-Auditor General’s Report
The Auditor General’s Report for 2023 says $160.8m was paid to the firm headed by Mikhail Rodrigues known as `Guyanese Critic’ for the Belle Vue Pump Station works but up to August 14, 2024 no works were in progress at the time of the visit of the auditors.
The government, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) have been rebuked over this contract which went to Rodrigues’ Tepui Inc which had never built a pump station before.
Many reports have been carried in this newspaper over this award but the Ministry of Agriculture and the NDIA have been silent on the way forward for this project. The controversy has taken on political overtones as Rodrigues has ready access to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and other senior members of the PPP/C government.