PPP, Didco deny $10M campaign contribution claim
Stabroek News
December 5, 2003
The PPP has called the allegation that it received $10M from Didco for its 2001 campaign a "malicious and blatant lie" and is demanding a withdrawal.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the party stated that television station owner Anthony Vieira made the charge on a television broadcast on VCT Channel 28, which he owns.
The charge, the PPP/C stated, was repeated by PNCR Member of Parliament Jerome Khan during a press briefing that the party hosted.
Contacted by Stabroek News on Wednesday, Khan said he was surprised that the PPP would now seek to shift the blame on "Jerome Khan", as it was a PPP member, Deochand Narain, who raised the matter in a letter published in the Stabroek News on November 15, 2003.
Khan added that he stands by "every single word", he said. "I did not accuse the PPP/C, I pointed out that it was one of their own, who was touted as the finance minister succeeding [now President Bharrat] Jagdeo. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that Narain was in the know and he may be aware of many other similar abuses of executive power."
What Narain, the former head of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), actually stated in the letter to Stabroek News was that President Bharrat Jagdeo had approved a list of machinery and equipment for duty-free concessions for Didco Trading Company, while denying similar concessions for Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated.
Narain had added that "this incident took place before the 2001 elections and I do recall being lectured in politics 101 - `we are going to lean on Didco for at least 10 million. Badal is not in a position to give us (anything)'".
Narain went on to say in the letter that he believed that decisions should be made on policies and not on personal likes and dislikes.
Khan said that it was for this reason that his party has been advocating the removal of the discretionary powers vested in the ministers of government, as such powers could be used as a political weapon to favour some and hurt others.
Khan told Stabroek News that the row seems to be nothing but a feud between factions of the PPP.
Managing Director of Didco, Deonarine Singh, said in a written statement yesterday that the assertion that his company had duty-free concessions and the Guyana Stockfeeds Inc did not because Didco paid $10M to the PPP is a "total lie". He said that if Khan wanted to know the facts on Didco, all he had to do was call him.
Singh said that Narain had been labelling him as a PNCR supporter and that Narain said that the government should not give him any concessions. "[Narain] sought to achieve this by ensuring that my application for duty-free concessions on my poultry project was not granted," Singh said yesterday.
He said that more than a year after he submitted an application for fiscal concessions at Go-Invest, Narain never replied to him.
"As such I sought recourse through a friend of his (Khemraj Ramjattan) to see whether he can have any information on the status on my application. Ramjattan subsequently told me that [Narain] informed him that he had submitted his recommendation to Kellawan Lall, Chairman of Go-Invest, to grant approval for the project," Singh said.
He added that contrary to what Ramjattan told him, Narain had written to Lall saying that the project was not a viable one and that Didco could not find the investment for such a project, therefore he could not grant any concessions. Singh said that he has all the documents that Narain sent to Lall.
Stabroek News called Vieira's Quamina Street office for a comment on the PPP statement but was told that he is out of the country.