction of a new terminal building, acquisition of eight boarding bridges, and installation of other state-of-the-art equipment.
In a statement to this newspaper, CHEC said it is not involved in and has never been involved in any activity that has attracted any sanctions by the World Bank. It said that CHEC itself has never been under any investigation by the World Bank.
