(Demerara Waves)- January 27, 2012

Former president Bharrat Jagdeo will be making his first international appearance on Guyana’s behald since vacating the Shiv Chaderpaul Drive office, at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2012 (DSDS 2012) in India.

This was disclosed by President Donald Ramotar during a brief encounter with the media on Friday January 27, 2012.

“He is invited in his own right as a person and of course he’s going to be representing Guyana too, I don’t see why not, but he is invited in his own right as a person who has been recognised as having done a lot of work on this issue, probably more than most people,” Ramotar said.   The president added that he was invited too but could not attend the February 2-4 event.

Ramotar succeeded Jagdeo following the November 28 polls. The latter had served in the  position for 12 years.

When contacted by Demerara Waves, Jagdeo acknowledged that it was his first overseas engagement on Guyana’s behalf but deferred any statement on the event until his return when he said he would provide a full briefing.

Ramotar has said in the past that he will be calling on his predecessor to utilise his experience and has dubbed him a valuable national asset.

Jagdeo for his part has said that Guyana will always have first call on his time.

“This country always has first call on my energies, my intellect, my experience, all that I have learnt because this is home for me. The people who live here are my people; anything I can do to advance our wellbeing as a country, that’s priority for me,” he told reporters prior to the November 28 elections.

He has been credited with initiating the government’s Low Carbon Development Strategy upon which Guyana’s development is hinged to sustainable exploitation of its resources.

Some of the themes to be covered at DSDS 2012 are biodiversity; forests and wildlife; oceans and coastal areas; water; the role of science and technology; global agreements and governance; poverty; and food security.

Invitees include heads of state, ministers, business executives and representatives from multilateral agencies.

– Post #1061

Demerara Waves – January 27, 2012

Tripartite talks between the parliamentary political parties got underway on Friday with discussions centred on how the arrangement will proceed, Leader of the Opposition David Granger says.

Representatives from the APNU, PPP/C and AFC met for about two hours at the Office of the President and upon emerging the opposition parties indicated that they have agreed to meet again on Monday.

“We were discussing the structure of the relationship, the process, so nothing was agreed this afternoon really. I think on Monday (January 30), a communiqué … will be issued,” APNU chairman Granger said in an invited comment to reporters.

He described the meeting as cordial while stating that there was a “degree of agreement. We are all concerned that the issues raised are urgent and that is why we don’t want to compromise the discussion by running to the press, there’s no complaint,” Granger said.

The PPP was represented by President Donald Ramotar, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon and Governance Advisor Gail Teixeira while Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine and Deborah Backer filled out the APNU team. AFC was represented by party chairman Khemraj Ramjattan and executive members Gerhard Ramsaroop, Clayton Hall and Cathy Hughes.

AFC Leader Raphael Trotman, who was recently elected Speaker of the National Assembly, has recused himself from the talks.

‘I don’t believe I should be participating in the tripartite dialogue given my position as Speaker. Many of the issues to be discussed are likely to be debated in the Assembly and so I need to be external to this discussion and to wish the process well and that it is successful,” he told Demerara Waves.

The AFC has been eager to get down to talks on the budget which should be one of the first tests for the tripartite arrangement. The opposition parties with a one-seat majority in the National Assembly have been clamouring for a greater say in its crafting but President Ramotar seems disinclined to include them beyond consultations. However, with just a simple majority needed to pass or reject the budget, some conciliatory position is expected out of the talks.

Granger, meanwhile, has said the APNU’s interests include the improvement of public financial management, constitutional reform and the strengthening of public institutions.

– Post #1060

January 27, 2012 – Demerara Waves

Outgoing Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Lawrence Carrington on Friday identified an archaic governance structure  and woefully insufficient cash, including low salaries, as major stumbling blocks to improving the nation’s premier tertiary institution.

Addressing a well-attended staff meeting in the George Walcott Lecture Theatre, he said the major problem confronting conditions of service and staffing policy is how to attract more qualified staff and pay them competitive emoluments.

