Guyana has refused to accept the large consignment of items offered by T&T to help with flood relief efforts in that nation.
Guardian Media understands that T&T Government officials had put together the items in accordance with Guyana’s request through the Caricom Secretariat but when this country made contact to work out the logistics for delivery, T&T was told the items were unnecessary.
Guardian Media is able to quote from a letter signed by Guyanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hugh Hilton Todd dated June 18, 2021, directed to his counterpart in T&T which stated that they needed pumps to remove excess water, but nothing else on the consignment list they provided to Caricom.
Todd, in the letter, expressed “the sincere gratitude” of the Guyanese people in “the face of the severe flooding affected regions on Guyana” but added that “I wish to advise that the critical items at this time is for pumps to meet the urgent demand for enhanced drainage capacity.”
“Other items have otherwise been adequately covered to date,” Todd said.
Neither Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley nor Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne were available to comment and did not respond to calls or texts for a response.
This latest development comes after a fissure of diplomatic discord between the two nations after the Guyanese advisor to the Health Ministry Dr Leslie Ramsammy said that Rowley offended the Guyanese people when he said that they had more vaccines for their population but had used vaccines that did not have World Health Organisation approval.
Browne then issued a statement saying that the PM did nothing wrong.
On his weekly wrap up of events on Wednesday Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall talked about the vaccine drama and said that he would not “waste time and energy” on Rowley. He said that T&T’s was measuring the size of its vaccine rollout against Caribbean countries with much smaller populations. At that time Nandlall said Rowley was being adequately handled by United National Congress (UNC) Anil Roberts.
On Thursday in an interview with Guardian Media Nandlall said that he did not mean to re-energise the stale issue.