guyana_governance

Corruption and high officials

2010-04-16T13:47:00.001-07:00

Stabroek News Business column, Friday 16 April 2010. Corruption and high officials.
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/business/04/16/corruption-and-high-officials/

By Stabroek staff | April 16, 2010 in Business

We in Guyana ought not to be comforted by the fact that fraud and corruption in public institutions is by no means unique to us. We need only cursorily examine the Report of the Auditor General for 2008 to discover, first, that acts of fraud and corruption continue to spread like a cancer throughout state institutions and, based on the frequency of these irregularities and the astronomical amounts of money involved, that fraudulent and corrupt practices have become a virtual way of life in some institutions and, moreover, that these practices mean that we are denied resources for valuable infrastructural works, poverty support measures and social services that can bring a measure of improvement to our country and our people.

Away from Guyana, the past few months have seen the publication of a succession of international reports in which the issues of global fraud and corruption have either been the central theme of the reporting, or else, have surfaced prominently in the reports. The reports that come readily to mind include Transparency International’s 2009 Global Corruption Report, the IDB Anti Corruption Framework Review and the IDB’s Institutional Integrity Report.

Setting aside the sheer volume of the amounts which the reports say have been fraudulently diverted, they tell several other significant and deeply depressing stories. The Transparency International Report, for example, asserts that politicians and other prominent officials in developing countries illegally enrich themselves to the tune of between US$20 billion and US$40 billion annually. If the figure itself is sufficient to provoke gasps of utter incredulity, what is equally distressing is – assuming, of course, the accuracy or even near accuracy of the TI figures – that our politicians and other functionaries who are trusted to govern and to ensure the security of the respective state treasuries, are among the leading plunderers of their countries’ resources.

In the case of the IDB Institutional Integrity Report we learn that multilateral development funds assigned primarily for projects that target poor people in developing countries are also systematically ‘creamed off’ and that, sometimes, some of Bank’s own consultants are in league with the thieves. We learn too that the Bank has been forced to implement and constantly update costly measures aimed at reining in fraud and corruption, and that its additional scrutiny has resulted in suspensions or total bans being placed on individuals and entire firms from being involved in Bank-funded projects.

Here in Guyana, the Office of the Auditor General – the only truly reliable agency through which we can gain some insight into the scale of fraud and corruption inside state agencies – has recently released its 2008 Report. Frankly, and with the best will in the world, the complete chronicling of every detail of the fraud, corrupt practices and questionable procedures for financial management and chronicles detailed in the report would be a formidable challenge. One only need peruse the report, however, to discover, for example, that a majority of state agencies transgress financial regulations and other procedures leaving gaping holes in the accountability process which, if probed forensically, may well, in many instances, unearth a trail of misappropriation of public funds. This is so particularly in those cases of the disfigurement of the tender procedures by some senior public officials to the extent that the Auditor General’s Report unambiguously states that some of the decisions to award tenders really ought to be invalidated and the overpayment of monies to private contractors in most cases will probably never be recovered.

Some instances, like those involving the Customs and Trade Administration are glaring and leave no room for speculation. This is what the Auditor General, in his 2008 Report, says about the CTU. “At the time of the audit in November 2008, two hundred and twelve allegedly fraudulent transactions totalling $301.275 million of which fifty one totaling $108 million were in relation to 2008 were uncovered at the Customs and Trade Administration.” That amounts to roughly one fraudulent act per week in 2008 involving just under $3M daily!

Then there are cases of billions of dollars which ought, correctly, to be deposited in the Consolidated Fund which, for reasons that are unclear, remain in various other bank accounts; millions of dollars in overpayments to contractors which remain un-recouped; further millions of dollars in unrecovered salary overpayments; and a $US2M balance owing on the sale of Guyana Stores since 2002 and which, up to the time of the audit, had still not been paid over to the state.

No less interesting are the discrepancies between the records of the GRA’s Internal Revenue Department regarding amounts paid into the Consolidated Fund and the Statements of Receipts and Disbursements prepared by the Ministry of Finance. In both 2007 and 2008 the amounts paid into the Consolidated Fund were significantly less than those recorded in the Finance Ministry’s records of receipts and disbursements, the difference for the two years totalling more than $100M. While the Auditor General described the GRA Commissioner General’s response to these anomalies as explanations, what the Commissioner General is reported in the Auditor’s General’s report to have said is that the Internal Revenue Department and the Ministry of Finance “are working to have the differences for 2008 identified and make the necessary adjustments.” Where is the explanation for the difference of more than $100M in the records of the Internal Revenue Department and the Ministry of Finance and exactly what “necessary adjustments” will the Internal Revenue Department and the Ministry of Finance make?

Setting aside those clear cases of fraud and corrupt transactions set out in the Auditor General’s Report it is difficult to ignore the litany of other instances in which improper transactions appear, or perhaps instances where fraud may have actually been perpetrated but has not yet been detected. Curiously, there were several cases in which neither the enquiries by the auditors in instances of questionable and/or glaringly anomalous situations or the answers provided by the particular departments appear to have been attended with a sense of great concern and urgency.

Last week, President of the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) Ramesh Dookhoo told a forum on Fraud Detection and Prevention at the Tower Hotel that he believed that 95 per cent of all detected frauds in Guyana went unpunished. One wonders whether a similar implication is also present in the Auditor General’s Report given – apart from those clear instances of fraud – the litany of ill-explained and quizzical circumventions of financial regulations that have had implications for both the disbursement and accounting for state funds. This brings us to the point made in the TI Report on Global Corruption about the extent to which politicians and high officials benefit from corrupt transactions and leaves us to wonder whether, globally, those who manage the state might not regard the illegal accumulation of personal wealth to be, perhaps, an entitlement of their privileged positions.

ENDS

I believe there is money in Switzerland

2010-04-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

I believe there is money in Switzerland
April 12, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/04/12/i-believe-there-is-money-in-switzerland/

The country’s population is small. In such an environment, things can hardly be kept as permanent secrets. We will come to that subject below, but first; the inscrutable nature of corruption. The elusive role of corruption is contained in its invisible dimensions.

A company gets a whopping contract for pharmaceuticals. The payment is absurdly high. You know that big, big officials in the ruling cabal will secure a few millions from that dirty transaction and bank it outside. The cash is deposited in the name of a sister who carries her married name. How does the press prove that? It cannot.

You will end up being found guilty for libel if you say that the pharmaceutical company secured a higher payment and gave Mr. Powerful a cutback, who then put the money in a bank account in his sister’s name in Europe. When the judge asks for proof, you better have it.

This is the invisibility of corruption in Guyana. The only way the exposure can come is when the press, using complex, subtle but leading sentences writes about these things. For example, read my fictional example above then think about it deeply.

Let’s return to corruption in a small society. Guyana’s population is just above 700,000 with a large percentage being babies, small children, unemployed labourers and ordinary folks who have no contacts with the world of power in Guyana.

That leaves us with a small percentage of people who actually comprise what we call the “real society” (for want of a better sociological description) and who because of their roles and placements in that society would have knowledge of what goes on in Guyana. It means secrets will come out.

They have to come out because the auditors at the Guyana Revenue Authority have sisters, brothers, cousins that know people in the media and elsewhere. The guys who catch people staling electricity have cousins, friends, brothers and sisters who have contacts in the society.

A simple example should suffice. Mary does business management at UG, graduates, takes a work at the GRA as an auditor and is off on her audit missions. She is sent to one of Guyana’s largest companies where she discovers evasions and manipulations that are glossed over by her superiors. She meets her lecturer at the City Mall, tells him what goes on. And there comes out there and then, facts on corruption.

The kings of corruption in this country cannot hide their venalities. People know about foreign bank accounts, particularly in Switzerland. The exasperating thing for us in the media is that we cannot procure the facts, so the libel laws confine us to sophisticated grammar.

I hope my Switzerland reference tells you something you need to know. With every passing day, Guyana moves at the top into the category of one of the world’s most egregiously corrupt countries in the context of powerful members of the political cabal stealing and taking kick-backs. What needs to be mentioned is the barefacedness of these elites in how they pursue their transactions.

Did you know a man got approval to buy state lands for G$1.5M? He then sold it for G$34M. Then a pattern emerges with this guy. People aren’t stupid. This man (who was in the news recently along with a so-called critic) cannot just go around buying state lands, getting state land grants, and selling the stuff making thousands and thousands of percentage profits just like that.

And to crown it all, one powerful name crops up all the time when this guy buys his lands and gets his concessions. This buyer (a junior politician) is actually the front for this powerful figure. Money ends up in foreign bank accounts.

Guyanese in the “real society” know about this monster of corruption that has devoured the ruling circles (don’t tell me Mama Janet and Papa Cheddi didn’t see it coming; they did). The corruption is ubiquitous. Guyanese encounter it all the time.

Do you know two young men in their early thirties are close to becoming billionaires with the companies they own? Do you know who their fathers are? I will give you a clue. Both fathers wouldn’t mind seeing a change in the Constitution that will do away with term limits.

As I told Christopher Ram in a conversation on Saturday, this Government is so bestially corrupt that we should no longer speak about the era and times of the Burnham Government. When we talk about dictatorship in Guyana, Burnham’s name has faded, gone from the records. The PPP Government is the only dictatorship this country knows.

Guysuco needs drastic surgery for survival

2010-03-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Guysuco needs drastic surgery for survival

Posted By Christopher Ram On March 14, 2010 @ 5:08 am In Features, Sunday | 4 Comments
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/03/14/guysuco-needs-drastic-surgery-for-survival/

Introduction
For more than a year, the state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc has been in the press, mostly for all the wrong reasons. Its 2008 annual report tabled in the National Assembly shows a staggering loss before tax of $6.2 billion, following a gain of $2.2 billion in 2007. Its Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Plant, touted as the saviour of the industry, has been stumbling from problem to problem; reports of excessive salaries paid to some senior managers were sensationalised, even as the corporation stoutly rejected demands from its main workers’ union for increased compensation and benefits. There were reports too, of one very senior officer – a director no less – resigning from the company after being locked out of a meeting, while another with huge experience in the industry, was given marching orders.

[1]More recently the corporation was the subject of a very heated exchange in the National Assembly surrounding the actual date of payment of $4 billion made to enable the corporation to meet debt obligations. With the government side facing a dilemma of its own making – risking later embarrassment, or admitting that its Finance and Housing Ministers have by their silence misled the National Assembly while engaging in a breach of the law and a clear bail-out – this matter will not go away.
All change
Changes at the top of the corporation saw the termination of the much maligned management contract with Booker Tate after two decades; the resignation and replacement of the Chairman Ronald Alli by Dr Nanda Gopaul, former sugar unionist and political leader now at the Office of the President; a clean-out of the boardroom with the principal survivor being the ruling party’s General Secretary and now presidential aspirant, Mr Donald Ramotar; a new Chief Executive Officer, chartered accountant Mr Errol Hanoman with a mixed history with the corporation, brought back from the UK to take charge of the industry; the appointment of a new Deputy Chief Executive Officer with no prior work experience in the industry; and an Interim Management Committee that includes Ms Geeta Singh-Knight, local head of the failed insurance giant Clico.

For better or worse, they now carry the responsibility for the future of one of the country’s major industries, and by extension, determining the number of billions which taxpayers will have to pump yearly into the corporation, before the country can see any returns.

The result of these changes is an industry that is headed mainly by accountants, with field operations, marketing, and industrial relations coming after.

It has led too, to another study and recommendations for the industry, referred to optimistically as a ‘Blueprint for Success.’ Unlike the earlier Business Plan for the industry, the Blueprint is as secretive – and elusive – as the Holy Grail, precluding any widespread discussion or consultation among key stakeholders. One can only speculate about the reasons for the secrecy, and wonder whether the information in the document is considered too explosive for public knowledge.

Accounts quality
Starting today, Business Page will carry out its own assessment of the industry, beginning with the 2008 annual report and accounts which bear the audit imprimatur of Mr Deodat Sharma, the country’s Auditor General (ag), and his sub-contractor Deloitte and Touche, now TSD Lall and Co. I will consider the available options to preserve salvageable parts of the industry, the implications and costs of delays.

Given the inanimate nature of the patient, it is unable to consent to life-saving surgery, and its political and professional guardians need to act quickly, decisively and rationally, or face losing the industry once considered too big to fail. Perhaps the real question is whether Guysuco is too big – and too costly – to save as taxpayers are called upon to pump dollars like water into the fields, merely to keep the industry afloat.

Before going into the details of the financial statements, a few general points of accounting are worthy of mention:
1. But for some clever presentation of information, the company’s financial position is worse than it is shown to be. For example, nowhere do the financial statements disclose that at the end of 2008, the corporation had overdraft balances of $3.2 billion. In fact, the balance sheet misleadingly shows cash and cash equivalents of $960 million.
2. Amounts due to the Government of Guyana in respect of lease rentals are shown as having decreased by $104M, while amounts due to the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund as increasing by $525M. The notes to the financial statements indicate that these should have increased by $218.5M and $870M respectively. If that is so, the liabilities in the balance sheet are understated by $667.5M.
3. Note 9 to the financial statements presents cash and bank balances net of overdraft balances, understating assets and liabilities and distorting ratios and measures. Guyana dollar balances were presented as a $1,895M payable, masking the true cash and overdraft balances. This also calls into question the positive foreign currency balances with a Guyana dollar equivalent of $2,855M.
4. The balance sheet carries deferred tax assets of $1,169M which seems overly optimistic having regard to the corporation’s prospects in the foreseeable future. The effect is to understate the after-tax loss in 2008, and overstate the net equity of the entity.
5. No deferred tax liability has been recorded in respect of the revaluation of property, plant and equipment, as required by International Financial Reporting Standards.
6. The consolidated accounts of a holding company must eliminate inter-company assets, liabilities and transactions. The amount due from the corporation’s subsidiary, Lochaber Limited, was not eliminated on consolidation.
7. Note 12 shows a convertible Government of Guyana debenture, but conversion terms or diluted earnings per share are not stated or presented.
8. In note 22, which states the foreign currency risk arising from a change in exchange rates, liabilities were added to assets to arrive at the net exposure. As a result, the level of net foreign currency assets in United States Dollars and GB Pounds is overstated by $12,276M.
9. Commodity Market Update published by the Ministry of Agriculture for the month of September 2009 noted that “The Euro rate at the end of the August 2009 averaged 1.439Euro/US$. In the same period in 2008, the rates were 1.4795. GuySuCo, however, has hedged a number of its shipments for 2009.” The financial statements for the year 2008 make no disclosure on hedging.
The Income statement

[2]

All figures in millions of Guyana Dollars

Source: Audited Financial Statements
Revenue in 2008 fell by 8.5% to $32,148M, which is less than revenue earned two years earlier. Guyana Dollar sales to Europe declined by 2.6%, to Caribbean countries by 44%, and were almost wiped out in North America. In terms of volume, export sales under the EU Protocol was about the same as in 2007 (152,229 tonnes) and US bulk was zero. Exports of bagged sugar to Caricom and the region declined from 31,160 tonnes in 2007 to 14,421 tonnes in 2008, while exports of packaged sugar to the region increased from 2,979 tonnes to 4,126 tonnes.

The decision to scale back on sales to the Caricom region was taken to enable the corporation to meet its commitment to the EU, resulting in waivers under the Common External Tariff being granted to several Caricom countries to import from outside of the region. Indeed, in November 2008, Guyana advised Caricom that it would be unable to supply the region with sugar in 2009, a development which would seriously affect our reputation as a reliable supplier, introduce a non-regional product at world prices, and make competition for us all the more difficult.
Ah na me, dis time

Cost of sales has jumped from 70.6% of sales in 2007 to a whopping 93% in 2008, but the report fails to explain or analyse why the cost of sales increased by $5,067M or 21%. The immediate suspect and whipping boy of the industry is wages and salaries, but the accounts show that in 2008, wages and salaries increased by a mere $50M, or 0.33% over 2007. What the report does show is that despite the corporation’s poor performance, the workers were given 8 days pay as Annual Production Inventive while their unions, GAWU and NAACIE, were paid 0.79 day per employee. The stated purpose of this latter amount is “to assist” two of the country’s most financially secure unions in their educational programmes; others will see this as a novel way to neutralise workers’ representatives.

Next week we will explore further the causes for the dramatic decline on operating profit and proceed to look at the balance sheet.
4 Comments (Open | Close)

4 Comments To "Guysuco needs drastic surgery for survival"

#1 Comment By Len Neilsen On March 14, 2010 @ 1:00 pm

Mr Ram, I do not want to hear anything more about Guysuco. Note how much you know about sugar and not a single word about bauxite!Sugar will survive ,whether you like it or not.There is enough political interest there. Bauxite seems to be a back water.
Ride on Russians1

#2 Comment By Christopher Ram On March 14, 2010 @ 4:53 pm

Dear Mr. Neilsen,

I can understand your frustration, particularly with the contrasting approaches taken between sugar and bauxite. However, I suggest you follow the series as it develops. If you do have any information you wish to share or comments you wish to make, you can send it/them to me at [3].

#3 Comment By Len Neilsen On March 15, 2010 @ 5:22 am

These are public views. There is no need for private correspondence. I will follow the series and comment as needs be .

#4 Comment By Pantha On March 15, 2010 @ 9:09 am

If you don’t want to read or hear anything about sugar, don’t read the article. Better yet, write something yourself. But don’t diss somebody for making the effort to address an issue of national importance, simply because you want him to address another one.

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/03/14/guysuco-needs-drastic-surgery-for-survival/

Guysuco needs drastic surgery to ensure survival – Part 2

2010-03-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Guysuco needs drastic surgery to ensure survival – Part 2
Posted By Christopher Ram On March 21, 2010 @ 5:15 am In Features, Sunday | 2 Comments
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/03/21/guysuco-needs-drastic-surgery-to-ensure-survival-%e2%80%93-part-2/

Introduction

[1]Today we continue our review of the 2008 financial statements of the state-owned corporation which are contained in its 2008 annual report tabled in the National Assembly late last year. We noted last week that while 2008 revenue fell by 8.5%, to approximately the same level in 2006, the corporation suffered a staggering loss before tax of $6.2 billion. Anticipating that there would be enough income against which to set-off the losses in the foreseeable future, the accounts show a tax credit – the opposite of a tax charge – of $2.1 billion for 2008. Instead, therefore, of carrying forward the full loss of $6.2 billion, the loss carried forward is $4.1 billion.
Usually, in making such a decision, the directors would have to consider all the available evidence, both positive and negative, to determine whether, based on the weight of that evidence, there should be a valuation allowance for all or some portion of a deferred tax asset. One has to assume that the directors considered this and concluded that no allowance is necessary.

Interestingly, the Chairman’s Statement contained in the annual report is presented by former Chairman Mr. Ronald Alli, Chartered Accountant while the financial statements are signed by his successor Dr. Nanda Gopaul. In seeking to explain the poor 2008 performance, both the former Chairman and the Chief Executive emphasise the wetter than normal weather conditions experienced by the corporation during the year. Even accepting that flood conditions affected East Demerara and East Berbice in the latter part of the year, this still invites the question why production at 226,268 tonnes would have been lower than it was in 1992 when the PPP took control of the country and industry, and 2006, the year most affected of the Great Flood of 2005. To add to this dismal performance, hectares harvested in 2008 were greater than in 1992, 2005 and 2006.

It therefore seems hard to believe that weather alone can explain the one-year turnaround in fortunes that saw production declining from 266,267 tonnes to its lowest production in seventeen years. I should say this however: unlike the corporation, I think we should be emphasising productivity rather than production and I will explain this when I review the Blueprint for Success, or what the current board describes as a turnaround plan. I pause to thank the unnamed persons who sent me copies of that document following publication of last week’s Business Page. I am impressed by the real willingness among us to have information of public interest and importance, publicly available.

The report
Unfortunately the annual report is not very helpful in explaining in any but a rather generalised way the performance of the corporation, whether in a good or bad year. It is left to the reader to ferret out, if at all possible, the information necessary to understand the corporation’s performance, or state of health. For example, the Chief Executive’s report gives the tonnage of exports and domestic sales while note 15 provides information on the revenue earned by geographical source. But the former also deals with product and market types while the latter deals only with dollar value, so that any average figures are merely indicative. But even these make for interesting reading.

Take for example the European market from which the corporation has earned substantial market benefits for decades. The export quantities to that region under the EU Protocol and CU (sic) amounted to 185,549 tonnes, 11,440 tonnes less than in 2007. Earnings to that region however fell from $27,198 million to $26,488 million, so that on average the price earned per tonne in that market actually increased from $137,998 per tonne to $142,677 per tonne. Whether this was exchange rate related or for any other reason can only be speculated. Exports to Caricom and the region fell from 34,139 tonnes to 18,547 tonnes at an average price per tonne of $108,211, up from $104,748 per tonne in 2007. And the domestic market where the volume sale of 23,345 tonnes was just below the sales in 2007, the average price per tonne went up from $138,074 in 2007 $147,997 in 2008.

Cost, hidden costs and terminated costs
Despite the loss of the EU preference, with the Corporation entering the final era of the Sugar Protocol from July 1, 2008, average revenue earned per tonne of sugar produced increased from $130,426 to $140,583 or 7.8%. So yes, production volumes were a major problem, but it is the cost that is the fatal problem. The financial statements show that the average cost of producing a tonne of cane rose from $92,075 to $130,582, a 42% increase! And that is not all. Administrative and other expenses such as marketing and distribution added another $7,554 million, slightly more than the $7,505 million in 2007.
Translating these to cost per tonne produced, the average in 2008 is $33,033 per tonne, up by 19% over 2007. Readers may be aware that the corporation enjoys considerable tax subsidies on some of the compensation payments to employees, including the weekend overtime and production incentives. These costs to the taxpayers are not usually considered or quantified when the viability of the industry is considered.

Similarly, there is no explanation for the decline in administrative expenses of more than half a billion dollars, or indeed what constitutes such expenses, a comment that also applies to marketing and distribution expenses. What is apparent is that the management fees paid to Booker Tate limited under their now terminated contract declined by $61 million, largely due to the favourable change in the sterling exchange rate. The savings in Administrative expenses have been offset by increases in Marketing and Distribution, which includes shipping costs and a cess paid to the Sugar Association of the Caribbean. Indeed over the three years 2006, 2007 and 2008, as freight costs sky-rocketed with no spare capacity in shipping, marketing and distribution costs have jumped from $3.1 billion to $4.8 billion, despite the decline in volumes.

The cess paid to SAC is based on the country’s contribution to the organisation’s budget and the money is used mainly to finance research. On the other hand, research done locally is negligible with the average annual cost over the past three years amounting to $238 million. This policy of farming out its research certainly needs a review since research needs to take account of differences in soil and weather conditions which cannot be replicated in any laboratory.
I will return to some of the income statement issues – which accountants now refer to as the statement of comprehensive income – when I look at the Blueprint for Success, but for now suffice it to say that a repeat of the 2008 performance would be the death knell of the industry.

Balance Sheet
As I turn to the balance sheet – now called the statement of financial position – I should emphasise that the two are related and affect each other. For example, the depreciation of the property, plant and equipment which appear in the balance sheet, is a charge in the income statement. All this down time on the new Skeldon Factory adds real economic costs to the project, and one shudders to think what the depreciation charge on the Skeldon Project will be. Similarly if and when that and other old plants are retired, their book values would be written off to the income statement.

The table below shows a condensed balance sheet extracted from the audited financial statements. Like with the Income Statement, there is barely any discussion on the balance sheet items which include the assets, liabilities and equity of the business. It is worth noting the bulk of the land used for cane cultivation – 72% – is held on lease at a pepper corn rental of the equivalent of $1,000 per acre per year, representing another valuable subsidy to the corporation by the government and the taxpayers. The Corporation could not survive if it had to pay real economic rent for those lands leased from the Government.

Of the total equity of $57 billion, $51 billion represents revaluation reserves while the assets include $9 billion of deferred tax assets. Both standing cane and product stock at the end of 2008 were considerably less in 2008 than in 2007 so that the corporation would in 2009 have to re-invest in these two asset categories. But this would be taking place even as the corporation confronted a weak liquidity situation, diminishing cash balances and increasing payables. During the year, the corporation was unable to pay its tax obligations of close to $2.5 billion, short-term borrowings had increased in 2008 by $1.5 billion, and cash and cash equivalents had declined during the year by a dramatic $3.5 billion!

Damp future
And as it looked forward even to two to three years, all it could see were loan obligations crytallising, plant needing replacement and a less than enthusiastic workforce. Here are some of those contracted obligations from which the corporation would almost certainly have to be rescued:
1. From 2012 – Government of Guyana Skeldon Project presumably financed by China (US$56 million) – US$1.8 million six monthly;
3. From 2010 – Government of Guyana Skeldon Project CDB (US$18.7 million) – interest rate not specifically stated so instalment cannot be calculated. Likely to require minimum repayment of at least US$1.5 million annually;
4. From 2010 – Government of Guyana Skeldon Co-generation Project China (US$25.8 million) – Interest rate not stated so instalment cannot be calculated. Likely to require minimum repayment of US$2.0 million annually.
The source of the amount of $636Mn (approximately US$3.1 million) shown in the notes to the financial statements as repayable in years 2010 to 2013 is not justified by the information contained elsewhere in the report.

The indications are that the government will be assuming most of these obligations from the Consolidated Fund. Meanwhile, the corporation was unable to make any payment to the Sugar Industry Welfare Fund in 2008 and less than half of the amount payable to the Government for lease rental, the accuracy of which I questioned in last week’s column.
Conclusion
The success and or survival of Guysuco over the years has had a lot to do with subsidies – with preferential access to a lucrative market, effectively free use of thousands of hectares of some prime land that the corporation claims is valued at billions of dollars, and in the cost of production. Some estates would obviously have higher production costs than others. But for some reason, the estate-by-estate performance is not stated in the report. That significantly limits the quality of this or any other independent analysis.
To be continued.
2 Comments (Open | Close)

2 Comments To "Guysuco needs drastic surgery to ensure survival – Part 2"

#1 Comment By Len Neilsen On March 21, 2010 @ 10:35 am

As advised, I am following this series carefully. No one can gainsay your analysis of the issues. Indeed, the sugar industry should be closed pronto!
But the realities are quite different.Like many experts such as Mr. Malcolm Ali on D&I projects, Mr. Ram is leading us to find the right answer to the wrong problem. Sugar will survive. The line up of political stars on the sugar board sends a very strong message: if we have to drain every last cent from the national treasury we will do it to ensure that sugar survives. That is the message I am getting.
Who is running Guysuco?
What I do know however, is that the firestorm brewing over the firing of Mr. Shaw is more informative than anything that Mr.Ram can reveal in his analysis of the operations of Guysuco.
Indeed,I can picture Cde. Ramotar preening his well trimmed beard and looking lovingly at the super glue coated political wire ropes that connect the sugar industry to the political superstructure.
As I advised Mr. Lewis, where econs and politics collide,
politics will inevitably carry the day.
That, I have learnt the hard way.

#2 Comment By Investor On March 21, 2010 @ 6:06 pm

Are Guyanese really paying more for sugar from our own Corporation than they are willing to sell to others?

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/03/21/guysuco-needs-drastic-surgery-to-ensure-survival-%e2%80%93-part-2/

http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/03/28/guysuco-needs-drastic-surgery-to-ensure-survival/

2010-03-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Guysuco needs drastic surgery to ensure survival. Posted By Christopher Ram On March 28, 2010 @ 5:10 am In Features, Sunday | 1 Comment
Part 3
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/03/28/guysuco-needs-drastic-surgery-to-ensure-survival/print/

Introduction

In the two preceding parts of this series on the state-owned sugar entity, my focus was on the 2008 financial statements which are contained in the annual report tabled in the National Assembly in late 2009. Those accounts told a story of a company in serious trouble and in danger of terminal decline, whether measured by profitability (it had a pre-tax loss of $6.2 billion); liquidity (by its own admission it experienced cash flow difficulties requiring working capital for the fourth consecutive year from the UK based ING Bank and a lifeline of $3.2 billion from a consortium of local commercial banks); or solvency (it was practically insolvent and requires Government support to keep it afloat). In the course of the earlier parts, I touched on some of the disclosures and omissions in the annual report, the principal use of which is to tell the story behind the numbers, offer some explanations, sometimes excuses, and indicate how the directors intend to take the road to recovery.

[1]As a state-owned entity, the corporation has filing and reporting obligations under both the Companies Act, as well as the Public Corporations Act (PCA) which requires that the accounts and report be tabled in the National Assembly within nine months of the end of the accounting year. Allowing for a few weeks delay, the reporting obligations of the corporation are met, which is more than can be said for the majority of publicly owned enterprises and budget agencies.

But the combined effect of these two acts creates for the corporation a recipe for confusion, if not disaster. Following the wave of privatisation and the new post-1992 dispensation, many of the provisions of the PCA, including the establishment of a Public Interest Committee consisting of workers, women, youth, students and consumers, have fallen into disuse. The directors’ powers and duties under the Companies Act are effectively overridden by the PCA which gives to the Minister immense powers over the corporation, and for good measure, also to the President. With such conflicting reporting obligations and so many bosses, it should surprise no one that the corporation seems incapable of dealing with the myriad of problems that cause it such massive losses and public embarrassment, as we witnessed this week over procurement in the corporation.
The annual report

For now, let us turn to the annual report. The then Chairman Mr. Ronald Alli in his report restates the mantra that sugar makes a significant contribution to the country’s GDP and is our largest foreign exchanger earner. The data do not support these bold assertions.

Measured in terms of constant prices, in 2008 sugar contributed 5.9% of GDP, placing it seventh in ranking, while in terms of export earnings it earned the country considerably less than the earnings from gold. In 2009, contribution to GDP was unchanged, but in terms of export earnings, sugar earned less than half of that of gold. With respect to taxes, sugar makes a negative contribution, receiving from the treasury a host of subsidies, exemptions and concessions. Of course, production and prices of sugar and other commodities can change the equation from year to year but the underlying trend is not encouraging and indeed, if you can believe it, in the GDP league, sugar is not too far ahead of Other Crops, which does not include rice.

The table below, taken from the 2010 Budget Speech, shows the value of exports in millions of Guyana Dollars for the five years 2005 – 2009.

[2]It may be excusable if the statements in the annual report were made by persons with less access to information. It is perhaps merely regrettable that these statements about the greatness of sugar are made without any attempt at fact checking. But what is not excusable and is more than regrettable is that such uninformed thinking is often advanced as justification for billion dollar investments and subsidies which the working poor and the unemployed can ill afford.

The annual report devotes scarce space to describing the efficacy of the movement of inventory among estates, the procurement of goods, and the concerted efforts made by the “hard pressed staff” of the procurement department. Yet months after the publication of that report the corporation is now reporting systemic misconduct and losses in the department. Since no one in the corporation will reconcile these clear conflicts, the public will remain confused.
Corporate governance

Here again reality confounds theory, the walk differing from the talk. The directors assert that the corporation is committed to high standards of corporate governance. Yet, neither its annual report nor its website states the names of persons heading and constituting the various governance committees. My efforts at finding out left me with the distinct impression that the corporation does not understand what corporate governance means. The office of the Corporate Secretary advised me that for the information, I should call the Chief Executive. The response from his office was that I should call the Chairman Dr. Gopaul. That was that.

I later understood that the Audit Committee is headed by Ms. Geeta Singh-Knight, the CEO of the insurance giant Clico which collapsed spectacularly in 2009. The government has resisted calls for an investigation into this collapse amidst evidence that the law – the first ingredient of corporate governance – has been breached, and suggestions that there may have been collusion between the company and some key political and other persons in the society. The resistance to such calls appears to have as its objective, the protection of those persons, and to conceal as much and as long as possible, regardless of the cost and consequences. The public’s confidence in Ms. Singh-Knight has been totally lost as a result of her direct involvement in all the major decisions of Clico up to and even after its collapse. In any other situation such a person would not be considered a fit and proper person for appointment as a director. With this government, the rules are more tolerant.

There is too a Remuneration Committee that would have approved the huge salaries and millions of dollars of expenses paid for some directors and senior staff. Yet there is no coherent wages and salaries policy in the corporation, even as industrial relations stumble from one crisis to another. The other committees established by the board are the Central Tenders Committee and a Lands Committee with responsibility for land disposals. My understanding is that this committee was side-lined in the controversial Diamond land deal in which two ministers stand accused of improper conduct in the National Assembly.

Interestingly the directors stated as their primary function the generation of “sustainable wealth for the shareholder as the key stakeholder in the business.” This rather controversial assessment is hardly likely to find agreement among the workers who have to perform the back-breaking tasks under some of the worst modern day conditions, and among taxpayers who increasingly are keeping the corporation from going under. But the directors, including one leading presidential hopeful, challenges this primary function by categorically re-stating a policy not to declare or pay dividends. It is not often that in a single annual report that one finds such contradictions. In the case of Guysuco these are on the same page. No wages policy, no return on capital threshold, and a make-no-sense dividend policy. Perhaps the directors charged with the turnaround of the company will tell the stakeholders what is the real policy of the corporation.
Political loyalty over professional competence

The disaster which has befallen the corporation is the fatal triumph of politics over business, of expediency over planning, of political loyalty over professional competence. For any turnaround there needs to be a transformation in how the corporation is run. The stages of good practice are at the basic level, statutory compliance with laws and regulations, followed by good corporate governance and later, by corporate social responsibility (CSR). As a state-subsidised entity that touches on the environment, food and finance, and that directly employs thousands across the coast, the stakeholders extend beyond the shareholders. This would normally demand the formulation and application of CSR. How the corporation moves from its pre-level 1 stage to stage three is anyone’s guess. The Public Corporations Act permits performance contracts involving the corporation. Those who are now asking for billions more in subsidies should be asked to sign such a contract before any money or further concessions are granted.

To be continued
1 Comment (Open | Close)

1 Comment To "Guysuco needs drastic surgery to ensure survival"

#1 Comment By Cummins On March 28, 2010 @ 8:57 am

I am glad this article on Guysuco is coming out because it gives a clearer picture of what it happening at the corporation. From 3000 miles away and by reading bits and pieces of newspapers articles I was able to see the true state of that business. My past blogs bear this out.

What bothered me up until now is why nobody down there sees that Guysuco in dire shape and it is quickly approaching decision time for that business. I say decision time because Guysuco has be granted almost 7% of the national budget when it should be a revenue contributor. In short, the corporation is almost a 20% drain of the national coffers (7 % budget outlay + 15% loss contribution).I am sure that 20% could have done so much to ease the tax burden on the citizens or even fund a new or existing social program.

I have seen much talk about starting an ethanol plant and other things to get that company moving again. Those talks are all thrash because the financial condition and skill level there make it impossible to even dream about a bigger company at this time. I also believe that the group heading that business is in over their head or worst, they don’t know what they are doing. If they had, Guysuco would have been a much smaller business a long time ago using is its secured markets to cover most, if not all, of its fixed costs.That is turnaround management 101.

Mr. Ram, there is one thing which you will not see in the financial statement and I hope you consider it in your analysis. That is, when a company in this bad shape it skimps on maintenance expenses hence its equipment deteriorates and usually requires a substantial capital expenditure in the very near future to replace/repair those equipment. I hope you can add that to your analysis so as to let the Guyanese people know what they are in for if that number doesn’t scare them.

