Is the institutional memory of the Guyana Forestry Commission faulty?

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56529714

Is the institutional memory of the Guyana Forestry Commission faulty?
Stabroek News, Thursday, September 27th 2007

Dear Editor,

Perhaps the institutional memory of the Guyana Forestry Commission is
faulty? In your report 'GFC satisfied with asset transfer between
Jaling, Bai Shan Lin' (SN, 25.9.07), Minister Robert Persaud appears to
have said that Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL) did not have the
necessary expertise to produce the quality of value-added products.
When the Government of Guyana established the original Demerara Woods
Ltd. (DWL), and East German aid built what was then said to be the most
modern, the largest, the best tropical hardwood sawmill in South
America (article in the journal World Wood), DWL claimed just that
expertise. Likewise, when DWL became DTL, and passed into Dutch
ownership, the Green Charter then issued by the company repeated much
the same claim to expertise in value addition to tropical hardwoods,
and to market access.

How has the GFC permitted these changes in effective ownership and/or
managerial control without conducting a full exercise in due diligence,
using external expertise? The GFC has failed to substantiate DWL/DTL
claims to expertise in the past. What has happened recently to
encourage the Minister for Forestry to repeat such claims, in this
case, about the expertise of Bai Shan Lin which cannot run a mill
properly at Linden/Coomacka? ('Safety violations seen at Coomacka
timber works' SN, 15.9.07).

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56526818

As for other Timber Sales Agree-ments (TSAs), the long-term,
large-scale logging concession was granted because the enterprise
claimed that the forest would feed a modern industry. Is this not a
good example of a situation where the investor (DTL) has failed and the
sawmill licence and TSA should be rescinded? Then, and in accordance
with the National Forest Policy 1997, the concession should be
re-tendered according to the law on State Forest Exploratory Permits,
and bidders would have to explain in their applications how they would
run the associated mill. This information should be in the public
domain, not a deal involving Guyana's publicly-owned natural resources
but conducted between private sector enterprises, with the GFC hovering
uncertainly in the background without the expertise to intervene
effectively.

Yours faithfully,

Janette Bulkan