“If all we can offer a professor at the top of our scales is the equivalent of US$1,725, we will not be able to compete with a Caribbean competitor offering the equivalent if US$8,429 ay a comparable level. So our planning has to shift the matter of emoluments to the top of the agenda,” he said.

Professor Carrington addresses staff members on January 27, 2012

The Trinidad and Tobago-born Vice Chancellor feared that “We will not be able to justify the label of university if all we can show in a teaching and research staff” of 359 academics are nine professors and 17 senior lecturers. Only two departments are headed by two temporary professors and only four by senior lecturers, one of whom is temporary.

He said he did not care about fees but instead he cared about the resources available to work with.

Related issues, he identified are the terms and conditions of service, confidence in the system of appraisal, systems of incentives, rewards and recognition.

Noting that there are “more proposals than concrete achievements,” he said an initial one has seen the knocking out the bottom tier of salary scales and adding another at the top, resulting in an upward shift of everyone. However, he said, that proposal would only yield fatter pay packets if more money is provided. “It has been stalled though in the face of severe budgetary handicaps but it can be revived as part of a more widely conceived review of the salary scales,” he said.

Data from University of the West Indies (UWI) campuses, Professor Carrington said, are available to be considered for crafting new salary proposals.

He urged staff members to take advantage of UG-managed credit line to purchase computers at significantly lower prices. And he announced that duty-free concessions for vehicles would soon become available to the wider university community.

Professor Carrington announced that a “substantial” grant has been approved by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to hire a  consulting firm to review UG’s regulatory framework to improve its operations.

“The governance structure of the university is archaic…Our statutes, rules, regulations, procedures and policies belong to an era long past and cannot be left to clutter the 21^st century,” he added. Negotiations are expected to begin shortly with the successful bidder.

The review, the Vice Chancellor assured, would address grouses, shortcomings, structural inadequacies, financial regulations if staff members play an active part. “It will happen only if you all make concerted effort, not merely to collaborate with the investigative processes but even more importantly to press our higher committees to make changes that come from the recommendations of the review,” he said.’

Professor Carrington reasoned that UG’s governance structure- with a number of back-linkages to centralized authority- was instituted during a different era and it is no longer relevant.

Though he did not address the termination of Political Science lecturer, Freddie Kissoon’s contract by UG’s Council, he noted that the Appointments Committee at UWI did not include politicians. That, he said, could inhibit efficiency and decision-making based on the best interest of the institution.

“What that does is that it allows you to focus on the academic issues related to the appointment rather than have intrusion of political issues,” he said to loud applause.

Pointing to Guyana’s political history, he noted that the country operates a very centralized governmental structure with a strong top-down component that is unmatched in the rest of the Caribbean

“It does involve a number of serious challenges to an institution that is purportedly autonomous because it is created by an Act of Parliament,” he said.

“I don’t think that one should attribute personal ill-will to the people who are exercising authority,” he added.

He noted that his own appointment was never properly advertised and so had always insisted that all official correspondence referred to him as ad interim (a.i.)

