Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has rejected allegations placed before him by media network, Vice Media Group that he accepts bribes to assist Chinese businessmen to gain lucrative public sector projects.
The allegation was put to Jagdeo by Vice Media Group in an interview on February 1st at his office. The interview was uploaded to Jagdeo’s page yesterday with the tag that “he set the record straight on a series of misinformation”.
Vice Media Group is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company founded in 1994.
In the segment posted on Jagdeo’s Facebook page various topics were discussed with the Vice Media interviewer before she settled on the matter of Guyana falling several points on the Transparency International (TI) index this year. Jagdeo criticised TI and then blamed the decline on acts by the APNU+AFC government following the 2018 motion of no-confidence. He also cited the five-month elections impasse among other things.
He said that he could not put his head on the block that there would be no corruption in the country. The interviewer then asked about his government and asked him directly if he took bribes. He answered in the negative at which point the interviewer said that she had spoken to a Chinese logger here who said that the only way to do business here was to pay bribes and as long as the Vice President was alright with this everything would be cleared.
Jagdeo vehemently rejected these suggestions and accused the interviewer of trying to catch him out and to make a developing country leader look corrupt. He said that the claims being made were being levelled by anonymous persons and constituted hearsay.
The Vice President challenged the interviewer to provide a name which she eventually did. She asked whether he knew a Mr Su (the last name was not intelligible). Jagdeo appeared taken aback and he then said yes that he knew Su. He went on the say that he knew Su and that Su’s father had also been known to him.
The interviewer then went on to say that Su had told them that through his broker and with the payment of bribes, deals could be cleared by the Vice President and there was no trace of money to Jagdeo. The Vice President ridiculed the allegations stating that anyone could make up allegations of that type.
He said the interviewer should ask Su about affirming the allegations and said Su would be lying if he held to them. Jagdeo said that the previous government had checked his accounts overseas and elsewhere and it was all above board.
Jagdeo also said he had a long history of being open and helping investors but never for consideration. He stated American companies and others visited him and he provides as much help as he can. He said it was “unbelievably accurate” that he helped companies but never for bribes or consideration.
When asked by the interviewer whether he would investigate the allegations that were made once details were sent to him he said yes but then went onto say it would be better if these allegations were investigated by a body like the Integrity Commission as they would be aware of his returns. In the 18 months that the PPP/C government has been in office, it is yet to appoint commissioners to the Integrity Commission.
After this line of questioning, the interviewer moved on to how problems like money laundering are handled in the country. It is not known in what format Vice Media will be publishing the interview with Jagdeo.