Good work.

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/features/03/28/guysuco-needs-drastic-surgery-to-ensure-survival/

Let us not put our children out to work at 13 years old. Please.

2010-03-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News letter. Let us not put our children out to work at 13 years old. Please. http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/03/27/let-us-not-put-our-children-out-to-work-at-13-years-old-please/

March 27, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under Letters

Dear Editor,
It is with great trepidation that I write this letter because once I reply to Randy Persaud’s question in last Sunday’s KN, the letter writers will all come out in full force and criticize not only me, but my entire family, for whatever ills or sins they feel we have committed. So be it.
I do not know who Randy Persaud is. I have seen letters from him in the daily newspapers for a while now and have surmised that he works for the current government. This is not a criticism of you Mr. Persaud, but information for you to consider. All I ask is that if you or anyone feels the need to reply to me, let us stick to the topic at hand.
There is nothing wrong with a child delivering newspapers or doing odd chores for pay if the pay is for pocket money for the child who is saving for his/her future education, or to buy electronic equipment or fancy clothes or to go to a restaurant with their friends. What is objectionable in Guyana is that most of the children working are the bread winners for their families. They do not attend school and the jobs are not part time, they are full time. Pass by Bourda Market any day and you will see them selling during school hours. This is just one example.
I am sure you have read of the children in Berbice (and elsewhere) who do not go to school because their parents cannot afford school clothes or passage money, or money to buy food and books. This is the reality of Guyana. My neighbour here in Georgetown used to board a lad but for whatever reason she can no longer do so. He lives just over the river. When I met him one day this school year and asked why he no longer goes to school he says that he had to move back home and his mother does not work and he has no money to travel to the GTI every day. He is 15 years old. That is the tragedy of Guyana.
We have read recently of the super salaries of Presidential Advisers. Don’t we all wish we could be Presidential Advisers? If some of that money could be re-distributed to poor children to pay for school books and uniforms, to give them just one meal a day in school, to resuscitate the dairy industry so that every child under 16 years of age can get 1 litre of milk a week, to start making cheese and yogurt, to bring back the big buses or even school buses for children whose parents cannot afford to pay for them, Guyana would be a better place. We would not have so many child criminals.
We need to educate our children. Education is the only way out of poverty Mr. Randy Persaud. Let us not put our children out to work at 13 years old. Please.
I recommend that you and other members of our government study and implement the Bolsa Familia programme in Brasil which transfers a reliable sum of money every month to families below the poverty line in exchange for verified school attendance and clinic visits for children and I promise you Guyana will be a better place to call home.
Jennifer Bulkan

Jagdeo insists his travel expenditure is minimal…says he worries for Guyana if AFC gains power

2010-03-27T06:30:00.001-07:00

Kaieteur News news item, Saturday 27 March 2010. Jagdeo insists his travel expenditure is minimal…says he worries for Guyana if AFC gains power.
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/03/27/jagdeo-insists-his-travel-expenditure-is-minimal/

March 27, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under News

Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo is insisting that the annual cost of the travelling for the entire Government is on average $200M. He said that it is not accounted for at the Office of the President but rather with the Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance.
According to Jagdeo, there is one travel vote for the entire government.
The President also responded to Leader of the Alliance for Change, Raphael Trotman, who had told media operatives that the cost of the President’s overseas travel over the past 2 ½ years was nearing $1B.
“If the entire Government is $200M, I worry for this country if they (AFC) get into power…Mathematics is important.”
The President insists that his allowances are the same as a Minister or a regular staff or a Permanent Secretary.
He added that official visits such as his recent trip to Iran are paid for by the host country.
He said that as the issue of his trips was the source of queries, he would reluctantly let it be known that the one trip for the Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin, when he was medevaced to the US, “is equivalent to three years of my travel.”
The President added also that when he travels overseas he travels with the smallest delegation, namely his Aide de Camp, Ambassador Elizabeth Harper and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.
This is nothing like the previous administration where routine trips would see a delegation of some 15 persons.
Jagdeo said that when he travels overseas he does not use expensive hotels. “I could because am eligible.” And he has made this clear to his staff that they should not either.
Responding to comments on his travels by the political opposition, President Jagdeo, said that while he was reluctant to mention this fact, Opposition Leader Robert Corbin’s medical bill to an overseas medical facility cost enough money to cover his travel expenses for three years.

ENDS

Ghost writers, jumbies - 'paid PPP slaves'

2010-03-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

“Hello, Mr. Kissoon. Can you turn down the music?”
March 26, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/03/26/%e2%80%9chello-mr-kissoon-can-you-turn-down-the-music%e2%80%9d/

These were the words used by the son of a senior Cabinet Minister to me on his cell phone. An hour before, I met his “jumbie” partner who works at the Ministry of Foreign Trade in Nigel’s Supermarket and told him I knew he gets paid from GINA for writing anonymous letters in the Chronicle and blogging under fictitious names, all in support of the Government. I identified who his partner in the “jumbie” business was. He was the son of a Minister. The title of this column should have been a whiter shade of pale (taken from the title of that classic soft rock song).
When this guy heard the exposure, he became whiter than the milk in the box that he had in his hand. He knew it wouldn’t end there; I would print the information I had. Not only did I publish what I knew, I gave the material (MSN messenger chat material which I previously listed as Yahoo stuff) to Mark Benschop and Adam Harris. Why those two? Because things were spoken about them. I should send this item to President Jagdeo to let him know how these two young men feel about his Freudian choices (if Mr. Jagdeo has such choices; I don’t know and don’t want to know) because some uncomplimentary things were said about Mr. Jagdeo in that context.
I left Nigel’s Supermarket and went to buy albums in the music store when I got a call from the Minister’s son. Obviously in music shops, songs are playing with rising decibels all the time. He identified himself, and asked me to turn down the volume. Of course I couldn’t do that but I directed him to the store owner. He insisted that he doesn’t blog on a discussion site using a false name and does not write letters in the Chronicle but I could detect the tremor in his voice. Like his “jumbie” partner from the Minister of Foreign Trade, he knew I would expose him. I cannot print their names here for obvious reasons. Their fellow “jumbies” on the discussion site and in the Chronicle would deny that they write under pen names.
This inexplicable perversity where people who embrace the Government of Guyana but are ashamed to use their own identities is comically sickening when you think that they are being paid to appear as jumbies in the media. Where else in the world, does a person collect a cheque from the national treasury for writing and blogging in support of his/her government and use a bogus appellation? Now brace yourself for a phenomenal piece of information that has literally stunned me. The more you live the more you learn. I got a call from New York last night asking me to check into a fact. What was the fact?
There is a discussion forum started up by the son of one of Guyana’s Ambassadors. I think it is named GINA as in the GINA we have in Guyana. A few times I went to this site but it was sickening in terms of anti-African expressions and cussing down critics of the PPP. Here is what I was directed to and believe me it is true. Not even the great Sigmund Freud can explain this.
On that site the only two discussants (or bloggers) who use their real identities are two PPP critics - Dr. Tarron Khemraj and Gerhard Ramsaroop, both of the AFC. Isn’t this an amazing revelation? All, I repeat, ALL the pro-PPP, pro-government discussants write under false names most of which are asinine in appearance.
So the persons who should have a genuine fear about using their true identities in fact have no such trepidation and freely castigate Mr. Jagdeo and his Government. But the emotional and over-zealous PPP stooges and sycophants post their support on the forum and hide their names. This is one of life’s most perplexing mysteries. Khemraj and Ramsaroop should fear victimization and logically should resort to unreal signatures.
It is for the PPP slaves to openly embrace their government because their government is the slave master who has the power to protect them thus no harm can come to them.
Why would a shameless admirer of Mr. Jagdeo’s performance reply to Khremraj and Ramaroop on that discussion forum on the internet and hide the print on their birth certificates?
You mean to tell me these people are so ashamed of the PPP? Or it is that they are afraid their families know that they are insects and maggots who crawl out of a hole to praise the government using a mask of slime?

Ignoring the rule of law

2010-03-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News Editorial. 25 March 2010. Ignoring the rule of law. http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/03/25/ignoring-the-rule-of-law/
March 25, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under Editorial

There are three pillars of the constitution—the Executive which involves the President and his Ministers; the Parliament; and the Judiciary. Each is independent of the other. Each has its specific role and duty and none shall dictate to the other.
Each has an integral role to play in the society and each is critical. Should any one fail then the society is bound to descend to a level of anarchy. The courts have been in the limelight more recently; they have been breaking new ground, albeit within the confines of the law. They have been granting bail to murder accused.
This would seem most unusual but when one considers that the accused is also entitled to an early trial then the courts have a right to see that all things must be satisfied in such cases. When Justice Ian Chang granted bail to a murder accused, the first time in decades that this happened, he took into consideration that the accused was being detained under unusual circumstances.
Preliminary inquiries were started and aborted while the accused languished. The system was not working and the accused was at the mercy of a failing system. Such situations often cause people to disregard the legal process. Perhaps that is why so many people opt to take the law into their own hands.
Justice James Bovell-Drakes made a similar ruling to Justice Chang although there is some question about whether he used the correct method and adhered to the correct principles.
The most recent judge to release a murder accused on bail has been Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire. Again there were raised eyebrows but the judge was at pains to indicate the various breaches of the rights of the individual.
Justice George-Wiltshire had granted bail to an earlier accused whom the police and the prison authorities refused to release. And even when the accused was released they insisted on taking him into custody that they detained a relative as hostage. The police had become engaged in kidnapping and hostage-taking.
What is interesting is that when the court rules the law enforcement arm does not act with alacrity. For example, the accused in Justice Bovell-Drakes’s ruling still languishes in jail while there are appeals and challenges.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has also gone to court to challenge Justice Chang’s ruling. This appeal is yet to be heard and this speaks volumes for the system. But the action by the police which one can assume is independent of the DPP suggests that the ranks are prepared to challenge the ruling by continuing to detain the accused. The inference is clear; once the accused is accused his place is in the jail, regardless for how long.
This should not be unless there is blatant disregard for the judicial arm of the constitution. And on many occasions this has been the case. The courts on one occasion made a ruling which the then Commissioner of Police ignored. Representative of the plaintiff made moves to have the Commissioner cited for contempt. The judge was afraid to cite the Commissioner.
In other parts of the world the courts have no problem operating within their confines. None is above the law; economic status in the society means nothing. A former New York police commissioner has been sent to jail; a billionaire fraudster will never again see the light of day as a free man; and another billionaire fraudster is awaiting his day in court.
Those who challenge the order of court should be made to pay the penalty. There is nothing to stop the head of the Guyana Police Force and the head of the Prisons for being sentenced for contempt. They have on every occasion challenged an order of court without the requisite legal support.
Those things being said, there is to be a new development. These men have to go to court to stand trial. They would be going home at the end of each session. Should they recognize that the action is going against them, would they flee? We already have a few who refused to go to court for sentencing and they remain at large although more than two decades have passed.

Freedom of information

2010-03-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News Editorial, Thursday 18 March 2010. Freedom of information.
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/03/18/freedom-of-information/

March 18, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under Editorial

It is absolutely necessary for the government and people of Guyana to pursue greater freedom of information, within reasonable boundaries, if they hope to achieve true democracy and good governance. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are fundamental rights in democratic nations, and are enshrined in Guyana’s constitution. However, these rights are often trampled by persons who want to keep the public in the dark about matters that ought to be exposed in the public’s interest. The truth is for freedom of speech and freedom of the press to be meaningful they must be complemented with freedom of information.
Those who draw a shroud of secrecy over vital information about public issues for partisan reasons, deny the people of Guyana their right to be fully informed about matters that deeply affect their lives.
This was one of the issues determined by the courts when Vieira Communications moved to the courts to challenge the seizure of its radio transmitting equipment.
The court found that by not granting radio licences the government was denying the rights of the people. When the question of additional radio licences first surfaces, Prime Minister Sam Hinds admitted that to relax the monopoly was to threaten the very existence of the state owned radio station; that the station could not compete.
Since the ruling of the court, no new radio station has emerged. But this is not because people have not made applications for such licences.
Any nation that is in fact on the road to democracy cannot steer clear of enacting and enforcing powerful legislation to guarantee freedom of information, as a catalyst for genuinely free speech and free media.
Unfortunately, persons in Guyana, particularly officials who are involved in activities that affect the public welfare, can easily block or delay access to information about their activities and steep their actions in secrecy and evasion.
Many officials bluntly refuse to reveal information on public issues, even when their refusal clearly compromises the public interest. In many cases, they do so without giving any reason and it is difficult to hold them accountable. That is the reason why there is a move to have a Freedom of Information Act. Not surprisingly, this piece of promised legislation is failing to see the light of day.
The first time it was tabled the government with its parliamentary majority said that it would not support the legislation. It was the same when the parliamentary opposition sought to introduce the Broadcast Legislation. The government said that it was not prepared to support the legislation.
Guyana cannot progress towards democracy without facilitating a flow of public information that enhances democratic rights. This means ensuring that appropriate mechanisms are in place to ensure informed debate on public issues, exposure of wrongdoings, protection of the public from danger, accountability for public funds, etc.
It is essential that there is reasonable access to information to make certain that the public is not misled, authorities properly discharge their responsibilities, and the Guyanese people are dealt with fairly.
Of course, there must be appropriate grounds for refusing information. Clearly, there cannot be total freedom of information regarding national security matters, certain court proceedings and police activities. Also, there would be restrictions related to information whose disclosure is prohibited by particular laws. Furthermore, citizens must have reasonable rights to privacy and the withholding of personal information, but this exemption should be flexible, particularly with respect to officials acting in official capacities.
It would be practical for exemptions to the public’s right to freedom of information, to be subjected to the public interest test. If disclosure would clearly be beneficial to the public’s interest, then the onus should be on the person or agency seeking secrecy to show why information should not be disclosed. It would be useful to establish a carefully constituted, independent authority with the power to compel disclosure of information in the public’s interest.
Guyana should definitely move towards greater disclosure of information on public issues and progressively enact appropriate legislation to facilitate this.

ENDS

Stabroek News Editorial. 21 March 2010. Self image.

2010-03-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

Stabroek News Editorial. 21 March 2010. Self image. http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/editorial/03/21/self-image/
By Stabroek staff | March 21, 2010 in Editorial

Political arrangements in Guyana are complicated, and have been made even more complicated by the new provisions for local government elections which contain elements of both a constituency and a proportional representation system. Those new provisions have already been passed by the National Assembly (albeit not with the backing of the opposition), and would technically make possible the holding of local government elections whenever the government so decides. However, should such elections be held at this point, for example, it would be in a context where the actual form of local government which we will eventually end up with has not yet been fully clarified.

The story behind the proposals to reform local government is a long and convoluted one. However, it has two consistent threads: one is the determination of the ruling party to maintain central government control over local authorities, and the other, is the insistence of the opposition that power should be devolved from the centre to the various local bodies. The PPP are obviously not seized of the notion that at some point in the future they might be voted out of office, and that if that came to pass, a decentralized system would be to their advantage. As such, therefore, they have proved quite obdurate in their approach, if not manipulative, and it will not be easy for them to persuade anyone that they have been acting entirely in good faith in the last few years.

The story begins in 2001, when President Jagdeo and then Leader of the Opposition Desmond Hoyte agreed on the setting up of a Local Government Task Force, to be jointly chaired by the two major parties. The principle to which these two parties, as well as those which came into Parliament after the 2006 election, committed themselves, was that local government elections which had been postponed since 1997 should be held under a reformed system. While the meetings (originally intended to last only a year) were not without their periods of interruption, the task force did get under way, and went on to sit for around eight years without achieving accord in certain critical areas.

Now it might be thought by the casual observer that the way for them to have proceeded would have been to create a single omnibus piece of legislation covering all aspects of local government. In fact, what was done was to negotiate the provisions of five separate bills, or amendments to existing acts. These were the Fiscal Transfers Bill, the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill, the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill and the Local Government Commission Bill. (The last two have since been passed by the National Assembly without opposition support.) This approach with its implications for logical order has allowed room for all kinds of manoeuvrings, to which we will return later.

Particularly in its latter phases, the task force was subject to various delays, the key ones of which could be laid at the door of PPP Co-Chair Clinton Collymore. Whatever his intentions, he conveyed the distinct impression that first, he was attempting to stall proceedings, and then that he wanted to transfer the deliberations to a forum where his party exercised greater control. In October 2008, for example, he had written a memorandum recommending that owing to a deadlock on the task force, the remaining issues should be taken up by Cabinet. The opposition objected vehemently, not least because he had no authority to do this, and was acting in defiance of the terms of reference under which the task force had been set up. He was forced to retreat on that occasion; however, undaunted, in April of last year he unilaterally ended the discussions, because, he said, members were split on the agenda for their work.

While he was on no more solid ground than he had been on the first occasion, nevertheless, thereafter, the President moved local government reform to the parliamentary theatre where three of the bills are now mired in Select Committee. In brief, the opposition are not represented on the committee because they have refused to take up their seats there. They have said that the understanding with the ruling party was that the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, which as explained above would make possible the holding of elections, was intended to reflect all of the amendments to the different local government bills when the work on these had been completed.

The government, however, did not table all the bills in the National Assembly simultaneously; they tabled the above-mentioned bill first. According to the opposition, they then used this as an excuse to depart from the agreed agenda for the consideration of the bills in the Select Committee, arguing that they should be reviewed in the sequence in which they had been tabled in Parliament. Since they have a majority, this deviation from the agenda presented no problem for them. After the PPP/C members in the Select Committee had finished with the bill, it went to the House, where government members alone passed it without, as said above, support from the opposition.

The same fate befell the Local Government Commission Bill, which had always been a matter of contention. Under the existing law, the Minister of Local Government has considerable direct control over local authorities, and the proposal was, among other things, to transfer various of those powers to a commission. Under the new legislation, that has been done; the problem is that the government, to all intents and purposes, is responsible for the appointment of all six members of the new commission. Whereas previously, therefore, there was direct control by central government (through the agency of the Local Government Minister), now there is indirect control (mostly through the agency of the President) – a small change of emphasis, perhaps, but certainly not one of substance.

We are now left with three bills outstanding for the Select Committee’s consideration, one of which is of a particularly contentious nature, and that is the Fiscal Transfers Bill. As things stand central government has a great measure of control over the purse strings of the local authorities, and for obvious reasons, the ruling party has shown no enthusiasm for relinquishing this. Financial independence on the part of the regions and councils, etc, would imply some degree of independence of decision-making, something which has always been anathema to the ruling party. In its current format in the Select Committee, the new bill would still allocate the Minister of Local Government considerable discretion.

It is at this point that it might just have crossed the minds of the PPP/C, that their intractability may have a price which is too high to pay. If they use their majority in the House to ram through the remaining legislation, or if they hold local government elections with the Fiscal Transfers Bill especially still outstanding, they run a very real risk of presiding over a flawed election in some sense, particularly if it were held without the co-operation of all segments of the opposition. This would reflect badly in the international arena, not on the opposition, but on the government. We reported an unnamed PPP official last week as saying that the party wanted to avoid “controversy” in relation to the election. We can read this, no doubt, as meaning that they do not want to be bracketed in a category which has a less than democratic patina. A controversial election, in other words, would undermine their own self image.

Perhaps this is the reason the President met with the Leader of the Opposition the week before last, and undertook to have his concerns discussed at the level of the PPP Central Committee. One can only hope that PPP General Secretary Ramotar’s disingenuous remarks about who was responsible for the delays notwithstanding, the rest of the Central Committee has a better grasp of what is at issue, and even at this late stage commits itself to genuine devolution.

GAPA has been resuscitated to misinform farmers and create confusion

2010-03-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News letter. 21 March 2010. GAPA has been resuscitated to misinform farmers and create confusion. http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/03/21/gapa-has-been-resuscitated-to-misinform-farmers-and-create-confusion/

March 21, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under Letters

Dear Editor,
The article appearing in newspapers of 16 March, 2010, based on a press release from GAPA, describes the Guyana Agricultural Producers Association as a non-governmental group, when in fact it was launched as a PPP front group in the latter part of the 1070’s.
I was one of the leading members of the group. At the time I was also the General Secretary of the Guyana Cane Farmers Association and shared the same office facilities with GAPA and the Guyana Rice Producers Association. We were also a PPP front organisation, but we offered vibrant mass support to all cane farmers in the country, backed by the PPP and its organ, the Mirror newspaper.
Under the instruction of Dr Jagan, in the latter part of the 1970’s, the group was headed by the veteran PPP Organiser, Pariag Sukhai, who later became a Member of Parliament. The sole intention of GAPA was to assist small farmers engaged in cash crop farming to demand better prices and farming conditions from the PNC dictatorship.
Pariag, who is still alive, can attest to this fact, since he became its first President. It was not legally incorporated, as the Guyana Rice Producers Association and was therefore not held accountable by law.
GAPA was resuscitated by the Ameridian Minister Pauline Sukhai and Robert Persuad last year to enhance the image of the Jagdeo- Persaud regime, to actively misinform farmers and create confusion among the farming community.
This current outfit has become part of the Stalinist method of misrule and control by the powers that be. It does not matter which vehicle the Jagdeo regime uses to spread its lies and misinformation, people will not buy its propaganda. The reality is - a major crisis is going to face the country soon and no amount of smoke screen will blow things away.
Already the cost of living is reaching a high point and the blame is solidly placed on the arrogant and talkative Minister of Agriculture and those officials in the Ministry of Agriculture due to their failure to pump water in all the conservancies in the latter part of last year, which would have prevented the current hardships facing all farmers and consequently all workers and all citizens.
We do not have the same crisis in neighbouring Suriname, why? Because of the level of importance shown by those who are in government. Where – then - does the buck stops? Certainly the Jagdeo administration must be held to account and specifically his inexperienced relative, Montgomery Robert Persaud. All will agree that such levels of incompetence will not be tolerated in other countries. The Minister would have been out of a job, but here, the person is promoted to higher office.
The unwarranted attack on the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) General Secretary Norris Witter, claiming that he has been attempting to politicize the national response to the global El Nino phenomenon, is a vain attempt to divert the nation’s attention from the appalling mishandling of the current weather situation. The workers will be faced with severe food shortages and high prices and it is the role and duty of the trade union leaders to defend the welfare and well-being of its members and society at large.
M. Jinnah Rahman

$172Munaccounted for overseas travels up to 2006

2010-03-13T04:59:00.000-08:00

$172Munaccounted for overseas travels up to 2006
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/03/13/172munaccounted-for-overseas-travels-up-to-2006/

March 13, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under News

- Finance Ministry fails to submit list of outstanding advances

Several weeks after the Ministry of Finance was mandated to submit a list of all outstanding conference advances, there is still to be compliance with the order.
When the Public Accounts Committee met in early February the officials were unable to provide the information and as such were mandated to provide the information by February 15.
To date this order has been not been complied with. Checks with the Committees Division of the Parliament of Guyana confirmed this but this newspaper was reliably informed that there has been an extension.
The matter is expected to come up for hearing on Monday when the Public Accounts Committee meets again.
On the date that the order was granted, the PAC was at the time scrutinising the expenditures of the Finance Ministry when it was pointed out that on a yearly basis there are several advances made to officials for overseas trips but it is never attested to on the Ministry’s books upon their return.
Shadow Finance Minister, Winston Murray, who is also a member of that Committee, said that in the interest of transparency and accountability this should be done because it is taxpayers’ monies that are handed over to the public officials without any account of what happens to it.
He questioned, also, why it is that the Ministry does not clear old advances before issuing new ones to the officials to travel again.
This, he suggested, must be done in order to ensure transparency, and questioned what happens to the money, “has it gone into their pockets?”
Murray was adamant that while this could very well not be the case until the accounts are straightened out then that inference could fairly be drawn.
“This is public money given to public officials to go overseas,” Murray reiterated.
According to the 2006 Auditor General report, “Conference advances continued to be uncleared long after they have been granted.”
It was pointed out that at the time of that audit, in March 2007, there were 377 advances totaling $91.1M for the years 2003 to 2005 that remained unclear.
During the period under review, namely 2006, according to the Conference Advances Register, amounts totaling $180.103M were expended on 287 overseas conferences and official visits of which 131 advances totaling $57.603M remained outstanding at the time of reporting.
The following year’s report stated that the Conference Advances Register revealed that for 2007 there were 138 advances totaling $51.239M, which were still to be cleared.
This was compounded by the fact that 195 advances totaling $64.973M for the years 2004 to 2006 are still to be cleared.
The Ministry at that time had stated that while some of the recipients were tardy in clearing their advances, others had submitted documentation to clear their advances, but due to the Department’s staffing situation, there were delays.
It was further stated that the delinquent officers were written to, requesting them to submit documentation to clear their advances.

Guyana up slightly in global competitiveness

2010-03-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

Guyana up slightly in global competitiveness
Posted By Stabroek staff On March 11, 2010 @ 5:11 am In Local News | 11 Comments
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/stories/03/11/guyana-up-slightly-in-global-competitiveness/

Guyana has moved up slightly on the Global Competitive-ness Index (GCI) 2009-2010 list, ranking 104 out of 133 countries in the annual report released by the World Economic Forum.

Last year the country had placed 115 out of 134 countries while in the 2007-2008 report it recorded a ranking of 126 out of 131.

The GCI listing is based on individual countries’ performance which is measured using 12 pillars as well as looking at the impact on business related issues such as crime, corruption, taxation, bureaucracy, inflation and stability among others.

The top ten ranked countries according to the report are Switzerland, the United States of America, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands.

The 12 pillars on which the index is built are institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.

In the broad categorization of “basic requirements” which comprise the pillars of Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Stability and Health and Primary Educa-tion, Guyana ranked 105 out of the 134 countries with the average score of 3.69.

Under the category of “Institutions” Guyana scored 3.32 and recorded a rank of 103 while for the category of Infrastructure it scored 3.03 and achieved a rank of 91 out of 133 countries. Guyana also ranked 127 for macroeconomic stability achieving a score of 3.00. Under Health and primary education Guyana reach scored 5.41, which placed it at 67 of the 133 countries.

According to the report under the Efficiency Indica-tors the country achieved a rank of 107 with an average of 3.40. In the category of Higher Education and training the country pegged a score of 3.81 which placed it 78. Guyana recorded a rank of 96 and achieved a score of 3.91 for its Goods Market Efficiency. In the category of Labour Market Efficiency, the country scored 4.06 and achieved a ranking of 99. Financial Market Sophisti-cation saw the country ranking 94 with a score of 3.12 while under the category of Market Size, the country ranked 129 with its score of 1.78.

Under the broad grouping of Innovation and Sophisti-cation Factors the country recorded a rank of 110 with its score of 3.06. In the pillars which contribute to this category: “Business Sophisti-cation” and “Innovation”, Guyana ranked 94 and 121 respectively with respective scores of 3.60 and 2.52.

Concerning the Latin American and the Caribbean, the report said that several countries are realizing important advances “in the midst of a major external shock on export demand and financing availability, brought about by the current global economic crisis and lower commodity prices. The report said that this reflects the “rather strong footing of most of the countries in the region that enables them to weather the crisis, thanks to sounder macro-economic fundamentals achieved in recent years especially in the areas of reduced debt levels and increased foreign currency reserves”. The report said that although the average Gross Domestic Project (GDP) for the region was expected to contract by 1.9 percent during 2009, it is projected to start growing again in 2010 at 3.1 percent, which is a rate higher than the projected average world growth for 2010 which is 1.9 percent.

PM rethinks discussing President’s overseas expenditures

2010-02-16T05:39:00.000-08:00

News news item, Tuesday 16 February 2010. PM rethinks discussing President’s overseas expenditures
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/02/16/pm-rethinks-discussing-president%e2%80%99s-overseas-expenditures/

February 16, 2010 | By KNews | Filed Under News

A statement by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds during the wrapping up of his presentation in the House last evening on the 2010 budget debates sparked a temporary bout of confusion when he attempted to defend the expenditures of President Bharrat Jagdeo’s overseas trips.
The moment the Prime Minister made mention of the fact that he wanted to address the issue, it immediately enticed the opposition to trigger a barrage of solicitations calling for him to disclose the expenditures.
At this point in time, Speaker of the House, Ralph Ramkarran, cautioned the Prime Minister that should he tread that path, then it would open the ‘flood gates’ and allow the opposition to voice their position on the issue unhindered and it would only be fair.
This seemingly stumped the Prime Minister on how to proceed with the matter and after some amount of visual consultation with his colleagues and a gesture by Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, to the effect that he should not venture down that path, Hinds skirted the issue and took his seat.
The Prime Minister told the House that the President had many obligations which caused him to travel and meet with other leaders and potential investors.
The issue of the President’s overseas trips and the expenditure attached to them has been a bone of contention between the Opposition and the ruling party.
Only recently, politician and former Minister in the Guyana Government, Dr Richard Van-West Charles, said that President Bharrat Jagdeo needs to report more often to Parliament, especially as it relates to his overseas visits and their expenditures.
This, Van West Charles said, was particularly important, given that the members of the National Assembly have to approve the monies that he uses for his many overseas trips.
He said that the President has visited a great deal of countries but he has failed to inform the Members of Parliament exactly what has transpired on the trips overseas.
The Office of the President, specifically President Bharrat Jagdeo, has also come under fire in the media as it relates to the cost/benefits of his many trips overseas.
Leader of the Alliance for Change, Raphael Trotman, had charged that the President’s overseas trips over the past two and a half years, cost close to G$1B [USD 5 million].
This has since been refuted by Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, who placed the figure of the expenses of the entire Government at about G$200M [USD 1 million], adding that a quick perusal of the estimates laid in the National Assembly could verify this.
Trotman has since said that he is standing by his position as it relates to the President’s expenditure.
In recent times, President Jagdeo has been to Iran, Kuwait, Dubai and Libya among numerous other state visits.

ENDS

The constitution continues to be flouted in respect of the presidential assent

2010-01-22T04:58:00.000-08:00

The constitution continues to be flouted in respect of the presidential assent

Posted By Stabroek staff On January 22, 2010 @ 5:06 am In Letters | 6 Comments

Dear Editor,
In a recent interview on Plain Talk, I asked the Prime Minister in his capacity as Leader of the National Assembly whether he was concerned about bills being passed by the National Assembly and not being assented to within the period (twenty-one days) required by the constitution. This problem first surfaced in a big way in 2006. The Prime Minister estimated these to be “about six.”

I knew that was not correct and visited the Parliament Office on Tuesday January 12, requesting an update on 2009 bills not assented to. I was asked to come back later in the day. After making several attempts to contact the person her supervisor told me that the information could not be made available to me.

In any case it was public knowledge that for 2006 ten bills lapsed because of presidential inaction and from records we maintain at Ram & McRae, I was aware that for 2009 only, twenty-six of forty bills had been published in the Official Gazette. What surprised me not a little is that after my enquiries there appeared a flurry of activities involving “the printers” and I wondered whether there was any mischief afoot, even though the Gazette in which the legislation is published had already had moved on to 2010.

It was a shock, but not a surprise, therefore, to receive this past Wednesday several Extraordinary Gazettes containing legislation that dates back, in some cases, several months.

This information provides clear evidence that the constitution continues to be flouted by the President with the tacit or expressed agreement, or neglect of the National Assembly. And even if we assume that the backdated publication is constitutional and legitimate, that leaves eight bills passed in 2009 by the National Assembly which the President has not dealt with in compliance with the constitution.

The implications are more than academic. To force public servants either directly or indirectly to engage in backdating any documents, let alone the Official Gazette, is to make corruption part of their work. Second, it is dangerous for the President to break the very constitution which he took an oath to uphold. Finally, an Act comes into operation on the date of publication. Those Acts published in predated Gazettes are therefore considered to be of retroactive effect, an equally dangerous issue.

Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
6 Comments (Open | Close)

6 Comments To "The constitution continues to be flouted in respect of the presidential assent"

#1 Comment By james mckoy On January 22, 2010 @ 6:08 am

Mr Ram:

do you think jagdeow cares about the constitution? do you think he gives a hoot about parlaiment? he is a man set in his way, that once he wants something, then we will get it regards of the law.

#2 Comment By West Point Eagle On January 22, 2010 @ 6:32 am

Who guards the constitution? In any right thinking society this cannot happen. Where are the “people”, moreso is there an army?

#3 Comment By Sampson On January 22, 2010 @ 8:01 am

…when the foundation is weak the structure will collapse… explore ways to fix it…

#4 Comment By angel & Demon On January 22, 2010 @ 8:15 am

This is the kind of manipulation of information that is dangerous. And how could the parliament office refuse to provide the required information to Chris Ram. Isn’t parliament in service of the people of Guyana or the executive? And we hear all these cries about freedom of the press and freedom of information. Where are the spinners today?

#5 Comment By Kingshark On January 22, 2010 @ 8:16 am

Jagdeo doesn’t have time for bills and this country he is more outside than inside.All the laws passed in parliament is a waste of time no one enforced it.

#6 Comment By Birdie On January 22, 2010 @ 8:22 am

Mr.Ram,Where are you living?How many times the order of which things
must and should be done, according to Guyanas’Constitution, have been flouted, so to speak.We are not guided by a Constitution;but by an INSTITUTION.
BIRDIE.

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/letters/01/22/the-constitution-continues-to-be-flouted-in-respect-of-the-presidential-assent/

David Clarke

2009-12-06T18:55:00.001-08:00

David Clarke

Posted By Stabroek staff On December 6, 2009 @ 5:01 am In Editorial | 6 Comments

“…when you finish writing your memoir I would like to read it,” said US Judge Raymond Dearie to David Clarke prior to sentencing him. Well wouldn’t we all. However, no doubt we need not hold our collective breaths; there will be no reminiscences emanating from that quarter any time soon – at least not on any of the subjects in which most of the citizens of the Co-operative Republic have an interest. Mr Clarke’s testimony, the local wags presume, might be needed again by the federal authorities, in which case discretion will be forced upon him. In any case, he may also have personal safety issues to consider.

Judge Dearie appears to have been impressed by the defendant – one presumes because he did not fit the profile of the average drug trafficker who normally passes through his courtroom. “This is a remarkable case,” he observed, apparently repeating at other points that it was one of the more interesting ones which had come before him. While it was clearly a remarkable case for the judge, it was even more so for Guyanese, who knew – and still know – hardly anything about either the former major or his trafficking activities. Neither the GDF nor the Government of Guyana saw fit to even inform them that he had been indicted by the United States in 2006, and that he had voluntarily turned himself in; the information that he was incarcerated in the US on drug charges was revealed much later by this newspaper.

It was that revelation which miraculously unsealed the President’s lips, since he then informed the press that when Mr Clarke had been in charge of Operation Tourniquet in Buxton during the notorious years of 2002-03, the then captain had been in league with the criminals. “… the information on Clarke came from people whom I know in Buxton,” he said, “And I would never ever, ever betray their confidence because they told me this in confidence.” It might be added that Mr Roger Khan had made a similar accusation, but against this has to be juxtaposed the fact that the US considered that he and the former army officer were co-conspirators in the export of drugs. This appeared to receive confirmation when Mr Simels (Mr Khan’s former attorney) identified Mr Clarke as the prime candidate for ‘neutralization’ because he was a critical witness in the case against his client.