–  Post #1059

…backing out will incur ‘onerous penalties’-Dr Luncheon

There is a convention that prevents incumbent governments from entering into new contracts, signing new agreements and undertaking new projects in the weeks leading to elections.
However, former President Bharrat Jagdeo signed some multi-million-dollar contracts and committed the new government to the binding contracts.
Executive President Donald Ramotar, his administration and by extension the country are now bound to the contractual obligations that have been negotiated and signed into effect by Bharrat Jagdeo.
This was confirmed by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, who conceded that the government cannot cancel these contracts and agreements causing the country to incur onerous penalties.
Some of the ‘secret deals’ signed onto by Jagdeo just weeks and days before the elections include the US$52M Marriott Hotel project, the US$140M extension of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and the US$835M Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Plant.
There was also the US$40M communication cable from Brazil that is being installed with Chinese labour.
Dr Luncheon, who was at the time being questioned about the international contractual obligations that Jagdeo has committed Guyana to.
First pressed on the exit clauses embedded in the agreement with Sithe Global for the Hydro Project, Dr Luncheon said that he preferred to defer the questions to Winston Brassington of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited. (NICIL)
Dr Luncheon suggested that Brassington would be the better person to answer the queries given that he is much more “current than I am and his comprehensive grasp of the issues surrounding the main activity (the building of the hydropower facility) far exceeds mine.”
The Cabinet Secretary told the media that in each of the instances where agreements have been inked there is embodied in those agreements commitment and obligations by both parties.
He said that while there is absolutely nothing that prevents the agreements from being rescinded it is not simply a case of one party “just backing out.”
Dr Luncheon explained that in most cases there is a process with conditions under which this would be done.
He pointed to an example in the Hydropower agreement where there is a “force majeure” and a number arrangements that cater for unforeseen and unlikely events but warned that these are things that “the lawyers address in the body of the agreement to say that in these instances, were the agreement to lapse here is to say that who is at fault and here are how they are to be dealt with.”
“Force majeure” is a common clause in contracts. It essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by the legal term act of God (such as hurricane, flooding, earthquake, volcanic eruption, etc.), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract.
When pressed to simplify whether the Government can back away from the projects Dr Luncheon said that “it cannot be done without cause…it cannot be just, I feel like backing out…these things carry onerous penalties.”
Dr Luncheon illustrated his point by drawing reference to neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago where the Patrick Manning administration had committed that administration to have “built and even supply considerable security hardware…They had committed to spending enormous sums of money.”
He said that when the new administration took office the Kamla Prasad administration pulled the plug on the project, “at tremendous cost to the taxpayers of Trinidad.”

–

– Post = 1058

Contract to be made public if Govt. agrees – CEO Sithe Global

Bruce Wrobel

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sithe Global, the United States-based company contracted to undertake the construction of the 165MW Amaila Falls hydro-electric facility in Guyana, says that he is willing to provide all of the contract details and relevant information on the project. This, he said, is intended to increase transparency.
Bruce Wrobel yesterday lamented what appeared in the past to be a project shrouded in secrecy and promised that should the other parties, specifically the Guyana Government, concur to make available the contract document, his entity would willingly do so.
For the document to now be made available, there is need for an approval from Head of State, Donald Ramotar or an empowered delegate.
“We need the others to agree, but we are willing to make the contract available.”
Wrobel told this publication that it is in the interest of transparency that he and his team ventured to Guyana to seek to attempt to clear the air. The Guyana Government from the beginning of the project has been deafeningly silent, only venturing to the press in defence when information is published.
The government has since informed Kaieteur News that the administration will be willing to facilitate making available the contract document with Sithe Global for the US$840M project.
Wrobel’s, during a press briefing on Tuesday, announced that Sithe Global will get a 19 per cent rate of return on its injection of equity of US$152M.
Sithe Global further disclosed pertinent information on the project as it relates to financing such as the close to US$2B that will have to be earned by the plant to repay the investors and lenders.
In terms of how the money will be used, the Sithe Global Chief Executive Officer, who was accompanied by Senior Vice President, Brian Kubeck, and Senior Vice President, James McGowan, explained that the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) cost of the actual project will amount to some US$519.6M.
The total capital costs for the project, according to the Sithe Global officials, will be US$652.5M, taking into consideration additional construction, development, start-up, as well as contingency costs.
The remaining US$187.8M will go towards financing costs which include interest during construction (US$97.1M), lenders fee and advisory cost (US$34.9M), and Debt Political Risk Insurance (US$55.7M).
Speaking of the actual construction of the hydroelectric plant, the officials explained that of the US$519.6M in total capital expenditure, the plant is expected to cost US$314M, with the transmission lines demanding some US$126M. The additional US$79M is for currency adjustments.
Wrobel said that the United States and other major powers are asking the Chinese to appreciate its currency by some 20 per cent. If this happens before financing is completed then the project could cost a further US$160 million.
Interest during the construction will amount to US$97.1M.
At a projected average tariff of US$101M, the plant is expected to rake in more than US$2B over the 20-year period on the Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) life of the project.
The plant is slated to last for at least 75 years. Wrobel said that usually such projects would last in excess of 100 years, since there are not many moving parts.
The US$2B to be earned from the plant will go towards making the repayments to Sithe Global, the China Development Bank and the IDB (should this financing entity come on board) over the 20-year Boot period.
Wrobel told this publication that it has never been a policy of Sithe Global to be in the forefront of divulging information and the company has learnt from adverse reports in the past.
He was referring to the reports circulating in relation to the Bujagali Hydropower Plant which was built in Uganda.
Wrobel said that is generally the Government involved that is usually supposed to divulge information to their electorate and populace.
“We recognize that there is a lot of misinformation in the press and that is why we decided to have an open policy and disclose,” said Wrobel.
The Amaila Hydropower Project is a planned hydroelectric project to be located in western Guyana. The project also includes a new 270 km transmission line and new substations near Georgetown. Currently, nearly all electric generation in Guyana is provided through small units burning either diesel or heavy fuel oil.
In 2002, Synergy Holdings and Harza International were granted a licence by the Government of Guyana under the Hydro-Electricity Act for the development of a hydroelectric plant at Amaila Falls.
The licence was reportedly amended and extended in 2004 when Harza pulled out leaving Synergy as the sole licensee. The licence was again extended in 2006.
Synergy Holdings was later granted a US$15.4 million contract to build the access roads to the proposed site for the hydropower plant. This contract was recently terminated because of under-performance.

