A bridge too far…

…in Berbice?

Seems that this Berbice Bridge issue just won’t go away. So your loyal Eyewitness thought he’d have a stab at understanding what the heck’s going on. As CN Sharma used to say, there always three sides to any story: your side, their side and the truth. First off the bat, there’s the government side. Without taking “lee from license” they announced to their Berbice supporters that they were going to reduce the tolls from the Bridge “significantly”.

Why?? Duh!! Why do politicians make promises? To get votes, silly!! And in the last elections, getting votes from Berbicians were seen as key to getting the APNU/AFC coalition over the winning line. And it did – even if only by a whisker. Now when you’re campaigning, talk is cheap – you can say whatever the heck pops into your mind. So they promised to lower the tolls on the Berbice Bridge – without even consulting the people who own the Bridge!

That’s like the government telling you the price you’re charging for the chickens you’re rearing in your backyard, is too high because your neighbours say so…and you must lower your price!! That’s right…don’t ask where those neighbours were when you were taking debt to buy chicken feed and all that. It’s all for the “greater good”…you’ll make a whole lotta people happy!

Now while all of this may be jolly well good at some level…you and your Eyewitness fully well know this isn’t how the real world operates. Before the Bridge was built, folks had to wait interminable hours to cross in a ferry that never had the capacity to deal with the Cara and trucks etc. Pontoons, barges and “launches” were all drafted to help out. But bridges cost money, no? And so it was, the government rallied practically the entire business community of Guyana – financial and commercial – and together closed the deal to construct the present Bridge.

What everyone – including the new government – seems to conveniently forget is that THE PRESENT COST OF CROSSING THE BERBICE RIVER IS THE SAME AS WITH THE OLD FERRY!!!! But now folks can cross at any time – at their convenience…without the sometime day-long wait. This was the promise the government made at the time. After about ten years or so, when some of the loans were being paid off the tolls would’ve gone down and in 21 years, when the Bridge was all paid for, the government would’ve taken over the Bridge to charge little or nothing as they do with the Demerara Bridge.

So what’s the hullabaloo about? Just govt being willing to kill the golden (business) goose to get into power!

…in Demerara

One hears of “large interest rates” being paid to investors in the Berbice Bridge. Did anyone ask what rates were being changed TO OTHER BUSINESSES borrowing money at that time? The SAME as was charged to the Bridge Company!!

So where did this “exploitation” of the small man spiel come from? The politicians in the AFC who piloted a “toll reduction” motion since 2014”, that’s who. Because they wanted Berbicians’ votes. But there’s a solution that no one’s bringing up. When Bookers ran the sugar industry, they accepted that the Demerara estates had higher costs than Berbice. So they “cross subsidised” Demerara sugar with Berbice’s. Well it’s payback time!

Today the government can do the same for Berbice with the Demerara Bridge. 10,000 vehicles cross daily. If the toll’s increase by just Gy$100 per vehicle…that’s Gy$1M per day or Gy$365M per year.

That’ll be enough to subsidise the Berbice Tolls at the new rates being requested!

…and recovering Government’s costs

The folks are raising the issue of monies the government, via NICIL, plunked into the approaches to the Bridge.

They should ask Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo for the Gy$7 million he pocketed for filling out some forms to relocate some families from D’ Edward Village!