GEORGETOWN — Three stories carry the day, and none of them are new.
The Wales GTE project director, whose ties to frozen Andorran accounts and Maduro-era asset stripping were documented in Stabroek News last Friday, was at the project site Monday morning. The Ministry of Natural Resources has issued no statement on whether a vetting review is underway. The Office of the Prime Minister referred questions to the project’s joint-venture board, which has not met publicly since February.
In the Rupununi, day forty-seven of intermittent supply. GPL technicians arrived in Lethem on Friday. The substation work that was meant to take “seventy-two hours” is now in its fifth day. Schools in Aishalton and Karasabai operated without lights again Monday. The Regional Democratic Council issued a routine statement; the Public Utilities Commission has not.
In Kingston, CARICOM tariff harmonization talks entered a third day with no joint communiqué. Six member states — including Guyana — pushed for the framework Trinidad has resisted since November. Three states remain undecided. The Jamaican PM declined a press scrum on Sunday evening.
What we are watching this week: the Wales vetting question. If the project director is still in post by Friday with no Ministry statement, the story stops being about one man and starts being about the system that decided he was acceptable.
What we are not yet calling: the Cabinet reshuffle. Kaieteur News has reported it twice in ten days. Neither time has the Office of the President confirmed. Two reports does not make a reshuffle. We will report it when it is on the record.
What is on the record: the Pouderoyen and Buxton market tenders closed on Friday. The Cabinet approved $26M for the School of Agriculture. Bamboo planting at Wales — the buffer screen, not the gas plant — is underway.
The country is running on two tracks. One track is doing the work. The other is hoping the questions go away.
They are not going away.