Whatever he was doing when based in Buxton, Mr Clarke, who reiterated his apologies to his family and the American people when he spoke in court, directed not a word of contrition towards his homeland and his Guyanese compatriots, whose trust he had betrayed and who had provided the opportunities for him to rise – opportunities, it must be said, which he had squandered.

Mr Clarke is now free because of time served, and what is more surprising, he is not to be deported. For the gossips in this country that means that he was very helpful to the prosecution, and/or as suggested above, that his evidence might be required in other cases. And according to the federal prosecutor Ms Shannon Jones, Mr Clarke’s brother and a dozen others were sheltering in Guyana out of reach of the US authorities. If the President signs the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Bill into law, then that could allow the institution of extradition proceedings potentially with results more palatable to American justice than what obtains at present. We can only wait and see whether the long arm of US law will be in fact be able to reach directly into Guyana at last.

But we come to a more fundamental point, and that is that the highest profile Guyanese criminals risk facing justice in the United States, but not in Guyana. The government can talk blue cheese about its commitment to fighting narcotics trafficking, and it can churn out as many drug master plans as it pleases, but in the end it has produced zilch in terms of results. The only thing our local drug barons have to fear is that they will end up in a federal courtroom, because the probability that they will ever have to defend themselves in the High Court on Avenue of the Republic is so low as to be almost non-existent. And the worst of it is the government seems totally unconcerned about this.

And there is the extraordinary silence on the part of the administration about what has emerged from these New York trials in general, and from this last one in particular. Apart from the President’s brief interlude of garrulousness occasioned by the revelation from Stabroek News that Mr Clarke was being held in the United States, the authorities here have been silent on the case. What was so secret about the army officer’s arrest that the citizenry could not be told? And why were proceedings not instituted against him here? Mr Jagdeo’s remarks about protecting his Buxton sources (it must have come as a surprise in many quarters that he personally knows people in Buxton who would give him sensitive information of that kind), surely makes no sense. Ways could have been found to pursue investigations without the source of the information ever being disclosed.

If on the basis of intelligence received law enforcement cannot build a case that someone is in league with criminals then something is really wrong. As it was, Mr Clarke was allowed to remain in the army, although the President did block his promotion and recalled him in the middle of a training stint in the US, of all places. The fact that he was put on trial in the United States, Mr Jagdeo thought, vindicated his actions re the recall, etc. Well, not quite. With all that information to which the President was privy and which the joint services could have followed up, he still ended up being held on an American indictment and not on a Guyanese warrant. This seems to be an instance of total incompetence on the part of the authorities; other than that, they open themselves to the accusation that they did not want to arrest him for some reason. And if they didn’t want to pursue a case against him, then why not? Clearly there is a lot more yet to be uncovered in this matter.

Last week Parliament passed the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, which makes it easier for Guyana to seek help from Commonwealth countries or other countries with which Guyana has a treaty concerning such assistance. As PNCR MP Debra Backer commented, this was the second time round for this bill, which had been passed unanimously by the House in March 2006, but which had not received presidential assent.

So now three-and-a-half years later, it has made its second entrance, and presumably the President has every intention of signing it this time, although he never explained why he didn’t sign it on the first occasion. While as Ms Backer said, it will enable the government to seek information on the drug cases against Roger Khan, David Clarke and others, whether it actually acts is another matter entirely. As in the case of Mr Clarke’s memoir, no one should hold their breath.
6 Comments (Open | Close)

6 Comments To "David Clarke"

#1 Comment By La Dorada On December 6, 2009 @ 6:38 am

Prez didn’t sign the Bill. Hmmm, must be just one of those things….like the marriage certificate.

#2 Comment By MXQBH On December 6, 2009 @ 7:47 am

Blue cheese! Very bad metaphor, ed-op writer. I can think of some more appropriate metaphors, non even vaguely edible, but not blue cheese. Blue cheese is considered a delightful delicacy among cheeese aficionados.

#3 Comment By Raj On December 6, 2009 @ 9:41 am

SN go after this story and expose it for all its worth. A key piece of the government role is when Khan told Simels to nutralize Clarke but don’t kill his mother because the government will be upset. Why would Khan say that if the government is not complicit in Khan/Clarke association or at least know something.

#4 Comment By Carl On December 6, 2009 @ 11:51 am

Lest it seems that David Clarke or Roger Khan voluntarily chose to apologize only to Americans for their crimes, I’d like to advise readers that an apology to the U.S. is required as part of a plea deal.

Besides, no criminal would apologize for crimes committed in a jurisdiction in which he/she is yet to be charged. After all, almost everyone always claims to be innocent after being charged with a crime. And neither Clarke nor Khan is ready to offer apologies that could be immediately construed as guilt.

#5 Comment By Blackrattlesnake On December 6, 2009 @ 5:04 pm

La Dorada…..the Prez always on the move…..he’s jetsetter with plenty frequent flyer miles…..Guyana is where he changes his suitcases and clothes……no time for trivial things like signing stuff here……as a ‘finance’ man…..his pens are only for signing ‘money’ matters.

#6 Comment By Blackrattlesnake On December 6, 2009 @ 5:11 pm

MXQBH….them really meant to use the expression…’talk til them blue in the face’…..proof-reader lapse…..

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/editorial/12/06/david-clarke/

Finance Minister seeking another US$25M from nation's coffers

2009-12-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

Kaieteur News news item, Friday 04 December 2009 - "Finance Minister seeking another US$25M from nation's coffers …to extend fence, build roads, fuel for joint operations, etc" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/12/04/finance-minister-seeking-another-us25m-from-nation%e2%80%99s-coffers/

By Gary Eleazar

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, by way of two supplementary papers tabled in the National Assembly, is seeking another $4,677,208,405 (the equivalent of US$25M) from the nation’s coffers.
Dr Singh yesterday tabled the documents asking that it be debated at the next sitting of the House.
According to financial paper three with the schedule of supplementary provision on the current and capital estimates totaling $2.2B, some $28M was allocated in the voted provision in this year’s budget, and now the Guyana Defence Force is gearing to receive another $22M for the extension of a fence at Camp Groomes on the Soesdyke Linden Highway.
The GDF is also slated for an additional $135M under ‘Legend’ fuel and lubricants and it is explained that the money is required to meet additional expenditure.
The Defence Force will also be receiving under the description “other” an additional $273.8M
And this too is listed to meet expenditure for joint operations.
Added to the $14.5M that was given to Office of the President for the purchase of equipment another $5.6M is being requested.
The Public Works Ministry is also slated to benefit from some $1.2B in addition to the $67M it had already received.
Office of the President-Presidential Advisory is in line for a generous boost of $50M in addition to its original allocation of 413.6M.
The document that was tabled by Dr Singh stated that the money is to meet expenditure in relation to the Office of Climate Change and the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
The Agriculture sector is also slated for just under half off a billion dollars with $10M of that identified for hinterland communities affected by El Nino.
Included too in that sum is the $400M that will be going to the Guyana Rice Development Board which was announced earlier this year by head of State Bharrat Jagdeo to assist rice farmers.
Another $40M will be shared between the National Agriculture Research Institute and the New Guyana Marketing Corporation.
On the supplementary provision of the capital estimates on financial paper four, the Guyana Sugar Corporation will be the beneficiaries of another $1.4B in addition to the $1.8B for the construction of the packaging plant at Enmore.
The two papers make their way to the House shortly after the National Assembly approved more than $2B in addition to what was voted for in the 2009 Budget.
The Minister in August successfully tabled the First Schedule of Supplementary Provision on the current and Capital Estimates totaling $247.4 million for the period from July 16 to December 31 this year.
The monies requested at that time for current estimates included funds for the Amerindian Affairs Ministry for items such as rental of buildings, print and non print materials, fuel and lubricants, vehicles spares and services, other transport travel and postage, electricity charges, training (including Scholarships) and another item line named ‘other’.
As it relates to the rental of buildings, no money was voted for in the budget and the Finance Minister had sought some $2.5M on their behalf.
For the Ministry of Health, in addition to the $7.3M voted for the maintenance of buildings, an additional $30M was received and it is said to be used for the refurbishing of offices, electrical installation and plumbing to existing buildings to house staff of the Ministry of Health that formerly occupied the building that was destroyed by fire.
Under the Agency, Guyana Defence Force Defence Headquarters, below the description of ‘other’ an initial $350,000 was voted and another $115M was sought to meet expenditure for joint operations.
Under capital estimates, a total of $93.9M was allocated to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Amerindian Affairs and Education.
There was also the second supplementary provision paper for the period ending yesterday for $2.5B.
Out of that the Finance Ministry secured some $473M for the Guyana Sugar Corporation.
That was in addition to the more than $1.8B that was already been provided to GuySuCo for additional inflows.
The Ministry of Agriculture received $125M which went to hydrometeorology and provided for additional inflows.
The Ministry of Public Works and Communication benefited from more than $700M for various projects that target sea defences, roads and government buildings.
The Ministry of Education under that second supplementary paper received an additional $573M in addition to the $497.7M it had already received for the BEAMS programme.
The Ministry of Housing at that time was provided with $400M as was expected, given that President Jagdeo had earlier in the year announced the Low Cost Housing programme revolving fund and the money has been identified for this purpose.

Crime is the main deterrent to investment in Guyana - AFC

2009-12-01T06:57:00.000-08:00

Kaieteur News news item, Tuesday 01 December 2009 - "Crime is the main deterrent to investment in Guyana - AFC" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/12/01/crime-is-the-main-deterrent-to-investment-in-guyana-afc/

Opposition parliamentary party, the Alliance For Change (AFC) is insisting that crime is the main deterrent to investments in Guyana.
This is despite claims otherwise by the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, has described the AFC’s negative position on investors coming into Guyana as “absolute nonsense.”
Ramotar opined that even though there should be more investors entering Guyana, the absence of large scale investors “has to do with infrastructure”.
This was a response to Chief Executive Officer of the AFC, Peter Ramsaroop, who had said that the current crime situation and general absence of rule of law are warding off any massive investments in the agriculture sector.
Yesterday, the AFC maintained its position. The party said it sees the Diaspora as a key resource for skills, ideas and investments for the development of Guyana.
“The Diaspora is most influenced by crimes. Importantly also, the Diaspora is influenced by the fact that too many crimes/murders are never solved and too few criminals are convicted,” the AFC stated.
These important and valuable Guyanese will never return home as long as there is no credibility in the police, the AFC added.
Crimes also retard business formation, the party said, while it was noted that drug dealers can launder funds while legitimate businesses must borrow from the commercial banks at 15% interest rate.
“Legitimate business folks have also been threatened and killed by the drug pushers,” the AFC claimed.
Crime, the party stated, also destroys and corrupts key institutions that are needed for development; such as the legal institutions.
“Investments are retarded because of the lack of strong laws and the enforcement of these laws. Take for instance the infringement of copyright in Guyana. It has killed the creative and cultural industries. Why write a poem, a song or story when others will abuse them?”
The party said serious crimes also force our people to migrate.
“Many of these Guyanese are educated, technically skilled, investors and entrepreneurs. Therefore, crimes lead to shortage of investors/risk-takers and depletes our human capital,” the AFC stated.
The AFC is of the view that the following are the key binding constraints that impede investments in Guyana: (i) Lack of infrastructure (energy and other infrastructure like farm to market roads). (ii) Lack of reasonable financing. (iii) Crime and the lack of credibility within the police force. (iv) A severe shortage of human capital. (v) Lack of suitable institutions/laws (and the enforcement of these laws) that can stimulate the creative and cultural industries. (vi) A limited role and focus on research and development.

Corrupt politicians and functionaries of the state

2009-11-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

Corrupt politicians and functionaries of the state

Posted By Stabroek staff On November 27, 2009 @ 5:06 am In Business | No Comments

It is pretty clear from Transparency Internation-al’s 2009 Global Report on Corruption that the taking of bribes and kickbacks by politicians in developing countries is a well-established and institutionalized practice. In fact, even allowing for the kind of inexactitude that understandably derives from estimates, the figure of between US$20 million and US$40 million is staggering. These sums, the TI report says, must be shared by public officials, expeditors of one sort or another, public officers of limited means who are in fact that people that administer those state services for which people are prepared to pay.

So endemic has corruption become in some countries – frequently, the poorer they are the more corrupt their politicians and public officials tend to be – that some aspiring politicians have actually been known to make significant “investments” in finding themselves in positions of influence. Politicians’ substantive pay is not usually anything to shout about. The “bonus,” the kickback worth several times the salaries of politician lies in the fact that their position of influence allows for the selling of state services at bumper prices. The significance of this, of course, is that it raises serious questions about the motives of so many politicians who use the hustings to proffer altruistic motives for seeking election when in fact their only real motive is to plunder the state.

Over time we in Guyana have come to know of several notorious cases of corrupt politicians in other countries who fabulously enriched themselves at the expense of the state – Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire come readily to mind. Both are said to have plundered their countries mostly by simply possessing state assets and the former, having sufficiently enriched, then assumed the title Emperor Bokassa 1.

In our part of the world we hear rather less of the exploits of corrupt politicians though in some cases patterns of conspicuous consumption and ‘good living’ coincide with entry into politics to provide a dead giveaway. Most of the corruption-related scandals are associated with relationships between public servants and businessmen, the former driven by considerations of both greed and poor pay and the latter by a preparedness to pay well mostly for the privilege of acquiring official favours and circumventing their obligations – mostly financial ones to the state.

An interesting feature of the 2009 TI Corruption Report is the extent to which it lays the blame at the door of the international business community for the scale of corruption in poor countries. Some businesses, it seems, place a high value on corrupting officers of the state and while their respective annual reports and accounts are unlikely to show it, there are numerous cases in which corrupt public servants are on the permanent payrolls of people in the various business communities. Here too, suspicions of corruption invariably envelop public servants whose life styles cannot be sustained on their public service salaries.

Much of this, of course, is familiar to Guyana. Corruption – mostly transactions involving state functionaries and businessmen – has become so commonplace that discussions on the issue tend to dwell on issues of scale rather than whether or not the practice actually exists. Those commentators with an interest in defending the status quo would of course contend that the scale of corrupt practices is rather less than is said to be the case though when one thinks of the opportunities for corrupt practices across the spectrum of state resources and services which are in demand, we can do more than speculate as to the real scale of corruption.

Then there is of course the issue of whether or not our state bureaucracies are not themselves tailor-made for corruption. One can find numerous examples of basic services – licenses, permits, certificates etc, the preparation of which is preceded by fairly routine procedures but the acquisition of which is enmeshed in thickets of bureaucracy that have the effect of inflating the value of these services and attaching bribes and kickbacks to their acquisition. Oddly enough, despite the fact that the complexity of these systems is often linked to corrupt practices, little if any effort is made to render them less complex. Who among us is not familiar with those state agencies that attract long queues, large crowds, endless delays and needless paperwork, all of which, deliberately or otherwise, are tailor-made for corrupt practices.

Interestingly, states on the whole have little appetite for the scandal associated with revelations of corruption, particularly when high officials including politicians are implicated. If finger pointing and suspicion often tends to go in the direction of persons in authority the blanket of guilt all to frequently descends on lesser functionaries who cost the political administration little or not political capital. This too is an issue with which we in Guyana are familiar. Considerations of mistrust hopelessly compromise the credibility of official investigations while suspicions about the veracity of corruption investigations are even more deeply entrenched by the frequent exoneration of those who, ironically, are best-positioned to become involved in corrupt practices.

All of this, of course, amounts to the further weakening of both the economic resilience and moral outlook of countries most prone to corruption. Not only are the state coffers plundered and national resources sold off but – particularly for ordinary people – the cost of living is literally and sometimes significantly inflated by a sudden and unplanned necessity to pay bribes for services provided by the state. From the standpoint of what is perhaps best described as national moral fibre there has long occurred a coming to terms with the reality of bribery and corruption, the acceptance of the practice of kickbacks and backhanders as a norm rather than an aberration. That, perhaps, is the most disturbing thing of all.

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“Small and medium enterprises: challenges in combating corruption

2009-11-30T17:58:00.001-08:00

“Small and medium enterprises: challenges in combating corruption

Posted By Stabroek staff On November 27, 2009 @ 5:02 am In Business | No Comments

By Elaine Burns

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are of huge importance to the global economy, representing over 95 per cent of businesses worldwide and even more than 99 per cent of the business sector in countries such as Belgium, Greece, Italy and South Korea. Operating, as many do, in difficult developing markets and supporting major industries as crucial links in their supply chains, SMEs are vulnerable to the threat of corruption. As a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)/World Bank survey has revealed, more than 70 per cent of SMEs perceive corruption as an impediment to their business, compared to around 60 per cent of large companies.

What can an SME do to avoid bribery when a customs official demands a bribe in order to allow the import of a perishable product? Where can a supplier get help when the buyer for a major retailer expects ‘encouragement’ when awarding contracts? Assisting SMEs to resist corruption is an essential component of any comprehensive anti-corruption initiative and can prevent them from becoming the weakest link.

SMEs can be as small as a sole trader or a family business of twenty, but they can also reach the size of a company with several hundred employees. Each of these categories of SME, however, whatever its size or structure, faces four main challenges, albeit to varying extents.

* It is possible that the culture of bribery may be so much a part of the business scene that SMEs are under pressure to submit or fail. In some contexts bribery may be seen as just another business device, a necessary short cut that would be an overwhelming challenge to the company to counter. A business run on bribery is not only acting illegally, however, but also exposing itself to penalties. Such vulnerabilities can further increase the pressure on SMEs to succumb to the demands of corruption.

* SMEs may often not recognise or understand the complexities or grey areas of corruption. There may be uncertainty as to when a gift or entertainment is intended as inducement; when a donation to a political party or charity might be used as a bribe; and what the consequences of undetected conflicts of interest could be. An OECD analysis of some major export countries, for example, reports that even when SMEs represented the majority of exporting businesses they still tended to be poorly informed about anti-bribery laws.
* Limited resources are also a major challenge. The amount of people, time and money needed to create anti-bribery programmes will generally be more restricted than in larger organisations, but there is already considerable pressure on many SMEs just to make enough profit to survive, let alone find additional resources to resist corruption.

* SMEs have little support when dealing with extortion – demands for money, goods or services – and as a result they are often unable to offer much resistance. While there may be good intentions and good practice among many SMEs, there are few networks of support for such organisations and little consistency in anti-bribery measures.

In order to meet the specific challenges above, SMEs need to be made aware of the clear margins of corruption, be provided with knowledge on how to resist it and be supported in doing so. As an incentive to resist bribery, businesses need to understand the damage that it causes – such as loss of control and reputation and potential penalties and convictions – as well as recognise that the money paid in bribes has a direct impact on the economic availability of companies, by eating away at the bottom line. Furthermore, as the wider business environment becomes more aware of the risks involved in corruption, SMEs need to catch up: a reputation for integrity and anti-bribery activism is becoming increasingly important in making companies attractive to financial institutions and in the selection processes for becoming part of supply chains for larger companies.

As such, it is essential that SMEs begin tackling the issue of corruption in a concerted and coordinated fashion. In order to do this, they will need support from governments, primarily through the committed enforcement of anti-bribery legislation, and also from government procurement agencies, which can establish integrity pacts for bidders and contractors as agreements on transparency and accountability prior to entering into contracts with SMEs. Incentives from banks, such as a favourable interest rate for businesses that have implemented anti-bribery plans, could also encourage SMEs to invest in anti-corruption initiatives. Importantly, assistance from large companies, which can use their experience in supporting their suppliers through training and resources, would help SMEs prepare for bribery situations.

There is also assistance being offered by civil society. Transparency International has recently developed a tool for use by SMEs that sets out clear guidance and gives practical examples of the issues involved and how to set up an anti-bribery programme.

Bribery can also be resisted in imaginative, cost-effective ways. In some countries, SMEs have formed cooperatives in order to fight corruption through mutual support and by developing their own collective anti-corruption plans. When one voice may be insubstantial or ineffective, many are strong. In another initiative, sponsored by the Danish International Development Agency through the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries, SMEs in Tanzania fought back against fraudulent tax demands by referring them to a dedicated phone number manned by a small staff who deluged callers with questions concerning the demands, requiring names, reference numbers, department heads and telephone numbers, until the scam eventually stopped, drowned out by the detai1. With all this activity, the OECD statement in its Anti-Bribery Convention, that ‘corruption is no longer business as usual’, is starting to become more convincing, even in the complex environment in which SMEs work.?

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Corruption can be reduced by reducing closed-door approvals for state services – GCCI President

2009-11-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

Corruption can be reduced by reducing closed-door approvals for state services – GCCI President

Posted By Stabroek staff On November 27, 2009 @ 5:08 am In Business | No Comments

- says procedures must be driven by transparency
— will engage Customs on any chamber member corruption-related concern
Simplification and transparency of systems and procedures within state agencies that provide important services can go a far way towards reducing the level of corruption in the relationships between those state agencies and the people seeking their services. “We need to make changes to complex systems. We need to make them simpler, more transparent, more accessible, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Chandradat Chintamani.

The GCCI President was at the time providing an invited comment to a question raised by this newspaper regarding the assertion in the recently published 2009 Transparency International Global Corruption Report regarding the collection of billions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks by politicians and public servants from businessmen seeking various services from the state.
Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Chandradat Chintamani [1]

Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Chandradat Chintamani

And according to Chintamani, state systems and procedures that are particularly vulnerable to corrupt practices must rely to a greater extent on technology that minimizes human intervention. “We need to enhance the use of technology. We need to reduce our dependence on sustained involvement and intervention by people. The truth of the matter that where there is involvement by people in these processes we become vulnerable to corrupt practices,” Chintamani said.

The GCCI President told Stabroek Business that he believed his views on the increased application of technology in state-run service systems was particularly relevant tothe Customs and Trade Administration which is widely believed to be particularly vulnerable to corrupt practices involving Customs officials and businessmen.

“I have said before that as far as Customs is concerned we should consider finding an area on each wharf where surveillance systems can be set up to monitor the processing of containers of cargo,” Chintamani said. “What this does is to create a system that allows for monitoring from an office. The process allows you to see what is inside the container from where you are so that you are in a position to provide quicker clearance. I believe that what this does is to lay the system open, to lay it bare. The room for corruption is created when you have two or three persons sitting behind closed doors making decisions about the clearance of goods.”

Meanwhile, Chintamani told Stabroek Business that he believed the allusion in the Transparency International Report to the complicity of businessmen in the bribes and kickbacks applied to some transactions here in Guyana. “Some of us in the private sector who may have to pay a liability of $2 million are prepared to pay bribes to the level of maybe $1.5 million. The preferable thing to do of course is to let that $2 million go to the state so that we can see that money utilized to the benefit of the country. Of course there is another side to this. There are some people who might question the way in which the money is used by the state. In such cases they would pay that bribe and simply close the door or the transaction.”

And while the GCCI President says he believes that there are still loopholes that can be closed in order to reduce the scale of corruption, he feels nonetheless, that some systems have been put in place within the Customs and Trade Administration “and within the wider GRA” to reduce the level of corrupt practices. “The process has improved tremendously. I can say this both as President of the Chamber and as a businessman. Within a few days of a container arriving it is processed and in my warehouse. A number of other members of the Chamber have also reported improvements in the quality of service that they receive from Customs.”

Meanwhile, Chintamani told Stabroek Business that he believed the issue of the payment of bribes and kickbacks for services provided by state agencies was “a significant challenge but one which we have to confront.” The Chamber President told Stabroek Business that the frequent pronouncements that have been made by President Bharrat Jagdeo on his administration’s posture towards corruption did not appear to be attended by speedy action. “I happen to believe that the President is sincere in his attitude to corruption. The problem is that it some times does not appear that the people whose job it is to close the door on corruption are acting in accordance with the wishes of the President,” he added.

Chintamani said he is prepared to approach the Guyana Revenue Authority on any corruption-related or other matter raised with the Chamber. “I am willing to take these issues up with the Customs. At the same time, however, I need to be careful that when I approach the head of the GRA he does not pull a file on the person who I am purporting to represent and point to irregularities in that person’s dealings with Customs.”

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Economy firewall malfunctions

2009-11-30T16:56:00.000-08:00

Economy firewall malfunctions

Posted By Christopher Ram On November 29, 2009 @ 5:11 am In Features, Sunday | 1 Comment
Business Page

Business Page is dedicated to providing objective information and opinion on issues of interest to the business community and the public at large. The articles in Business Page are prepared and contributed by Christopher Ram who is the Managing Partner of Ram & McRae, Chartered Accountants, Professional Service Firm. This and previous columns can be found at www.chrisram.net [1]
Part 2

Introduction

During the past week, I received the Bank of Guyana (BOG) Report for the first half of 2009 which the bank is required under the law to submit to the Minister of Finance. As usual the report is comprehensive, contains valuable economic data, is very professionally written and therefore considered generally quite reliable. I will take into account the contents of that report as I continue my review of the 2009 mid-year report of the Minister of Finance, but before doing so, let me draw attention to certain matters touched on last week that are also addressed in the BOG report.
Christopher Ram [2]

Christopher Ram

The first and perhaps the most important relates to performance of the economy in the first six months of the year. The Minister of Finance reported in unambiguous terms that the economy declined in 2009 by 1.4%, supporting this in Appendix A1 of his report, sourced to the Bureau of Statistics. The Bank of Guyana on the other hand, reports, both in narrative form and in a graph, a positive growth of an identical percentage and projects that the economy will “continue to grow during the second half of the year.”

There is an obvious conflict between the numbers and it is disappointing that the Minister of Finance did not detect the discrepancy on such a fundamental matter, given that the BOG’s half-year report is submitted to him. This failure suggests either gross carelessness, or, heaven forbid, that the Minister did not read the BOG report, both of which would be sad indeed. The country would no doubt expect a clarification from one or both of the parties responsible for these reports.

Another issue is the different approaches to inflation. While the BOG uses the identical percentage of 1.3% reported by the Minister of Finance, its report describes the inflation number specifically as the Georgetown Urban Consumer Price Index which is obviously different from a national inflation rate. The Minister of Finance on the other hand, was not as specific and importantly, gave only an estimate of inflation, inevitably inviting speculation about the margin of error.

In last week’s column, there was a comment that sugar was becoming the scapegoat for the poor performance of the economy with its field workers being increasingly blamed not only for the industry’s, but also the country’s economic woes. The BOG report offers some perspective. While the number of work stoppages increased by 22.9% to 102 from 83 in the corresponding period last year, the number of man days lost was only 18,785 compared with 33,389 in half-year 2008, a 44% drop in production days lost.

The BOG also informs us that exports to the European Union accounted for 97.5% of Guysuco’s exports, up from 91.7% in 2008. For all the noise that the President made about the EPA and its adverse effects on sugar prices, our dependence on the EU market in 2009 was practically total, despite the corporation’s attempt at market diversification. It would seem unfair to place that at the feet of the field workers.

Expenditure

When the 2009 National Budget was presented earlier this year it was followed by the usual chorus of the biggest budget ever, no consideration given to the absorptive capacity of the economy. Business Page of November 16 last year in commenting on the expenditure side of the 2008 mid-year report, noted that it was “a matter of speculation why only 38% of the full year budget has been expended on what a table in the report described as key sectors.” That column went on to draw attention to the Health, Infrastructure and Agriculture sectors where only 41%, 27% and 33% respectively, had been spent in the first half of the year and asked whether the country was “going to see a mad and irresponsible rush to spend during the second half of the year, simply because the money has been allocated.” That indeed is what appears to have taken place in 2008.

Mid-year expenditure of Key Sectors – G$ million

20091129table [3]

Source: Mid Year Report 2009
Note: H1 refers to the first six months.

As the table above shows, we are faced with a very similar situation in 2009, even as the number of sectors identified as “key” is reduced from nine in 2008 to five in 2009. Those excluded this year are Culture, Office of the President, Public Service Ministry and Social Welfare for which billions were allocated in the 2009 Budget. The Minister’s report did not indicate why he considered that these were no longer “key” and his discussion was therefore more than limited in this regard. In 2008 the expenditure on the Minister’s key sectors in 2008 accounted for 37% of the full-year budget allocation, compared with 34.6% this year. Yet, the Minister did not think it necessary to make any significant adjustment to the full-year projections, in fact marginally increasing the total non-interest budget expenses for the full year. If technical and administrative skills are regarded as critical to delivering on the 2009 Budget programmes, it is difficult to see how those programmes could be achieved given that there is no greater implementation capacity in the second half 2009 than in the first half.

Many of the numbers speak for themselves but with all the contracts being awarded, the almost daily appearances in the press of some of the ministers and the extent to which we have committed the country to borrowings, it is difficult to understand the low spending on these sectors, particularly given that several line items are of a fixed and constant nature. To put the figures in context, it means that Agriculture would have to spend in the current half of 2009 four dollars for every dollar spent in the first half. The same applies to Infrastructure, while for Education and Housing and Water it is a more modest $1.5 for every dollar.

The drug bonanza

Health is interesting. Successive annual reports from the Audit Office remind us that cabinet has hand-picked for unlawful but very lucrative, multi-billion procurement contracts to supply the government with drugs and medical supplies, one of the companies of the Ramroop Group, with which President Jagdeo announced he has a friendly relationship and for which new tax concession laws were passed in 2008. As if the selection by the President’s cabinet were not enough, the government makes up-front payment on those contracts. Perhaps not surprisingly therefore, of the $2.5 billion budgeted for Drugs and Medical Supplies, 66.5 % was spent in the first six months of the year, up from 53% for the corresponding period in 2008.

With this kind of abuse, the government ought not to be surprised that Guyana is ranked at 126 among 180 countries listed in the Transparency International (TI) Report, along with seven other countries that include war-ravaged countries such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mozambique and Uganda. The government’s protestations about TI’s methodology would have credibility and resonance if the country was convinced that it had any interest in halting the abuses attendant on the procurement of drugs and other products and services and the Lotto funds, pursuing those who contribute to its party while engaging in the worst forms of corruption of revenue officers, keeping its promise on a Freedom of Information Act and observing good governance and the rule of law in all their forms and manifestations.

With corruption and the absence of any culture of accountability and transparency in religion, the trade union movement, civil society, the private and NGO sectors, the political parties, sports, in national and local government – in short in every area of life – many Guyanese find it hard to believe that there are countries more corrupt than Guyana. The fact is, however, that there are and we need to ensure that we do not slip further to the bottom. Like the rotting of the fish, the disintegration from corruption begins at the head.

Bloating the public sector

Another interesting line item is what is referred to in Appendix E4 to the Mid-year Report as Contracted Employees. There too we have spending very much on track as the government selectively employs more and more persons at the public expense. The 2009 Budget allocation for wages and salaries of contracted employees is $3.2 billion which the Minister projects will be exceeded, no doubt because more than 50% has already been spent in the first six months of the year. The Office of the President in particular now has a number of advisers and consultants, some of whose designations and functions are by no means clear, and who seem to be paid either for their past service to the party or to do political work on behalf of the party. The contracted employees do not come cheap. Some of them are paid in real currency, have 24-hour security, chauffeur, administrative support, enjoy valuable tax and duty concessions – all paid for by the poor taxpayers or financed by the donors who seem to be salivating at the prospect of giving to a poor country.

How much of the further $2.2 billion dollars in benefits and allowances goes to the contracted employees is not determinable but what is interesting is that the wages and salaries of the contracted employees exceeds that of the total administrative staff of the central government by more than 15%. And it is because of these contracted employees including permanent secretaries, many politically appointed, that the Public Service Commission is becoming increasingly sidelined and irrelevant. Is it because of the chauffeur-driven and state-provided vehicles that the Public Service Ministry has not seen it fit or necessary to revise the 1995 rates of travel allowances paid to public officers, many of them lower level operatives not important to the new order governing public finances in the country?

To be continued
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1 Comment To "Economy firewall malfunctions"

#1 Comment By tkhemraj On November 29, 2009 @ 10:19 am

Mr Ram,

I will make sure I save these columns for history. You have done a remarkable job to show how the PPP has exceeded PNC level corruption. Well done!

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GuySuCo plagued by run-down equipment

2009-11-30T16:43:00.001-08:00

GuySuCo plagued by run-down equipment

Posted By Stabroek staff On November 30, 2009 @ 5:19 am In Local News | 14 Comments
-Interim Board

The deplorable state of field and factory assets within the sugar industry has been blamed by the Interim Board as a factor responsible for the current troubles plaguing GuySuCo.

The corporation has been unable to expend capital for the past four years, the Board said in a turnaround plan earlier this year, noting that this resulted in very low expenditure for replacement of the assets. The board observed that currently many assets are over their economic lives, and said this is impacting on production and operations.

The Board noted that a concerted effort has to be made to increase the level of capital spending within the industry and improve the state of its assets. The issues raised in the turnaround plan are that the run-down assets are increasing the length of time taken to complete tasks within the industry, such as longer transport routes due to inaccessible roadways and bridges. It is also blamed for increased fuel and material costs as well as low productivity. Additionally, the plan said the poor state of the assets is impacting on the ability to improve programme targets, and also resulting in the de-motivation of staff.

For the period 2009 to 2011, factory capital for the industry has already increased as per the indicators agreed between the government and the EC delegation to an average of US$9M annually, according to the turnaround plan.

Thereafter, factory capital will be as per the factory review concluded in 2007 that assessed the industry’s needs over a 10-year period.

The plan also noted that the MOU signed by GuySuCo with the Government of Guyana on December 31, 2008 agreed to defer US$8M annually on SSMP interest/loan repayments from 2009 to 2011. However, the plan said this increased expenditure is required by the EU to be placed in additional factory capital expenditure. Thus, it observed the deferral involves no significant cash saving for the corporation.

According to the Interim Board, the capital programme will require a Project Management team to plan and implement the expenditure programme for both the fields and factories. It pointed out that agriculture capital requirements were determined based on a detailed assessment of the state of agriculture assets and their useful lives. Based on this, it said, high levels of capital are needed from 2009 to 2011.

The Skeldon factory is currently contributing around 14% of the industry’s sugar, according to the plan. It is expected to generate 26% by 2013 but this hinges on cane supply that is currently inadequate. The plan envisages that the industry will produce some 312,000 tonnes of sugar in 2011 and 410,000 tonnes in 2013.

The refinery, which the Interim Board said is now on the back-burner, is not being considered at present because of the reduction in production, among other factors. The Board said the significant reduction in the industry sugar production means that any refined sugar sales will not erode sales in another market.

It said also that the refinery would be a distraction from rehabilitation, noting that managing the construction of a refinery in the same period when concentration would be on rehabilitation is problematic. “The Interim Board considers it wise to concentrate on rehabilitation of the core business before embarking on the construction of a refinery.

A refinery will therefore not be included in the forecasts from 2009 to 2013,” the plan explained. It said too that it could be difficult to produce an investor friendly prospectus before the industry shows sign of a turnaround.

The refinery appears to be an unprofitable venture based on current economic assumptions, the plan said, and it also called for a review of this project based on an updated feasibility study.
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Guyana still ranked among most corrupt – TI survey

2009-11-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Stabroek News news item. November 18, 2009. Guyana still ranked among most corrupt – TI survey. http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/stories/11/18/guyana-still-ranked-among-most-corrupt-ti-survey/

Guyana remains ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world, according to the 2009 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released yesterday.

