Unaccountability on D’Urban Park Project criminal – Opposition

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has dubbed as “criminal”, the current state of affairs of the D’Urban Park Project, where it said Government continues to withhold the necessary information on its real cost.

The Party said up until now, Government has persistently refused to disclose the real cost of this project. And despite all the scandals and suspicions which permeated from the inception, the Administration has failed to hold any form of inquiry or investigation in relation to it.

“The PPP is aware that there are dozens of contractors who have not been paid for works done and for materials supplied to that project. The Party is also aware that the names of contractors which were read out by Minister David Patterson in the National Assembly as creditors of this project were false and misleading,” the Party said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Party said it became aware of the names of several persons who are actually owed money and who were never called by Public Infrastructure Minister of David Patterson.

“The nation is unaware of the current status of the private company which Education Minister, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, and other cohorts of [A Partnership for National Unity] APNU incorporated, own and operated at the project site. We were subsequently told that this company spent hundreds of millions of State funds and attracted hundreds of millions of liabilities which taxpayers’ monies were used to pay off. Indeed millions are still owed by this company,” it said.

The Party also said it has observed that works are currently ongoing at the site while no public tendering was done.

“The nation remains unaware as to who is executing this work, what is the value of the work being done and from where the finances have been sourced. The PPP reiterates what it stated before; the level of unaccountability that has overwhelmed this project is criminal”.

Last December, the National Assembly found itself divided over giving or withholding approval for an additional $500 million to be paid out from the Consolidated Fund to a number of contractors and other persons owed varying amounts for works undertaken on the controversial D’Urban Jubilee Park Project.

The rancour engulfed the House when the Speaker of the National Assembly put to a vote the capital expenditure under the Public Infrastructure Ministry’s budget, but was met with a resounding no.

Prior to the division of votes, the House heard that on November 22, 2016, six days before the Budget was presented to the nation – Homestretch Development Inc (HDI) had written to the Finance Ministry indicating that it owes contractors $500 million more and was looking to have this liability liquidated.

The revelation did not go down well with former Minster within the Finance Ministry, Juan Edghill, who openly questioned the timing of the inclusion of the $500 million in the budget, since the Ministry had only been informed six days earlier.

In fact, Edghill argued that Government was in fact looking to turn over money to a private company – HDI – for works it had done using contractors that company had engaged in the project.

He used the occasion to draw reference to Substantive Minster David Patterson’s assertions that the Government did not actually engage any of the contractors that the Ministry was seeking approval to be paid over.

Meanwhile, as it relates to the overall expenditure and cash and kind donations, Public Infrastructure Minister Patterson told the House that a total of $27.7 million was received in the form of donations from private individuals and entities, while another $37 million came about ‘in kind’.

The Opposition had made an immediate call for the Auditor General of Guyana to a forensic audit into all revenues, expenditure and donations received.

The Party reminded of the motion it had put forward for disclosure on the sums expended, the contractors and amounts paid to them, liabilities and other information that would have ensured accountability and transparency. This motion was defeated on November 21, 2016 when it was debated during which time the Public Infrastructure Minister selectively provided skimpy information.