Georgetown Prison contract was annulled to have it transferred- Patterson
– says Ministry was only providing “technical support”
The Public Infrastructure Ministry has come out to admit that a tender to reconstruct the administrative blocks of the Georgetown Prison was annulled. But pushing back against allegations of cronyism, the Ministry is claiming that this was to allow the project to be transferred.
According to Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson, in a statement, the process was annulled because the Ministry was not the subject Ministry. According to the Minister, his Ministry was just providing “technical support”.
“ The process was indeed annulled; the cries of cronyism by the Opposition are more of their mischievous attempts to spread falsehoods. The annulment was to allow for the project to fall under the relevant Ministry, which in this case is the Ministry of Public Security.”
“The Opposition presents these documents that are indeed official, because the Ministry publicly puts the information out there; this is information that is in the public domain,” Patterson continued, going on to accuse the political Opposition of half-truths.
At his last press conference, Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo supplied media operatives with a paper trail for other contracts which clearly showed the Ministry annulling the processes.
One such project involved the multi-million-dollar reconstruction of the administrative blocks for the Georgetown Prison – being undertaken by the Public Infrastructure Ministry and not the Public Security Ministry.
… more
Image: Stabroek News