In a survey of 180 countries, Guyana was ranked 126 for the second straight year, with a score of 2.6 out of 10. The country is again the lowest ranked English-speaking Caribbean nation on the list and the second lowest ranked Caricom territory, behind Haiti. Guyana shares its ranking with Syria and Tanzania.

A majority of the countries in the index scored below five on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).As a result, TI said the corruption challenge is undeniable. It noted that corruption continues to lurk “where opacity rules, where institutions still need strengthening and where governments have not implemented anti-corruption legal frameworks.”

New Zealand (9.4), Denmark (9.3), Singapore and Sweden (9.2) as well as Switzerland (9.0) ranked the highest, with scores that are said to reflect political stability, long-established conflict of interest regulations and solid, functioning public institutions.

TI, which is based in Germany, is a global civil society organisation that fights against corruption. The CPI measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on 13 different expert and business surveys. Four surveys were used to determine Guyana’s score. The number of indicators has been a point of contention for the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, which has also criticised the source of the data.

For Caribbean nations, Barbados (7.4) was ranked the highest, jumping two places to 20, just ahead of St. Lucia (7.0) which slipped one place to 22, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (6.4) at 31, Dominica (5.9) at 34, Suriname (3.7) at 75, Trinidad and Tobago (3.6) at 79, the Dominican Republic (3.0) at 99, and Jamaica (3.0) at 99.

According to regional highlights of the CPI, 10 of the 31 countries from the Americas scored above 5, while 21 scored less than 5, indicating “a serious corruption problem.” Further, noting that nine of the countries failed to score over 3, TI said there is an indication of “rampant corruption.” Additional-ly, with the exception of Guatemala, no country in the region showed an increase in its CPI score.

TI said although each country has its own particular context, across the board the effects of the financial crisis and the subsequent economic downturn have highlighted the crucial importance of governance in the private and public sectors and the relationships between the two, particularly in respect to stimulus packages which are already pumping large amounts of money into badly affected economies. It added that states across the region-rich and poor-will have to respond by ensuring that these funds are handled with integrity.

In a statement, TI noted that no region is immune to the perils of corruption as the world economy begins to register a tentative recovery and some nations continue to wrestle with ongoing conflict and insecurity. “At a time when massive stimulus packages, fast-track disbursements of public funds and attempts to secure peace are being implemented around the world, it is essential to identify where corruption blocks good governance and accountability, in order to break its corrosive cycle” said Huguette Labelle, Chair of TI. “Stemming corruption requires strong oversight by parliaments, a well performing judiciary, independent and properly resourced audit and anti-corruption agencies, vigorous law enforcement, transparency in public budgets, revenue and aid flows, as well as space for independent media and a vibrant civil society,” Labelle said too, adding “The international community must find efficient ways to help war-torn countries to develop and sustain their own institutions.”

TI observed that when essential institutions are weak or non-existent, corruption spirals out of control and the plundering of public resources feeds insecurity and impunity. Corruption, it added, also normalises a seeping loss of trust in the very institutions and nascent governments charged with ensuring survival and stability.

It insisted that countries at the bottom of the index cannot be shut out from development efforts. Instead, it said, what the index points to is the need to strengthen their institutions. According to TI, investors and donors should be equally vigilant of their operations and as accountable for their own actions as they are in demanding transparency and accountability from beneficiary countries.

TI said the Group of 20 has made strong commitments to ensure that integrity and transparency form the cornerstone of a newfound regulatory structure. “As the G20 tackles financial sector and economic reforms, it is critical to address corruption as a substantial threat to a sustainable economic future,” it said. TI added, “The G20 must also remain committed to gaining public support for essential reforms by making institutions such as the Financial Stability Board and decisions about investments in infrastructure, transparent and open to civil society input.”

There is some level of corruption - Donald Ramotar

2009-11-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Kaieteur News news item, Thursday 19 November 2009 - "There is some level of corruption - Donald Ramotar" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/11/19/there-is-some-level-of-corruption-donald-ramotar/

“If we continue to bury our heads in the muck which is now evident, we leave exposed the most vulnerable parts of our anatomy for further violation and abuse” - GAP/ROAR

While acknowledging that there is some level of corruption in Guyana, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, says that it is nowhere close to what is being reflected by Transparency International.

Ramotar was at the time responding to the recently released Global Corruption Perception Index compiled by Transparency International which scored Guyana at 126 of the 180 countries surveyed

The PPP General Secretary also questioned and challenged Transparency International to reveal its source of information in Guyana positing that it must be the work of the People’s National Congress Reform using old connections.

Ramotar is of the opinion that it is only anti-government elements that could be responsible for presenting such an image of Guyana.

Calling Transparency International’s report a “cockeyed” position, Ramotar said that he was very concerned about a position by some international organisations to demonise developing countries.

He noted that there should be greater scrutiny of the more developed countries. He pointed to the United States of America and identified the Halliburton affair coupled with the billions of dollars that are being pumped into the banks and being siphoned off by the upper echelon officials.

Ramotar said, too, that he was worried that there might ulterior motives with the reports.

Guyana Action Party Member of Parliament, Everall Franklin, recently stated that “the nation is insulted constantly by the sheer outrageousness of corrupt practices being perpetrated against us, the people of this country.”

He said that the recent exposure of a few contracts, which left many people shaking their heads in bewilderment, is but a small portion of the uncontrolled mismanagement meted out to the Guyanese population.

He added, “This is how the people’s wealth is being squandered…If we continue to bury our heads in the muck which is now evident, we leave exposed the most vulnerable parts of our anatomy for further violation and abuse…This cannot be allowed to continue, we all have to raise our voices in condemnation with the aim to stop this rape of our resources.”

When asked if the elected leaders were not scrutinizing the expenditure of taxpayer money, the politician insisted in the affirmative, but pointed out that the opposition and media could expose these glaring anomalies, but it is ultimately up to the Government to curb the practice.

Meanwhile the Alliance for Change leader, Raphael Trotman, during a press briefing held at the Sidewalk Café called on Ramotar to present their data to support his contention and compare with that of Transparency International.

According to Trotman, Transparency International was international respected with a sound reputation adding that International Financial Institutions pay attention to its reports and uses them as indicators when issuing loans or grants.

Trotman noted that it is expected Ramotar would make such a statement in that he would want to wash discredit the report adding that, “you can fool the people some times but you can’t fool the people all of the time.”

Among some of the other countries that rank close to Guyana in the 2009 report are Vietnam, Syria, Tanzania, Lebanon and Mongolia.

The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public-sector corruption in a country/territory.

Opposition politicians have time and time again sought to argue that there is a high level of corruption in Guyana.

Veteran Trade Unionist Lincoln Lewis also recently lashed out at the Government, saying that the administration was acting like vultures picking at the flesh of a dying nation, citing what he sees as the wanton abuse of the nation’s finances as a point of reference.

Lewis said there is no country that is going to create wealth if its leaders “exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers.”

He said too that no business would want to invest in a place where there is widespread corruption.

“No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery.”

NO TIME FOR CUDDLING UP WITH THE JAGDEO ADMINISTRATION!

2009-11-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

NO TIME FOR CUDDLING UP WITH THE JAGDEO ADMINISTRATION!
November 6, 2009 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/11/06/no-time-for-cuddling-up-with-the-jagdeo-administration/

Now that visas are being revoked, the government of Guyana is going to wake up and smell the coffee. It is only a matter of time before they concede and appoint either a commission of inquiry into the Guyana Police Force or a variation of an inquiry that they hope will appease those who are outraged about what is taking place in Guyana.
The Guyanese people must not allow themselves to believe that the Jagdeo administration is capable of dealing with the problems of this country.
What is happening in Guyana is a direct result of the attitude of the Jagdeo administration towards the problems of this country, and what is sad is that persons are now beginning to imitate that same attitude in dealing with the media.
The Jagdeo administration only has uses for civil society when they need the support of civil society. All interactions are on the government terms and when they have no more uses for civil society, it’s “Ta Ta”
The government has friends who will come to its rescue, like they did when the President came under criticism for comments he made at a private sector dinner. Those friends were quick to come to the defence of the President.
The government is now once again under serious pressures because of the emergence of a terrorist gang which committed murder, arson and terror in the city a few days ago. The Jagdeo administration needs civil society now. But why should civil society cuddle up to the President? Why having been bitten before should civil society go back to the charade of seeking an accommodation from the government? For what purpose? To be dumped again like they were just after the Lusignan and Bartica massacres? What has come of the commitments that were given to the stakeholders?
Civil society should fight tooth and nail to bring the government to its senses and appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate the outstanding torture claims, but they should be cautious about attending any meeting with the President to discuss this and any other matter such as the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
It should not be business as usual with the government until such time that it demonstrates that it is prepared to act in a responsible manner so as to avoid further shame and embarrassment to this country.
Imagine it had to take the Americans to do something about the infamous sex talk tape. Is it not a disgrace that the Americans have had to act in this matter while the government sits and does absolutely nothing but talk a lot of tripe about what is going on in Guyana?
How come there is no investigation into the sixty-million-dollar house purchased by a clerk? How come there is no investigation into the controversial contracts which were reported on by this newspaper? How come no independent investigation into the ants nest torture reported in the newspaper? How come no investigation into allegations that a Government Minister facilitated the purchase of sensitive equipment for a man who entered into a plea bargain with the US government and is now in jail? Does the government not wish to definitively clear itself of this particular allegation?
What sort of government in the face of the reports by this newspaper of controversial contracts is going to suggest that the Kaieteur News tender for contracts?
How more flippant can one get about what is taking place with allegations about the use of public funds?
What about the ants nest torture case? What is the government for? Is it waiting for the Americans to pull another visa before it acts?
The ruling party is now totally emasculated from effective opposition to what is taking place in the government. The ruling party is powerless to influence what takes place within the government. But there are persons who are far from satisfied with what is going on and they are privately letting it be known that they do not condone the indifference that is being demonstrated by the regime towards serious issues in this country.
They are also concerned that the actions of the administration can affect the popularity of the ruling party and its chances at the next elections. And thus there are serious concerns within the ruling party about the direction in which the government is heading.
This is all the more reason why the national stakeholders must not jump into bed with the Jagdeo administration. Instead they should all make a joint appeal for the government to either concede to the demand for impartial investigations into the matters listed about or face its problems alone.

After five years only two countries accept CCJ as final appellate court

2009-11-04T07:54:00.001-08:00

After five years only two countries accept CCJ as final appellate court
May 31, 2009 | By knews | Filed Under News

By Oscar Ramjeet

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) entered its fifth year on April 12 since it was inaugurated at a lavish ceremony in Port of Spain, which was attended by nearly all the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as well as most legal luminaries in the region.
The Court was, however, initially established in February 2001, more than eight years ago.
It is very unfortunate that, after such a long time, only two countries, Guyana and Barbados, have accepted the CCJ as the final court. No other country has joined after 48 long months. This is indeed a misfortune since most Caribbean countries rid themselves of colonial rule more than four decades ago: Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in 1962, Guyana and Barbados in 1966 and the Eastern Caribbean countries a few years later.
Since these former British colonies achieved political independence so long ago, one would have expected them to have judicial independence as well, especially since they have highly qualified and experienced judges.
I had the privilege of visiting the Court while in Trinidad for the Fifth Summit of the Americas and was impressed by what I saw — besides the well equipped libraries, spacious conference room, robing room, etc., I was elated with the Courtroom’s appearance, with the most modern electronic equipment, which is said to be one of the best in the world. The facilities include: a document reader/visual presenter; the ability to use laptop computers; DVF/VCR; audio/video digital recording (microphones situated throughout the courtroom); wireless internet access, and audio/video transcripts.
Former Trinidad and Tobago Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj said that the judges have little to do and it is a waste of taxpayers’ money. His statement is somewhat surprising since it was under his party’s administration that the Court was established and up to this day Trinidad and Tobago has not joined.
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt made a sweeping statement when he said that if the region is not serious about the CCJ, it should close down the court.
Skeritt, a few months ago, asked his Attorney General to engage the local Bar Association as well as the political opposition with a view of having the decision fully implemented. I have not heard the progress of those discussions.
However, there is some glimmer of hope that at least one more country will join. Belize’s Prime Minister Dean Barrow, one of the first graduates from the Council of Legal Education in the Caribbean, has announced that his country will take steps to remove the Privy Council as the final Court of Appeal.
I contacted his office and was advised that a Bill will be presented to Parliament next month to pave the way to remove the Privy Council as the final Court. Three-fourths of parliamentary votes are required, but it is understood that the opposition will support the move since it had advocated the measure when it was in government.
There is no doubt that there is reluctance on the part of governments to get rid of the Privy Council as the final court for varying reasons. Jamaica at one stage claimed that the CCJ will be a hanging court, but they cannot press that issue now because that government recently passed legislation to retain the death penalty.
The JLP government was in power when the idea of setting up of the CCJ first started, but now the party, which is back in power after 15 years, is somewhat reluctant — new reasons have surfaced, including the heavy costs of maintaining the Court, pointing out that, when the first idea was mooted 20 years ago, the Jamaican dollar was much stronger, and the latest is that the Court does not have a Jamaican as a judge, although its population is nearly 2.5 million — more than all the other 11 countries combined.
Former Jamaican Attorney General Dr Oswald Harding, who was the AG in 1988, said that he is very disturbed that no Jamaican was appointed as judge when he knew that about eight well qualified jurists had applied.
I have been advocating for a distinguished West Indian to be appointed as a lobbyist, but both CARICOM and the CCJ are both reluctant to do so. CARICOM, it is understood, feels it should distance itself from the CCJ, especially since it is a party to recent litigation before the Court. I refer to a law suit brought by Trinidad and Tobago Cement Company against CARICOM.
On the other hand, the CCJ feels that it should not indulge in such an exercise; but they nevertheless held seminars in jurisdictions such as Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, Belize on the functions and the operations of the original jurisdiction of the CCJ.
It is worrying that CARICOM countries do not even use the CCJ in its original jurisdictions, since they do not have to seek constitutional amendments to do so. In four long years only three such matters have reached the Court.
It is my humble and respectful view that CARICOM should have sensitised the public and ensured that the necessary legislation was in place to accept the CCJ as the final court long before the Court was established and, as Dame Dr Bernice Lake, QC, a distinguished jurist from Anguilla, put it, “The regional governments disenfranchised the public when they set up the CCJ without referenda.”

Given the excesses of the security forces the gov’t should have welcomed the UK reform plan

2009-11-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

Given the excesses of the security forces the gov’t should have welcomed the UK reform plan

Posted By Stabroek staff On November 2, 2009 @ 5:06 am In Letters | 7 Comments

Dear Editor,
Is the Guyana government truly committed to its constitutionally entrenched responsibility to ensure the safety and security of its citizens? The recent decision by the British government to pull the plug on its £3 million for the security reform project is a massive blow to the local security sector and a major setback for citizens.

According to the government spokesperson Dr. Luncheon, “the British want to be chief cook and battle washer”, the government also tells Guyanese that the British proposal infringes on Guyana’s sovereignty. The UK rebutted the Guyana government, and stated that their decision to abandon the project is because the Guyana government would have, drastically, changed the original project. Specific mention was made regarding the scope of the project. According to the British, the Guyana government changed the original project to reflect modernization of the police force, only, as opposed to a holistic reform of the entire security sector as was agreed to earlier by the Guyana government and the U.K.

It is very difficult for Guyanese to accept and understand why the PPP/C government would try to play the power game and risk the successful overhauling of the nation’s entire security system, at a time when the safety and security of every Guyanese is at risk. Dr. Luncheon’s comments in the press leave much to be desired and signalled yet another missed opportunity by the nation’s chief executives to demonstrate to the public that they are serious about putting the nation first. Instead, the government seems more interested in exhibiting some kind of political muscle.

Like many Guyanese I am not, at all, surprised by the government’s actions and their usual follow up activity of a shameless propaganda scheme aimed at wining public sympathy.

The government tells Guyanese that it is concerned about their safety but their report card on crime and security concerns is dismal, as their actions are wholly inconsistent with their claims. Just last August the government ditched a crime and security conference organized by the U.S Southern Command, U.S Embassy, and the Center of Hemispheric Defense Studies, and stated publicly that it will have no part of the conference. A day or two before the start of the conference Dr. Luncheon made a statement in the press stating that the government will not attend the conference because, according to him, the government was not allowed to own the programme. So this political stunt pulled by the government should come as no surprise to any of us who pay attention to the actions of this government.

The question now should be who benefits from sustained criminal activities, perpetrated by a growing criminal enterprise?

How can the government defend its position to only want police reform when the Guyana Defence Force and Prison Service are all in the same dilemma? Is the government satisfied with the work of the joint services, in light of the many reports of torture committed by same?

Does the killing of Bartica gold dealer Dweive Ramdass by Guyana Defence Force Coastguards not create a renewed urgency on the part of the government to reform the Guyana Defence Force? One would have thought that with the torture and resulting murder of Edwin Niles while in custody of the Guyana Prison Service, the allegations of the torture of Patrick Sumner, Victor Jones, David Zammit and others by the security forces the President and government would have been adamant in ensuring that there is a major restructuring of the entire security sector.

Why attempt to restrict the reform to the police only, is the government happy with the claims of torture levelled at the security agency?

Dr. Luncheon tells Guyanese that the fact that the British have no longer committed to funding the project will not hamper its implementation, and that public funding will pick up the slack. What he failed to tell us is how much our unborn children will be indebted to the government as a result of this public funding.

Secondly, since the Guyana government, as can be gleaned from his utterances, could have handled this project why didn’t the government initiate same much earlier, and spare the nation all the massacres and mayhem?

Yours faithfully,
Lurlene Nestor
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Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/11/02/given-the-excesses-of-the-security-forces-the-gov%e2%80%99t-should-have-welcomed-the-uk-reform-plan/

Delayed $400M conservancy project now hinges on World Bank

2009-10-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item, Tuesday 27 October 2009 - "Delayed $400M conservancy project now hinges on World Bank" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/27/delayed-400m-conservancy-project-now-hinges-on-world-bank/

By Gary Eleazar

The $400M funded World Bank Project that involves works to be carried out on the East Demerara Water Conservancy was at one time placed on hold because of the fact that the lone bidder had submitted a bid that was over inflated.

A Hymac undertakes remedial works in the conservancy

A Hymac undertakes remedial works in the conservancy

Today that project hinges on a renewed proposal to that bank.

According to Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, ever since the cancellation of the bid that is in keeping with the Procurement Guidelines established by the World Bank and the Government of Guyana, his Ministry has requested the reformulation of the Pre- Investment Studies in light of the current situation that obtains with respect to climate change and the country’s Drainage and Irrigation Master plan.

Persaud, in an interview with this newspaper, disclosed that his Ministry has provided all the technical information relevant to the project.

“We had undertaken a number of works in the Conservancy under the NDIA (Hope Canal Project) and the World Bank Technical Team has since reviewed and resubmitted Terms of Reference that only includes the work that needs to be done but has not been completed.”

He did emphasise that it should be noted that by completing these works NDIA has effected cost savings on the Project.

“This means that the likelihood of having a successful bidder has increased significantly because of the intervention of the government.”

According to Persaud, NDIA has since received the document and he was informed that the review is complete and will be forwarded to the Bank for Final review and No-Objection yesterday.

He stated that the Tender document and the Expression of Interest have already been prepared simultaneous and once the No Objection is received, “we will be launching the EOI and then the Calls for Proposals before the end of the Year.”

“In my view, the World Bank can move quickly to assist in early implementation,” Persaud said. The World Bank approved grant funding for the project some two years ago. The Conservancy has been a source of grave concern recently, given unusual periods of heavy rainfall.

When the conservancy, which holds water to irrigate farmlands during the dry season, is overwhelmed, it threatens the integrity of the dam, which, if compromised could cause widespread flooding on the heavily populated East Coast Demerara.

In recent years, during the rainy season when the water built up in the Conservancy, the government has had cause to release the water into the Mahaica and Mahaicony Rivers, flooding out the farming communities along the rivers.

Some residents have had to abandon their homes and farmlands and have taken up housing offered by Food for the Poor. The World Bank, on October 11, 2007, approved what it called ‘The Conservancy Adaptation Project’, for overall, US$3.8 million.

The project aims at strengthening the government’s and donor understanding of the EDWC system and coastal drainage patterns through the integration of advanced mapping and engineering analysis.

The project also aims at implementing infrastructure investments to improve drainage performance, to strengthen the institutional capacity for managing water and floodwater levels, and to guide interventions to reduce Guyana’s vulnerability to floods.

According to Minister Persaud, after the Request for Proposals was closed for Component 1 of the project, which involved the pre-investment studies for the engineering design of works, one tender was received.

He indicated that the evaluation committee recommended that the tender be annulled since the Bidder exceeded the set budgeted price by more than 100 per cent.

Accordingly, the tender has since been reformulated and will be launched internationally shortly.

He noted that World Bank is financing the development of the technical foundation for a master plan of future interventions within Conservancy and lowland drainage systems, as well as specific upgrading works and operational improvements aimed at enhancing the flood control capacity of the EDWC.

“The tools developed under the analytical component will be used by the (government) and donor agencies to guide future investments,” Persaud stated.

The objective of Phase One is to provide the hydrologic baseline necessary for contemplating rational interventions aimed at increasing the current discharge capacity of the flood control system.

The Conservancy system includes a reservoir, fronted by an earthen dam; drainage channels, used to release excess water from the reservoir during the rainy season; and a network of canals used to provide drinking water and irrigation during the dry seasons.

Because of this system, farmers are able to realise two harvests of sugar cane and rice annually.

The drainage relief structures were created to protect the EDWC dam from overtopping and collapsing during rainy seasons.

As the sea levels rise, the hydraulic head between the EDWC water control structures and sea outlets is significantly reduced. The smaller head reduces both the flow rate and discharge window available to discharge excess water from the system.

In addition, sea level rise has shortened the discharge window for the coastal plain. At present, flood control is managed on an emergency basis and control efforts focused on responding to immediate needs rather than the development of long-term control strategies.

This system of flood control is no longer effective and there are limitations on the ability to manage water levels in the coastal plain and prevent flooding.

The police probe and Roger Khan

2009-10-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

The police probe and Roger Khan
Stabroek News Editorial. October 26, 2009.

After years of unremitting pressure, the government seems to be attempting to do something about the elephant in the room – the rampage of Roger Khan and his cohorts in these parts. It came in the form of an announcement by the police inviting all and sundry to testify before the police about what they know about alleged murders committed by Mr Khan’s gang and by the notorious `Fineman’.

Whoever thinks that this was the initiative of the police force is deluded. Nothing about Roger Khan will ever see the light of day without the political directorate carefully scripting the act and putting the force’s figurehead in front of a teleprompter. It must be remembered that when pressed by the media on several occasions about the allegations flowing from the Brooklyn court about Roger Khan and what it revealed about his government, President Jagdeo brushed aside the matter by saying that it was up to the police to investigate these alleged murders and other matters. It was to put it lightly an unvarnished attempt to fabricate a parallel reality. Roger Khan is a political hot potato for the police force and is therefore a no fly zone. The discerning public is well aware of this. Second, President Jagdeo would no doubt be fully cognisant that the police force is intrinsically incapable of investigating any of these murders and other aberrations of the Khan and `Fineman’ rampage and so this would have been futile from the start.

This sop to the public is probably the result of the pressure that has been applied here and abroad over the Roger Khan debacle. It is also a pre-emptive strike to blunt any embarrassment at the upcoming meetings over REDD and the climate campaign at Copenhagen particularly in light of the governance issues that will be raised by donor countries and multilateral institutions. It won’t, however, amount to much and in the crucial weeks leading up to Copenhagen President Jagdeo and his spin doctors will have much explaining to do.

The bland announcement by the police force is an insult to the years of death, maiming, bloodshed and grief that rained upon the populace beginning in 2002 at the hands of the escapees who fled Camp Street in 2002 and the phantom groups that were subcontracted to go after them. And the timing, days after the sentencing of Roger Khan adds further insult to injury. Is it the case that the police have only now been convinced that Roger Khan is worthy of investigation simply because of his sentencing in New York? Even though he pleaded guilty months ago to conspiracy to import cocaine into the US and a dangerous witness tampering charge? Even though for years ordinary citizens here have harboured grave concerns about what he was engaged in and had repeatedly pressed the authorities in various ways to act?

And this is why the invitation by the police to members of the public is likely to be viewed with pure cynicism and trepidation. Can the police and the government reasonably expect people to come forward and testify when there are irresistible leads pointing to collaboration between Roger Khan and the police/government? The earliest indicator of this was his apprehension at Good Hope with high-powered weapons and the spy equipment, the clear reluctance to charge him and his subsequent acquittal on all of the charges. More recently, this view has been cemented by the shenanigans surrounding the spy equipment, several pieces of which Khan was able to import and one of which his now convicted lawyer Robert Simels apparently spirited out of the country. Also knotted into this are the allegations swirling around Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy and his alleged facilitating of the purchase of one of the spy machines. So organized was this assistance programme for Khan that a trainer was dispatched here to school those who would be using the equipment. Surely if the police were serious about investigating Khan’s organization they would have already ferreted out information on the trainer’s movements here and tracked down who he was in touch with and relating to.

Do the police expect the public to have any confidence in their probe when Roger Khan operated here as the number one drug kingpin without so much as being hauled in for questioning? If in the six or seven years he functioned here as a drug trafficker and as the head of a violent criminal network that allegedly murdered dozens of people without being investigated by law enforcement authorities and prosecuted is it realistic to believe that the police can make any meaningful inroads in this investigation so long after the fact and with many of the potential witnesses not here or in the great beyond? How can these lapses – the length of the Essequibo – be squared with what the police are now attempting to do?

Do the police expect the public to come forward when dozens of serving and former law enforcement officers were known to be in the employ of Mr Khan? Many of the phantom killings were attended by strange movements of police vehicles and personnel as if to ensure that there was no hindrance or apprehension of those involved. Who is to say that these men are still not in the employ of the force or retain the ability to penetrate the upper echelons and gather information about what witnesses are presenting to the police? Remember it was Mr Khan himself who bugged the office of Commissioner Felix probably with the assistance of some ranking police officer.

Do the police expect the public to take this probe seriously when there are myriad recourses to the courts in New York for sworn affidavits, testimony and witnesses? If the force acted only after Roger Khan was sentenced in New York should it not have immediately applied to the courts there for all of the relevant testimony, access to witnesses and Mr Khan himself? There are state-to-state mechanisms in place for this as reported in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek but does the government really want to find out about Roger Khan’s drug business and the dealings of the phantom gang? Will Minister Rohee, as head of the designated agency under the Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters now formally approach the US government for material which may not even have been made available to the courts and publicise this request so that the public can judge the government’s seriousness?

Yet, it is sage advice as provided by the Guyana Human Rights Association that this current investigation – warts and all – must be tested to fullest so that the sincerity and the machinery of the law enforcement agencies and the government could be assessed. Perhaps it could lead to a broader enquiry. However, before this is done the police force and the government need to put confidence-building measures in place or else the hotlines will remain silent and the force bereft of any meaningful leads. Considering that the force is riddled with corruption and that some of its serving members were colluding with Khan and may have taken part in some of his extrajudicial operations, the government has to enable a decent distance between those who might want to testify and the police force. One way of doing this is to have a team of credible civil society members and perhaps a senior law enforcement officer from within the Caribbean, be part of the investigating process. This will comfort potential witnesses who are likely to be skeptical that their accounts will be taken seriously by the police.

Second as was the case during the very limited investigation of former Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj, there is an irrefutable need for witness protection. Remember that George Bacchus paid with his life after deciding to spill the beans. How this can be achieved in the present circumstances is unclear. There is, however, plea bargain legislation which could be employed to convince some who may not have committed the most serious crimes to tell of what they know in return for lighter penalties.

Third, if there are remnants of Roger Khan’s network engaged in illicit activities and continuing businesses in his name, the police, CANU and the Financial Intelligence Unit under the new anti-money laundering act, should immediately set about investigating even if this is shamelessly after the fact. There should also be a careful review by a security expert from outside the disciplined forces on why they failed so shockingly to detect and investigate Mr Khan over the drug business. This should entail detailed interviews with the police commissioners in question. Such moves would encourage members of the public to believe that the police are serious about getting to the bottom of this brutal phase of our history. It will be an uphill task.
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8 Comments To "The police probe and Roger Khan"

#1 Comment By coolieman On October 26, 2009 @ 9:27 am

Time to move on

#2 Comment By tkhemraj On October 26, 2009 @ 11:00 am

Very good editorial. Only Stabroek News could say it like this.

#3 Comment By tkhemraj On October 26, 2009 @ 11:05 am

EDITORIAL: “Do the police expect the public to come forward when dozens of serving and former law enforcement officers were known to be in the employ of Mr Khan? Many of the phantom killings were attended by strange movements of police vehicles and personnel as if to ensure that there was no hindrance or apprehension of those involved.”

Well that more or less sums up the spurious nature of the inquiry!

#4 Comment By Bismattie Ramsawak On October 26, 2009 @ 11:42 am

A courageously honest editorial by the Stabroek News… very courageous indeed.

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URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/editorial/10/26/the-police-probe-and-roger-khan/

GuySuCo says fees for trademark litigation reasonable

2009-10-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

GuySuCo says fees for trademark litigation reasonable

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 24, 2009 @ 5:19 am In Local News | No Comments

The Guyana Sugar Corporation is currently engaged in defending its rights to the trademark ‘Demerara Gold’, both in the United States and in Canada against claims made by Bedessee Imports Inc. and Bedessee Imports Ltd, and according to the corporation the fees being charged by the lawyers are moderate and reasonable.

In any event and more so in a case as complex as this one, the fees are nothing close to the US$1,500 an hour as reported by the Kaieteur News in its edition of October 20, 2009, GuySuCo said in a news release yesterday.

The Guyana Government and the Minister of Agriculture are also parties to the litigation in the US.

GuySuCo is maintaining that it has the exclusive right to the trademark ‘Demerara Gold’ and expects to be vindicated in the pending proceedings in furtherance of its strategic plan to develop ‘Demerara Gold’ as a flagship product.

GuySuCo’s lawyers in the US are Foley Hoag LLP, a firm with offices in Washington, DC and Boston. This is the same law firm that successfully spearheaded the case for the Government of Guyana in the maritime boundary dispute with Suriname, the release added.

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Phantom probe should be tested – GHRA

2009-10-24T08:00:00.001-07:00

Phantom probe should be tested – GHRA

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 24, 2009 @ 5:37 am In Local News | 24 Comments
– police say no response yet

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday said it is important to test the bona fides of the announced investigation by the police into the alleged murders by drug convict Roger Khan by collaborating with their call for public cooperation.
Seelall Persaud [1]

Seelall Persaud

The GHRA, in a press release yesterday entitled `Phantom enquiry must not be a charade’, suggested a number of initial steps which it said would establish both the parameters of the task at hand and provide the force with an opportunity to demonstrate the authenticity of the initiative.

The first step, according to the GHRA, should be the compilation of a list of all the unresolved cases of deaths which occurred between February 2002 — the year and month five dangerous prisoners escaped triggering one of the worst crime sprees in recent history — and the arrest of Khan in 2006. The list should be published for public scrutiny and for additions and subtractions by any interested party.

The second step, the human rights body said, should see the police providing updates of the status of as many cases on the list for which they have information.

The third step should then see an agreement involving all parliamentary parties as to how to deal with the rest of the list. If normal criminal procedures are not possible for a variety of reasons then the relevant parties may jointly need to agree to a process, which while not strictly judicial, “will bring a measure of closure, justice and healing to the families most affected by the deaths as well as to the society in general.”

No response

Meanwhile, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, who is heading the investigative team, told Stabroek News yesterday that since the force’s announcement on Tuesday there had been no response from members of the public.

Asked if the force would be contacting some of Khan’s close associates, including a number of former policemen one of whom is in jail on a murder charge, the Assistant Commissioner of police said that the police had an investigative team “out there” and “wherever the investigation leads them they would investigate and question people.”

Three former policemen, Ricardo Rodrigues, Shawn Belfield — for whom the police have issued an arrest warrant in connection with a double murder — and Mark Roberts, now in jail on a double murder charges, were held with Khan in Suriname in 2006 before the drug convict was taken to the US.

Following the police’s announcement the PNCR said that it was not “impressed” by what it described as the “latest manoeuvre” by the government “to deceive the world that it is taking some action against the atrocities committed in Guyana.”

The opposition party at its weekly press conference on Thursday said the force’s belated call for individuals and groups to provide evidence is “another attempt to fool the public that the police are not in possession of any evidence.” It said it was a serious indictment on the force after more than 200 gangland-style executions were committed in this jurisdiction.

The major opposition party said it rejected the announcement as it was clearly another attempt to deceive the people of Guyana and to shift the focus of the demand by the opposition for an international inquiry which would not hone in on Khan alone, but on criminal activities in Guyana where the force and the government were involved.

Three days after Khan was sentenced in a Brooklyn Federal Court to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking, witness tampering and a 16-year-old gun-running charge, the police announced their intention to set up a special unit to investigate the charges that he had been directly or indirectly involved in killing locals.

Khan had operated a drug trafficking enterprise here for more than eight years, US prosecutors said, and he headed the violent ‘Phantom Squad’ that was responsible for many deaths. Khan had publicly said that he worked with the security forces to stem the crime wave following the 2002 prison break.

According to the police press release, the special unit will be based at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, Eve Leary. The force called “on all individuals, organisations or groups who may have information or vital evidence concerning these alleged murders involving the Fineman gang, Roger Khan’s gang or any other gang or individuals who may be involved to come forward and provide whatever information or vital evidence may be available.”

Persons can also dial telephone numbers 225-2227, 226-6978 or 225-8196.

Alliance For Change (AFC) Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan questioned the “genuineness” of the move.

He added that he hoped it was an authentic move to do a “thorough and professional” investigation as the police‘s behaviour prior to the announcement gave the impression that they did not want to conduct an investigation into Khan’s activities.

Two lists

Meanwhile, the GHRA said as a first step it will shortly submit two preliminary lists to Seelall with the first one comprising deaths at the hands of police/disciplined services between March 2002 and June 2003. It was the same list the rights body submitted to the Disciplined Services Commission of Enquiry in 2003. A second list would have some 30 deaths mainly during the months of October and November 2003, including that of Police Inspector Leyland October, and a range of deaths typical of many more during the 2003-2005 period, which may have been drug or politically inspired or simply criminally motivated.

Whether the human right body submits more lists in the future will depend on the manner in which the enquiry is conducted with respect to political independence, transparency and acceptance of constructive cooperation with all interested parties.

According to the GHRA the new initiative by the force faces major credibility challenges. It posited that the dispelling of the skepticism will be key to public acceptance of the new undertaking.

Some of the challenges faced by the initiative include persuasive evidence of strong links between government officials, drug lords and senior elements of the force; the undermining of efforts of former police commissioner Winston Felix to confront drug barons by government officials; and the generalized failure to investigate, prosecute and protect witnesses in a large number of murders, possibly 200 or more which occurred under circumstances that suggest either political or drug-related factors at work.

Many calls have been made – more recently by the opposition parties – for an investigation to be conducted into Khan’s activities in Guyana. The calls had been made even as he was awaiting sentencing in the US, having pleaded guilty to exporting large quantities of cocaine into that country from these shores.

