Govt gifts US$40M Brazil fibre optic cable to contractor

…also grants tax exemptions, incentives, tax holidays, remissions, tax waivers, duty free concessions on vehicles etc.

The US$40 million fibre optic cable from Brazil is no longer to be the property of the taxpayers.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon, literally gave the cable away when he entered into a contract with a small contractor, Dax Contracting Services Ltd owned by Faisal Mohamed on March 16, last.

This same contracting service owned by Mohamed was one of the five contractors hired to lay the cable from Lethem to Georgetown.
The cable programme started in 2011 and remains incomplete to this day. It should have been completed by 2013.
The contract signed between Luncheon and Faisal Mohamed has been described as the most generous give away package, worse that the Sanata Complex in the run up to the 2011 elections.
It also mirrors the giveaway of the radio frequencies in Jagdeo’s last days as president.
Kaieteur News exposed the plot to steal the communication sector two years ago. This expose is still on the Kaieteur News website as the ‘Media and Telecommunication heist of Guyana’.
The agreement between the government and Faisal Mohamed is for the repair, use and maintenance of the fibre optic cable from Brazil.
This agreement is for an initial 25 years with an option to extend it for a further 15 years.
It says that the government will provide Mohamed with the necessary support to receive and transmit data by way of the cable after granting the company an operating licence.
This means that Mohamed will be equal to Guyana Telephone and Telegraph company and Digicel.
And for free, Mohamed will be able to use all the Government-owned fibre optic cables and structures including, roads, the poles, access to repeater stations and other things.
Dax Contracting Services would also be provided with tax exemptions and incentives, including but not limited to tax holidays, remissions, tax waivers and duty free concessions on equipment, spares, tools   and vehicles.
The vehicles would be two SUVs, and three four-door pick-ups, renewable three years for the next 40 years.
The government insists that it will retain possession and use of the bandwidth, as agreed to between Dax and the government.
As the owner of the cable, Faisal Mohamed can invite and sign with any company or entity to use the cable to transmit and receive data and information from any part of the world in the same way that today’s telephone companies operate.
To add insult to injury, the government has agreed to pay Dax for specific emergency maintenance.
In exchange for the operating licence, Mohamed will accept the risks involved in accepting and using the operating licence even before the legislation is passed.
And in the event of the United States voicing objections to the illegal move which could lead to the shutting down of GT&T/ATN, Dax will front for the government and so prevent the government from being penalised.
At present the taxpayer is paying Brazil US$76,000 per year on that same cable. The country is also paying some hefty salaries in US dollars to people who are doing nothing on the project.