The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Executive Board yesterday again deferred consideration of the US$18 million loan for Guyana’s information technology sector and reports indicated that the postponement this time was at the request of the bank’s president, Enrique Iglesias.
When contacted yesterday, acting resident representative, Chester Bembridge, said he was in no position to either confirm or deny these reports.
Washington sources yesterday indicated that the matter was again deferred after clarifications were sought. However, the sources were not in a position to say what those clarifications were and who sought them. US Executive Director at the Bank, Jose Fourquet, last Wednesday secured a postponement of the board’s consideration of the loan for Guyana.
Efforts to contact Executive Director for Guyana and the Caribbean, Roderick Rainford, were not successful yesterday and it was not clear what steps President Bharrat Jagdeo, currently in Washington, will take to have consideration of the project expedited. Juan Belt, who is in charge of the project for Guyana at the IDB, could not be contacted either.
A source outside the bank indicated that Atlantic Tele Network (ATN) Chairman, Cornelius Prior met Fourquet on Tuesday afternoon to push the company’s position in its current de-monopolisation talks with the government.
According to those reports, ATN is arguing that according to the Helms Amendment to Title 18, the US government cannot support or give aid to countries violating US treaties or abrogating contracts with US companies. The source said that Prior is arguing that with the IDB supporting aid to Guyana for the information and communications technology project, it is essentially assisting the country to violate ATN’s monopoly rights as the loan will support a project which is premised on the liberalising of data transmission via the internet.
Stabroek News understands that ATN is arguing that its licence with the Government of Guyana guarantees it a monopoly on international voice and data transmission, which will cover Voice Over Internet Protocol and internet downloads.
But government sources say that this cannot be as the law could not grant a monopoly on technology not yet introduced. However, ATN sources have dismissed this argument saying that a law granting a right governs that right be it how that industry transforms itself. As an allegory, the source said that traffic was only allowed on the left side of the road, regardless of whether it was a donkey cart or a bicycle.
The source said that the revolutionising of the traffic industry to bring in more advanced types of vehicles did not mean that the law no longer applied on the use of the road.
Additionally, Prior is arguing that its subsidiary in Guyana, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Ltd has not been earning its 15% rate of return as is guaranteed by its contract and is only getting eight per cent.
President Jagdeo, currently in Washington for the Caribbean Group for Cooperation in Economic Development (CGCED) meeting is expected to take the opportunity to lobby the IDB on the project. The US$18 million loan will support a US$22.5 million project to diversify Guyana’s economic base into the service sector, taking advantage of changes in the information technology sector.