The opposition parties had specifically asked that an International Commission of Enquiry be conducted into the many dimensions of Khan’s activities, particularly his alleged links to the government.
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GRA issues arrest warrant for Roopan Ramotar and five others

2009-10-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

GRA issues arrest warrant for Roopan Ramotar and five others

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 23, 2009 @ 5:18 am In Local News | 24 Comments

The Guyana Revenue Authority has issued arrest warrants for six persons charged with the breach of tax laws including contractor Roopan Ramotar.

In a press release yesterday it said it had charged several persons with failing to file Income Tax, Property Tax and Value Added Tax returns and 346 matters are pending in the courts, five of which are before the appellate court, while arrest warrants have been issued for six others. The six are Lloyd Rose of 5-6 Eccles Industrial Site, East Bank Demerara; Jaipaul Rampersaud of Lot 3 Bel Air, Blygezight, Georgetown; Joyclyn Bentick of 85 William Street, Kitty; Tacquin Soochan of 34 King Street, Georgetown; Roopan Ramotar of 10 Spring Gardens, Essequibo Coast and Chetram Jagatnarine of 20 Canefield Settlement, East Canje Berbice.

The GRA said in a news release that over the past nine and a half months 21 persons have been convicted for various infringements of the tax laws.

Other offences for which persons have been charged include failure to remit taxes deducted from employees earnings, failure to pay income tax, and intent to defraud the state by dealing in uncustomed goods and harbouring and storing uncustomed goods.

Under Section 216 of the Customs Act, Chapter 82:01 persons who knowingly deal in uncustomed goods or harbour same with intent to defraud the revenue of any duties thereon will be liable to a fine of treble the value of the goods and one year imprisonment and the respective goods forfeited, the GRA stated.

Further, persons who file returns or pay taxes after the due date are required by law to pay a penalty of two percent of the tax assessed.

And where the Commissioner-General has issued a demand notice to a taxpayer for the submission of a return, a penalty of five percent of the tax assessed will apply if the return is not submitted within the time specified in the notice.

According to the GRA, interest is charged on all late payments of taxes at the prime lending rate as published by the Bank of Guyana, plus 500 basis points and is applied to the total principal tax due or payable, and which includes penalties which form part of the tax assessed.

Commissioner-General of the GRA Khurshid Sattaur said the agency will impose and enforce penalties in accordance with the law, noting that a number of taxpayers continue to break the law despite being served with notices.

He said further that persons should not even attempt to use ignorance as an excuse given the huge sums spent yearly to produce thousands of printed materials that are distributed to taxpayers and the general public at various forums.

Moreover, he pointed out that many radio and television programmes have been produced by the GRA to make taxpayers aware of their obligations under the tax laws.

However, there is blatant disregard for the law as many persons repeatedly commit the same offence, Sattaur observed.
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Cabinet Secretary mum on pharmaceutical contractor’s identity

2009-10-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

Cabinet Secretary mum on pharmaceutical contractor’s identity
October 22, 2009 | By KNews | Filed Under News
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/22/cabinet-secretary-mum-on-pharmaceutical-contractor%e2%80%99s-identity/

The Health Ministry is expected to be boosted, after the Cabinet approved a contract for the procurement of drugs on Monday last.
This disclosure was made by Head of the Presidential Cabinet Dr. Roger Luncheon, at his weekly press briefing at the Office of the President.
According to Dr. Roger Luncheon, a US$ 885,900 contract got Cabinet’s no objection.
When asked about the suppliers for contracts Luncheon said that he would not use his press conference to name the contractor.
He pointed out that it ought not to be a difficulty for members of the media who are interested, to find out the identity of the contractor. He said that the media is always welcomed at the Tender Board, which is opened on Tuesdays.
When told about the fact that some members of the media were locked out of the tender board drawings he said that he would have to investigate the matter. He said that at the opening at the Tender Board, the information such as the contractor and his bid can be known.
Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, when contacted told Kaieteur News that the contract would help the Ministry buy some 4,000 different types of drugs.
He said that the drugs are normally bought on a yearly basis. When asked about the identity of the contractor Ramsammy said that he would not be able to divulge such information. He said that he does not know if it would be one contractor or multiple contractors.
The Cabinet also approved a contract for $79.3M for the procurement of fuel for drainage and irrigation.
Last week Dr Luncheon said that Cabinet had approved eight contracts.These were awarded in the area of sea defence and public works.
The first contract was for $49.4M for the river defence works at Moleson Creek, Berbice.
The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority/Ogle Airport was awarded 168,800 Euros for the supply of airport runaway lights and for the guidance system in keeping with the second phase of the development of the airport.
The Cabinet Secretary disclosed that two contracts were awarded for the security sector a $200M contract was awarded for arms and ammunition for the Guyana Defence Force, and a further $106 million for body protection equipment.
In Region Four the rehabilitation of Quamina Street in Beterverwagting would attract a further $21.4M.
Linden’s water sector is expected to be boosted with a contract to drill a $9 million potable water well at Amelia’s Ward.
In the Human Services Sector, Dr Luncheon said that a contract was awarded to build a home for the homeless at Region Five. That home is estimated to cost $340.8M.
Finally the Presidential Secretary said that some $207M was allocated for the procurement of a container scanner. The scanner is to gain revenue protection and security for the Guyana Revenue Authority.

These are questions I would like Mr Ramkarran to answer

2009-10-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

These are questions I would like Mr Ramkarran to answer

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 22, 2009 @ 5:02 am In Letters | 16 Comments

Dear Editor

I am responding to Mr. Ralph Ramkarran’s letter, `The stealing of books is a serious offence’ (SN, Oct 18.). The average mind in Guyana has to be amused at Mr. Ramkarran. This gentleman belongs to a ruling party of a country that Transparency International classifies as having the worst incidence of corruption in governmental structures for the English-speaking Caribbean and one of the worst in the world. No need to dwell on that but I am sure that given his position in the party he is rubbing shoulders with people who didn’t have time to steal books to educate themselves but stole money from the Treasury

I need to remind Mr. Ramkarran that at his party’s congress in 2008, the returning officer was Neermal Rekha. Now it wasn’t Frederick Kissoon, or Christopher Ram, or the PNC, or the TUC, or the AFC but the Guyana Revenue Authority that investigated Mr. Rekha in April 2004 and found that he signed more (emphasis mine) than fifty bogus duty-free letters in his capacity as Secretary to the Treasurer. I’m sure Mr. Ramkarran knows this because it did not occur 39 years ago but four and a half years and was headline news in the two independent dailies. Can Mr. Ramkarran tell me if he objects to sitting in the PPP with some names that are questionable like the politician Prime News accused of interfering with a female child, the mother of whom this columnist spoke with and who belongs to a PPP group on the lower East Coast?

Let’s move on. In the fifties, a young clerk at Bookers Stores stole a number of bicycle tires and was charged.

That Mr. Ramkarran can easily find in the newspapers for that period because I came across it in my research in the mid–eighties. That clerk is now one of the best legal luminaries the English-speaking Caribbean produced and practices law in Guyana. I don’t see Mr. Ramkarran writing about that. And he shouldn’t. That happened sixty years ago. Who cares? Maybe except Mr. Ramkarran, a contender for the presidential slot for the PPP in 2011.

Mr. Ramkarran has to know that as a public figure and one who casts blame on other public figures he must expect citizens to ask questions. Here are some questions for Mr. Ramkarran, none of which carry a value judgement. Can he say by what procedures his two sons were granted duty-free cars? I am asking for the particular position they were in at the time to entitle them to have duty-free letters.

My understanding is that the duty-free concessions were given to them as “remigrants” for studies abroad in Trinidad at the Hugh Wooding Law School.

If that is so, can Mr. Ramkarran tell me why there were letters in the papers by a number of law graduates who wrote to say that the concession were not granted to them because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not see Guyanese laws students in Trinidad as qualifying for remigrant status.

I may be wrong so I am asking Mr. Ramkarran to clarify this situation. I would ask Mr. Ramkarran to go into details. Secondly, was it under his chairmanship that Guyana Airways Corporation went bankrupt? Was there any investigation? Can Mr. Ramkarran say what percentage of state allocations his law firm, Cameron and Shepherd receives? Can he briefly tell us how many state institutions his firm represents apart from the two that we read about in the newspapers – Guysuco and UG? As Mr. Ramkarran can see no direct accusation was made against him. In closing let me say that Mr. Ramkarran is doing an excellent job of projecting himself as a suitable candidate to run Guyana in 2011. Just in case younger minds did not get it; I’m being stupendously cynical.

Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
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16 Comments To "These are questions I would like Mr Ramkarran to answer"

#1 Comment By Raj On October 22, 2009 @ 6:17 am

Freddie, I like you in this mode. You are becoming a thorn in their backside. Keep it now. You have my support

#2 Comment By LIND.CREEK On October 22, 2009 @ 6:30 am

Over to you Ramkaran let us hear your rebuttal…..speakup.

#3 Comment By LIND.CREEK On October 22, 2009 @ 6:33 am

Did they bring these cars back with them or did they purchase the vehicles in Guyana duty free.

#4 Comment By yasuman71 On October 22, 2009 @ 7:01 am

First, Freddie tried to tarnish the impeccable image of Cheddi Jagan. Then Freddie tried to demonize the humane image of Janet Jagan. Then Freddie tried to slingshot the Jagan’s son, Joey. Then he barked and he barked viciously at Ralph Ramkarran. Now he wants to smear the good names of Ramkarran’s two sons. I’m sure Ralph Ramkarran is more than capable of answering Freddie. But Ralph must be careful in how he supplies the facts. If the facts don’t please Freddie he may make some outrageous allegation.

#5 Comment By Sam On October 22, 2009 @ 7:09 am

I actually like Mr. Kissoon in this mode. He seems rational, focussed (for the most part) and makes some telling points. This is the sort of commentary that we need to see since it is more effective than what we have seen in the past from him. Good job.

#6 Comment By patriot On October 22, 2009 @ 8:59 am

Freddie is grasping at straws. Leave the discussion alone. Apologize for your youthful indiscretions and show you can bury the hatchet. This will endear you to those whose attention you so desperately seek.

#7 Comment By Diamond Dog On October 22, 2009 @ 9:09 am

yasaman 71. Let’s be fair. What’s good for the goose, is also good for the gander. Freddie has family also. Ramkarran should have thought about that before he started his slander. That is why we must think before we act. Actions have consequences. Guyana needs more people with back bone like Freddie to stand up to these shameless people.

#8 Comment By Errol Arthur On October 22, 2009 @ 9:27 am

Vintage Kissoon. When cornered he changes the subject to evade dealing with the issues. The issue here is that Kissoon is accused of defrauding the Guyana Public Library. Now Kissoon, what your response ?

#9 Comment By Kingshark On October 22, 2009 @ 10:24 am

i am surprise that a man of Ramkarran ability will get caught up in mudslinging the future Presidential candidate

#10 Comment By RDMAN On October 22, 2009 @ 10:46 am

Thanks Freddie,i like your style,you are giving them hell,they are trying all kinds of things to catch you,look how many years story they brought back,you are a thorn in their side,keep pressing them man,you and Peeping Tom are great,without you all corruption would have been more barefaced in Guyana.

#11 Comment By Touchau On October 22, 2009 @ 11:24 am

I hope the presidential hopeful Mr. Ramkarran will address these issues. It is important that the electorates get to know where he stands, so that they can better decide if he represents change or more of the same.

#12 Comment By La Dorada On October 22, 2009 @ 11:25 am

Keep it coming Fredo! may I point out as well that to your great credit in all your years as a columnist you have never “outed” anyone in your columns. You were forced to address this subject in order to expose the motivation behind the desperate, low-minded library book attack.

#13 Comment By Georgie On October 22, 2009 @ 12:16 pm

Yasuman71 ! I said yesterday that SN opened the door and now anyone can walk through it. I also said that maybe someone who knew Mr. Ramkarran when he was a youth might recall some of his escapades. Now lookee here , today ! These individuals are not without fault and this gov’t is under the microscope . Boom !

#14 Comment By Marc On October 22, 2009 @ 12:21 pm

Freddie,apologize for your youthful mistakes and people will forgave you instead of cussing out with Mr.Ramkarran and trying to justify your stealing books.This whole episode is turning out to be wan dutty fish market cuss-out,you guys are making Tante Merle look like she is in church all the time.

#15 Comment By Evan Thomas On October 22, 2009 @ 12:44 pm

Yasuman71, like me you need to go do an english course….it seems that english language is not our strength…I refer to you antonymic references to cheddi and janet and your fellow PPP impeccables.

#16 Comment By Light hearted On October 22, 2009 @ 12:52 pm

I hope Mr. Ramkarran is not a yes-man.

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Dem boys seh… Every single weeeeek Jagdeo (Mr Hap-pens) out de country

2009-10-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

Dem boys seh… Every single weeeeek Jagdeo out de country
October 21, 2009 | By knews | Filed Under Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists, News
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/21/dem-boys-seh-every-single-weeeeek-jagdeo-out-de-country/

Dem boys seh that dem does always remember wha Jagdeo seh how dem people at de Waterfalls paper does fabricate story. He went on to say, “Every single day dis hap-pens.”
Dem boys know dat dem Waterfalls paper reportas does have a field day with laughter wid de way how he does seh hap-pens.
Well dem boys seh dem fed up hearing he out de country. “Every single weeeeeeek dis hap-pens”
Dem boys seh up to now he still kyaan find a story dat de Waterfalls paper manufacture but de whole country know he does get away every week.
When is a protest he does get away; when is blackout he does get away; when is de Roger Khan story he does get away; when is questions from reportas he does run away. If is about dem contractors he does hide away.
Yesterday he fly away fuh go to Canada fuh gaff wid some children. He talking bout car does bun.
Every single day something does bun in Guyana. If is not car is house, if is not house is Regent Street. Every single day this hap-pens.
Dem boys rememba that he did want to employ Kerik as he special adviser. That never hap-pen because Kerik get lock up. De same time Bharrat jump pun he plane is de same day a judge decide to hide Kerik in a jail. De judge do de same thing to Bharrat wha he does do to dem reportas.
Talk half. Lef half.

Sixty applications on file for radio licences – NFMU

2009-10-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Sixty applications on file for radio licences – NFMU

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 21, 2009 @ 5:28 am In Local News | 12 Comments

By Iana Seales

Chief Executive Officer of the National Frequency Manage-ment Unit (NFMU), Valmikki Singh, said yesterday that the halt to radio licence applications is temporary to facilitate the processing of the 60 applications currently on file.

He cautioned there are no guarantees because the final decision is left to government.
Enrico Woolford [1]

Enrico Woolford

The NFMU is responsible for technical evaluation of the applications, Singh said, and it now has to peruse some sixty requests that are on record. He hesitated to comment on the process of the evaluations since according to him he is not “at liberty to say”. However, he noted that the processing would have to be done within a certain framework which he was also not inclined to discuss.

The NFMU essentially evaluates the applications and subsequently offers its recommendations on a particular application, and the administration ultimately decides. The specific point about government regulation was reiterated by Singh during the brief interview yesterday, prior to his comments the CEO stated that there was only so much he could say on the issue.

Singh was not prepared to offer any details on the applications on file, but he said the NFMU will soon contact the individuals who would have applied as part of the processing period. He indicated that others who are interested in a radio licence have to be patient, stating that the decision to halt applications would be re-assessed in time. “I cannot say when we are going to decide on new requests, but at some point in time we will”, Singh added.

Singh also referred to the Appeal Court ruling on the issue of radio licences saying that the NFMU has “every intention of adhering to the ruling”. Since he is yet to see a written copy of the court decision, Singh said he would reserve commenting further because “I cannot comment based on media reports”. The court had in fact criticized the NFMU for “failing to do its job” and had observed that the agency has been procrastinating over the years with respect to applications for radio licences.

On Sunday in newspaper advertisements the NFMU announced that it was no longer receiving applications for radio licences following the Court of Appeal ruling. The announcement was made in a notice carried in the Guyana Times. It said: “Notice is hereby given that in view of the recent court ruling on radio licenses and the number of applications for radio licenses currently on file, the National Frequency Management Unit will not be accepting any further applications for radio licenses, with effect from October 18, 2009.”

The Court of Appeal, in a landmark decision last week, ruled that the government monopoly on the airwaves is unlawful. The Court led by Chancellor (ag) Carl Singh and comprising Justices of Appeal B.S. Roy and Yonette Cummings-Edwards allowed an appeal filed by local television pioneer Anthony Vieira on behalf of Vieira Commu-nications Limited (VCT) ruling that VCT’s fundamental right to freedom of expression and freedom to receive and communicate ideas and information was contravened. The Court referred to precedents in the region and other jurisdictions while citing several authorities on the issue. Ironically, Vieira has since sold his TV station to the Ramroop Group and has migrated. It has been stated that the rights and privileges which VCT enjoyed as a company were transferred to the new owners upon the sale, and that this likely includes a radio licence if granted.

VCT had applied for a radio licence since 1993 and the court said that both the government and the NFMU failed to acknowledge receipt of the application. VCT had asked that the court order the NFMU to issue it with a radio licence forthwith but the Court said there are technicalities involved in making such a decision, noting that it lacks the expertise to make such an evaluation. It said the NFMU is the entity which is well placed to make such an evaluation, and it called on the unit to “do its job”. However, the court did direct the NFMU to consider and determine VCT’s application for a radio broadcast licence which was made since the early 1990s.

Radio is a service

Media practitioner Enrico Woolford said radio is a service to the people and opined that individuals interested in a licence should prove by way “of a public auction” what it is they intend to offer the people, in particular communities. He said government should not have control of radio content, and observed that administrative oversight would be better placed in determining who is worthy based on what “they bring to the table”. Using his suggestion, he explained that while the public would be allowed to judge each application based on its worth the decision to ultimately grant the licence would rest with a newly constituted Broadcast-ing Authority.

Woolford, who is the Editor-in-Chief at Capitol News, manages his own broadcasting company- EMW Communications. He told Stabroek News yesterday that his company had applied for both a television and radio licence back in 1998, and while it had been assigned a television station there was merely an acknowledgment or receipt of the radio licence application. Woolford said he had followed up on the radio licence application as recently as April this year. “…once they are considering applications currently on file I would hope mine is considered. The whole idea of opening up broadcasting speaks to a better equipped and more viable industry”, Woolford noted.

Further, Woolford mentioned that the NFMU ought to have, at the very least, informed persons with applications on file what steps they intend to take based on the court ruling rather than “take the decision to halt applications”. He said too that there is need for a more structured approach to broadcasting in general saying that government needs to better organize the industry.

Pending application

Television owner, CN Sharma has again raised the issue of his radio licence application stating in a letter to this newspaper yesterday that his applications have been pending at the NFMU since 1999. He noted that follow-up letters were sent in April and December of 2001. He referred to the recent statement by the NFMU that no further applications for radio licences will be accepted as “most heartening but let us hope that politics will not stick its head into the decision to approve, if any, radio licence”.

Sharma expressed the hope that the court ruling will be adhered to by the NFMU and that licence applications would be processed in the order they were submitted. He noted that should his request be granted it would be beneficial to the nation saying he intends to provide a meaningful avenue for employment.

“This radio station will be for the people of this country as programming will be cheaper. Children, schools, religious bodies, political parties, NGOs and other bodies will be facilitated at a cheaper cost and some even free”, he added.
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12 Comments To "Sixty applications on file for radio licences – NFMU"

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/stories/10/21/sixty-applications-on-file-for-radio-licences-%e2%80%93-nfmu/

Guyana ranked 39 out of 173 in RSF press freedom index

2009-10-21T10:01:00.001-07:00

Guyana ranked 39 out of 173 in RSF press freedom index

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 21, 2009 @ 5:31 am In Local News | 14 Comments
-ads cutoff to SN noted

Guyana has been ranked 39 out of 173 in the latest worldwide Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, which has noted concerns on government’s relations with the press.

In 2008, Guyana’s ranking was 88 out of 173 but it appears that this ranking was low because not enough information had been gleaned.

In its annual report released yesterday, the French NGO said that press freedom is widely respected, despite sometimes tense relations between President Bharrat Jagdeo and a section of the media. It noted that the country’s leading daily, Stabroek News, was made to pay the price for this by being starved of official advertising for 18 months.

The report says that in common with most English-speaking countries in the Caribbean, Guyana has a satisfactory record in fundamental freedoms. Journalists experience very few threats or assaults, it said. The report noted that press concerns are chiefly focused on relations with the government. It adds that the state maintains a monopoly on radio which is being increasingly contested within the profession.

“The hot-headed president’s extreme sensitivity to criticism complicates the job of some media”, it states. The report cites the case of Capitol News, reporter Gordon Moseley, who was banned from the Office of the President in July 2008, “because the head of state was displeased by his report on his visit to Antigua in which he referred to comments about safety problems in the capital Georgetown and failed to respond to government calls to apologise”.

The report also noted that “the president’s touchiness was even more strongly in evidence when the top-selling daily Stabroek News was denied official advertising from November 2006 to April 2008.”

It stated that the Government Information Agency (GINA) never provided any explanation for the boycott. Over an 18-month period, public advertising in the daily was limited to a few inserts on the part of the tax authorities. Bharrat Jagdeo has never tried to conceal his annoyance with the paper’s editorial line, which has been more critical of him since his re-election in 2006, the report states.

For 2009, Jamaica had the highest rating in the Caribbean at 23 followed by Trinidad at 28. Suriname placed 42, Haiti 57 and Cuba 170. The countries that tied for first place were Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden.

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URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/stories/10/21/guyana-ranked-39-out-of-173-in-rsf-press-freedom-index/

Mr Ramkarran should say why there have been no prosecutions in the multitude of serious scams

2009-10-21T09:59:00.001-07:00

Mr Ramkarran should say why there have been no prosecutions in the multitude of serious scams

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 21, 2009 @ 5:02 am In Letters | 5 Comments

Dear Editor,
With reference to a letter in your letter columns captioned, “The stealing of books is a serious offence” in the Sunday Stabroek (Oct. 18, 2009) by Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, I wish to make the following comments.

Mr. Ramkarran is comparing the theft of books by a lawyer, Mr. Hardat Misir, who was sworn to uphold the law with that of a seventeen year old youth from the ghetto of South Georgetown, who made a mistake like most desperate youths from the ghettos.

At least Freddie was charged under the so-called cruel Burnham dictatorship. True, stealing in all forms must be condemned but can Ralph Ramkarran provide answers to the following:

Mr. Ramkarran in his own words had admitted “Today, because of the continued stealing of books from the law library of the AG’s chambers, it is a mere shadow of itself.” Who does the stealing now Mr. Ramkarran and why aren’t the culprits prosecuted under this “democratic” government?

Book stealing is a serious crime but it can never be serious as stealing from the people and the treasury.

I would like Mr. Ramkarran to read the Auditor General’s Report and ask why was no one ever prosecuted for the millions of dollars missing?

Why was no one prosecuted in the dolphin export scam, the stone scam, the laws of Guyana CD scam, the lotto funds scam, the construction scams, fuel scam, etc.

Mr. Ramkarran, can you name one major drug dealer that was ever prosecuted in Guyana?

Everyday government officials and corrupt contractors steal from the people and yet no one was ever charged. Stealing from the people is more serious than stealing books.

Why the big fuss with Freddie Kissoon and his stealing books, something that happened since 1974?

People are being framed up on all types of charges now in Guyana just because they are speaking out against the government.

I know of one man who has robbed people of millions of dollars in a visa scam and was never charged by the police just because of his close association with the police and the ruling party. I grew up with Freddie Kissoon in Georgetown and was a family friend of the Kissoon’s household and I knew of the poverty of the Kissoon’s family and the humiliations his father suffered at the hands of the middle class and higher class ruthless capitalists at the GCC ground.

I can recall whilst attending secondary school I was studying Accountancy privately and I could not afford to buy the text book, Carter’s Advanced Accounts. When I told Freddie of my plight, he delivered a brand new Carter’s Advanced Accounts to my home in Kitty. I do not know how he acquired this book, but it was certainly not a library book but the compassion in the man, he wanted to see me continuing my studies in Accounting.

At age eighteen when I opened my evening Accountancy school at the Maha Sabha on Lamaha street, Freddie would wait for me until my class was finished for us to go and lime on the seawall. One evening whilst waiting for me he was hungry and he picked two sapodillas from a tree in the Maha Sabha compound and was caught by Mr. Sase Narain, the President of the Sabha and Speaker of the National Assembly. Freddie was thrown out of the compound and I was immediately thrown out of the Maha Sabha building.

I was not working and was depending on the part-time evening classes at the Sabha to help in my studies and also to help Freddie with his meals at Chinese restaurants.

In those days myself, Freddie and a few others used to be in all the libraries in Georgetown until closing time.

Finally, I think Mr. Ralph Ramkarran and others should dedicate their time and resources to make Guyana a better place by eliminating corruption, encouraging good governance and stop wasting their energies behind Freddie Kissoon’s book stealing that happened over thirty-five years ago.

Yours faithfully,
Balwant Persaud
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5 Comments To "Mr Ramkarran should say why there have been no prosecutions in the multitude of serious scams"

#1 Comment By MeAgain On October 21, 2009 @ 7:29 am

I’m on your side Mr Balwant Persaud, but some technical questions: are you sure it was sapodillas? Can you pick sapodillas and eat them right from the tree? Would you if you were hungry choose sapodillas to pick?

#2 Comment By Diamond Dog On October 21, 2009 @ 8:12 am

Mr. Persaud. Thank you for a very informative letter. Freddie’s story is one of success. He did not let poverty keep him down. Instead of Ramkarran praising Freddie for beating the odds and becoming a productive member of society,, he had to bring up this blimp on Freddie’s past.

#3 Comment By Touchau On October 21, 2009 @ 8:29 am

Mr. Ramkarran’s interest will be better served if he can just zip it. Every time he writes, Mr. Donald Ramoutar must be happy – for his own personal reasons. LOL

#4 Comment By Balwant Persaud On October 21, 2009 @ 9:06 am

I am 100% sure it was sapodillas, it was the only fruit tree in the Maha Sabha compound. It was late in the evening and I do not know if they were ripe or not. But Freddie always had a weakness for raiding fruit trees. I grew up with the guy, so I know him very well.
Sammy Baksh in one of his songs said ” Poverty is a crime”.

#5 Comment By Decoder On October 21, 2009 @ 11:05 am

Balwant, keep the comments flowing, truth be told. Freddie is the fair minded person who tells the true story about governmental disparity, and the country is better off for him.

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/10/21/mr-ramkarran-should-say-why-there-have-been-no-prosecutions-in-the-multitude-of-serious-scams/

Sugar lawsuit could cost GuySuCo $200 million

2009-10-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item, Tuesday 20 October 2009 - "Sugar lawsuit could cost GuySuCo $200 million" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/20/sugar-lawsuit-could-cost-guysuco-200-million/

Utterances by Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud had cost the government millions of dollars. And this high expenditure will continue until well into the new year.
By the time the matter is disposed of in the courts, GuySuCo could spend some $200 million.
The issue began when the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) decided to challenge a United States-based Guyanese man, Vernon Bedessee, over the use of the label Demerara Gold on sugar packages.
GuySuCo was already marketing a product, Demerara Gold, on the European market but the company discovered that Bedessee was marketing a product of the same name but instead of sugar made in Demerara, the product marketed by Bedessee was from Mauritius.
And Bedessee made it known on the label that his Demerara Gold was a product of Mauritius.
GuySuCo immediately challenged the apparent trademark infringement. In fact, the sugar company is in the final process of preparing legal documents to defend its trademark.
Its Washington-based lawyers, Foley Hoag and Company, have already secured a qualified registration in the United States as part of the challenge to Bedessee’s apparent trademark infraction.
It successfully made the application a few weeks ago.
Following the discovery of the apparent trademark infraction, Agriculture Minister made some statements critical of Bedessee’s action.
These statements were published by the local media and reproduced in the overseas editions of some of the local newspapers.
Immediately Bedessee sued for libel and slander.
In Guyana, the local lawyers, Cameron and Shepherd, have already set about defending the lawsuits filed in Guyana by Bedessee. Representing Bedessee is the law firm of Hughes, Fields and Stoby.
The Washington-based lawyers do not come cheap, according to a GuySuCo official. Chief Executive Officer of the sugar company, Errol Hanoman, declined to comment and referred all queries to the local lawyers, Cameron and Shepherd.
A spokesman in the local law firm of Cameron and Shepherd said that United States law firms do not operate like those in Guyana. Lawyers charge by the hour. The spokesman said that top lawyers charge US$1,500 per hour.
Foley Hoag and Company lawyers charge slightly less. Investigations have revealed that the lawyers on the GuySuCo case are charging about US$1,000 per hour. Two lawyers are working on the matter.
The Cameron and Shepherd spokesperson said that at this time and for the next few months the two lawyers could be working eight hours a day, each, preparing pleadings.
The bill is bound to be high, he said.
When these are completed the charge would drop to almost nothing. GuySuCo does not pay retainers to foreign lawyers.
These charges at present average between $15 million and $20 million per month. The spokesperson said that the charges will go up again when the trial begins.
In the end, the cost could be very high but according to the spokesperson, this money could be recovered when the sugar company demands costs from Bedessee.

NFMU not taking any more radio licence applications

2009-10-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

NFMU not taking any more radio licence applications

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 19, 2009 @ 5:11 am In Local News | 13 Comments

The National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) is no longer receiving applications for radio licences following the Court of Appeal’s announcement last Wednesday that the government has an unlawful monopoly on the airwaves and that the NFMU is not doing its job with respect to considering radio licences.

This announcement was made in a notice carried on page nine in yesterday’s edition of the Guyana Times. It said: “Notice is hereby given that in view of the recent court ruling on radio licenses and the number of applications for radio licenses currently on file, the National Frequency Management Unit will not be accepting any further applications for radio licenses, with effect from October 18, 2009.” The notice seemed to imply that consideration of the licence applications on file will begin shortly.

In a landmark ruling, the Court led by Chancellor (ag) Carl Singh and comprising Justices of Appeal B.S. Roy and Yonette Cummings-Edwards allowed an appeal filed by local television pioneer Anthony Vieira on behalf of VCT ruling that VCT’s fundamental right to freedom of expression and freedom to receive and communicate ideas and information was contravened.. Ironically, Vieira has since sold his TV station to the Ramroop Group, publishers of the Guyana Times, and has migrated.

VCT had applied for a radio licence since 1993 and the court said last Wednesday that both the government and the NFMU failed to acknowledge receipt of the application. VCT had asked that the court order the NFMU to issue it with a radio licence forthwith but the Court said there are technicalities involved in making such a decision, noting that it lacks the expertise to make such an evaluation. It said the NFMU is the entity which is well placed to make such an evaluation, and it called on the unit to “do its job”. However, the court did direct the NFMU to consider and determine VCT’s application for a radio broadcast license.

Now days after the Court of Appeal called on NFMU to carry out its duty the body has announced that it will no longer be receiving applications for radio licences. While the NFMU used the number of applications on file to support this decision it did not state for how long this condition will exist.

Chief Executive Officer of NFMU, Valmikki Singh, could not be reached yesterday for a comment.
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The real business of Roger Khan

2009-10-20T05:15:00.000-07:00

The real business of Roger Khan

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 19, 2009 @ 5:01 am In Editorial | 8 Comments

Aside from all of the other ramifications, the sentencing of Mr Roger Khan in a New York court for conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States shines the spotlight brightly on the government’s stark failure to interdict and tear down the drug trade.

Worse, in this instance, considering the claims that Mr Khan has made about his support to the state in repulsing the crime wave inspired by the 2002 jail-break a case could be made of the state deliberately ignoring the misdeeds of this drug baron and cooperating with him. The government is yet to convince the public that it did not work along with Mr Khan in going after alleged criminals. It is also still to convincingly explain how Mr Khan was able to flee to Guyana as a fugitive under US law and make a meteoric rise on the rungs of the local business sector without being recognized as a trafficker.

Even more troubling is that while alleged criminals and a range of other people were being mysteriously gunned down during this most bloody period of our history, there appeared to be a parallel war between Mr Khan’s phantom squad and his competitors. Several members of longer-established drug dealing enterprises were taken out without these cases ever being solved. It would strongly appear that while Mr Khan was supposedly helping the state against criminals, his gang was also ensuring that his competition was wiped off the map so his trade was not threatened.

There is still a lot more for Mr Khan to tell about this period either from his jail cell or in courtrooms as a cooperating witness for the US government. Time will tell whether he is willing to confess to the full range of his crimes and the unofficial cooperation he received from the state and its security apparatus beginning with his infamous interception at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara with high tech weapons and the ever controversial spy equipment. It was a spectacular bungle for him and his cohorts and success for the intelligence arm of the army which later paid a dear price for its vigilance.

Mr Khan’s sentencing has sparked an outpouring of diametrically opposed views; those who agree with the sentencing or were in favour of a more severe penalty and those who believe that he should have had a lighter penalty or escaped punishment altogether because of his “assistance” to the state.

It must be pointed out that Mr Khan was sentenced on the initial charge of conspiracy to import cocaine into the US where after expensive and exhaustive legal manoeuvring he was forced to throw in the towel and accept a plea deal after being ensnared in a sinister bid to tamper with witnesses in his case.

No law-abiding state, or indeed, law abiding citizen can tolerate collaboration with the drug trade and its architects. Those who support Mr Khan and wish for his early return to these parts are labouring under a grand illusion that is poisonous and inimical to the state and totally oblivious to the ruthlessness of the drug trade and narco-terrorism.

For those who counter that point with the rejoinder that Mr Khan saved the country from the jail-break criminals and the gangs that they mobilized, the only thing that can be said to them is that well-functioning democracies based on the rule of law do not and should not have to seek any recourse to hired guns to do the job that the state is supposed to perform. The primary task of defending the people from the rampage of the jail-break criminals in 2002 fell to the PPP/C government which had already been in place for a decade and the security sector which it had presided over for that same period. Their combined failure to tackle the criminals is what brought the society to the edge of the precipice. There were, however, other means through which this carnival of violence could have been addressed by the state such as expert help from friendly police forces or assistance from Caricom and further afield. The government steadfastly opposed this because it wanted to remain in total control of the security apparatus, and indeed, there was no shake-up in the police hierarchy over this period which is what one would have expected if the performance of the police force was so dismal.

So this canard being peddled by those who support the phantom intervention by Mr Khan is really an excuse for the abject failure of the Jagdeo administration and its security forces. Those who support Mr Khan were doing so because they refused to pile the blame on the government as they were unwilling to part ways with it under any circumstance. As to the argument that the opposition and opponents of the government were giving succour to the criminals and actively directing their violence and therefore Mr Khan was the only option available, again it remained the mandate of the state to ferret out these links and to prosecute to the fullest those guilty of this. The inability to do this was a direct result of the de-professionalising of the security forces over a long period and the unwillingness of the PPP/C to radically reverse this decline through comprehensive reforms. President Jagdeo and his government have to take full responsibility for this.

And also of note is the point that Mr Khan’s phantoms didn’t end the horrific violence. The worst was to come in 2008 with Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek and the reign of Fineman and rogues in the security services. Death squads like the ones that prevailed during the jail-break years seldom create neat, surgical interventions. They worsen the problems, become self-perpetuating and fundamentally wound law and order. The gruesome murder of Dweive Kant Ramdass stands as silent testimony to this.

