In last week’s article, we discussed four of the seven infrastructure development projects financed by the Exim Bank of China that ran into serious difficulties during their execution stages – the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project; the One Laptop Per Family Project; the Fibre Optic Cable Project; and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Project. The first three have failed completely to deliver in terms of their objectives, outputs, outcomes and impacts, thereby encumbering the Guyana’s public debt in the tune of US$115.4 million, with little or nothing to show for the expenditure incurred. This is in addition to the significant amounts expended as counterpart funding on these projects. In the case of the airport project, the works are still on-going after ten years, with a revised completion date of 20 June 2022. The original construction cost was estimated at US$150 million. This has now been revised to around US$200 million.
