Georgetown: The recent ‘secret’ ethanol deal inked between Government of Guyana (GoG) and Ansa McAl Limited has also attracted the label of a deal that “smacks (of lies) and stinks to high heavens.”
At least this is according to Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, during his party’s weekly press briefing yesterday.
The AFC Chairman had also labelled the deal with GoG and Queens Atlantic Investment Inc (QAII) as one that “stinks to high heavens.”
According to Ramjattan, “our view is that this is another deal that we would like to investigate thoroughly…We want sunshine to prevail on all of these deals just like the Amaila Falls, just like the Marriott Hotel and the Cheddi Jagan (International Airport) expansion and now this one (the ethanol deal) has been revealed through, of course, an overseas press, making it all the more depressing.”
According to a press statement issued by Ansa McAl earlier this month in the Trinidadian Guardian, on Friday September 30, 2011 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between GoG and the Trinidad-based Trading Limited, for the establishment of an ethanol production project.
The statement said that the agro-energy industrial project will be built on 110,000 (approx. 425 square miles) hectares of virgin land. The statement revealed that “in conjunction with GoG, Ansa McAl is currently conducting an in-depth feasibility study, which includes infrastructure and development works; plant and equipment and rolling stock. This ethanol plant is projected to have a capacity to process up to two million tons of sugarcane per year and produce up to 40 million gallons (nameplate capacity) of ethanol per year.”
The MoU was signed by Dr. Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat; Desmond Mohamed, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and Anthony N. Sabga III, Business Development Executive, Ansa McAl Group of Companies. The signing was witnessed by former Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud; Aneal Maharaj, Group Finance Director, Ansa McAl and Beverley Harper, Managing Director of Ansa McAl Trading Guyana.
It is the expectation of the AFC Chairman that companies involved in such deals should become liable, at least in some form, even public opprobrium even as he insisted that the onus was on Ansa McAl to inform the Guyanese press immediately upon signing the agreement September last year.
“Even if the Government did not want to, the company should have had enough credibility and integrity to show that they did not have anything to hide,” Ramjattan asserted.
“The rule of thumb when a company and the Government, especially a kind of Jagdeo Government, do that kind of thing is that there is some element of under-hand business about it…this is a presumption,” Ramjattan noted.
As a result, the AFC is calling for the details of the Ansa McAl deal to be made public inclusive of: how much land was awarded; if the company paid for the land; how much was paid for the land; was this thing really out for public tender; and was it an arrangement for CLICO to hand it over to Sabga (Ansa McAl) through Ernie Ross.”
Ernie Ross, a Trinidadian businessman, according to Ramjattan, has been close to former President Jagdeo even purchasing a property owned by the former Head of State.
“All manner of things we are now getting as information…we need to know what happened here and now we are hearing from the NUMARK People (which was reportedly tasked with compiling a list of potential Bio Energy Investors who may be interested in investing in Guyana) that Ansa McAl was never one of the companies to be evaluated and then we have Robert Persaud (Minister of Natural Resource and the Environment) suggesting otherwise…” Ramjattan noted.
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