Following the withdrawal of a Memorandum of Understanding with a Canadian company, the government has again advertised for expressions of interest in a solid waste recycling plant.
Under intense questioning by the media, the government last month withdrew a MoU which had been clinched with a Canada-based Guyanese investor, Mohammed Osman.
Subsequent to the signing of the MoU, Stabroek News reported a number of discrepancies surrounding Natural Globe Guyana Inc’s CEO, Osman. Among the revelations was the fact that his company had only ever built a prototype of the facility he would have been required to build under the MoU. He has also been accused of misrepresenting Andriana Webster, daughter of Human Services Minister Jennifer Webster, as one of the primary investors of the project. The claim that this facility would also be without cost to taxpayers also raised eyebrows.
An advertisement for new proposals appeared in today’s edition of the Mirror newspaper. It says the project will be a private/public partnership. The Ministry of Local Government will be handling the process even though it was strongly criticised for its processing and evaluation of the aborted MoU.
The ad says that the Government requires that all intended activities be operated and managed under the guidelines and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Further, the ad says that the government “prefers to collaborate with those who have previous working experience providing identical services in other countries where records of operations and/or services are accessible. This appears to be an attempt to rectify the shortcomings of the previous process where the winner could present no evidence of building such plants and didn’t have regional work experience.
An operator’s profile form has to be picked up from the Ministry of Local Government and has to be accompanied by a series of documents. The closing date for submission of the proposal to the ministry is December 27th, 2013.
