KAIETEUR News is once again under fire for their usual publication of miscalculations, this time in relation to the 36-megawatt (MW) power ship.
Financial Analyst Joel Bhagwandin on Friday highlighted the inaccuracies within the newspaper’s Friday edition.
Printed bold on their front page was, “36MW power ship to cost Guyana US$2.4M annually, minus fuel”, and within the article, it was falsely calculated that “A 36MW capacity plant is expected to generate some 315,360,000-kilowatt hours per year, which would mean an annual bill of $2,087,683,200. This, in addition to the 0.98 US cents maintenance fee, will add an additional US$309,052,800, or cumulatively US$2,396,736,000.”
Bhagwandin has exposed the publication’s usual miscalculations on Facebook, by stating: “According to KN’s calculation, it will cost US$2.4b, and in the headline they have US$2.4m… simple calculation (multiplication) they can’t do correctly…. 315,360,000 kwh X US$0.0776 = US$24.471m…NOT US$2.4b (KN calculation) … That is one year’s oil revenue… (US$2b).”
On April 13, Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) signed a contract with Urbacon Concessions Investments, W.L.L (UCI) to charter a power ship with a total installed capacity of 36 MWs for a period of two years.
The contract includes the provision of operation and maintenance services as part of the agreement. UCI is a subsidiary of UCC Holdings, a company incorporated in the State of Qatar. UCC Holdings has a strategic alliance with Karpowership International, a Turkish company.
GPL issued a press statement on Thursday outlining the terms of the agreement, stating that the contract requires it to pay UCI a monthly charter fee of 6.62 US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the power ship, as well as a monthly operation and maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh, based on electricity generation.
According to the power company, the power ship is expected to operate at 96 per cent availability. The GPL said that it is not required, under the contract, to pay a demobilisation fee.
SERIES OF FALSE PUBLICATIONS
Last Friday, the Kaieteur News was forced to apologise to the government for a false publication.
The newspaper had issued a retraction and apology, which was tucked away, for an article headlined: “Guyana borrowed to buy two airplanes for the price of four”, which appeared in its April 5 edition.
In the article, it was reported that “The Government of Guyana has borrowed a US$23.27 million loan from India to buy two Dornier 228 airplanes from an Indian Aeronautics Company when they could have gotten four for the same price.”
It then stated that the Indian government purchased six similar planes for its air force from the same company at a price of US$31.9 million.
The newspaper then quoted the Economic Times as stating: “The Defence Ministry on Friday (March 10, 2023) sealed a deal with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to procure six Dornier aircraft at a cost of Rs 667 crore for the Indian Air Force”, and then posited that Rs 667 crore is equivalent to US$31.9 million. This means that the Indian Government purchased six of the same aircraft from the same company at a price of US$5.3 million for one.
Utilising a conversion tool, it was, however, easily determined that Rs 667 crore is equivalent to just over US$80 million.
During a press conference last week, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo responded to several allegations from the Opposition surrounding the purchase of the aircraft, and made it clear that the aircraft were not bought by the Government of India and sold back to the Government of Guyana.
He informed the media that the two aircraft were bought from the Indian government and were new. They cost $8 million each and government purchased $6.23 million worth of spares for each of them, including reserve engine, propellers among other things and then spent about another million on the training of 19 persons, including the pilots, engineers and technicians flying the aircraft to Guyana.
The PPP General Secretary also addressed the Kaieteur News’ article which had the computation error, and other sensational stories.
Just last month, the newspaper was forced to apologise to the government and the GPL for false publication.
Furthermore, on several occasions, Dr. Jagdeo has had reason to call out the Kaieteur News for its frequent “distortion” of facts.