Prime Minister Sam Hinds said he is astounded that the head of GT&T's parent company, Cornelius Prior would "go behind the back of his own negotiating team" and undermine talks on telecoms reform with the government by lobbying against a loan for Guyana.
Breaking his silence on the issue yesterday, Hinds, in a statement, said he found it "utterly unbelievable" that Prior, Chairman of Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) would attempt to persuade the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) against approving support for the US$22.5 million Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project for Guyana. He saw it as an "extraordinary display of bad faith" by Prior, a sentiment expressed by President Bharrat Jagdeo on Tuesday. Since ATN's lobbying, consideration of the loan has been deferred twice and the process has been stalled.
Hinds noted that ATN and its subsidiary, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) were in an advanced stage of negotiations with the government for an amicable settlement to end the company's 30-year monopoly over the telecommunications sector and to introduce competition. The Prime Minister noted the vital importance of the ICT project arguing that it would catapult Guyana into the twenty-first century using the information age.
Hinds pointed out that the negotiations started on February 28 in good faith and with the explicit understanding that the representatives of both sides were fully authorised to discuss and settle the issues on the table. He said three rounds of negotiations were successfully held and considerable progress made, leading to the drafting of a Memorandum of Understanding by the government for consideration by the company. This memo, Hinds said, would have formed the basis for arriving at definitive agreements on the issues under negotiations.
The Prime Minister noted that the negotiations were addressing the issues relevant for reform of the sector and it was on these that ATN's objections with the IDB were premised.
"...At no time was there any indication given by ATN/GT&T during negotiations that ATN would make any approach to the IDB," the two-page statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said.
He said that it was not the case that the government had not acknowledged GT&T's position that there should be rate rebalancing and phased introduction of competition amongst other issues. He also indicated that on the part of ATN/GT&T there had been an acknowledgement of the requirement to amend the purchase agreement, implement a network expansion programme, introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to foster development and growth and for the establishment of a level playing field to facilitate the introduction of competition.
Hinds said in the statement that from the very beginning, ATN/GT&T had displayed a marked reluctance if not stubborn attitude, towards entering into the negotiations with the government.
"Thousands of Guyanese who stand to benefit directly from the ICT project would be denied their right to communicate and the full benefits of information technology were the ATN's chairman's intervention at the IDB to succeed," the statement quoted Hinds as saying.
ATN is claiming that the ICT project would infringe on its monopoly rights on voice and data transmission to Guyana and has lobbied the IDB against the project. However, arbitration has been floated at the IDB level to move past the impasse and allow the project to proceed. The Government of Guyana is still to indicate to the IDB if it will go the route of arbitration and President Jagdeo indicated that he would want the entire contract to be made an issue of arbitration as well as the issues of the non-fulfilment of the terms of the expansion plan, the controversial six per cent advisory fees and tax issues.
ATN/GT&T is still to issue a public statement on why it lobbied the IDB against approving the loan.