–Post #1057

 -    AFC scores Region 8; APNU nets three  

As anticipated, the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) took control of six of the country’s 10 Administrative Regions when elections for the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen were held yesterday.

The notable change in the political makeup for the hierarchy in the regions was in Region Eight, where the Alliance for Change (AFC) managed to get its nominee, Mark Crawford, elected to the post.

It means that for the first time in the history of the Potaro/Siparuni that the chairman was not of the ruling PPP/C or the People’s National Congress, the party which is the major bloc in the opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

APNU, however, did managed to get its nominees elected in Regions Four (Clement Corlette), Seven (Gordon Bradford) and Ten (Sharma Soloman). These areas traditionally enjoy the support of the PNC.

No women were elected to head the regions. However two women – Genevieve Allen in Region Four for APNU and Amrita Thomas in Region Seven, also for APNU – secured the second highest positions- that of Vice Chair.

The PPP/C had its representatives elected in Regions One, Two, Three, Five, Six, Seven and Nine. The Chairmen for those regions, respectively, are: Paul Errol Pierre, Parmanand Persaud, Julius Faerber, Bindranauth Bisnauth, Permaul Armoogan and Wilson Lorentio.

Mortimer Mingo, who served as Region Ten Chairman, was not even selected to sit as a member of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC). Mingo was at the centre of a public row in which it was claimed that he had initially accepted a government offer for a piece of land in the now famous Pradoville 2 where former President Bharrat Jagdeo and a string of high-profile officials had chosen for house lots.

Mingo served as the Chairman after being put in the position by his colleagues in the People’s National Congress Reform, which later joined other partners to form APNU to contest the November 28 polls.

Another controversial figure who did not feature in yesterday’s elections was Kwame McCoy, the President’s Information Liaison Officer, who was accused of disrupting a number of meetings of the RDC for Region Four.

McCoy’s name did not appear on the list submitted by the ruling PPP/C for the elections.
Councilors for the RDCs are selected by political parties based on votes cast at the General and Regional Elections. A meeting is called by the respective Regional Executive Officer at which the Councilors are sworn-in. Once they are sworn in, nominations for a Chairman and Vice-Chairman are then made and the two are elected by the very councilors who were sworn in.

Meanwhile, former Chairman of Region One, Fermin Singh was elected as Vice Chair.
The RDCs are tasked with carrying out the programmes of the Central Government in their particular regions.

