Parties denied access to GEC deal details - Roopnaraine
The three parliamentary opposition parties will be meeting before Thursday to review their positions on legislation related to the privatisation of the Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) following the government's refusal to share the details of the proposed deal with them. According to Alliance for Guyana (AFG) parliamentarian, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds went back on his offer to make the details of the privatisation agreement available to them and this resulted in a meeting with opposition parliamentary representatives being aborted on Saturday. Hinds could not be reached yesterday for comment. Dr Roopnaraine said that the Prime Minister had made the offer on Friday when himself, Winston Murray of the PNC and TUF leader, Manzoor Nadir, met with him. However, on Saturday, when the details were to be made available, Hinds explained that he had overstepped his ground when he had offered to do so and that based on advice he had been given he could not now do so. As a result of Hinds' refusal, Dr Roopnaraine said that himself and Murray explained that they would be unable to discuss the legislation with him intelligently as the agreement was referred to in at least 25 clauses of the legislation dealing with the electricity sector. The Second Readings in the National Assembly of the Public Utilities Bill 1999 and the Electricity Sector Reform Bill 1999 last Thursday were deferred to this Thursday at the request of the parliamentary opposition parties to allow for the presence of the Prime Minister who has ministerial responsibility for the electricity sector. In acceding to the request, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud said that opportunities would be provided for the parties to meet with the Prime Minister and members of the privatisation team in an effort to address their concerns. He said too that there was no guarantee that when the issue was debated on Thursday that the Prime Minister would be present. However, since then the Office of the President has announced that President Janet Jagan was due back in Guyana on Wednesday. The Prime Minister has been performing the functions of the Presidency in the absence of President Jagan.
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