The AFC says that its decision to support the Hydro Electric Power (Amendment) Bill and the debt ceiling motion for the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) was intended to give “a new lease on life” to the venture, which has since lost sponsors Sithe Global.
A day before NICIL head Winston Brassington confirmed that developer Sithe Global has walked from the AFHP, AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan told a news conference that perceptions about the future of the project were grim and many were already saying that the project was going to die. As such, he said, “we felt that if we had not supported the bill, Amaila would have been killed.”
Ramjattan said on Thursday that the move was aimed at showing the investors that the country was indeed interested in having hydropower. He said that the AFC has always been in support of the project but wanted more information. Ramjattan said that when the IDB indicated that that they were going to conduct a due diligence study into the project, they decided that the study would avail them the information which they have been in pursuit of.
The AFC has come in for criticism from some of its supporters for its decision last Wednesday as the party had previously said that its support for the motion depended on the results of a due diligence study being done by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). However, in the days leading up to the matters being considered by the National Assembly, the party had indicated that its position had shifted based on new information.
Previously, Ramjattan had said that the IDB has indicated that the results of the study will be out in October, and that, like main opposition APNU, the AFC would wait to have the benefit of the report to inform its decision. He had also accused the government of recklessly tying the loans guarantee to the AFHP when they were in no way connected. Further, party chairman Nigel Hughes, during an AFC press conference had said that until the IDB concludes their diligence and other investigations and approves of the contract on Amaila “there is no need for the premature increase in the external debt.”
Notwithstanding these statements, on Wednesday the AFC voted with the government on three separate occasions to enable the Amaila project. In the first vote, to determine if the bill and motion, blocked at a previous sitting, could be returned to the House, the AFC sided with the government to bring the matters back while APNU opposed.
Similarly, as it relates to the passing of the Hydro Electric Power (Amendment) Bill and the motion to increase the country’s loan guarantee, the AFC voted with the government to pass both matters. However, the AFC brought an amendment to reduce the guarantee to $50 billion, as opposed to the $150 billion previously asked for by government.
APNU voted against both the bill and the motion.
Ramjattan said that though his party has voted to pass the bill and the motion, it was still waiting on the result of the IDB due diligence study which should be out in three months. The study is expected to determine several things, including if the Guyana Power and Light is capable of handling the power that will be generated by Amaila, whether the project is economically viable and if it is environmentally feasible. The process now following the pulling out of Sithe is not clear.