– Post # 1056

Reblogged from Guyanese Online:

These photos of MASHRAMI-2011 parade were supplied by Bryan Mackintosh.  Click link below to view the photo album.. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=621008&id=606035453&l=d83df29c3d Photo Album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=621008&id=606035453&l=d83df29c3d Also read these reports  on the Mashramani Parade 2011: Thousands celebrate lively, colourful  Mash 2011 < click Digicel Wins Top Costume prize… see list of all winners < click

MASH-2012

In less than a month we will have MASHRAMI-2012 or MASH-2012.
We thought it would be nice to remind you of last year’s MASH-2011 parade, posted by Bryan Macintosh, as well as reports on the parade and events. Enjoy the pics!!!

Click the following link to see the original entry made last year -so that you could access the links: Reblogged from Guyanese Online:

– Post #1055

Demerara Waves -  January 24, 2012

Opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has joined in condemning the dismissal of columnist and political science lecturer Freddie Kissoon from the University of Guyana (UG) dubbing the action a violation of academic and press freedoms.

In a statement Tuesday the coalition accused the PPP/C government of using its voting power on the UG Council to terminate the lecturer’s contract in the middle of an academic year, a few months before it would have come up for review.

“APNU regards this recent act as a violation of Kissoon’s right to freedom of expression as a columnist, academic freedom as a lecturer and civil rights as a citizen,” the statement read.

It continued that the move has come at a time when the University is already in crisis and has been finding it difficult to attract lecturers in several academic departments. It added that Kissoon has a natural right to be informed of the reasons for the termination of his contract and called for his reinstatement

“APNU has closely monitored the PPPC’s hostile attitude towards columnists and journalists who criticized President Bharrat Jagdeo over the past 12 years.  The Partnership expressed regret that, so early in his tenure as President, Mr. Donald Ramotar would take such a retrograde step by allowing such an incident to occur,” the statement concluded.

The Alliance For Change (AFC), for which Kissoon had campaigned in last year’s elections, on Monday called the sacking “disastrous” so early in Ramotar’s presidency and accused the PPP of continuing the “cut throat” policy of former president Jagdeo.

AFC chairman Khemraj Ramjattan told demwaves.com that he was made to understand that it was all of the government-aligned persons on the Council, of which Kissoon was a part, who voted for the lecturer’s termination at a meeting at which neither he nor the Trades Union Congress representative was invited.

The AFC added that he will defend Kissoon’s case in court should he go that route and will be raising the matter in parliament and with President Ramotar.

—

—  Post #1054

On Wednesday evening, the UG Council met and rescinded three lecturers’ contracts that the Government’s representatives wanted sacked in October because they claimed the Vice-Chancellor had no legal right to issue the contracts. That was the last meeting of the Council for 2011.

Dr. Patrick Williams will be issued a new contract, so too will former deputy head of Customs and Excise, Loris Bancroft. The Council decided against renewing my contract and it was brought to an immediate end with the provision that I am not to be employed either as a temporary lecturer or on a part time basis.

My contract ends in August. I should have started teaching next week. My termination letter stated that it goes into effect immediately. For people reading this column let me describe what happened and then go on to defend my academic performance at UG.
Five Government appointees argued for my dismissal. There were Nirmal Rekha, Prem Misir, Gail Teixeira, Bibi Shadick and Indra Chandarpal. Those who debated that the contract should be allowed to run until it was up in August were the representatives from the PNC, students union and two academics.

In summing up, without a vote, the Chancellor said there were more voices for dismissal than for retention. I was not invited to the meeting even though I am a Council member. I cleared my mail on Tuesday afternoon at UG. I received no e- email notice.
I have worked at UG since 1986. My contract was renewed every three years after successful teaching and research since 1986. My present contract was awarded after consideration of my research and teaching. It was recommended by the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Over the years at UG, I have done more academic research than the two Presidential aides who argued for my dismissal – Prem Misir and Gail Texieira. Unlike some people who represent the Government at UG, I do not pad my curriculum vitae nor do I edit books and claim that I authored them. For the past five years I have offered to the University community more research seminars than any other lecturer on the entire campus with my last seminar being in November last year.

