Former President Donald Ramotar yesterday denied a claim by government that US$5M owed by a Chinese company as an outstanding payment for shares in GTT had been paid over to his administration prior to the May 11, 2015 general elections.
“The claim by the APNU+AFC Gov’t that the money was received is a lie and I challenge the Government to present the “documents” it has received (under suspicious and questionable circumstances) so that the veracity of the evidence can be tested and authenticated,” Ramotar said in a statement yesterday, issued in response to the claim by Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman.
Trotman on Wednesday said State Minister Joseph Harmon had obtained documents which show that the US$5M was paid over prior to the APNU+AFC coalition taking office and efforts are underway to track the money.
“So, we are trying to track down to whom, how and where,” he told reporters at a post-cabinet press briefing.
Trotman made the disclosure after being asked about Harmon’s recent controversial trip to China.
The Ministry of the Presidency, in a statement on April 1, had said that Harmon’s trip to China was for the purpose of engaging in discussions with regard to the payment of the US$5 million balance owed to the government for the purchase of 20% of GT&T shares by Chinese company Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group from National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) in 2012. This deal was entered into by the previous PPP/C administration but only US$25 million of the agreed US$30 million was paid.
‘Suspicious’
In his statement, Ramotar, however, refuted the claim while questioning its timing. “I am very suspicious about the timing and sudden claim that the US$5m owed for GT&T share[s] was paid to entities/persons other than NICIL,” he stated.
According to Ramotar, under his presidency, the sale of the shares was executed between NICIL and Hong Kong Golden Telecom Limited for the total price of US$30M. He said it was never hidden that US$25M was received and that the purchaser was given two years to pay the balance, while noting that it was also publicly disclosed by NICIL that efforts were being made to pursue legal recourse in the UK to collect the outstanding balance.
“The PPP/C administration never had any reason to doubt the word of NICIL’s competent technical staff when they said that the amounts were outstanding and every effort was being made to pursue,” he stated.
Ramotar added that any claim that amounts were paid would not be hard to prove. “The only entity that was and is authorized to receive any monies from the purchaser for this transaction was NICIL. One would assume that had NICIL received this money then there would be a receipt or some form of banking documentation to show its payments. Any claim that some other entity or person received this money would also be easy to prove or disprove,” he said.
Ramotar further charged that the government’s insinuation that the money was paid to someone else or some other entity other than NICIL prior to the May, 2015 elections is a distraction from the real issues.
“Its belligerent claims of massive corruption under the PPP/C administration have yet to be proven by this government. This latest claim is an expected APNU+AFC political ploy to appeal to peoples’ emotions rather than seeking the truth,” he said, while suggesting that the claim is designed to digress from answering the people’s demands for explanations on who really paid for Harmon’s trip to China, the naming of the ‘honorific’ advisors and party contributors, and demands for decisive actions against the increase in crime in the country.
‘That is not the way it works’
Ramotar told Stabroek News that government should not believe that the populace is ignorant to the issues and that it is a known fact that an audit of NICIL was conducted under the David Granger administration. That audit, he said, would have informed government how much money was collected from the sale of the GT&T shares, what the monies were used for and how much is outstanding.
Also, he said if it stated that US$5M was paid, the Chinese company must provide evidence of how and to whom and where. “We are talking about US$5M here and that is not a small sum by any standard. Clearly, if the company told anyone they paid the money they must produce documents of the bank transfers etcetera, because no one can go to Hong Kong on behalf of government and collect five million cash in a bag. That is not the way it works. Everyone knows that. The smallest child can tell you that,” Ramotar posited.
Meanwhile, a source close to NICIL questioned an apparent lack of due diligence by the government contingent prior to the trip. “Also, before leaving to say you are going to Beijing and spending money on a contingent of many, might I say from the company’s money, shouldn’t some work be done at home first? You can call up the company and enquire what the status is, if they can fax you documents, all those things. Get your house together so you know what you are dealing with before just upping and say, ‘Eh heh boy, we going to China to find this US$5M. That made no sense, because that I can bet wasn’t the purpose of the trip, but that’s a different matter right,” the source added.