It leaves the question of whether this government can credibly fight the real business that Mr Khan was involved in – the drug trade. Having turned a blind eye to the trade – Mr Khan was never formally held or questioned about it in all the years he resided here – one is left to wonder whether this government has the stomach and the will for it. The fingerlings – couriers, ganja growers and the small peddlers of cocaine continue to be paraded before the courts while the big players like Mr Khan remain untouched and protected. Conceivably, those who have replaced or are thinking of replacing Mr Khan in this trade may believe that they can enter arrangements similar to the one that their predecessor carved out. This is the necrosis which this government has to address. It has to show that it is taking muscular steps against the real business that Mr Khan was involved in and the only way this can be convincingly done is to prosecute the purveyors of the trade in court and win convictions. It also has new legislation, thus far unutilized, enabling the seizure of assets accrued through the drug trade. Put it to work.
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JUSTICE CHANG IS THE ONE WHO MADE HISTORY!

2009-10-18T06:37:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News Peeping Tom column, Sunday 18 October 2009 - "JUSTICE CHANG IS THE ONE WHO MADE HISTORY!" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/18/justice-chang-is-the-one-who-made-history/

The headlines in the Kaieteur News of Friday read: “Govt. radio monopoly unlawful”. The first line of the story reads: “Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh, yesterday made a historic ruling.”
There was nothing historic about the ruling by Justice Singh. The history was made earlier this year by Chief Justice, Ian Chang.
The recent decision by the Court of Appeal in relation to the application by VCT for a radio license rests on the very principles enunciated in Justice’s Chang’s landmark ruling earlier this year in relation to an application for a television transmitting license.
In that ruling, Justice Chang noted that a delay in responding to an application by an applicant constituted an infringement of that applicant’s right to freedom of expression. He also held that no one had an absolute right to a broadcast license. These were the very principles around which Justice Singh’s decision revolved. In fact, it would have been difficult for the Justice Singh et al to have deviated from the precedents set by Justice Chang. The landmark ruling was therefore not the one involving VCT’s application for a radio license; the history was made by Justice Chang.
In his ruling, Justice Chang ordered that the application for a television license be considered. When that ruling was made public, the President was asked about it at one of his press conferences. He indicated that the government would appeal the decision.
How interesting that now that an identical decision has been made by the Court of Appeal, one which also orders the NFMU to respond to an application for a license, the government is now claiming that the ruling is not inconsistent with its policy of liberalizing the radio monopoly.
How is it that Justice Chang’s decision was challengeable but this recent ruling is being deemed as not being inconsistent with government’s policy? Is it because VCT is now under new ownership? Has the change in ownership facilitated a change in policy, in the same way as the emergence of the Guyana Times has caused a seeming change in official advertizing policy?
Unless the government emerges with a fair system for the allocation of licenses for radio and television, there will be other challenges to government’s broadcasting policy in the same way as there have been challenges in Trinidad over the process of granting broadcast licenses. While the recent ruling called on the NFMU to deal with the application by VCT, it did not set out the basis upon which a license should be granted. It rightly did not do so because this decision is the province of the government.
However, the government must not assume that it has the authority to grant permits to whomever it pleases in the absence of a fair system of apportioning licenses. The need for an efficient, objective and non-discriminatory system of granting licenses was emphasized by the Privy Council decision in Central Broadcasting Services Limited and Sanatan Dharma Sabha of Trinidad and Tobago versus Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago (2005). In that decision, the Law Lords noted that when it comes to government controlled licensing process, the government’s legislative and constitutional role is to “ensure the efficient, objective and non discriminatory handling of license applications, securing the speedy granting of licences where appropriate and thereby also securing the constitutional right of freedom of expression.”
The government of Guyana should therefore distance itself of any notions, if any such notions exist, that it can arbitrarily and capriciously decide who should be granted radio licenses. Even in the absence of a mandatory order from the Courts, it has an obligation to speedily consider all applications for television and radio licenses.
To authenticate that it will not act in an arbitrary manner- and thus find itself being confronted by a series of injunctions crippling its authority to grant future licenses- the government needs to develop transparent criteria which will form the basis for the granting of radio and television broadcast licenses since it will be forced by the Courts to show justifiable reasons for disallowing an application.
The government should heed the suggestion made some time ago in this column in which it was argued that the telecommunication spectrum should be treated as a valuable economic resource and thus should not be handed out willy-nilly for a morsel.
A system of auctioning of radio and television broadcasting rights should be enforced since this will guard against political patronage while at the same time obtaining the best value for the use of our airwaves.
This may dampen the enthusiasm of friends of the government who may see in this recent decision of the Courts, an opportunity to spread their wings, but it will safeguard a fundamental right without surrendering the demand for a fair price for the use of a valuable economic resource.

Dem boys seh. Third term done fail Mr Yong

2009-10-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item, Sunday 18 October 2009 - "Dem boys seh. Third term done fail Mr Yong" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/18/dem-boys-sehthird-term-done-fail-mr-yong/

Some people like hide but dem boys know that moon does run till day ketch am. Dem boys also seh that de longest rope got an end.
Well, Day ketch de Moon that run and start fuh beg people fuh give Bharrat a third term. Donald Ramotar describe de same Moon as somebody “bent on creating mischief.”
People get button and a big note talking about how Bharrat deserve a third term.
People want to know who is this mischief maker and dem even ask Bharrat if he know. Lo and behold is Bharrat friend who start de thing. De man get a contract from Bharrat fuh install cameras at de airport and up to now nuff of dem ain’t wukking.
He get other contracts because de Subway sandwich project that he had fail.
Dem boys seh that is everything he put he hand pun don’t wuk and Bharrat know this suh he tell everybody that he ain’t got any interest in a Third term. He know that it woulda fail.
Dem boys seh that Bharrat had to know who been behind de project fuh a third term. He and de man is buddy friends. He set up de man. Dem does meet at State House steady.
De thing is that all de talk bout mischief and things like that is only Donald in de dark because everybody else know.
Dem boys use to wonder whey de money come from and is now dem know is from a contract. Bharrat give de man a contract fuh campaign, That is wha dem boys seh.
But de thing woulda been a secret. Is ketch dem boys ketch he when he go to post more buttons and slogans. De post master think was some drugs and demand an inspection. De man start fuh resist. He call some big ones but de post master seh that de thing got to open.
A call come from Kwame and de post master insist and open one. Is suh de story buss out.
Dem boys now betting that is done de campaign fuh a third term done.
Talk half. Lef half

Luncheon makes policy statement on cement

2009-10-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

Guyana Chronicle news item. 16 October 2009.
Luncheon makes policy statement on cement
By Priya Nauth
THE Guyana Government wants to ensure that there is a adequate, reliable and a competitively priced supply of cement for Guyanese, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon said yesterday.

He made the policy statement in response to questions about the Government’s position in the Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) controversy at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

Noting that the matter is, indeed, sub judice, Luncheon said: “But others have spoken, not that they have spoken disregarding this principle but they have spoken.

“I want to reiterate what we are really concerned about, in this matter, what is the Government’s real concern and, of course, the answer is obvious.

“We are not in the business of buying and selling cement. We are in the business of development and housing development and housing construction is a very important part.”

Luncheon disclosed that billions (of dollars) have been spent on preparation of lands, building infrastructure and doing squatter settlement rehabilitation for housing construction.

“And this bottle neck that has been created by TCL, studiously denied of course by TCL…is the issue here,” he maintained.

Luncheon added: “That is the issue. So, if I were to comment, merely to say it’s in our national interest to ensure that cement is available, predictably available and competitively priced.”

He said the statement issued by the Administration really captured what the Government feels, and about its position on the TCL issue.

“An adequate, a reliable and a competitively priced supply of cement for Guyanese,” he stated.

Roger Khan to be sentenced today

2009-10-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

Guyana Chronicle top story. Friday 16 October 2009.
Roger Khan to be sentenced today
By Wendella Davidson in New York

Self-confessed Guyanese drug-trafficker Shaheed Roger Khan, popularly known in Guyana as Short Man, will know his fate sometime after 2pm today in the Brooklyn Federal Court.

Khan, who has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and witness tampering charges, in addition to a gun charge, will be sentenced by Judge Dora Irizarry.

The Guyanese drug kingpin had in March this year entered into a plea bargain agreement with the prosecution.

The agreement stipulates a sentence of 15 years imprisonment, five years supervised release, and a US$300 special assessment, as well as any fine and restitution to be imposed in keeping with the law. Campbell also requests that the court impose a fine as it sees appropriate, but not greater than US$4,000,000.

This sentence, however, is left to the discretion of the judge who, it was reported, has said the decision as to how much time he should be given is solely hers.

The sentencing of Roger Khan today is the talk among Guyanese here in New York, many of whom feel that a 15-year sentence will be a slap in the face of the Guyanese at home.

Some US-based Guyanese, with whom the Chronicle has spoken, are of the view that the fact it was reported that the Judge had slipped into the courtroom and heard some chilling evidence during the trial of the former attorney of Khan, Robert Simmels, who has since being found guilty, does not augur well for Khan.

The US government has described Khan as the leader of a cocaine trafficking organisation based in Guyana, and charged him with being responsible for the distribution of huge amounts of the illicit drug in Eastern New York.

Khan, however, has denied these claims, saying he is a businessman who played an integral role in helping the Guyana Government to fight crime when the crime wave was at its peak.

Khan was a fugitive from justice in the U.S., having jumped bail from weapons charges in Vermont in 1993, and fled to his home in Guyana. His woes there began when the local Police posted a wanted bulletin for him.

He fled to neighbouring Suriname where he and some of his bodyguards were nabbed. Khan was held in jail in that country for 120 days without bail, after he was deported.

The authorities there placed him on a plane heading to Trinidad, where U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent with the help of Trinidad officials, held him.
He was subsequently extradited to the U.S. and has been in jail here since.

2009-10-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item. October 15, 2009. TCL ‘troubled’ by Jagdeo’s statements on CCJ
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/15/tcl-%e2%80%98troubled%e2%80%99-by-jagdeo%e2%80%99s-statements-on-ccj/

The TCL Group yesterday said that it is ‘troubled’ by President Bharrat Jagdeo’s comments that there is a conflict of interest on the part of Dr Rollin Bertrand being the Chairman of the Trust Fund of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and at the same time being the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the TCL Group.
TCL has won the legal challenge it took to the CCJ against Guyana for waiving the Common External Tariff (CET) on the importation of cement.
Jagdeo’s statement, the TCL Group said, casts doubt over the integrity of the CCJ and attacked the character of TCL Group’s and CEO Dr. Rolling Bertrand.
The TCL Group said it is troubled by President Jagdeo’s comments since, in his capacity as Chairman of CARICOM, “he is expected to properly represent the integrity of regional institutions.”
In addition, President Jagdeo is a signatory to the Treaty establishing the CCJ and the CCJ Trust Fund, and as part of the original “design team” he is well aware of the institutional arrangements that are in place to insulate the Court from any kind of interference – political or otherwise, the TCL group stated.
“These robust mechanisms have even been applauded by international onlookers and will certainly be tested during the current imbroglio,” the TCL group declared.
According to the TCL GROUP, a Board of Trustees consisting of eminent persons in business, civil society and the judiciary governs the CCJ Trust Fund. During its short time, two Chief Justices have been Trustees and have been party to the discussions of the “conflicts of interest” in the cases before the CCJ (TCL v CARICOM and TCL v GoG).
The Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) has a Trustee on the Board of Trustees. The CAIC Trustee on the Board of Trustees is a TCL executive. The Board of Trustees also has representatives of the Secretary General and there are two Guyanese nationals on the Board.
The Board has no interaction with the judges of the CCJ and cannot influence the Court’s decisions, the TCL Group stated, adding that the institutional arrangements to protect the Court from politicians also protect the Court from all other parties, including Trustees.
The claim, by President Jagdeo, that Bertrand “regularly” interfaces with the Court” could not be further from the truth, the TCL Group stated.
The Court and the Fund interface through the CCJ Court Administrator and the Executive Officer of the Fund. There is the occasional exchange of correspondence between the two institutions, but the Board always sanctions these, the TCL Group stated.
In order to influence the Court, the Fund would have to be able to exercise some power over the judges - and no such avenues exist, TCL stated, noting that the Fund was established simply to manage the US$100 million initial capital raised by Member States to fund the Court, when requested.
The Fund does not decide on the Budget of the Court and it disburses moneys to the Court in quarterly installments as requested.
If the Trustees fear that the Court’s expenditure is getting out of hand, the Board of Trustees is required to solicit the intervention of the Secretary General of CARICOM to curb the Court’s expenditure plans.
Trustees have no say in Court expenses and have no veto power over any financial request of the Court, the TCL Group stated. The terms and conditions of the judges are established and altered by the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC). The Board of Trustees has no input into these matters.
“In short, the Fund is powerless against the Court”, the Group stated.
When TCL took legal action against the Caribbean Community and the Government of Guyana (GoG), Dr. Rollin Bertrand immediately declared a “potential conflict of interest” to the Board. Dr. Bertrand offered to give up the post of Chairman or even come off the Board, but after lengthy discussions and a legal opinion from eminent Senior Counsel, the Board agreed that Dr. Bertrand not step down.
In the matter of TCL versus CARICOM, there was a representative of CARICOM on the Board who was also “conflicted”. More distantly, the representative of the Caribbean Congress of Labour on the Board would have been connected to TCL and TGI’s employees and could also be said to have a “conflict of interest”.
Notwithstanding the above, Dr. Bertrand has been very cautious during the pendency of the case. He has kept out of any interface with the Court even staying away from CARICOM functions where the President of the Court would have been present, the TCL Group stated.
As far as TCL’s case went, Dr. Bertrand did not sign any affidavits nor did he appear as witness in the matter.
While the comments of the President of Guyana are very unfortunate, this incident presents an opportunity for the public to learn about the Court, the TCL Group said, noting that the media must play an important part.
The Group declared that independence of the CCJ is extremely robust.
The TCL Group anticipates that President Jagdeo would on reflection and consultation seek to correct the perceptions and damage to character and reputation caused by his recent comments.

Govt responds to TCL Group

2009-10-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item. October 15, 2009. Govt responds to TCL Group
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/15/govt-responds-to-tcl-group/

It has come to the notice of the Administration that the TCL Group has sought to characterize as an improper representation of fact, President Bharrat Jagdeo’s comments surrounding media queries about the conflict of interest issue involving TCL and its litigation at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The Office of the President advises that President Jagdeo’s comment at a recent press conference was intended to clarify ongoing media questions and reports that are focusing on claims of conflict of interest involving TCL.
The Administration further advises that President Jagdeo’s statement at that press conference was factual and that indeed the issue of conflict of interest was a subject of deliberation by the Heads of the CARICOM Community, following which, Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow was made responsible for addressing their concerns with the principals. Thus the President’s disclosure was factual and incontrovertible that the Heads of Government discussed the issue of conflict of interest by TCL.
Despite TCL’s protestations about this matter, President Jagdeo was under no obligation to be ambiguous in his representation.
Furthermore, the crux of the matter remains TCL’s inability to provide the region with reliable and competitively priced supplies of cement.

Guyana fails again at CCJ

2009-10-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item. October 15, 2009. Guyana fails again at CCJ… as Court dismisses application for extension of time to comply.

http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/15/guyana-fails-again-at-ccj/

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday dismissed Guyana’s application for an Extension of Time as it relates to the country’s compliance with the Court’s order to reinstate the Common External Tariff (CET) on cement from non-CARICOM sources.
In considering the application for Contempt of Court by Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) and subsidiary TCL Guyana Inc. (TGI) against the Government of Guyana, the Judges directed that Guyana file its arguments in opposition to TCL’s application within 14 days.
Following that process TCL must file its response within seven days and Guyana has been directed to pay that company’s cost of filing the application.
The CCJ also stated that it regards the contempt matter as a serious and complicated issue and that it has to be heard in open Court.
On Monday, President Bharrat Jagdeo voiced his concern that the Chairman of the Trust Fund of the CCJ, Dr Rollin Bertrand, is also the chief executive officer of TCL which recently won a challenge it brought against the Guyana Government over the importation of cement.
Jagdeo’s statement came during a press briefing where he was asked about Government’s refusal to comply with the decision of the CCJ to re-impose the CET on cement imports.
The CET regulates trade with the 15-nation CARICOM, dictating that a product should not be imported from outside the bloc, once companies within the region can meet demands.
With Georgetown’s failure to comply with the Court’s August 20 decision to re-impose the CET on cement imports within 28 days, TCL and its local subsidiary again dragged the Guyana Government before the CCJ, saying the Jagdeo administration should be charged for contempt.
Jagdeo had confirmed media reports that CARICOM Heads of Government discussed Dr Bertrand’s position and cited it as a conflict of interest, since he has to be in regular contact with the Court.
The CCJ had ruled that the Government of Guyana was in breach of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas by failing to maintain and implement the CET on cement.
Additionally, the Guyana Government was ordered to pay two-thirds of TCL costs. When Guyana failed to carry out the court’s ruling, TCL and its local subsidiary approached the court again.

Questions for Ravi Dev on the PPP

2009-10-14T04:01:00.001-07:00

Questions for Ravi Dev on the PPP

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 14, 2009 @ 5:04 am In Letters | No Comments

Dear Editor,
My old friend Freddie Kissoon in his daily column, “Democracy is coffee! Democracy is Obama!,” (KN 10-12-09), has once again accused my friend Ravi Dev of being a PPP apologist. He cited Ravi Dev’s Sunday Column, “Democracy is not coffee,” (KN 10-11-09) and so I decided to read Ravi’s article with great care. After doing so several times I did have a few questions for Ravi.

Ravi wrote of the PNC, “By introducing the radical ideology of “co-operative socialism” it dismissed most of the ideals of the liberal democracy that the British had grudgingly introduced in our modern era.” My first question is, did the PPP not advocate Soviet-style Marxism Leninism or Communism which dismisses all of the ideals of liberal democracy? Would you rather have had some liberal democracy as practised by the PNC or none at all as preferred by the PPP’s brand of Communism?

Ravi also wrote, “The PNC insisted on the “paramountcy of the party” over the state; i.e. that the party in power took precedence over the organs of state.” My second question to Ravi is, is party paramountcy not a tenet of Marxism Leninism as championed by the PPP? In fact did the PPP not give critical support to the PNC during its “co-operative socialism” era? Is it not true that the PPP criticized the PNC for not implementing true socialism? Is it not true that the PPP and PNC held power sharing talks in the early 1980’s and had agreed to establish a one party state?

Ravi further wrote, “One would have thought that with the procedural aspect of democracy reinstated in the 1992 elections it would have been understood that there would be the need to make radical changes in the institutions of government and state – away from the totalitarian impositions of the PNC.” There were expectations that Dr Jagan and the PPP would have indeed usher in real democratic changes, especially with the collapse of the Communism in the Soviet Empire. But did he change the co-operative socialist state which he had given critical support? If the PPP believed in substantive democracy why then did it in January 1993 urge its members to keep studying Marxism?

Ravi wrote, “In the absence of a Democratic Pact, if(what) the opposition wanted (was) a return of a substantive democracy…were not democratic means the way to go? It was not to be. They adopted a scorched earth policy towards the new government…” Does Ravi accept that whilst Hoyte had breached procedural democracy in rigging the 1985 elections he soon after began to deconstruct the co-operative socialist state and began to slowly rebuild substantive democracy which led to the return of procedural democracy via free and free elections in 1992? Did Dr Jagan and the PPP continue to build substantive democracy? Was not Dr Jagan and the PPP’s continuation of remnants of totalitarianism the cause of Hoyte’s rage?

Ravi would probably reply, “The PPP had to act more as a player in the anarchy of the Hobbessian inter-state system than in the putatively settled intra-state order. In this milieu, the PPP has evidently chosen to be “realists” thus augmenting their own tendencies on control and power.” Is this not justification for the way the PPP has governed? Would it not have been better for the security and welfare of all Guyanese had the PPP sought help from the United Nations in dealing with the violence? Isn’t that what political parties and governments committed to both procedural and substantive democracy do? But then it would have had to relinquish its dictatorial exercise of power and control over Guyana so better to resort to extra judicial means which brings more control and power.

Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Harripaul

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/10/14/questions-for-ravi-dev-on-the-ppp/

There seems to be a dark agenda which is driving more state ads to the GT and GC

2009-10-13T05:33:00.001-07:00

There seems to be a dark agenda which is driving more state ads to the GT and GC

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 13, 2009 @ 5:03 am In Letters | 2 Comments

Dear Editor,

Another dangerous precedent is being set by the government through its latest and somewhat continuous tirade against the two most read newspapers in the country the Kaieteur News (KN) and Stabroek News (SN). In a situation where the managements of both publications have every right to be angry, there seems to be a disenfranchisement with regards to the placement of government advertisements. Maybe they thought that nobody was checking but the SN has tabulated the numbers which the KN also published in one of its recent publications.

The information presented on the chart once again hits the nail to remind us Guyanese of the elected dictatorship we are living in today. The government has insisted that the majority of its advertisements be published in the State media namely the Guyana Chronicle (GC). That is not shocking news. We all know that our taxpayers’ monies are being spent in a newspaper which is probably the least popular publication on news stands and among newspaper vendors to date. Nevertheless, I have continued to send my letters to the GC every single time. However, any letter which, for them, contains anti- government views is not published.

I was amazed to see even the Mirror, the PPP’s organ, receiving advertisements. Who buys the Mirror? Surely, it must be only PPP supporters. That is more money again being wasted to place ads there.

Surely, government advertisements over the years have generated important financial returns for our newspapers. And the government knows this. They, in turn, for one reason or another, hurt these newspapers by diverting our monies to where they are apparently getting little or no value. In Berbice, the government dictates the same procedure. Bharrat Jagdeo and his people are loyal to only one TV station for the airing of their live programmes every time they visit Berbice. The other station in New Amsterdam gets no advertising dollar from them. Yet, this station seems reluctant to make an issue of the matter and maybe rightly so. At times, you must not stoop to levels unbecoming of your ethics in the business.

Then there is the Guyana Times (GT). This is the focal point of this current debate of the placement of government advertisements. This newspaper claims objectivity and being fair and balanced. American cable channel Fox News also claims the same. However, watching programmes on that channel tells a different story. It’s the same kind of barefacedness that is evident here.

In a recent viewpoint on Channel 28, Kit Nascimento stated that the GT publishes educational information in its Sunday issue. That is true. Sometimes I purchase that newspaper to extract that information for my classroom at school. He said that these educational articles are not evident in either the SN or KN. Well, I believe if those two newspapers wanted they’d start pulling off information and photographs from the internet for their Sunday editions too.

I have complimented the GT from its inception for its fresh ideas to the newspaper industry in Guyana. I liked its all-colour and large format. That was until the newspaper became a little too ‘boring’ for me to read. It presented nothing stimulating and in addition, it hardly ever (if at all) reports anything which the Guyanese public wants to read about or wants information about, and it does not criticize the government. That is another dangerous precedent. It is slowly becoming the GC daily. They are not publishing any of my letters as well. To prove my point of the paper not wanting to publish a letter of mine which has already appeared in the GC, SN or KN, I have sent numerous correspondences which I deliberately did not send to the GC, SN, KN or the Catholic Standard. None of them were published in the GT. That confirmed my worst fears. It will only be a matter of time until the inevitable happens.

Guyanese have always relied on the SN and the KN for objectivity, being fair and balanced, investigative and reporting that is of the highest journalistic principles. Circulation and sales, I’m sure, of these two publications combined outweigh that of the GC and the GT combined, maybe even with the Mirror. Then, any government with economic sense would seek to apply our monies more in the SN and KN. But sadly, that is not the case. There seems to be a hidden and dark agenda which is driving more money to the GT and GC in a wasteful manner which in the end shows the depths and lengths ‘they’ would go to punish the SN and KN.

I conclude by saying that this latest stunt is definitely a tactic being used by the PPP government against the SN and KN for standing up to the corruption and mismanagement that is going on in Guyana and actually having the courage to report on it. I stand in solidarity with the SN and KN on this issue and urge more prudent thinking Guyanese and organizations to publicly denounce this latest shenanigan to penalize these two publications, for it is our monies that is being used in a wasteful manner towards other newspapers which have become redundant in their reporting and fairy-like portrayal of the real and horrible situations that exist in Guyana.

I won’t be surprised if the situation with the ads gets worse over the next few months, especially if the SN and KN continue to expose certain things happening in this country.

Yours faithfully,
Leon J. Suseran
2 Comments (Open | Close)

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/10/13/there-seems-to-be-a-dark-agenda-which-is-driving-more-state-ads-to-the-gt-and-gc/

Let us all close our eyes, plug our ears, stifle our thoughts and just believe

2009-10-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Stabroek News letter. October 12, 2009. Let us all close our eyes, plug our ears, stifle our thoughts and just believe.
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/10/12/let-us-all-close-our-eyes-plug-our-ears-stifle-our-thoughts-and-just-believe/

Dear Editor,

Guyana has entered a Golden Age of governance. All is bright and beautiful in the land: today there is milk, tomorrow honey. The present and future have never been rosier in this paradise, where dreams of a visa or winning the Lotto no longer have the significance that they once did.

First, the air resonates with freedom. Citizens can speak and write their souls, as long as whatever is aired is favourable to the governing class. There are rewards and recognition for those who speak and spread the gospel of good governance. On the other hand, those infidels who dare to question “official truths” are condemned to a government sponsored purgatory of ostracism and strident denunciation. Recalcitrant individuals and entities have discovered that coercion into the acquiescence of silence has become the order of the day. Nothing and no one will be allowed to dull the lustre of the manufactured gloss that coats this age of governance.

Second, there is the favourable business climate. Well heeled deportees, budding and established drug lords, and enterprising laundrymen have all found heaven-and a haven-in the welcoming and receptive environment made possible by this golden age. There is a waiting and willing bureaucracy complete with forms and stamps and ushers to enable erection of buildings, passage of imports (and exports), and delivery of firearms. There is insulation from domestic interference-be it the law, politics, or courts. Further, there is no need to worry about the gringos: citizens are protected; intelligence is shared; and due process is observed to the most excruciating detail, when it serves certain purposes. In return, all that is asked is the generosity of a pittance in the forms of donations, intermediation, and garbage removal. Stated differently: pay the asking price, get in the middle when needed, and get rid of undesirables, when seen fit.

A third example of the golden age of governance prevailing is in the doling out of government contracts. Builders and contracting units have found it is very easy to do business with the people’s representatives. There is a minimum of paperwork and official fees. Of course, there is a separate “alignment and recognition” fee of 10% of the amount to be contracted. In the pursuit of a paperless society, no receipt is provided. In the interest of transparency, conceal the 10% in plain sight through overbidding (no problem); or embed into cost overruns. Not a problem, either.

Next, this era-the seventeen years of good governance-has resulted in the virtual elimination of crime and ethnic tension. Reports to the contrary can be attributed to sensationalism, fear mongers, and extremist opposition forces. The power elite can take special pride in eliminating perpetrators, sanitizing press reports under its control, and deriding naysayers. These days, crime exists only in the minds of the imaginative and other unsavory characters.

Fifth, thanks to good governance, the country has been host to one vast washing and cleaning exercise. Dollars have been washed behind barricaded doors; the blood of “unfortunates” has been washed away from the streets; and the flotsam of human detritus only wash up at inopportune times.

Then, there is the prosperity evidenced in shopping and dining. Shopping and dining that eludes 95% of the population. When a dinner for four costs north of twenty thousand Guyana dollars, and an item of evening attire starts in the same vicinity, then there must be optimism on joining the exclusive 5% club. After all, 5% is a start and indication of what lies ahead. Things are so wondrous in Guyana, that carpetbaggers and imported salesmen (used car?) write glowing travelogues on the ambience that awaits.

Yes, after 28 years of darkness, there is the light and radiance exuded by the happily governed. Guyanese have never had such good governance. It is so golden that the opposition has been brought over to participate in the good times. This is shared governance at the highest levels. Only it has not been made official. Now let us all close our eyes, plug our ears, and stifle our thoughts, and just believe. Just believe.

Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
4 Comments (Open | Close)

The issue is the discriminatory way the gov’t treats bauxite as compared to sugar

2009-10-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

The issue is the discriminatory way the gov’t treats bauxite as compared to sugar

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 11, 2009 @ 5:03 am In Letters | 6 Comments

Dear Editor,
Aslim Singh, of the Research Department, Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union in his letter `Lewis’ agenda of disdain for the sugar industry can no longer be hidden’ (KN October 9, 2009) continues the misrepresentation of issue. At all times the issue has been the discriminatory way the Government treats with bauxite vis a vis sugar.

At no time was there any agenda against sugar workers and the development of the sugar industry. The position has always been against the government’s discriminatory policy to bauxite and its favourable policy to sugar. A position GAWU does not want to accept despite the evidence supporting the issue.

In 1988 bauxite workers struck against the income tax deductions rate. This strike resulted in a decision taken by the PNC administration to provide tax free income to workers for all premium hours, that is, for work done in excess of the eight-hour work day, and for Saturdays and Sundays. The sugar workers were not part of the 1988 struggle undertaken by the bauxite workers for tax reduction but the benefit was extended to them. It is not true that tax free benefits were given to sugar workers before 1976 for weekend work performed since no such benefit existed in any industry prior to 1988. The PPP Government took this benefit away from bauxite workers and kept it for sugar workers.

Providing statistical data which does not rebut evidence provided in my letter carried in KN on September 12, 2009 showing the disparity in sugar investment vis a vis disinvestment in bauxite reinforces concerns about union leaders sacrificing the principle of job protection and creation at the alter of political expediency.

There is no backtracking on the source that injected money to save the sugar workers’ pension plan. GuySuCo is owned by the Government of Guyana.

It follows that the injection by GuySuCo into the sugar workers’ pension fund had to have the Government approval. In principle nothing is wrong with any employer trying to ensure its workers receive a pension on retirement. Income in the form of pension on retirement is a principle of the trade union movement and supported by me. The contention here is the policy of the Government to inject money into the sugar industry pension fund to ensure sugar workers receive income on retirement as against the Government policy to do away with the bauxite industry Pension Fund that resulted in the denial of income to bauxite workers on retirement. I have expressed and will continue express disapproval over the brutal manner in which the Government dismantled the bauxite Pension Fund. This Fund was valued more than $2.5 billion. It was the single largest pool of money owned by Africans and was a great source of pride to the bauxite communities.

The position taken that the US$110 million received for the Skeldon expansion is a loan by Government that has to be repaid could have equally been applied to the bauxite industry which needed less than US$20 million for its retooling exercise but was denied the capital by the Government. Rather, the Government sold Linmine for US$1.00 and within three years the new owners sold it for US$46 million. This fact should factor into any discussion/argument advanced in justification of the Government investment in sugar.

Arguing that bauxite received subsidies and as such closure and privatisation was necessary cannot be looked at in isolation of sugar which too has been the beneficiary of subsidies. If the argument is to hold then it can be construed that GAWU is advancing the case for the closure and/or privatisation of sugar.

The closure of any industry results in job loss and if displaced workers cannot guarantee job placement then they will be placed on the breadline and wealth cannot be created for people and country.

As trade unions and unionists it is wrong to support positions based on political loyalty. It is wrong for any union out of political loyalty to support or justify the termination of jobs and income to thousands of bauxite workers or any worker. The time has come for us to stop seeing workers’ issues through the lenses of political leaders and stand up for the principles embodied in universal trade unionism. The workers have elected us to protect their interests and it is a responsibility we must take seriously.

Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
6 Comments (Open | Close)

6 Comments To "The issue is the discriminatory way the gov’t treats bauxite as compared to sugar"

#1 Comment By Dandy Andy On October 11, 2009 @ 6:11 am

It’s comical that right after Lewis engages in an exchange with a GAWU official over PPP politics of discrimination involving bauxite and sugar workers that the Jagdeo regime would announce it is spending $154M to repair the bridge that spans the river between McKenzie and Wismar. As a former bauxite worker and GMWU and GBSU member, I recall my uinios collaborating with GMWU against the Burnham dictatorship. Now the PPP is in power and behaving like the Burnham PNC, being called out on areas of discrimination, its flagship union is getting all ruffled and turning against its one time ally. Isn’t this typical of the PPP: use people to get what it wants then discard them? The PPP regime discriminates and the evidence is growing!

#2 Comment By Anonymous On October 11, 2009 @ 7:05 am

How can a government do this to a people, any people. How can others let this happen. If bauxite workers cannot get jobs and pension it affects the entire country because people won’t have money, cannot buy things and pay bills which will create poverty, old age mendicancy and lower standard of living. Development has to be even handed. What is Komal Chand of GAWU saying about what his government is doing to Africans workers. Komal Chand and Lincoln Lewis were union comrades in the PNC days. Where is the returned solidarity

#3 Comment By Raj On October 11, 2009 @ 7:37 am

GAWU should be ashamed of itself. Even if tax free overtime was in sugar before 1976 you cannot support the PPP taking away tax free overtime from bauxite workers.

#4 Comment By Carl On October 11, 2009 @ 7:48 am

Racial politics is the bane of our nation’s efforts to lift itself economically. I

#5 Comment By colin2nice On October 11, 2009 @ 8:20 am

Welcome home Raj!

#6 Comment By Diamond Dog On October 11, 2009 @ 8:39 am

Mr. Lewis. Stop the long talk. It boils down to one word. Race. The PPP government is all about its base supporters, the indo guyanese. Neglect bauxite and suffer afro guyanese. Baby sit sugar and reward indo guyanese. End of story.

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/10/11/the-issue-is-the-discriminatory-way-the-gov%e2%80%99t-treats-bauxite-as-compared-to-sugar/

World Bank people does tek bribe?

2009-10-11T04:27:00.001-07:00

Kaieteur News. Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists, News. October 11, 2009. Dem boys seh…World Bank people does tek bribe?

http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/11/dem-boys-sehworld-bank-people-does-tek-bribe/

Dem boys seh that when rain falling and thunder clap, children does run and hide under bed. Christmas time when boys and even big people let off squib, dogs does run and hide. Some of dem run away and get lost. Some run in fear and car knock dem down but de smart ones run under chair and table and even bed in dem house.
Well, de other day dem boys start fuh check pun how de government was spending money and dem find out that some people get more than dem shoulda get. In de end dem boys seh that dem contract was too big, that more money spend and end up in people pocket.
Nuff story come out and people start fuh talk and point finger. Well is then big man start fuh hide.
Contractor, tractor, cantractor—everybody disappear. Nobody can find dem. That is how Robeson Benn decide to pick up he sledge hammer and search. He lashing down a whole heap of things in his search fuh all of dem who hiding.
Dem boys seh that Robeson actually lash down de Kissing Bridge at Tuschen because he hear somebody was hiding there.
De bridge come down and he ain’t find dem man. He hear that one of dem deh at Meten-Meer-Zorg suh he going there tomorrow.
Fowl Cock, Toolseed, Beekay and all of dem who hiding got to watch fuh Robeson instead of de Waterfalls paper.
And dem boys hear bout some US$10 million fuh de land fill site. De money ain’t pay out but if you see people who line up. Dem boys seh that dem want fuh know if World Bank people dem does tek bribe.
Dem peeping pun this one. Talk half,. Lef half.

