In the aftermath of stunning bribery allegations put to him on February 1st by US-based media outlet, VICE News, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that the man who it was claimed had made them has denied this.
Following a day of widespread speculation about the allegations which were reported in yesterday’s Stabroek News based on footage of the interview posted on Jagdeo’s Facebook page, the Vice President held a press conference to again reject the bribery claims.
He also cast the claims as an attempt to place him and Guyana at the centre of a China and US power feud.
The Vice President said that questions from VICE News, among which were allegations against him of bribery to assist Chinese businessmen gain lucrative public sector projects, were clearly designed to give the leader of a third world nation a bad image only because of its friendly relations with China.
“Clearly from the beginning of the interview, I had to make the point: We are a small country. We do not, we do not want to be caught up in a cold-war like scenario between the United States and China,” Jagdeo last evening told the press conference he called to discuss the interview he did with VICE Media and give his side of the allegations of bribery levelled against him.
“I believe it is [for] China to get attention. To prove that a government is controlled by China is news or a corrupt third world country influenced by China, and I suspect this was the agenda,” he posited.
It is unclear in what format VICE New will publish the interview with Jagdeo and whether at that point it will provide evidence to back its claims.
Making a pre-independence reference, he said that “the last time we were caught up in a cold war type of atmosphere,” it led to the CIA and the British Secret Service intervening which led “to a dictatorship for 28 years” here.
Jagdeo noted that Guyana has a friendly and close relationship with the US and a lot of that country’s investors are here since the oil and gas discovery but “we will not be caught up in an anti-Chinese hysteria.”
On the allegations that he received bribes, he again last evening denied them saying that the Chinese businessman at the centre of the controversy,Su Zhirong also denied to him that he told anyone what was claimed.
This newspaper yesterday reached out to the person named in the interview as making the allegations and Jagdeo’s tenant, Mr Su. He acknowledged that it was him on the line but gave the phone to an interpreter who asked for his last name as “there are many Su’s here”. When it was given she asked that the reporter call back as they were about to “do something.” However, subsequent calls to the number proved futile as it was turned off.
The VICE interview was conducted on February 1 and Jagdeo said he left Parliament to accommodate the interviewer. In the segment posted on his 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 criticized 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.
“What about within your Government, do you accept bribes?” the interviewer asked to which he replied, “No. I don’t.”
“We have spoken to a number of Chinese business people in Guyana who said you do accept bribes. And they said in fact it’s the only way to get business done is to bribe you. One Chinese business person we have spoken [to], involved in timber logging, said that basically as long as the Vice-President is okay with it its fine. He just needs to give one phone call to whoever is in charge and they will get it done right away. The real big boss is the vice-president and everything is under the table, the whole country is like this,” the interviewer related.
Jagdeo denied and rejected the claims saying it was done by someone anonymous and he could not say if it was made up by the reporter. He challenged her to provide a name.
Before doing so, she asked whether he knew a Mr Su. Appearing taken aback, he replied that it was his tenant and that the man and his father were known to him. “Oh Su? My relationship? Nothing. He is a tenant in my place, yes,” he said.
“And he is a friend of yours?” she probed, to which he replied, “Yes, ahm yes. Yes. He is a friend of ours, His father was here from many years ago,” Jagdeo said.
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.
“Su told us that if you want to get anything done in Guyana you need some hook-ups, ‘I am very close with the Vice-President and other officials. The Vice-President and I share a very close relationship, also you do the business he would help out no matter what. No one else can help like he does.’ He also said when he is talking to prospective investors the Vice-President said he can change the constitution. He said ‘he can manage everything… he has already changed to help us as much as possible. Of course you have to give back to him in return.’”
Jagdeo said that the interviewer should ask Su about affirming the allegations and said Su would be lying if he held to them. He said that the previous government had checked his accounts overseas and elsewhere and it was all above board.
Last evening he repeated the arguments while informing that he had spoken to his tenant and he denied the claims.
However, he said that he would not put his “head on a block” for his tenant as he has already been victim to someone he knew using his name for personal gain.
“I have experiences too, where one person, a female, she was basically telling people that she could gain access and collecting favour from them. I found that out and I stopped seeing anyone. I don’t know what people tell investors but I know for sure it is not for no bribe,” he said.
“I am not putting my head on no block for no Su Zhirong. What he says to somebody, if he is lobbying them or if it is a lie. He claims this is a lie. He never said anything of the sort. But I am not putting my head [on a block], because if he says that to someone, that is his business. But if I discover he is doing that and he ask me to see somebody, I would never see them again,” he added.
Jagdeo said that both “friends and foe ask me to see people” and that a typical day for him sees him meeting many persons with complaints and those expressing investment interests.
“I see lots of companies but it is not for money or a bribe,” he explained.
Key to his “typical day,” he said, was assisting to make projects move forward. “Key to our five years was developing and I have no qualms about pushing people. I have no qualms about doing that. But does that mean we violate the procurement process? The answer is a categorical No!”
He said that every asset that he has acquired can be traced back to the banking system and he was not worried about investigations into his finances. “It is wild allegations. I am not paying any heed to it,” he asserted, adding that he has “a long track record” of stellar financial record keeping and no one will be able to show that he gets money from ill-gotten gains “because it is not true.”
After his first term as President, questions had been raised about Jagdeo’s sources of income ranged against his property acquisition. The Integrity Commission which is supposed to preside over the returns of government officials and MPs has not functioned properly for many years. For the past 18 months of the PPP/C administration no commissioner has been appointed to the Integrity Commission.
