PNC leader, Mr. Desmond Hoyte repeated the claims at a news conference yesterday.

But Mr. Hinds, in a statement yesterday, noted that when the PPP/C was elected to Government in 1992, the bauxite industry "had already been virtually destroyed under the PNC".

He said that ever since the PPP/C Government has been working with the bauxite workers to rehabilitate the industry.

"It was in 1983 that the bauxite industry suffered its first major retrenchment of workers and the alumina plant and the bauxite operations at Ituni were closed.

"It was under Mr. Hoyte that the decision to sell the industry to private interest was made.

"By 1992, the production of bauxite was one third of the production in 1975 and the industry on the verge of collapse and in an increasing decline," Mr. Hinds pointed out.

According to him, the Linden Mining Enterprise (LINMINE) steam power plant was a victim of this collapse.

"Privatisation of power generation for Linden was completely consistent with the PNC's own commitment, even before the PPP/C came to office, to privatise the bauxite industry. It was a perfectly reasonable decision at the time and in fact was urgently recommended by the LINMINE management," Mr. Hinds stated.

"It is extraordinary, therefore, that Mr. Hoyte should issue a statement attempting to lay the blame for the disintegration of the bauxite industry at the door of the PPP/C Government," the Prime Minister said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hinds also refuted another claim made yesterday by the PNC/R at its weekly news conference, and noted that in 1998, the Linden Power Company (LPC) were in need of accommodation for their management staff and offered to rent the property owned by the Prime Minister in Linden which was vacant at the time.