What is the future for the rice industry if other countries renege on CET payments?

2009-10-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

What is the future for the rice industry if other countries renege on CET payments?
October 10, 2009 | By KNews | Filed Under Letters
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/10/what-is-the-future-for-the-rice-industry-if-other-countries-renege-on-cet-payments/

Dear Editor,
I find it strange that Guyana is not following the ruling of the CCJ and not reinstating the CET on cement.
We are all aware that the rice market is being manipulated and Europe is definitely not a future for our rice. CARICOM, South America and Central America will have to be targeted for markets. Fortunately we still have some protection in CARICOM with the 25% CET on rice.
This tariff causes the price of extra regional rice to increase by 25 % on the CIF cost making extra regional rice very uncompetitive to Guyana.
Before the CCJ was established when it was highlighted at COTED that member states were not paying the CET on rice although a wavier was not granted as in the case of the cement issue with Guyana and the TCL group.
One was told that there was no mechanism to prosecute or penalize anyone for this infringement. However with the establishment of the CCJ, issues of the illegal waivers can be brought to this institution as with the case of cement issues between the TCL Group and Guyana.
Besides reneging on an organisation that was legally formed by member states including Guyana one can assume that no one will want to pay the CET for rice from extra-regional source anymore.
Thus Guyana will lose a very lucrative market for its rice and one should bear in mind that this same market, if Haiti and the Dominican Republic are included, can consume all of Guyana’s rice production, resulting in a bright future for the local rice industry.
I hope that good sense will prevail and the result will be that Guyana will not be sending the wrong signal where the waiver of CET is concerned as we have more to lose than to gain.
Beni Sankar

One out of every three Guyanese migrating - UNDP report

2009-10-08T04:01:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item, Tuesday 06 October 2009 - "One out of every three Guyanese migrating - UNDP report" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/06/one-out-of-every-three-guyanese-migrating-undp-report/

Two out of three qualified persons leave

Guyana has an emigration rate of 33.5 percent, and most among those are the country’s university graduates, the 2009 Human Development Report, which was launched yesterday, shows.

The report shows that most of Guyana’s university graduates, and others who gain a tertiary education leave. The percentage is as high as 76.9 percent, the report states.

According to the report, the major continent of destination for migrants from Guyana is North America with 78.6 per cent of Guyanese emigrants living there.

Additionally, Guyana has dropped 17 places on the report’s Human Development Index, moving from a ranking of 97 on the 2007/8 Index, to 114 in the new Index.

The report is published annually by the United Nations Development Programme and this year addresses human mobility and development.

“Migration can be a force for good, contributing significantly to human development,” said UNDP Administrator, Helen Clark. “But to realise its benefits, there needs to be a supportive policy environment as this report suggests.”

The report shows that remittances, which are usually sent to immediate family members who have stayed behind, are among the most direct benefits from migration; their benefits spread broadly into local economies. They also serve as foreign exchange earnings for the origin countries of migrants.

However, remittances are unequally distributed. Of the total US$370 billion remitted in 2007, more than half went to countries in the medium human development category against less than one per cent to low human development countries.

In 2007, US$278 million in remittances were sent to Guyana. Average remittances per person were US$377, compared with the average for Latin America and the Caribbean of US$114.

According to the report, migration can raise a person’s income, health and education prospects. Most importantly, being able to decide where to live is a key element of human freedom, according to the report, which also argues that large gains in human development can be achieved by lowering barriers and other constraints to movement and by improving policies towards those who move.

However, migration does not always bring benefits. The extent to which people are able to gain from moving depends greatly on the conditions under which they move. Financial outlays can be relatively high, and movement inevitably involves uncertainty and separation from families. The poor are often constrained by a lack of resources, information and barriers in their new host communities and countries. For too many people movement reflects the repercussions of conflict, natural disaster or severe economic hardship. Some women end up in trafficking networks, lose significant freedoms and suffer physical danger.

Meanwhile, Guyana is ranked 114 on the Human Development Index (HDI) of the report. The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity income.

Additionally, Guyana is ranked 48 on the Human Poverty Index 9HPI-1). This index focuses on the proportion of people below certain threshold levels in each of the dimensions of the human development index - living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and a decent standard of living.

By looking beyond income deprivation, the HPI-1 represents a multi-dimensional alternative to the $1.25 a day (PPP US$) poverty measure.

The HPI-1 value of 10.2 per cent for Guyana, ranks 48th among 135 countries for which the index has been calculated.

The HPI-1 measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive to age 40. Education is measured by the adult illiteracy rate. And a decent standard of living is measured by the unweighted average of people not using an improved water source and the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight for their age.

The report puts the life expectancy rate in Guyana at 66.5, and also states that 12.8 percent of Guyanese might not live to see age 40. The report states that seven percent of Guyanese are not using an improved water source. In addition, the report points out that 14 percent of children under age five are underweight.

Our October Revolution?

2009-10-07T14:59:00.001-07:00

Our October Revolution?
October 7, 2009 | By knews | Filed Under Editorial
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/10/07/our-october-revolution/

October 5 is a historic day for Guyana; occasioned by the General Elections of 1992 that were held on that date. Previous elections - from 1968 - had been described in terms ranging from “manipulated” to “crooked as barbed wire”.
The “free and fair” elections of 1992 had been the culmination of sustained and wide-ranging efforts waged by Guyanese at home and in the wider Diaspora. There were great hopes aroused that Guyana, now freed of the shackles that had doomed it an ever-downward spiral of poverty and desperation, would now flourish.
Some even called it our “October Revolution”, in a self-conscious reference to the 1917 great Russian event.
But the voting patterns of the 1992 elections should have been a tip-off that the clean and decisive break from the past encapsulated by the tem “revolution” was very optimistic, to say the least. The vote was split along the race/ethnic fault lines not much different from that which had prevailed in the last previous elections of 1964.
Even after the tremendous suffering and deprivation all Guyanese had experienced over the preceding two decades under the PNC, that party actually increased its percentage of votes garnered in 1992- 44 per cent - from the 41 per cent in 1964. It should have been obvious that great ingenuity was going to be demanded from the new PPP/C regime to prevent the stubborn ethnic divisions from playing its old stultifying role.
If October 5 was going to mark a “revolution”, the necessary dramatic changes laid in the future.
Seventeen years on, the question for us is, “Have those changes been consummated?” While there has been very visible progress on many fronts, after reviewing the evidence in the political realm, it would be an exercise in hyperbole to answer in the affirmative. The ethnic albatross is still very much on the neck of the Guyanese nation.
The consequences of entrenched ethnic voting pattern in denying society-wide legitimacy for governments voted into office by the rules of the (political) game has spurred the creation of a plethora of proposals to handle the contradiction.
A decade ago, violent protests precipitated extensive constitutional changes, arrived at after countrywide consultations, that were supposed to “fix” the problem. A constitution, after all, not only allocates authoritative power in a country but spells out the rules for acquiring that power.
But very quickly, some, including the opposition that had clamored and fought for the constitutional changes, decided that the 2000 amendments did not go far enough. They were not revolutionary.
One reason for the volte face was that in the 1999 protests, the major stumbling block to peace and prosperity in Guyana had been identified primarily as “the overweening powers of the Presidency” and not the ethnic albatross. It ought not to have surprised anyone that even after the objected-to powers had been severely truncated, dissatisfaction remained rife. The symptoms, and not the cause, of the dissatisfactions had been addressed.
Interestingly enough, there has been a long tradition in the local political culture in calling for “Governments of National Reconciliation” or other such “Shared Governance” models that purported to confront the need for governments that commanded wider legitimacy. But the incumbent party in power, not surprisingly, is never too enthusiastic about such “revolutionary” changes: it quickly forgets its rhetoric (which it always was, evidently) when they were in opposition.
Of recent, there has been some discussion in the press of the implications on the electoral system (and inter alia, the legitimacy of the government it delivers) of the changing demographics of in the country.
We are now assured that we have become a “nation of minorities” and that this fact alone will ensure that since parties will have to look beyond any one ethnic bloc to be catapulted into office, they will adopt “national” positions that will gain the requisite wider legitimacy for future governments. The “revolution” in other words, had taken place quietly on its own.
We are not entirely convinced but are heartened that we have not stopped looking for peaceful ways to get rid of ethnic political albatross.

High cost of bandwidth costing Guyana jobs - Da Silva

2009-10-07T04:14:00.000-07:00

Stabroek News news item, Wednesday 07 October 2009 - "High cost of bandwidth costing Guyana jobs - Da Silva" - http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/stories/10/06/high-cost-of-bandwidth-costing-guyana-jobs-%e2%80%93-da-silva/

The high cost of bandwidth continues to be a deterrent to overseas investors and may have cost the country between 2,000 to 3,000 jobs, Head of Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) Geoffrey Da Silva said recently.

Responding to a question posed noted at an Investment Seminar on Friday by one of the overseas participants regarding the availability of Information and Communi-cation Technologies (ICTs) locally, Da Silva said that the high cost for bandwidth was a major concern. While emphasizing that the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) had been very supportive to the initiatives of Go-Invest, he admitted that this was a sore point between Go-Invest and the telephone company.

Geoffrey Da Silva

Geoffrey Da Silva

According to Da Silva, some firms involved in the call centre business had informed him that they were being charged US$8,000 for bandwidth services. He said that this rate was extremely expensive when compared with other territories in the region.

Da Silva said he has had meetings with some of the large international call centre companies, and they pointed out that what is preventing them from investing in Guyana is the high cost of bandwidth. He said that this was costing young people jobs. “We have young people who are very skilled,” Da Silva stated, “among the best in the region.” However, he said, some did not get the jobs they wanted.

Da Silva told this newspaper that the assessment of the skills of Guyanese youth was also made by Accenture, an international consulting company, which had conducted a survey in Guyana last year.

Nevertheless, Da Silva is optimistic that when the GT&T-funded new multi-million dollar fibre optic cable becomes operational next year, the cost customers pay for bandwidth will come down. He admitted that competition may be necessary to get competitive rates and stated that there had been negotiations with French investors for them to run another fibre optic cable to the country. However, he was unable to say how these negotiations were going. Other options were being pursued as well, Da Silva told this newspaper.

Meanwhile, another issue raised at the forum was whether foreigners, who are coming to invest in Guyana, would have access to land in the same manner locals do, especially in the context of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). This was raised by a St Lucian national.

In response, Da Silva said that for over 30 years, overseas investors were allowed access to land in Guyana. He pointed out that in the past groups of nationals from other Caribbean territories had occupied land without any problems and that this would continue.

Da Silva also noted that the time it took for entrepreneurs to receive fiscal concessions had been significantly shortened. He said that this process could now be completed within a month, when compared to the six months it took ten years ago.

Two different schools of thought

2009-10-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

Two different schools of thought

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 5, 2009 @ 5:04 am In Letters | 1 Comment

Dear Editor,
I keep observing the much ballyhooed claims of democracy, and return to democracy, in Guyana, and continue to be amazed at the disingenuousness of the rulers, their imported mercenaries, and their bottom-feeding sycophants. All of these panjandrums deliriously point to free elections and a supposedly free press as irrefutable proofs of their claims. It is clear that there are two (maybe several) different schools of thought prevailing as to what constitutes democracy – or democratic ideals – in Guyana. The power clique sees it as the end of the beginning whereas many others view its existence as sometimes questionable, and merely the beginning of the beginning.

First, democracy is about equality, fairness, and principled practices. Institutional translation: transparency, government accountability, social justice, and judicial integrity, among other things. To cite an example, I urge citizens to recall the public exchange between two senior administrators from within the judicial morass, and the now suspended hush of damage control, as the public ponders.

When the realms of the judiciary are so roiled, can anyone in a reasonable state of mind speak of democracy? Take another example in the operations of the Office of the DPP. Too often, on charged and sensitive matters, there is silence, or an absence of advocacy, or some inanity about files not seen. A couple of failures may be indicative of human error; a couple more about sheer incompetence. Together, these may be permissible, even forgivable. But too much dissembling (or untimely withdrawal) by the people’s counsels, and the standards of equality, fairness, and principled practices gurgle fitfully from oxygen starvation first, and a slow death through suffocation eventually.

Second, I seek to peer into democracy that is camouflaged in the numbers – statistical democracy, if you will.

There are those who are quick to drum up charts and numbers to reflect how fair and principled the rulers have been. I respectfully ask them to supply several simple pieces of information. They are: In the 28 years of darkness, how many suspicious killings and executions were there? Use any definition of suspicious. Then, provide, please, the number of the same that has occurred in the last 17 years. Only this time, feel free to use as narrow a definition of suspicious, as may be convenient. Next, provide a number representing the total dollar value of government contracts awarded, say, in the last 8 years. Follow this, by stating the dollar value of said contracts awarded to non-Indians. Along the same lines, share with the public the number of senior officers functioning in an acting capacity in the public service for a year or more. Thereafter, identify the number that is Black.

If the numbers are immaterial, then there will be no need to ask: Where are the principled practices and fairness and equality? Where are these things when teachers and public servants are subjected to near utter contempt in their separate quests for relief from an economically debilitating environment? And especially so when the overseers seize every opportunity to help themselves to a sweeter-and-heavier slice of the taxpayers’ pie. Further, where is the fairness and all this babble of a free press when critical reporting is damned, the Guyana ‘Monocle’ sees and presents what the masters want it to see (and what no one else sees), and yet another attempt is in motion to intimidate another section of the paper press, an albeit glaringly colourful section to be sure. Petty, narrow minded, mean spirited, yes; fair and equal and principled – well, not so fast…

Where is democracy when to question routinely (or write) comes with charges of suspect loyalty, reverse racism, self-hate, or treasonous conduct? It is particularly farcical that these charges emanate from those who now populate apartheid enclaves on the East Coast in ostentatious opulence. In the meantime, tighten your belt, tense your muscles, and let’s work together for the continued prosperity of your lords and betters.

If there is democracy at the bar, in the face of the law, with freedom from intimidation, through opportunity in the workplace and a level playing field, and from a responsible and responsive government, then there are very limited grounds on which to question or to challenge.

On the other hand, if these conditions are but imaginary or propaganda points, then let us recognize the other face of democracy that exists in Guyana. It is one that is deceitful, smirking, and obscene.

Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall

1 Comment To "Two different schools of thought"

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/10/05/two-different-schools-of-thought/

Police not the body to investigate government links with Khan, says Ramjattan

2009-10-05T03:55:00.000-07:00

Police not the body to investigate government links with Khan, says Ramjattan

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 5, 2009 @ 5:03 am In Local News | No Comments

-dossier on government’s human rights abuses nears completion

Rejecting President Bharrat Jagdeo’s position that the police force is the sole authority to investigate his administration’s alleged links with drug trafficker Roger Khan, AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan has said an international probe would offer a “non-partisan” solution.

“I do not have faith in the police force,” Ramjattan explained on Thursday, “because of the fact that they haven’t acted.”

President Jagdeo also maintained that an investigation into the allegations of a link between his administration and Khan’s activities here, including the illegal surveillance of officials as well as numerous murders, is the sole purview of the local police force. He also said that he directed the police force to seek information from the US, where Khan pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and other charges.

Ramjattan said the opposition wants an investigation as early as possible but given the range of allegations, which include the complicity of cabinet members, he emphasised that a non-partisan body is essential.

He also disclosed that the joint opposition is nearing completion of a dossier cataloguing the government’s human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture and complicity with known organised crime gangs and narco-traffickers and the resulting corruption. The dossier, upon completion, will be submitted to local, regional and international bodies, including the courts with the appropriate jurisdiction and the public.

Meanwhile, Ramjattan said that the joint opposition has been successful in communicating to the citizenry the wrongdoing that has taken place since 2002, and in particular the relationship between the government and narcotics traffickers. He said the dossier would aid in internationalising the issue, and justify the call for an international inquiry. “It is not the numbers that matter,” he said, “The fact that you might not have massive demonstrations, [and] massive outrage being portrayed doesn’t necessarily mean that our communication to the public has been unsuccessful.” When asked what the parties would do if the dossier failed to yield the desired result, he said, “There’s nothing else we can do, absolutely nothing else we can do,” while recalling the PPP’s attempt to bring rigged elections to international attention.

Ramjattan posited that people seemed to be numbed by the political situation and despite the recognition of wrongdoing they are unwilling to protest, an option that itself is tactically dangerous. Ramjattan said the party was satisfied with the ongoing peaceful protests that have been staged. “We don’t want to go and burn down the town and have revolution and rebellion; that is not what we are involved in,” he said, adding, “We are going to communicate and people’s minds will change, that is the backing in a democracy, changing people’s minds.”

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/stories/10/05/police-not-the-body-to-investigate-government-links-with-khan-says-ramjattan/

apportioning of ads should be of great interest to donors and others who are concerned with good governance and accountability for taxpayers’ dollars

2009-10-04T04:34:00.000-07:00

Stabroek News news item, Sunday 04 October 2009 - "Guyana Times already getting over 19% of state ads" - http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/stories/10/04/guyana-times-already-getting-over-19-of-state-ads/

-despite being in business just over a year, dubious market penetration

Just over a year after it was launched, the Guyana Times is already receiving over 19% of state ads each month when Stabroek News was not given a single one for 17 months because the government alleged that it did not have sufficient readership.

The allocations to the Guyana Times, which has close ties to the Queens Atlantic Investment Inc, whose principal is a friend of President Bharrat Jagdeo, raise again the question about the fairness of the state ads distribution system and the quality of PPP/C governance. It also casts doubt on the explanations that had been given by government spokesmen in January 2007 on the formula for distribution of state advertising.

SN has analysed the distribution of Government Information Agency (GINA) advertisements between April and September this year. In April when no GINA ads were going to GT, the apportioning of ads among the three daily newspapers, the Guyana Chronicle, SN and Kaieteur News was as follows: 37%, 34% and 29.3% respectively. In May this year, when GT started receiving ads, having been in business since only June of 2008 and with dubious market penetration, the distribution for the daily newspapers and the PPP-aligned weekly Mirror was as follows: GC 34.7%, SN 21.3%, KN 21.8%, GT 16.6% and the Mirror 5.4%. In June, the spread was as follows: GC 29.4%, SN 22.6%, KN 22.6%, GT 19.3% and the Mirror 5.9%. In July the figures were as follows: GC 30.7%, SN 25.7%, KN 21.7%, GT 15.4% and the Mirror 6.3%. The August figures were GC 34.1%, SN 24.1%, KN 17.2%, GT 15.9% and the Mirror 8.4%. For September, the figures were GC 30.86%, SN 24.24%, KN 18.07%, GT 19.55% and the Mirror 7.26%.

2009091004tableIn a comment on the situation, Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief (EiC) Anand Persaud said that the distribution pattern comprehensively demolishes the government’s arguments about why Stabroek News was denied state advertising between November 2006 and May 2008. He said that after ads begun to be allocated to GT, Stabroek News had written to GINA querying the basis for the decision. He noted that the reply from GINA that the GINA Advertising Unit had “no obligation to explain its placement of advertisements to the Stabroek News” was redolent of the intransigence and opaqueness of PPP/C government decisions. He also noted that no government official has since provided an explanation of the decision for ads in GT even though several had offered contrived defences of GINA policy when SN went public over the ads cut-off in January, 2007.

Persaud contended that the current situation makes a mockery of the statements that had been made by several government officials and most importantly President Jagdeo. Government spokesman, Dr Prem Misir had said on several occasions that government ads were being placed in the KN and the GC because the government had discerned “huge responses” to its ads in these papers. He did not provide any evidence for this. He had also argued that KN had a higher circulation without providing figures.

Persaud pointed out that in a statement issued on January 15, 2007, GINA said “The basis for the placement of advertisements in the media is linked to the public’s response to such advertisements. Huge responses to our advertisements emanate from the Kaieteur News and Guyana Chronicle. And we are constantly seeking to maximize the impact of its advertisements, in the interest of efficiency… Kaieteur News today is the largest private newspaper in this country and therefore attracts a disproportionately greater number of government’s advertisements. An added advantage with releasing numerous advertisements to Kaieteur News has to do with its wider dissemination not only nationally but also internationally within the Guyanese Diaspora in New York City”.

President Jagdeo had said much the same on January 26, 2007 when he told reporters before leaving on a trip to Russia that the axing of GINA ads to SN was purely a business decision and that the government would advertise in two dailies – the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and the privately-owned KN and some newspapers published at the weekend – a reference to the Mirror newspaper.

In October 2007, the President had also said “Suddenly, because there is this shift, they [SN] are now making it a press freedom issue. It is not a press freedom issue because we have not stopped spending the government’s revenue in advertising in the private sector or private newspapers. We have just made a switch to the larger circulating newspaper [KN] because we get more value for money. We reach more homes with the same amount of money, investing in advertising in that particular newspaper,” the President said. He added that if Stabroek News wants to change this the newspaper needs to get its circulation rate up again.

Persaud said the statements by President Jagdeo, Dr Misir and GINA have now been completely undermined by the current allocations. Not only was government now regularly advertising in three private daily newspapers but it seemed as if SN had all of a sudden now become the newspaper with the highest circulation as evidenced by its allotment of 24% in September while KN’s circulation had apparently fallen below that of GT which had 19.55% as compared to the former’s 18.07%.

While SN’s circulation is solid and there have been increases, Persaud said the more likely explanation for the ad distribution changes is that the government is intent on aiding GT and at the same time it has had heated exchanges with KN over several issues and the relationship with that newspaper has frayed. Persaud said that clearly political decisions have come into play in the ads ratio and this is exactly what SN had fought valiantly against for 17 months. Persaud noted that just months before his passing SN’s Editor-in-Chief, David de Caires had argued forcefully that the apportioning of ads should be done on a professional basis and taken out of the hands of the politicians at the Office of the President.

He had argued that the distribution of state ads should be assigned to a professional advertising agency which would be aware of not only the paid circulation of the various newspapers but also the segments of the market that they reach. For instance, SN has been widely recognized as being the most read journal in the business community. These factors should then determine the sharing of ads. De Caires had proposed that an Audit Bureau of Circulation team from somewhere in the Caribbean be deputed to conduct an analysis of circulation patterns. Persaud noted that these very reasonable proposals by de Caires were completely ignored by President Jagdeo.

Persaud said the gymnastics over the apportioning of ads should be of great interest to donors and others who are concerned with good governance and accountability for taxpayers’ dollars. The new developments he said also constituted a breach of the hemispheric press freedom Declaration of Chapultepec which says at principle 7 “Tariff and exchange policies, licences for the importation of paper or news-gathering equipment, the assigning of radio and television frequencies and the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists.” Persaud said the new allocations are intended to reward GT – because how else could their allotment of 19.55% for September be rationalized against 0% to SN for 17 months even though the newspaper had been in existence for 21 years and was widely recognized as a credible, authoritative and independent voice.

Persaud said that when all the events from the cessation of SN’s state ads in November 2006 to the present distribution pattern were taken into account, an observer could reasonably come to the conclusion that the government was aware of the plans to establish GT and it was decided that SN would be targeted as it was an independent voice that had kept the pressure on the administration to be accountable.

The SN EiC said that the latest developments will be drawn to the attention of international press organizations and the press freedom monitor, Freedom House in the usual end-of-year reports.

He said the new developments were also a seminal lesson to the media about solidarity on press freedom issues. Persaud recalled that when Stabroek News’ ads were cut off, the Kaieteur News sided with the government and happily harvested the increased amount of advertising that was then available to it. Further, in October 2007 when SN mounted an historic protest against the government over the ads issue, the KN hierarchy instructed its staff not to offer solidarity to this newspaper. Persaud said that KN unthinkingly allied itself to the government without realizing that it too could eventually become a target as it was now contending following a suggestion by President Jagdeo at a recent private sector dinner that the business community was contributing to certain types of reporting by continuing to advertise with the newspapers in question. Persaud said the President’s remark was one that referred not only to KN but all other media houses including SN. He said SN would offer solidarity to KN once it was clear that the government was targeting it.

Persaud also disputed a recent statement in a letter by R. Ravie Ramcharitar, Director of the Guyana Times Inc in the September 30, 2009 edition of SN that said “The Guyana Times, in fact, attracts a substantially greater amount of ‘prestige’ advertisements than its competition because it is a quality newspaper, politically independent and enjoys a superior circulation and readership among the business and professional community.”

Persaud said there was a lot that could be said about the GT claim of being politically independent but he was more concerned about the claim that GT enjoyed a superior circulation among the business and professional community. Persaud said this was an incredible statement for a year-old newspaper as SN – in the business for 23 years – has always been considered the newspaper most read by the business community, has had a longstanding business edition in addition to the well-read Sunday columns of chartered accountant Christopher Ram, economist Dr Clive Thomas and trade expert David Jessop. More recently Dr Tarron Khemraj has also been doing high quality business columns in the daily newspaper. In addition, its annual budget coverage and detailed analysis by Ram and McRae had no equal.

Commentators have also raised eyebrows at the ad allocations to the Guyana Chronicle. Over the period surveyed it averaged the highest figure of 32.7% though it is known to have a very low circulation. SN averaged 25.32%, KN 21.7% and GT 17.35%. GT moved from 16.6% in May to 19.55 in September while KN slid from 29.3% in April to 18.07% in September.

Broadcast, FOI bills to be tabled this month

2009-10-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Stabroek News news item, Friday 02 October 2009 - "Broadcast, FOI bills to be tabled this month" - http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/stories/10/02/broadcast-foi-bills-to-be-tabled-this-month/

-Luncheon

Long-delayed broadcast legislation, expected to facilitate the establishment of a broadcast authority, and Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation are among bills to tabled when the new parliamentary session begins.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said that on Tuesday Cabinet made the decision on the bills, which would be tabled this month in the National Assembly when the annual parliamentary recess ends. The two bills have been the source of much contention over the years as the opposition parties have continued to press government to table the bills, while seeking to iron out concerns about the draft provisions.

In 2001, the Advisory Commission on Broadcasting (ACB) was established based on an agreement between then PNCR leader and President Bharrat Jagdeo, pending the passage of broadcast legislation and the setting up of a broadcast authority.

The ACB was set up with the objective that broadcast legislation would be enacted within a specific timeframe, and to this end, a joint committee on radio monopoly, non-partisan boards and broadcasting legislation was established. The joint committee in its report had laid out the general parameters for the drafting of the legislation and the Attorney General’s Chambers drafting section had used those parameters and studied legislation from other countries in preparing a draft. This draft was published in the daily newspapers and members of the public and other stakeholders were invited to submit suggestions. None was ever received.

The PNCR has claimed that the draft deviated from the joint committee’s report on the general parameters and the President, in seeking to find a consensus, agreed to a government-opposition team discussing the legislation to reconcile differences, however these were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, PNCR as well as GAP/ROAR have both publicly pledged their support for the FOI legislation and according to Alliance for Change (AFC) leader Raphael Trotman his party has always indicated its willingness to engage the governing party on advancing the legislation. The AFC, which had tabled its own draft FOI Bill, has been publicly reminding the administration about its promise to introduce the legislation.

Another important bill to be tabled is the New Building Society (NBS) Amendment Bill, which would facilitate greater supervision of the Bank of Guyana over the NBS. Dr Luncheon said emphasis would also be placed on furthering the reforms in the financial sector with the tabling of the Electronic Transaction Bill, which would lay the groundwork in establishing the use of the internet to conduct government and private business as it is being done with personal business.

The Credit Reporting Bill, by which credit financial bodies would have legal and legitimate ways of identifying and sharing information about credit behavior, will also be tabled. Also to be tabled are the Business Names Registration Amend-ment Bill, the Companies Amendment Bill and Regulations, the Deeds Registry Amendment Bill, and the Official Gazette Bill, all intended to lay the statutory framework for electronic filing in the registration and the incorporation of businesses in Guyana.

In the security sector, the Maritime Zone Bill would be tabled to replace the existing Boundaries Act, while the Legal Practitioner Amendment Bill and the Juvenile Justice Bill would be introduced to reform the justice sector.

Other key items on the government’s legislative agenda include the Consumer Protection Bill, the Disability Bill, the Rice Factory Assessment Bill and the Livestock Development Authority Bill. “These bills on the priority list will be tabled and will join other bills that have already been tabled and are being discussed at the level of select committee of parliament,” Dr Luncheon said.

Roger Khan plea bargain safeguards info on other US targets

2009-10-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

Roger Khan plea bargain safeguards info on other US targets

Posted By Stabroek staff On October 1, 2009 @ 5:18 am In Local News | 40 Comments

-prosecutor

The US government agreed to a plea bargain with confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan in part to protect information about other targets of the investigation, who are yet to be arrested, according to US Attorney Benton Campbell.
Roger Khan [1]

Roger Khan

In a letter to Judge Dora Irizarry, dated September 29, Campbell recommends that the court sentence Khan to a 15-year jail term, saying among other things the agreement allowed the government to protect information from cooperating witnesses about the other targets.

In keeping with the agreement, Khan pleaded guilty in March to three charges, being conspiring to import cocaine to the US, conspiring to obstruct justice and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The agreement stipulates a sentence of 15 years imprisonment, five years supervised release, a $300 special assessment as well as any fine and restitution to be imposed in keeping with the law. Campbell also requests that the court impose a fine as it sees appropriate, but not greater than US$4,000,000.

Khan is due for sentencing on October 16 and while Judge Irizarry has accepted Khan’s plea, she has stated that she has the final say on how many years he serves. One person, the cousin of slain TV talk show host Ronald Waddell, has objected to the sentence, calling it too lenient for Khan’s crimes in Guyana, including the murder of her cousin.

While noting that the agreed upon sentence is below the applicable life sentence, Campbell defended it, explaining that the disposition of the case without the need for a lengthy or costly trial would conserve substantial judicial and US government resources, while avoiding litigation risks for both sides. He noted that the US Government had anticipated calling numerous witnesses at the narcotics trial, many of whom are Guyanese citizens. In anticipation, the prosecution took steps to protect the witnesses from retaliation or intimidation by not disclosing their identities to the extent possible, relocating certain individuals and delaying or avoiding deportations to Guyana. “Because the defendant pleaded guilty prior to the exchange of 3500 material or a witness list, the government avoided disclosing the identities of its prospective witnesses or the substance of their testimony,” Campbell explained, adding, “Also, by disposing of this case by plea, the government has protected information provided by the cooperating witnesses about other targets of the investigation who have not been arrested.”

He said Khan was taken to the US to face serious narcotics charges, which could have resulted in mandatory indictment if he was convicted of all charges in the superseding indictment. However, he said Khan conducted his narcotics business entirely from abroad and, for the most part, insulated himself from direct contact with the recipients if his drug in the US district. And while the police in Guyana had seized documents and equipment from locations associated with Khan, Campbell said it would have been a challenge to establish the necessary foundation to admit that to evidence at the trial or use it to connect the defendant directly to narcotics trafficking. “The most powerful evidence against the defendant in the narcotics case would come from the government’s cooperating witnesses, who also tie the defendant to the government’s other evidence. Building a case through the use of cooperating witnesses, while often successful, is not without risk,” Campbell pointed out. He noted that the witnesses would have been involved in narcotics trafficking and many had extensive criminal histories and while the government had confidence in its evidence of Khan’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, there was always the possibility that a jury could question the testimony of the cooperating witnesses based on their criminal histories.

Campbell noted that at least one third party objected to the plea disposition, believing “15 years is too lenient” based on allegations that the defendant was involved in multiple murders or other bad acts in Guyana.

On August 21, Sheila Waddell wrote to Justice Irizarry and pleaded with her not to accept the plea bargain, saying that Khan was implicated in the murder of Ronald Waddell and the murders of many others.

However, Campbell said he had not been charged with murder in the US. “To the extent that the defendant is responsible for other crimes in Guyana, he may face additional charges after he is deported to Guyana if local law enforcement officials decide that is appropriate,” he said.

According to Campbell, by accepting the plea agreement the US government has saved enormous judicial and prosecutorial resources by eliminating the need for at least one and possibly up to three trials, including a lengthy trial on the narcotics charges encompassing several different narcotics investigations. “The plea here results in substantial savings of judicial and government resources,” Campbell said, adding that the defence had indicated its intentions to pursue foreign depositions involving still more resources involving potential disputes over the admissibility and relevance of that testimony, as well as a potential rebuttal case by the government.

‘Successful drug
trafficker’
Giving a background to the case Campbell said, as set forth in the Presentence Investigation Report (PSR), on November 29, 1993 Khan was arrested in the District of Vermont and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm after he purchased three firearms from a federal agent in exchange for two ounces of marijuana. After he was released on bail he fled to Guyana in 1994 and while he lived openly here, he remained a fugitive on the gun charge until his arrest in 2006. Campbell said that while in Guyana, Khan worked in the construction industry as he told the Probation Department that he was always self-employed in construction. “The defendant’s mother stated that he worked for another construction company and then opened his own construction company in 2002, as well as other businesses,” Campbell said in the letter.

It was beginning in or around June 2001, according to Campbell, and continuing until his arrest in June 2006 that Khan imported kilogramme quantities of cocaine into the US. He said that as set forth in the PSR, the government seized a drug ledger which indicated that Davendra Persaud, a Guyanese narcotics trafficker based in the US, received over 150 kilogrammes of cocaine from Khan’s narcotics organisation in early 2003. Persaud was subsequently gunned down on Main Street outside the then Palm Court Restaurant and Bar. Before they had accepted Khan’s guilty plea the prosecutors had accused him of murdering Persaud.

“Over time, as the defendant’s narcotics operation became more profitable, it appears that the defendant became one of the more successful drug traffickers in Guyana,” Campbell said.

Khan was charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the US over a five-year period, from January 2001 to March 2006. The US government has also said he was the leader of a cocaine trafficking organisation based in Georgetown that was able to import huge amounts of cocaine into Guyana, and then oversee exportation to the US and elsewhere. It charged that a significant amount of the cocaine distributed by Khan went to the Eastern District of New York for further distribution. As an example, it cited a Guyanese drug trafficking organisation based in Queens, New York, which it said was supplied by Khan. The Queens organisation was said to have distributed hundreds of kilos of cocaine in a two-month period during the spring of 2003.
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Government refuses to disburse to the Critchlow Labour College monies budgeted and approved by Parliament

2009-09-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

Stabroek News Letter to the Editor, September 25, 2009. There should not be double standards. http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/09/25/there-should-not-be-double-standards/

Dear Editor,

I am prompted to reply to public statements made by Mr Norman Faria, Guyana Honorary Consul to Barbados condemning several positions I have taken on contemporary issues and more so those pertaining to Guyana. I wish to reiterate my position that I stand on the side of justice and fair play regardless of who heads the government. I stood against what I perceived to be the unjust actions of all former governments, and I shall continue to stand against any form of injustice at this time when it is clear that those who are given the privilege to lead consider the country their personal property and the citizens their subjects.

As Honorary Consul to Barbados it is Mr Faria’s responsibility to, among other diplomatic tasks, represent the rights and dignity of Guyanese citizens in Barbados.

This is however not without noting my serious concern about his willingness to export and advance the partisan politics of the PPP government, whose disregard for human rights is being exposed daily.

I am concerned that while he seeks to tell us about the transgressions in respect of Guyanese rights in Barbados, at the same time he remains silent on rights violations by the Government of Guyana in relation to some Guyanese. This is a double standard.

