Cabinet is set to deliberate soon on expressions of interest by six companies to build a waste recycling plant here.
“The recycling project is very much still on the front burner. The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development will shortly be returning to Cabinet with its proposal/recommendation on same,” acting Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker told Stabroek News yesterday.
In January, the then Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud made the announcement that six expressions of interest were received to build Guyana’s first solid waste recycling plant.
The expressions of interest, Persaud said, were under evaluation and the public would be informed of the decisions. He added that there was no pressure on evaluators.
In the latter part of 2013, the government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Canadian company, Natural Globe Guyana Inc. However, the MoU was scrapped by the government in less than two weeks after discrepancies emerged surrounding the Canadian company’s chief executive officer (CEO) Mohammed Osman.
Reports had revealed that the company had only built a model of the US$30 million plant that was required to be established under the MoU. The CEO was also accused of misrepresenting Andriana Webster, the daughter of Human Services Minster, Jennifer Webster, as one of the prime investors of the project and claims that the facility would be constructed without a cost to taxpayers also raised suspicion.
Following the withdrawal of the agreement with the company, the government had re-advertised for expressions of interest in the building the plant.
Despite criticism over its evaluation and processing of the aborted agreement, the selection of the new investor still rests with the Local Government Ministry. The government had announced its preference to collaborate with firms that had previous working experience in building such facilities in other countries.