My latest published research was a 75-page essay that was submitted in 2010 to the Guyana Historical Society that investigated racism in the exercise of power in all the presidents of Guyana, including Mr. Jagdeo.

I was educated at UG, Mac Master University in Canada and the University of Toronto.
In my 26 years at UG, I never had a complaint filed against me by a student for any issue whatsoever. I have taught some of the most powerful people in Guyana including Robert Corbin and Donald Ramotar. I have taught the children of the most important leaders of the PPP, including the daughter of President Ramotar. I taught the wife of Ralph Ramkarran. I repeat; I never had a complaint made against me even for a low grade. Funny that through all the years of Mr. Jagdeo’s resentment of me and my confrontations with the PPP-appointed Vice-Chancellor, James Rose, never could anything be proven against me at UG.

Before I complete this column, I want to state unambiguously that I have proof that the former President, Mr. Jagdeo made a call to Barbados in early November to Chancellor Compton Bourne about me. I hope the Chancellor does not discredit his Caribbean standing by denying that. If he does, I will have to name names.

I will end this column with a funny story that the Guyanese people will not find funny at all. In my presence and other Government appointees on the Council, Gail Teixeira requested a Council meeting from Chancellor Bourne. He said that he may not be able to summon a meeting in November because the British Government had asked him to travel to the UK to appraise one of the universities there. I was speechless.

Dr. Bourne, the Chancellor of UG, was going to appraise a university that was a million times more of an accredited university than UG that he presides over. At that very October Council meeting, Dr. Bourne was asked to immediately fire a number of lecturers. One is fascinated to know what appraisal Dr. Compton Bourne, former Head of the Caribbean Development Bank, gave that university and what he will give UG. Do the Councils in British universities operate the way UG’s does? How will Dr. Bourne answer that?
In an age where the opposition controls Parliament, naked power continues. Let’s see how Parliament will react to this unstoppable cancer.

—

— Post # 1053

January 25, 2012  – Demerara Waves

In the wake of the University of Guyana opting not to re-employ Political Scientist Freddie Kissoon, several university organisations on Wednesday decided to stage picketing demonstrations as part of “Operation Rescue UG”.

The Council has also decided to advertise for a Registrar in about two weeks and the incumbent office holder, Vincent Alexander would be free to re-apply, well-placed sources told Demerara Waves Online News.

Concerns are being raised in some quarters about the motive behind asking Alexander, currently on leave, to re-apply while renewing the contracts of the Director of UG’s Tain Campus and the Bursar without first advertising the vacancies.

A spokesman for Wednesday afternoon’s meeting told demwaves.com that the University of Guyana Students Society (UGSS), University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) deemed the action against Kissoon “absolutely unacceptable.”

The university organisations agreed to picket on campus everyday and hold a general meeting on Monday in the George Walcott Lecture Theatre.

Addressing the termination of Kissoon’s contract by the council last week Wednesday, the university organisations agreed that the Council “usurped the function of the academics.” According to the spokesman, the Council could not have pronounced on qualifications and performance because “that is the duty of the academic community.”

The organisations of students and academic and non-academic staff noted that it is the academic community determines whether someone should be employed in that sphere based on fair criterion and so it should be that body of academics that should determine whether someone should be dismissed.

Other sources say the University Council decided Kissoon’s fate because of concerns about his performance and attitude in the classroom. He has, however, insisted that he is qualified, experienced, and competent and had conducted enough research to warrant his retention.

The Council has officially refused to discuss the decision to terminate Kissoon’s contract and pay him for the remaining three months in lieu of notice. While two other lecturers- one without a formal contract- have been given an opportunity to re-apply for part-time positions, no such offer has been made to Kissoon.

The 61-year old Kissoon last year retired after more than 25 years service to UG. He was then granted a one year contract from September 1, 2011 to August 1, 2012.

The main opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) have condemned Kissoon’s termination. Kissoon has spoken on both parties’ platforms before and after the November 28 elections. He has been also a very sharp critic of the Peoples Progressive Party Civic administration in his Kaieteur News columns.

–

–Post 1052