A challenge to BK International--Freddie Kissoon

JUNE 2, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

I missed recent convert, Brian Tiwarie’s exuberant, emotional panegyrics of the new APNU-AFC government on television a few nights ago. People told me about it. Many said, “Freddie yuh should hear BK.” Well I am sorry I missed it given Tiwarie’s bitter denunciation of me last March when I wrote about the contracts he got from the Jagdeo Government and a loan he took from GBTI to buy the Teperu/Itabu quarry. I think I missed the programme because I was at the AFC head office on Railway Line where I socialize with people who campaigned with me to remove the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal so that the new government can implement the Procurement Commission. This commission is for contracts to be transparent in the awarding process. The rejection of a Procurement Commission is one of the things I hated the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal for. Writing about the quarry purchase in his tirade against me, Tiwarie wrote; “All of this is thanks to Jagdeo’s efforts to set (sic) this quarry going again” Well, Mr. Tiwarie has to be grateful to Mr. Jagdeo because the quarry is doing well Mr. Tiwarie reacted ragingly to the following words in my March 15, 2015 column. “You can count on your fingers, the private contracts Brian Tiwarie gets. His contracts, thus his wealth, came from the twelve-year reign of Mr. Jagdeo and he is still getting more under Ramotar.” I thought that was public knowledge and saw nothing malicious in the statement. The whole of Guyana knows that BK International expanded prodigiously due to state contracts. Mr. Tiwarie got his PR spokesperson, Alex Graham, to fire the first shot. Mr. Graham wrote; “Mr. Kissoon must know that there are no private projects of that scale and magnitude for which BK International is qualified to compete.” But the story of BK International took an interesting twist when the man himself, Brian Tiwarie, got into the act. Mr. Tiwarie now glaringly contradicted his own PR guru when he, Tiwari, wrote; “Mr Kissoon speculates that most of our business arises from Government contracts without any verification whatsoever. The fact of the matter is that a large portion of BK International’s work arises from private companies and individuals.”(end of quote) How can the PR firm of a company say it gets state contracts because there are no such private contracts in Guyana, then the firm’s boss says the bulk of the firm’s contracts come from private businesses and individuals. So which is the truth? This column here will ask BK International to clear up this ugly discrepancy and other requests. The man himself decided to get personal with me. In a section of his long letter in the Guyana Times (which is rumoured to be owned by Bharrat Jagedo) he confronted me with the following words; “In the interest of transparency, I challenge him (that is me) to publish the names of all the businessmen who built his house, if any. I bet you he never would.” I will take up that challenge with GHK Lall and Ramon Gaskin in a forthcoming column. For now the challenge is directed to Tiwarie and it is done against the background of Tiwarie’s own words which I reprint here; “BK does not report to anyone the source of our funds, the terms of our loans and our repayment, given the private nature of those transactions…” Yet this very man wants me to publish details of the businessmen who helped me with my house. But I am not averse to the publication of the names at all. I won’t even consult these four persons when I publish their identities because I believe they no longer fear PPP retaliation. I am ready to publish the names of the four businessmen who assisted me and detail my relationship with them. The information will come as a huge surprise to readers because I hardly relate to two of them and haven’t spoken to them in years. In exchange, could Tiwari answer the following questions? How many state contracts did he get under the Jagdeo presidency? What kind of work does Ramon Gaskin do for him and for how long now? What kind of private contracts did he receive during the Jagdeo presidency? And finally, is he aware that the loan from GBTI to buy the quarry was actually a news item in one of the daily newspapers? GHK Lall and Gaskin want to know who these businessmen are. I am putting both of these gentlemen on alert that in exchange, I will request they divulge information that readers would like to have. Sorry to hear Mr. Gaskin’s friend, Carol Sooba, has lost her job, but she deserved to.