Dear Editor,
My attention was drawn to a screaming headline, `T&T Company implicates Finance Ministry in alleged kickbacks scheme’, in Guyana Times, Tuesday, October 15, 2019.
In the substantive article, which appears on page 7, it is written, “According to documents seen by this newspaper, the GUYOIL employee informed Commissiong Managing Director, Nirmala Rambharat, that the payments were on behalf of a senior official within the Finance Ministry”.
This assertion is patently and hopelessly false. It has no other purpose than to tarnish the image of the Ministry of Finance and, by innuendo or otherwise, impugn the integrity of senior officials of the Minister. I can state, categorically; no official of the Ministry of Finance had anything to do directly or indirectly, with the transactions between GUYOIL and the Trinidadian company.
No official of the Ministry of Finance, whether senior or junior, requested any official of GUYOIL to procure any bribe or extract any concession from the Trinidadian company. Indeed, without any checking of the veracity of the allegation, without a shred of evidence (for example, records of the dates and times of the phone calls, recordings of the phone conversations, WhatsApp or other forms of messaging), a senior official of the Finance Ministry is implicated.
The full chronology of events that led to the termination of the three contracts has been elaborated in a press release by the Chief Executive Officer, GUYOIL.
We note that the Trinidadian company is using the court of public opinion to prosecute its case. The proper arena for ventilating grievances and seeking justice is obviously the courts of Guyana. The company has signaled its intention to GUYOIL. Once they do so, we intend to vigorously defend our rights. We will be vindicated.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Bender
Chairman
Board of Directors of GUYOIL