I am sure as Honorary Consul he is aware the Government of Guyana continues to refuse to disburse to the Critchlow Labour College monies budgeted and approved by Parliament, and moreso seeks to deny the college any future allocations. The funding that I am referring to belongs to the taxpayers and was given to the college from its inception in 1968. This college provides training and education for taxpayers, some of whom are prepared to upgrade their skills and desire a second chance to complete a high school education. The fact that this denial affects a student population which is predominantly African, feeds the Social Sciences programmes at the University of Guyana, raises questions about the partisan nature of the government’s decision. Additionally, the government has also refused to disburse to the Guyana Trades Union Congress a grant approved by Parliament, and has since established a parallel trade union federation which validates its human rights abuses. This grant was in place since independence and was never denied even though there were instances when the trade unions and former governments were at logger-heads.

The Consul is also aware of the many state agencies that employed a dominant African labour force, which over the years were either closed, or significantly downsized and no efforts made to create employment opportunities for those affected or protect their pension plans, despite the fact that proposals have been offered by the trade union community and other interest groups. Juxtapose this with the government’s continued investments in the Indian dominated economic sectors, such as in sugar and rice, among others, and the impact of our concerns becomes even more disconcerting.

Repeated attacks on Dr Kean Gibson, UWI Lecturer, to the extent of writing the General Manager, Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, Television, was nothing short of attempting to deny her the right to freedom of speech in sharing her understanding of the racial and political oppression in Guyana. Similar attempts have also been made to silence or demonise others in and out of Barbados who have spoken out against the transgressions inflicted on Guyanese at home. This assumed role is inconsistent with the mandate of Honourary Consul since no government should be involved in attacking its citizens’ rights regardless of where they are located.

Within recent years law and order in Guyana have been under siege. There have been many murders where the guilty parties and the reasons for such actions remain a mystery. Many have fallen victim to murder, drive-by shootings, profiling, single executions, violence and robberies, but justice is yet to be served. Persons deemed to be criminals have been murdered by the police and army and no inquest held consistent with the law. Hundreds have died at the hands of the death/phantom squad(s) supported by rogue elements in the Guyana Police Force and Guyana Defence Force, and without being discountenanced by officialdom. Had a civilized approach been taken the appropriate investigations would have been conducted; those identified would have been charged; evidence presented in court; found guilty; and the victims’ families would have received justice, having been clear in their minds who was responsible for the death of their loved ones. The society too would have been better served from these experiences.

Guyana is in crisis. As a Guyanese I share the concerns of those desirous of seeing the country return to normalcy, where our laws are respected and everyone, regardless of race, sex, creed or political persuasion, can have equal access to the country’s resources. Every citizen who believes in a just society has a responsibility to uphold the constitution and laws. It should however be noted the government and its representatives have a greater responsibility and as such Mr Faria’s voice is needed to speak out against the lawlessness, injustices and inequity committed daily.

Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
General Secretary (on leave)
Guyana Trades Union Congress
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the President’s friend Dr Bobby Ramroop benefits from State concessions

2009-09-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

Stabroek News Letter to the Editor, 26 September 2009. No level playing field
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/09/26/no-level-playing-field/

Dear Editor,
In November 2006 the Jagdeo administration suddenly and arbitrarily withdrew all state advertisements from the privately-owned Stabroek News. Mr Jagdeo, after being persistently press-ed for a reason, explained to a non-believing public that the decision had been made on the grounds of readership and economics.

When President Jagdeo on April 8, 2008, equally suddenly and arbitrarily, announced that he was relaxing the ban, some saw it as the result of the tireless struggle for just such a removal, by the late Editor-in-Chief of Stabroek News, Mr David de Caires and others. Others saw in it, to use an elegant term, a sleight of hand. Among the latter group were those who were aware that the Presi-dent’s friend Dr Bobby Ramroop, already the recipient of improper contracts from the Ministry of Health, was about to set up a newspaper under a package of unlawful concessions for his business which also benefited the newspaper.

That cynicism and suspicion were justified in a most glaring manner last Wednesday when the Ramroop newspaper, the Guyana Times, with a modest circulation, had state advertisements equivalent to those of the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News combined measured in terms of column inches. Undisputedly, these newspapers have a total circulation of approximately ten times that of the Guyana Times.
Of the many implications of this state of affairs, I find the following three most disturbing:

1. The extent to which the President is prepared to give away state resources in the form of government-owned property and taxes to favoured persons.

2. That like the Guyana Chronicle and the NCN, the Guyana Times is being subsidised by taxpayers to promote the partisan interests of the government and the private interests of the same favoured persons.

3. That the PPP/C, a self-described working class party, is prepared to divert the taxes paid by the working class to those who already have.
Instead of those in the private sector and the Private Sector Commission heeding the not too subtle call by President Jagdeo to boycott the Kaieteur News, all Guyanese should be thankful to the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News for their resoluteness in the face of this increasingly undemocratic and pernicious onslaught.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
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URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/09/26/no-level-playing-field/

Fear today worse than in Burnhamite days - MP Moses Nagamootoo" - … Public Freedom of Information forum

2009-09-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item, Thursday 24 September 2009 - "Fear today worse than in Burnhamite days - MP Moses Nagamootoo" - … Public Freedom of Information forum
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/09/24/fear-today-worse-than-in-burnhamite-days-mp-moses-nagamootoo/

Moses Nagamootoo, who worked as a journalist during the days of the regime of Forbes Burnham, when his newspaper was denied newsprint, has described the fear in Guyana today as worse than the “Burnhamite days.”

Enrico Woolford, U.S journalist Herb Frazier, and Moses Nagamootoo, at the public forum

Enrico Woolford, U.S journalist Herb Frazier, and Moses Nagamootoo, at the public forum

Nagamootoo was among the speakers at a U.S. Embassy-sponsored public forum on Freedom of Information legislation. He said that what Guyana needs is a new wave of democracy.

Nagamootoo, a practising attorney, and Member of Parliament for the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP), said that he is seeing in Guyana “large doses of fear” by the media in reporting stories that could be deemed offensive to the administration. He said he is sensing in Guyana an “unease” that has never experienced before.

Nagamootoo, who also once served as Minister of Information, posited that while there are costs that would be associated with the government enacting and implementing Freedom of Information Legislation, it is a cost that is necessary and important for Guyana.

Executive member of the Guyana Press Association and Capitol News Editor-in-chief, Enrico Woolford, bemoaned the fact that the government is yet to table Freedom of Information legislation in Parliament despite President Bharrat Jagdeo’s statement in April that this was being drafted and would be tabled in two months.

It is now five months since Jagdeo made the statement at a press conference held on the hems of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

In early July, the President said that the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation would likely be introduced in the National Assembly in October when Parliament comes out of recess.

Late last month, Jagdeo promised that there will be broadcast legislation by next year. Woolford posited that “freedom of information delayed is freedom of information denied.”

The public forum yesterday was one in a series of discussions on responsible journalism and principles of press freedom, with specific attention paid to the U.S. experience and it’s Freedom of Information Act.

The feature presentation was by US journalist Mr. Herb Frazier, whose experience ranged from covering health care and the criminal justice system, to numerous U.S. presidential elections.

Sunday editorial contained misrepresentations and distortions

2009-09-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday editorial contained misrepresentations and distortions

Stabroek News letter. September 22, 2009.

Dear Editor,
The Government of Guyana has noted the editorial carried in the Sunday Stabroek of September 20 under the caption ‘Blackmail,’ and feels constrained to correct the misrepresentations and distortions contained therein.

Firstly, the editorial makes a deliberate attempt to distort the President’s comment on the option of an interim management committee (IMC) being installed by stating that “the President called a sudden press conference in which he said that if PNCR Leader Robert Corbin agreed, an IMC could be in place tomorrow.” In fact, the comment made by the President on the IMC option was offered in response to a question asked by a reporter at the press conference. Instead, the editorial attempts to suggest that the purpose of the press conference was somehow to announce a desire to have an IMC installed.
Secondly, the editorial seeks to suggest that “Freedom House or the Office of the President or both want an excuse to impose an Interim Management Committee on the capital,” and that the government somehow wishes to demonstrate that the city council can’t manage the city.

In this regard, the city council needs absolutely no assistance in demonstrating that they are woefully incapable of managing the city.

Practically every resident of Georgetown, and every right-minded Guyanese, knows of the city council’s ineptitude in collecting rates and taxes due, and of its incompetence and lack of accountability in managing its expenditure.
Thirdly, the editorial seeks to suggest that the council does not have enough revenue to discharge its mandate, and argues that even if the council was the most efficient body in the hemisphere that it would still not have enough funds to run the city. This most astonishing assertion is made without absolutely any empirical evidence, without data on revenue or potential revenue, and without any analysis of the council’s expenditure. In fact, when the records are examined, the fact of the matter is that the council has billions of dollars that are not being collected from ratepayers in default, including the likes of Congress Place which owes City Hall over $100 million in outstanding rates and taxes and has thus far blatantly refused to discharge this liability.

Indeed, it borders on the unbelievable that, instead of calling for more efficient management of existing resources at City Hall, including stepping up collection of currently outstanding rates and taxes and by reducing expenditure in non-critical areas, Stabroek News chooses to call for a broadening of the revenue base of City Hall. The latter call, were it to be granted, would inevitably and obviously lead to more local government rates and taxes having to be paid by the private sector and households living in Georgetown. This call reflects, more clearly than ever before, that the authors and editorial teams at Stabroek News are completely out of touch with reality and with the sentiments of the average Georgetown resident. There is absolutely no appetite for higher rates and taxes to be paid, especially knowing that the resources that are currently collected by City Hall are so woefully mismanaged.

Fourthly, it is striking and revealing that the editorial steers clear of the real issue, this being the fact that the city council has failed continuously to collect its potential revenue, has mismatched and mismanaged its expenditure, and has therefore failed to deliver on its mandate over the years since 1994. This fact, however, has failed to meet the attention, or serve the agenda, of the editor of Stabroek News.
Yours faithfully,
Kellawan Lall
Minister of Local
Government and
Regional Development

Editor’s note
It is perfectly true that the main purpose of President Jagdeo’s press conference was not to float the possibility of the installation of an Interim Management Committee and it was not the intention of the editorial to suggest that it was. However, it really doesn’t matter how the issue arose, the point is that during the course of his briefing the President was frank in expressing his view that an IMC would be the solution to the current travails in the capital and that if Mr Corbin co-operated one could be installed “tomorrow.” If that is the government’s preferred route then it would explain a great deal about otherwise inexplicable behaviour, such as allowing garbage to pile up for two weeks in a tropical city, representing a major threat to public health.

Where the collection of outstanding rates is concerned, we would direct Minister Lall’s attention to the leader from the week before, where it was stated that the municipality no longer had the tools to compel defaulting rate-payers to meet their financial obligations to the city. The problem is not, therefore, a question of “ineptitude” in terms of collection; the most the council can do is present the ‘carrot’ of an amnesty to defaulters in terms of interest payments (which it has done), but it no longer has a ‘stick.’ While the editorial of September 13 did not actually say so, it did carry the implication that the remedy ultimately to address this particular problem lay in the first instance in central government taking the initiative.

The ‘stick’ referred to above, was parate execution, and therein hangs an interesting tale. In 2007 another Sunday editorial made a point similar to the one which Mr Lall has made above, namely, that even if the revenue base of the city was not to be expanded, the municipality could do a more efficient job of collecting the rates and levying on the properties of defaulters. In response, we received an erudite letter from attorney-at-law, Mr Leon Rockliffe, which was published on November 19, 2007. He alerted us to the amendments to the Municipal and District Councils Act and the Local Government Act which were passed in 1988, and which he said had “the untoward effect of stultifying the parate execution process for rate recovering…” He also explained to us the various other impediments which stood in the way of reviving parate execution. He then said: “It is clear that the existing legal situation calls for drastic executive action, firstly in removal or attenuation of the paralytic effects of the Amendment Acts of 1988 and a serious meeting of the entire Local Government body with the Registrars of Deeds, Lands and the High Court and with appropriate legal advice. There is no alternative to urgent executive action.”

We would be more than willing to make available to Minister Lall the full text of Mr Rockliffe’s letter if he so desires.
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Blackmail

2009-09-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

Blackmail

Stabroek News. September 20, 2009. Editorial | 18 Comments

So finally the President has shown the ruling party’s hand. The citizens of Georgetown have to endure the piles of refuse and the serious health hazard that these represent, because the denizens of Freedom House or the Office of the President or both want an excuse to impose an Interim Management Committee on the capital. The theory is that by demonstrating that the Mayor and City Council can’t manage the city, we would all be amenable to an IMC, which would then proceed to clean up GT – backed by ample resources from the central government, of course. After that out of gratitude, we would all traipse cheerfully to the local government polls and vote for a PPP council.

On Friday the President called a sudden press conference in which he said that if PNCR Leader Robert Corbin agreed, an IMC could be in place “tomorrow.” Technically, he doesn’t need the PNCR’s agreement; it’s just that Georgetown has not traditionally been a PPP preserve, and the party does not want to be accused of acting in authoritarian mode. Perhaps they feel that Mr Corbin may be ready to co-operate with them at this point, as he did in the case of Linden, where he acceded to the removal of the town council and the installation of an IMC. The fly in this particular ointment, of course, is that Mayor Hamilton Green now sits as a member of the central executive of the PNCR, so it is difficult to see Mr Corbin abandoning his senior party colleague for Mr Jagdeo.

It is true that Georgetown had an IMC once before, but that was prior to the 1994 elections. It must be noted too that despite the fact that this PPP/C committee cleaned up the city with some vigour, courtesy of funds from the central administration, it did not have much of an impact on the voting habits of the residents.

Two things about the current situation bear repeating: the first is that the M&CC has very little power under the law, and the second is that the city’s revenue base is too slender to allow the municipal authorities to discharge their functions adequately. While the government has spent the last fifteen years blaming the council for the capital’s shortcomings, as was said last week the person with the most power in relation to the municipality is not the Mayor, but the Minister of Local Government.

This has even been acknowledged by government spokesmen, although not directly in relation to Georgetown. In a letter in our newspaper published on August 22 this year from Mr Clinton Collymore, it was stated: “Minister Lall in his capacity of Local Government Minister is by the very nature of his office, already in full control of every single NDC in Guyana… This total control is by virtue of laws passed by the dictatorial PNC regime in the 1969-73 period, when Burnham ruled.” While he is talking of Neighbourhood Democratic Councils here, with some qualifications it applies to municipal authorities as well.

While the council prepares the budget, and has oversight committees, it does not actually handle the money or have any direct control over the municipality’s senior officers. Power in relation to the latter lies with the Minister of Local Government, who is the only one who can suspend or fire the top officials if they are not performing or if they are corrupt. The Mayor has no authority to discipline the senior staff. This has enabled the President in the past to bypass the Mayor et al, and just deal with the Town Clerk and senior officials directly when he has wanted some project carried out. And for all the government’s complaints about inefficiency and corruption at City Hall, it took years before it exercised its considerable powers and moved to do anything about it.

This is not to suggest that the M&CC is blameless, or that given more authority it would discharge its duties more competently; it would not. It is simply to recognize that its ability to act is severely circumscribed, and that in critical areas Minister Lall has more leverage in city affairs than does the Mayor.

We will repeat too what we said last week about financial resources; the M&CC does not have sufficient revenue to carry out its functions. In a sense that was by implication conceded by the President on Friday when he listed all the things the government had paid for in the past. Even if the council was the most efficient body in the hemisphere, it still would not have enough funds to run the city. (The rates are too low, and as elaborated on last week, there is no effective sanction now against defaulting ratepayers.) Mr Jagdeo’s present grouse (excuse?) seems to be that the council has been given money by central government to cut the grass and it cannot even do that properly. But that is irrelevant to the present crisis, which, as everyone knows, has come about because the M&CC cannot pay its contractors to remove the garbage.

So we have a situation where central government habitually allows crises to develop (it likes the garbage ones best, for obvious reasons), then complains about corruption or incompetence or inefficiency at City Hall, before stepping in eventually to ‘save’ the citizenry. However, to put the health of residents at risk for as long as two weeks for the sake of a political advantage appears extraordinarily cynical.

Since the aim of the latest drama is to install an IMC, one can reasonably conclude that the ruling party would want it in place for long enough to demonstrate the wonder of its works. As such, therefore, it is also reasonable to conclude that contrary to all its protestations that it wants local government elections held soon, it may not at all be averse to a delay. The government holds the election purse strings, for example, and it has not yet explained why De la Rue, which had been contracted to produce the ID cards was not paid until June 11 (it needed 90% up front), when it was known that the period of production was four months. There were other delays too, which could not all be placed at the door of Gecom.

Could it be that what it really wants is for local government elections to take place at the same time as national elections? If so, it should come out in the open and say so, and let the matter be debated publicly in a rational way.

At the time of writing it was not known what the President offered in his meeting with Deputy Mayor Robert Williams and city officials yesterday. One can only hope that he will indeed spare a thought for the health of those who have to live in the capital and come to some arrangement to solve the immediate crisis. As for the longer term, something else needs to be in place, and that something is not an IMC. Hopefully, Mr Corbin will see the current ruling party manoeuvres to get a management committee installed for what they are – a form of blackmail.

Finally, the President’s refusal to include the Mayor in his meeting with the city officials does him no credit. It doesn’t matter what he thinks of Mr Green the man, as head of state he is required to show the office of Mayor public respect.
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18 Comments To "Blackmail"

#1 Comment By Marc(Welcome to the Garden City) On September 20, 2009 @ 7:40 am

Editor:I guess you love your garbage so much that its starting to manifest in your editorial.The city stinks and it is the responibility of the M&CC to keep it clean so stop putting a political spin on this stinking affair,the city is being cleaned up at present thanks to the Presidential intervention and thats what matters.This “Garbage City” affair is about incompetence and not about votes.The IMC works,you yourself said so in this article.

#2 Comment By LIND On September 20, 2009 @ 9:22 am

HAVE THE LOCAL GOVT ELECTIONS. THAT IS WHAT JAGDEO AND THE PPP ARE AFRAID OF ..HAMILTON GREENE WILL WIN THE MAYORSHIP AGAIN…IMC SHOULD BE PUT IN PLACE FOR THE CENTRAL GOVT BECAUSE OF CORRUPTION /OPPRESSION/ DISCRIMINATION/ROGER KHAN/ EXTRA JUDICIAL KILLINGS/TORTURE/CLICO /NIS/DOLPHIN SCANDAL/LINDO CREEK/DRUG DEALING BARONS AND SEXUAL PREDATORS THAT ARE IN HIGH PLACES…THE LIST GOES ON AND ON AND IT IS A VALID REASON FOR AN IMC TO REPLACE THE PRESENT CABAL.

#3 Comment By Sase Singh On September 20, 2009 @ 9:23 am

I really enjoy these “focused and factual” editorials on Sundays. Bharat Jagdeo created Mayor Green and tolerated him all these years so why all of a sudden, Mayor Green is bad. Mayor Green is a creature of Jagdeo. If Jgdeo was serious about Georgetown, he would have dispensed the services of Hamiton Green since then, why now?

All the iniatives at fund raising y City Hall were ignored by The President. THIS IS LIVE BHARAT JAGDEO – SQUEEZE YOUR POCKET AND THEN CRITICISE YOU. He did it to so many PPP cadres.
His turn will come when he does not have control of the purse string of Guyana and PPP anymore and his turn will come when the PPP will put him out in the pasture to dry out and then he would really feel the true impact of how he has inconvenience thousands for his personal agradisment.

This is exactly how Stalin operated in the Soviet Union.
He will instruct officials to go after Ramjattan, Trotman, et all but he will never send them by Corbin because he is the biggest fan of Corbin. Jagdeo without the PNC is nothing. He has a vested interest in preserving the PNC. Look out AFC, over the next 2 years, you will be under the microscope and you will feel the full brunt of the state. Police will be used against you, other officials will be used against you, you will be taken to court for libel, slander. The same will be done to Stabroek and Kaietuer News. It all in the book Hegemony or Survival.

It sicken me on how messed up these people are. I pray for 2011 to come fast so that we can a stable head like Luncheon or Ramkarran as our head of state. Time is up for the petty minded in charge, it is time for real men to take charge of Guyana.

#4 Comment By Raj On September 20, 2009 @ 10:05 am

Congrats SN. This is one of your better article. Move this quality of writing to your news section and Guyana will grow into a better society.

#5 Comment By Stakeholder On September 20, 2009 @ 10:26 am

Great editorial. What might also be in the mind of the President and his strategists is that the Georgetown garbage situation would not play too well in the international arena where the President is proud of the recognition he is getting as an environmental steward. Of course the folks in the international arena are not aware of the corruption, discrimination and dictatorial behavior over which the president presides at home.

#6 Comment By Marc(Clean City By Presidential Decree) On September 20, 2009 @ 11:24 am

Stop being bitter, the President has finally learned to be the type of leader the lawless Guyanes people deserve.Being strong like Burnham is the only way things can get done in Guyana.

#7 Comment By George Bell On September 20, 2009 @ 1:13 pm

Why don’t you tell everyone, why you are so bitter. You are probably the only person who has ever actually applied for the job as Minister of Finance. You sent in CV and references. Because you did not get the job, now PPP bad. You are delusional. Bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping that your enemy dies.

#8 Comment By SKY On September 20, 2009 @ 3:13 pm

Great editorial and also great comments (mostly).

#9 Comment By Danny DeAbru On September 20, 2009 @ 4:52 pm

BLACKMAIL! Nothing in this article adds up to blackmail.Political strategies.GT needs a ‘cake shop’ government,then all the persons who are not satisfied & has easy access to air their discontentment would be happy.The mayor has no shame.

#10 Comment By yasuman71 On September 20, 2009 @ 6:09 pm

Marc, please don’t start another Bastille Day here. We may not always agree with the SN editor, but we must show decorum in return for the forum only SN has generously given us.
Citizen Marc, redirect thy lance to there brawling Brandon!

#11 Comment By L. C. Lee On September 20, 2009 @ 6:48 pm

I am so sorry for us, our president is prepared to gamble with our lives to achieve political “success.” This is why Guyanese are disrespected at airports around the world, we have and continue to degrade ourselves.

#12 Comment By Keck and Kwence On September 20, 2009 @ 7:10 pm

Very brave editorial; thanks for call it like you see it. The actions of the “imperial president” and the PPP cabal is blackmail pure and simple.

#13 Comment By Berbician On September 20, 2009 @ 7:33 pm

I spent 3 weeks in Guyana last month,the STENCH in the CAPITAL Georgetown was most disgusting!!
Surprisingly the residents are oblivious to the stench.The cleanest drain in the city is in front of City Hall,yet the canal on the avenue of the Republic has about 8 feet of silt inside.
Your Editor in chief considers it blackmail when Govt ask for changes in return for help,this only confirms what is already known,
that is,stench in the capital in good for BIG Business.

#14 Comment By michael tannassee On September 20, 2009 @ 8:12 pm

….burnham was only strong as green an de police an de army mek ‘e ! beyond dat he was just de regulah thug dat he was ,,

ah hare dem seh ,, dat yuh can duh as much as yuh like ,, but nat as lang as yuh like ,, caz if to anyone anything dem doin is nat enuff dem ,, “time” is clearly nat pon dem side ! caz all good things must come to an end !……. aks burnham he gon tell yuh !…..

#15 Comment By Cochore On September 20, 2009 @ 8:24 pm

Excellent analysis here Stabroek News, thank you very much for laying out the pertinent facts in a time line about the complicated relationship between the Central gov’t and the City/Local gov’t.

Very fair and very balance in identifying the strategic moves of a cunning leadership, who deliberately implement childish schemes to game the Georgetown citizenry into voting for them at election time. This is cheap politicking at the expense of a Public Health disaster.

Once again great job Ndugu, however, I think that another interesting topic to explore in an editorial would be to figure out how one elected public servant decides in public that he does not want to work with another duly elected public servant for the benefit of the electorate. What is the protocol, relationships and responsibilities for diplomacy and cooperation between elected Public Servants, if any at all.

#16 Comment By Sase Singh On September 21, 2009 @ 2:04 am

Dear George Bell:

If you read carefully my article. I never said the PPP is bad. I still believe that the PPP will get the largest chunk of votes come 2011 and the best the AFC can do now is to work hard to become the main opposition.

The problem in Guyana is not the old head in the PPP like the Luncheon’s and the Ramkarran, it is the inexperience political tactics that is making the Government look foolish. I am convinced that the older head are waiting out this period of tribulation.

Now let me put a myth to rest. A lie repeat a million time will become a truth for some people and your statements are a blatant lie that I applied with CV for Minister wuk. In my books people like Rajendra Rampersaud were more qualified than me politically and worked more with Dr Jagan to understand what he wanted. For me, Rajendra Rampersaud should have been the Minister of Finance ages ago.

I am not bitter, I am disgusted by the waste of time and money that is currently occuring. I saw Cheddi Jagan worked, I know what the PPP is capable of and thus I am disgusted that all that great potential is being put to waste. You have a situation where Guyana is no longer important to the leading cabal, it is all about friends and family.

This is why I am disgusted because country is not being put first. The minute Guyana is put first, then I will fade away since I am very happy with my current life and do not need any Minister wuk to secure self satisfaction. But until this cabal continue to play games with every little aspect of Guyana for their personal agrandisment, I will write and it is affect them becuase what they are doing is wrong. They will hide and write foolishness under phantom names like George but I always remember a saying that Jagdeo said to Ramjattan, when you come to crab march you must get mud on your skin. What George and the other do not know, I am immune from the mud.

Sase

#17 Comment By Sase Singh On September 21, 2009 @ 2:14 am

CoChore:

you raise a very ethical point. The people of GT elected Green (my views on Green and the PNC is public knowledge) and thus until the people elect another Mayor, he is the duly recognised Mayor.

How does it work when one elected official refuse to work with another elected official at the expense of the citizens of the city?

This is quite an interesting concept? Please note this is not the first time that the city is allowed to stink and then some political gransatanding is done. It will be done again so look out for another stinking session next year.

#18 Comment By amenra[jackass seh de wurl na level] On September 21, 2009 @ 5:33 pm

Stakeholder they know now, because we were there protesting him, you can see the shame and embarrassment on his face, we had our placards and we highlighted all the attrocities that is taking place under his watch.

Article printed from Stabroek News: http://www.stabroeknews.com

URL to article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/editorial/09/20/blackmail/

GOOD MEN AND WOMEN MUST ACT!

2009-09-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News Editorial, Sunday 20 September 2009 - "GOOD MEN AND WOMEN MUST ACT!" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/09/20/good-men-and-women-must-act/

The State and government both have an obligation in free societies to support the media by allowing access to public officials and information. The availability of this information contributes to an enlightened polity and thus informed choices. The ability to make such choices strengthens democracy and creates conditions whereby citizens feel that their views will not only be known but acted upon, thereby reducing the chasm between politicians and the people and brining the latter closer to the decision-making process. In this regard, the media acts as a conduit between the policymaker and the citizens, allowing a flow of information and feedback.
The media is also the watchdog for citizens, guarding against excesses and incompetence, corruption and ineptitude. The media as a watchdog serves a function that benefits the people, the State and government.
In Guyana today, it would seem as if there is a lack of appreciation by the government for the important role the media plays as a watchdog. The trials and tribulations that this newspaper has been subjected to simply for reporting on matters of public concern has reached the stage whereby it is being forced to defend a slew of libel cases, but even more tragically, is having grave difficulties in obtaining matters which any government ought to have been willing to provide readily to the media.
After this newspaper broke certain stories in the media, one minister actually encouraged the media to continue its work, by asking for the help of the media in monitoring all government contracts falling under his portfolio.
However, despite repeated requests to government officials for information on certain contracts, this newspaper remains empty-handed, thereby making a mockery of that minister’s invitation to the media. This newspaper has also sought additional information concerning contracts in the education sector. We are still waiting.
How then is the public interest served? How can we provide the necessary investigative journalism when there is a virtual embargo against us when it comes to obtaining information on government tendering, something that has been the subject of major controversy in this country?
We shall continue to persevere and keep the nation informed as to our frustrations in obtaining details of government projects. We however remain open to exploring all avenues so as to bring matters of public importance to the people. As such, if the doors of officialdom continue to be slammed shut in our faces, we shall pursue our cause through the international financial institutions that fund public works since all of these institutions and also the donor countries are, we believe, firmly committed to openness and transparency in the award of contracts funded by these countries and international financial institutions.
Not all contracts are, of course, funded by the international financial institutions. As we have seen there is significant work being undertaken using resources obtained from taxpayers. These taxpayers have an obligation to know how every cent of their money is being spent. This newspaper therefore will continue to make efforts to bring to the attention of the public how their monies are being used, regardless of how often we are rebuffed.
There are, of course, other bodies in whose faces doors cannot be shut and who can play an important role, in keeping with their mandates, in ensuring public transparency and accountability. We refer here to the Office of the Auditor General who has powers to investigate whether public funds have found its way into anyone’s bankbook and whether there has been value for money in relation to works executed with the use of public funds.
The Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly is also empowered to demand records and interrogate public officials about the use of public funds. We hope that when the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly is convened, it will as the first order of business summon the requisite parties and demand explanations as to the award of the contracts, particularly those that have in recent weeks been highlighted in this newspaper.

Jagdeo defends contracts

2009-09-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur News news item, Saturday 19 September 2009 - "Jagdeo defends contracts…says engineer’s estimates just a guideline" - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/09/19/jagdeo-defends-contracts/

By Gary Eleazar

Head of State, Bharrat Jagdeo, defended contracts undertaken by government agencies yesterday at a press briefing citing the open tender process.
According to Jagdeo, media operatives need to be educated on the various tender processes, adding that there are several agencies that Government gets funding from in the form of loans and grants with each of the agencies having their own procurement rules that are different to that of Government.
“In some cases you have an open tender and you have a point system…the persons who get the highest points based on technical capacity and the price… they get the contract.”
He noted that in other cases it will just go to the lowest prices after that contractor would have been pre-qualified, “in another situation like with the Inter-American Development Bank you have a two-envelope system.”
Jagdeo pointed out that this system was in place in the past where, “you only open the envelope for the highest ranked bidder…so the highest ranked bidder on technical terms might have the highest bid in financial terms, but you don’t get to open the other bids.”
He said that this was the case because that bidder would have been the highest ranked, “and you have to negotiate with them.”
He explained that it was only when the negotiations fail then talks will be opened with the next ranked bidder. “Our laws say the lowest evaluated bid.” According to the president, there was a time when the engineer’s estimate were secret and “many of the people could be corrupt…if you have three bidders they have a point system where they would say the closer you get to the engineer’s estimate the highest points you get.”
As such, he explained that if one were to know what the engineer’s estimate was, then that contractor would have had an advantage over the other contractors, “many of the contractors used to bribe people to get the engineer’s estimate.”
The president however noted that to the government, the engineer’s estimate was just a guide, “everyone should know the engineer’s estimate even before the bid, “because what happens is it is the lowest evaluated bid that we go with, “so if you know the engineer’s estimate it doesn’t matter to us…it is the lowest evaluated bid through a public competitive process that we go to.”
A point to note is that this newspaper has for several weeks now been requesting the engineer estimates for several projects but is yet to receive any of them.
“So a man can easily come like Kaieteur News could come and say we will get the pump,” Jagdeo continued.
He pointed out that they had defined the specifications of the pump, “and we go out to tender…we go with the lowest price once the people meet the specs(specifications)…so Kaieteur News comes along and says we could have gotten it for $10M cheaper.”
The president said that he did not know whether the pump that Kaieteur News managed to source for far less than what was actually spent was to the desired specification.
Jagdeo also suggested that if this newspaper could have sourced the pump cheaper then it should have entered a bid of its own, “because we have to operate on bids.”
The president noted that soliciting sole sourcing of items was not a transparent process in that it would involve the preferences of the purchaser, “the only transparent system that you have is a public tender.”
He said too that there may be some times when the lowest public tender is higher that the actual price but insisted that the public tender process provided against corruption.
“Whether we will get ripped off sometimes where we buy because of the tender higher than the actual prices are, or the tenderer makes a huge profit, there may be circumstances where this happens…I can’t put my head on the line for every contractor in this country or every Government Officer…I can’t put my head on the block for anyone.”
The president reiterated there is a public tender tendering process, unlike in the time of the PNC where according to Jagdeo, the Auditor General failed to probe contracts.
As it relates to the insinuation that the corps of contractors may have been inflating prices, the President did not group them in his answer, but said that it would be unwise for a single contractor to inflate the price in their bid, given that it would not be in their best interest as the lowest evaluated bid is used.

BK International and Roopan Ramotar Investments - contractors awarded the lion's share of all government contracts

2009-09-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Guyana Chronicle, 17 September 2009.
Work on Crabwood Creek control structures half way complete
By Tajeram Mohabir
REGION Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) Chairman Mr. Zulfikar Mustapha has reported that civil and earthen works on the Crabwood Creek control structures are some 50 per cent complete.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Mustapha pointed out that current civil works on the creek structures will control the flow of water from the back lands to the cultivation and residential areas.

That project is being executed by BK International, with a 15-month duration.

He also said the number one, two and three drainage canals at Crabwood Creek have been rehabilitated and very soon earthen works will commence there.

These canals, the Chairman noted, will link with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) main canal, providing irrigation water for farmers affected by the prevailing dry weather.

Apart from the multi-million dollar Crabwood Creek project, Mustapha said earthen works on the rehabilitation of canals in the Number 52 to 74 areas will begin next week.

He disclosed that more than 25 canals are listed to be rehabilitated; and on that score, as long as 50 to 75 per cent of the earthen works are completed, civil works will commence on projects there.

The Crabwood Creek project is part of a wider $1.2 B programme to improve drainage and irrigation structures and access roads at the Vergenogen/Bonasika, Den Amstel/Fellowship and Vreed-en-Hoop/La Jalousie areas in Region Three (West Demerara/ Essequibo Islands) and Golden Grove/Victoria, Region Four, (Demerara/Mahaica).

The Vergenoegen/Bonasika, Den Amstel/Fellowship initiative has 20 months duration, Crabwood Creek 15 months, and the Vreed-en-Hoop/ La Jalousie and Golden Grove/Victoria projects one year each.

This newspaper made several attempts to contact officials from Regions Three and Four to provide an update on the works of the projects there, but efforts proved futile.

The contracts involve the installation of 12 main head regulators, 30 secondary head regulators, 37 secondary check structures, 13 secondary tail regulators, 17 secondary culverts, one main tail regulator, 12 main outfall sluices, two secondary inverted siphons, 80 bridges and 112 kilometers of farm-to-market roads.

These are expected to increase farmers’ productivity as well as their economic status.
They are being supervised by BK International and Roopan Ramotar Investments, and monitored by project staff as well as internal and external supervisors.

Other D&I works being pursued are the rehabilitation of pump stations in Regions Four and Six, rehabilitation of D&I control structures and access roads in Canals Number One and Two Polder, and D&I systems at Cane Grove, Black Bush Polder.

Altogether, these undertakings seek to raise income of farmers on the coastal plain through increasing efficiency of agricultural production.

Specifically, the aim is to rehabilitate D&I structures, organise farmers to operate and maintain these structures, and support rice research and agriculture diversification.