Chinese companies operating here are following local laws and best practices, Beijing’s embassy here said yesterday.
A brief statement came from the embassy following public commentary generated by a claim of bribe-taking by US-based network VICE News against Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. The Vice-President has vehemently denied these allegations put to him in a February 1st interview. VICE’s claims which will be developed into a programme for broadcast centred on the contention that Chinese businessmen here had been claiming that bribes were taken by Jagdeo in return for moving projects along.
The Chinese Embassy said yesterday: “Recently, when a journalist from VICE News interviewed Hon. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, she was found to come to Guyana with predetermined agenda and tried to smear and attack China-Guyana cooperation, as well as Chinese companies. The Chinese Embassy is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to such violation of professional ethics.
“The Chinese side highly appreciates that the Government of Guyana upholds the one-China principle and keeps developing cordial relations with China. China-Guyana friendly cooperation, featuring equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness, and benefits for the people, is in accordance with the interests of the two countries and two peoples, not against any third party, nor should it be influenced by a third party.
“Chinese companies operating in Guyana are following the local laws, international practices, and market rules, participating in big projects through open and fair competitions, which is beyond reproach”, the embassy said.
Meanwhile, a statement was yesterday purportedly issued by the Chinese businessman at the centre of the controversy, Su Zhi Rong contending that he had not solicited or induced any bribe. Stabroek News cannot say with certainty that the statement was issued by Rong as he has not responded to Stabroek News and efforts to contact him yesterday failed.
Following Vice President Jagdeo’s statement on Tuesday evening that he would not ask his tenant and the man who allegedly told VICE Media he accepts bribes for favours, to speak publicly, the Chinese logger purportedly issued the statement denying the claims of the interviewer.
“I, Su Zhi Rong, wish to state categorically that I have never solicited any bribe/inducement from any company or individual for either myself or any government official including the Vice President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” a statement purportedly from Su’s email address and sent to this newspaper, declared.
“…I wish to refute strongly any suggestion that I acted on behalf of any government official, that I presented myself as a representative of anyone, or that I promised any favor or business-related reward. I have already engaged with my legal representatives on these false reports and fabrications,” it added.
According to Su, he has “read the insinuations by the VICE News network and others and wish to deny any wrong-doing including influence-peddling. I have been a businessman in Guyana for many years and I have always conducted myself in accordance with local and international laws and standards.”
Su also informed that he is currently engaged with his lawyers on what he called “false reports and fabrications.”
Having said that he had spoken to Su who denied the claims, Jagdeo was asked on Tuesday evening by Stabroek News if he would ask Su to speak publicly on the matter. “I am not Su’s father. I am not his father,” he laughed, indicating that he would not ask Su for a public statement.
In the aftermath of stunning bribery allegations put to him on February 1 by US-based media outlet, VICE News, Jagdeo on Tuesday evening held a press briefing on the issue and said that the man who it was claimed had made them has denied this.
It followed a day of widespread speculation about the allegations which were reported in the Tuesday edition of the Stabroek News, based on footage of the interview he had posted to his Facebook page.
‘Tenant’
Stabroek News on Tuesday had also reached out to the person named in the interview as making the allegations, and is also Jagdeo’s tenant, Mr Su. He acknowledged that it was him on the line but then 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.
This newspaper yesterday again tried contacting Su via his mobile phone but it still says that it has been turned off.
The VICE interview was conducted on February 1 and Jagdeo stated that he had 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 criticised TI and then blamed the decline on acts committed 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 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.
Overseas account
Jagdeo suggested that the interviewer ask Su about affirming the allegations and said Su would be lying if he held to them. He noted that the previous government had checked his accounts overseas and elsewhere and it was all above board.
“Let me tell you something, so all my statements are in with the Integrity Commission. The last government, they checked everything about me and they didn’t find anything. They checked my bank accounts abroad, they checked everything, and they didn’t find anything. So there has to be the evidence of it, but you are not bringing evidence, you are saying an anonymous Chinese source. Maybe the Chinese company that did not get the agreement that they wanted here, maybe they are the ones who told you, or it could just be a fictitious thing,” he contended.
But on Tuesday he said that he had no overseas bank account and that he meant the APNU+AFC checked the accounts of the PPP/C members and found nothing. “They had access to the local bank accounts and they looked at our foreign assets. So when I said they looked at foreign bank accounts, it didn’t mean we had foreign bank accounts. It meant they examined whether we had foreign bank accounts. I do not have a foreign bank account. I do not… and it could be easily verified,” he said.
“I do have two accounts, and they are both at two local banks and all of my source of income will be accounted for at these institutions. So my source of income, my earnings are accounted for, whether it comes from government pension or income from rentals. The contracts are with the banks so they can see the source of my earning… Similarly too, all the assets I have acquired have been done through the banking system. So you can trace every asset I have acquired back to the banking system,” he added.
‘Financially viable’
According to Jagdeo he once had an apartment in New York but sold it and invested the money here, as the cost of upkeep was not financially viable.
Questioned on if he submitted to the Integrity Commission all he owns he said he has and that it consists of financial assets and properties.
However, when asked, he made it clear that all are local. “Yes. Everything, everything. I had an apartment in New York that I used to use when I left office. I acquired it in 2013 or somewhere [there]. I used it when I used to transit, I sold that out. I sold that out. I sold it out because I was not using it for almost five years in opposition and I had to pay for the maintenance and it was too high. When I was travelling frequently, the period between 2012 and 2015, I did a lot of international engagement and I earned quite a bit in that period too. That was the asset that I had.
He continued, “I disengaged and transferred the money at home because I believe the return in Guyana, investing that money, would yield a greater value for me than keeping it in an apartment. That became a liability for me because I had stopped travelling. It was better to not use the hotels, [but] then [I] should not have even told you that, but that is the last of the foreign assets that I had and it is easy to trace.”
Head on a block
He said that investigating claims made is difficult but he had a case where someone known to him was found to be using his name for her own gains.
“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 asserted.
It was why he said he would not “put his head on a block” for Su, but if those are allegations are found true, he would cut all ties with him for his dishonesty.
“I am not putting my head on no block for no Su Zhi Rong. 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 iterated.
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.
He said that if the police felt there was a case for investigation, then they should feel free to probe because he has nothing to hide.
“Now it is clear that any of these investigations could be investigated by the police if the opposition wishes to push it. But as far as I am concerned, it is a wild allegation and I am not paying too much heed to it because it has no substance whatsoever,” he posited.
Later in the interview he would add, “Any evidence of corruption, the police is the best place. That is where it should be investigated. We were subjected to SARA and SOCU upturning our lives and the best they could find is that the land was more blah in own words…that was the only thing after scouring everything and they had state power and could have checked everything.”
