The Parliamentary Economic Services Committee would subpoena documents from the World Bank to probe a Chinese company contracted to rebuild Guyana’s major international airport, if the Alliance For Change (AFC) has its way.

AFC Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan said that is among the options available to the 65-seat National Assembly, when asked whether the parliamentary committee has the technical capacity to probe China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).

“If it is in relation to asking the Chinese Harbour Engineering the serious questions in the Economic Services Sector Committee, we can ask the World Bank- please you have disbarred these people…

Give us all the circumstances why this principal construction company was disbarred. We will then go through their reasons,” he told a news conference.

The AFC Chairman said the Economic Services Committee could ask CHEC officials to explain their closeness to the parent company and after all the deliberations determine whether the company is above board.

Guyana’s opposition has been pushing for transparency of the US$138 million contract ever since Jamaica’s Contractor General uncovered that CHEC has been blacklisted from bidding from certain bank-funded projects from 2009 to 2017.

CHEC officials have said that the company itself has not bee banned by the World Bank.

The AFC also plans to tap into accounting, engineering and other expertise to grill officials and examine documents.

According Ramjattan, the AFC was unsure whether the rehabilitation and expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport is a priority in the absence of a feasibility study. Government has touted an overhauled airport as key to bringing more traffic and making Guyana hub.

“Even if the China Harbour Engineering has gotten all the answers to explain our concerns, we still have a problem as to whether the expansion project in view of so many other things that require priority treatment,” said Ramjattan.

Government has put a brake on the deal until Guyanese and Chinese authorities are satisfied that allegations of corruption against CHEC are baseless.