Dear Editor,
The Leader of the Opposition has done this nation a service by exposing what he rightly calls “highway robbery”, as cited in the Kiskadee Watch of August 12, 2026. But his comparison, while valuable, did not go far enough. Let us attempt to correct that oversight and shine some light on the true scale of the swindle on this nation.
The scientifically more appropriate comparison is not between Region 4’s Eccles-Great Diamond highway and the proposed Versailles-Parika highway (Region 3). One is paved with reinforced concrete versus asphaltic concrete and thus makes it challenging to compare accurately. The true “like-with-like” comparison is between the Ogle to Eccles highway (built by the Indian company Ashoka), and the proposed Versailles-Parika highway. Both are built on former cane-fields (same soft clay deposits). Both use asphaltic concrete. Both have preparation bases of roughly 52–53 meters. Both require the same technology—Prefabricated Vertical Drains (PVDs)—for ground stabilization and therefore their inflation adjusted cost profile should be similar.
The Ashoka Road cost $3.6 billion per kilometer. The Versailles-Parika highway comes in at $5.8 billion per kilometer. That’s $2.2 billion more per kilometer for the exact the same road designs, on the exact same soil conditions, using the exact same technology.
The PPP government’s defence claims inflation justifies the difference. Let’s do the math. According to the Guyana National Bureau of Statistics, cumulative inflation between 2022 and 2026 is roughly 20%. Even if we are generous and add another 10% for supply chain disruptions (a 30% adjustment), the cost should not exceed $4.8 billion per kilometer. That would be a generous estimate which adds a further $30 billion on to the price tag to cover all the contingencies, emergency cost and the cost of the additional bridges (bringing the new engineering estimate to approximately $101 billion); not $121 billion.
The difference ($1 billion per kilometer), appears as pure graft. Across the entire 20.74 kilometers, that is approximately $20 billion apparently being skimmed.
Let us put that in perspective. The U.S. government has sanctioned Mr. Azruddin Mohamed for a scheme that allegedly cost Guyana approximately $10 billion (still to be proven in court). But people here are walking away with double that amount on one project alone ($20 billion) and no sanctions appear to be forthcoming from the US Government for these persons. No extradition. No U.S. State Department testimonies about destabilizing democracy or fueling financial crime.
The technical defences offered by the Central Housing & Planning Authority and the Ministry of Public Works are not convincing. They attempted to bury the public in detail about bridge counts and preparation footprints while avoiding the fundamental truth: this project is being sold at a premium not justified by engineering, inflation, or any honest calculation.
The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Azruddin Mohamed, must be thanked for drawing attention to this “highway robbery.” Now it is for the people of Guyana to ask: if $10 billion earns a US sanctions, why does the $20 billion scheme earn a contract? Pick sense from nonsense!
The poor in Guyana must band their bellies since they are set to get poorer over the next 5 years as the rich gets richer compliments of the grand hegemonic plunder that will motivate the imperialist to now conveniently casting a blind eye on the shenanigans of people here.
Yours faithfully,
Khemraj Harryram
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