The A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU + AFC) on Sunday, in separate statements, called for Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo’s resignation following claims of him misusing his Government office to engage in lobbying.
VICE News on Sunday night streamed a video just about 14 minutes long titled “Guyana For Sale.” The ‘undercover’ video sought to uncover whether the Guyanese Vice President takes bribes from Chinese companies before awarding them contracts.
In a statement, the APNU, through their legal spokesperson Roysdale Forde, SC, said: “no amount of denial and public relations spin can remove or wash this scandal.”
It further went on to say that the VICE News report shows that “Mr. Su has privileges, connections and a relationship with the Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.”
Meanwhile, the Alliance For Change also called for an independent investigation and audit into the procurement and awarding of contracts after the allegation of Chinese companies getting ‘favour’ in this regard.
The smaller party in the coalition said, “We expect this investigation to make recommendations on their findings and changes in the legal and regulatory framework in the award of large contracts and the disposal of the national resources of the county as may be necessary.”
It is because of the alleged corruption that both parties have come forward and called for the Vice President to resign immediately since they said this does not reflect well on the people and country of Guyana.
But the Vice President has denied these claims and noted that he would be taking legal actions against ‘Su’ since he has tarnished his reputation.
In the video published by Vice News, Jagdeo is heard saying, “no, no, no, I’m not getting involved with business. Su is my friend; he gets all the support. Su deals with all the agreements, I don’t. My thing is that I’m in Government, so I assist from the Government side.”
The reporter then revealed that Su intervened at that point and told the undercover Chinese investor that Jagdeo’s house was not the best place to talk about bribes.
From the clip, Su is heard telling the investor that “his (Jagdeo’s) hands are very clean.”
Earlier in the year, when Jagdeo released the full interview with VICE News, he denied the claim made by Su, which suggested that he took bribes. Su came forward and said that those claims made by VICE were false.
Based on this premise, the Vice President concluded that the reporter had a “predetermined” agenda and had made it clear that Guyana would not get caught in the China/US tension.
