Government has recognised the impact of climate change --Persaud assures Linden residents

Government has recognised the impact of climate change
--Persaud assures Linden residents
By Sarada Singh
Guyana Chronicle, 24 March 2008
http://www.guyanachronicle.com/topstory.html#Anchor-----------30393

AGRICULTURE Minister Robert Persaud delivering brief remarks at the
Linden Constabulary Hall on the occasion of World Meteorological Day
yesterday assured the gathering that government has recognised the
impact of climate change and has undertaken several measures to deal
with the issue.


Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud (second right), Regional
Chairman Mr. Mortimer Mingo (right) and an official from the
Agriculture Ministry interacting with residents of Linden yesterday.
(Photo by Carl Croker)
He noted that climate change is causing a major shift in our way of
life, be it at home, in the field or at work.


As such, he exhorted that people have to learn to adapt to different
residential locations because of the changing weather patterns. “We
have to modify our cropping pattern, our technologies and much more,”
he stressed.

Citing a recent example the minister referred to the overtopping on the
East Coast where 90% of the population is located and approximately 85%
of the activities take place.

Persaud yesterday met with residents of Region 10 (Upper
Demerara/Berbice) to commemorate the occasion under the theme,
“observing our planet for a better future”.

This year’s observance was held under the theme, “Observing our planet
for a better future,” and featured the launching of an ozone activity
booklet entitled, “Save our sky” provided by the World Meteorological
Organisation (WMO) which encompasses a compilation of several natural
hazards around the world.

According to the minister the situation on the East Coast emerged from
the current La Nina condition associated with easterly gusty winds
combined with the low pressure system in the Atlantic that is
generating wave action causing abnormal swells and excessive high tides
affecting the Caribbean.

Persaud also advocated the support of farmers/loggers during this
period by complying with the relevant authorities whenever advisories
are being issued in ensuring the safety of every individual.

More so, he noted that some $13.5 M has been allocated for the
well-being of farmers in the Region.

The minister added that the process of getting the entire sector to
understand and prepare for the fallouts caused by climate change on
agriculture will have to be accelerated. “Nations such as ours must
intensify lobbying of those responsible for the greatest contributions
to global warming and climate change causing them to change their
attitude. They must recognize that they have a moral obligation to help
the countries that are affected most by global warming, countries like
ours that lie below a rising sea level and with limited resources to
defend ourselves against damages caused not by us but contributed by
others with greater economic wealth,” Persaud said.

“We also in Guyana, are now confronted with and are experiencing an
inconvenient reality,” the minister pointed out.

Chief Hydromeoteorological Officer (ag) Ms. Bhaleka Seulall noted that
this year’s theme is by no means a casual occurrence referring to the
year that has elapsed since the previous World Meteorological Day where
a number of crucial events have occurred, all of which have strongly
emphasised the vital and unprecedented relevance of global
observations.

She added that the provision of weather, climate and water-related
information is essential to support the socio-economic activities, such
as agriculture, transport, mining, energy production, aviation and
water resources management, all of which are crucial for the growth and
development in any country.

Ms. Seulall also appealed to the Guyanese community to contribute a few
minutes of their time so as to ensure that the Hydrometeorological
Service can effectively expand the weather, climate and water database
which will ultimately aid in improving weather predictions both locally
and internationally.

“We should begin to act locally and think globally,” she acknowledged.

World Meteorological Day celebrates the convention of the World
Meteorological Organisation (WMO) which was entered into force on March
23, 1950, a date that is celebrated annually by the meteorological
community.

Ramesh Dookhoo elected GMSA President

Ramesh Dookhoo elected GMSA President
Kaieteur News, 20 March 2008

Banks D.I.H Executive, Ramesh Dookhoo, has been elected President of
the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association Ltd. (GMSA) for
2008-2009.
He was elected at the first meeting of the Board on Wednesday
following the Association’s Annual General Meeting held last Thursday
at the GMSA’s Headquarters at the Sophia Exhibition Complex. Dookhoo
previously served as President from 2002-2004.
Terry Holder of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company is the
First Vice President while Anthony Ross of Sterling Products was
elected as Second Vice President. Autamaram Lakeram of National Milling
Company of Guyana is the third Vice President.
Expressing his appreciation for the confidence the Board had expressed
in him, Dookhoo acknowledged that there was a great deal of work to be
done by the Association, operating as it does in a challenging business
environment.
He emphasized the need for the established Committees to function
effectively and stressed the importance of the work of the Trade and
Investment and the Policy and Legislative Committees. He called on the
Chairmen of the various sub-sectors to take effective control of those
areas.
The Chairs of the various sub-sectors are Ross (Agro-Processing),
Somat Ali (Construction & Engineering), Major General (ret’d) Norman Mc
Lean (Minerals & Related Industries), Neil Fraser (Services), Mr.
Rustum Bulkan (Forestry and Wood Products) and Jimmy Lorrimer (Printing
& Packaging). The Chairs of the Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals
sub-sector and Textiles and Sewn Goods sub-sector are still to be
nominated, GMSA said in a press statement yesterday.
The other members elected to the Board at the AGM were George
Robinson, Oscar Phillips, Clement Duncan, Fitzroy Fletcher, John
Peroune, Earl John, Jocelyn Dow, Peter Pompey, Raymond Ramsaroop and
Mark Bender.

STOP IT!

Guyana Chronicle editorial, Wednesday 19 March 2008

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/editorial.html

STOP IT!

Minister Carolyn Rodrigues had the cohones to tell those who strategically
marginalise their supporters by inculcating and infusing into their
collective psyche the fallacious contention that they should not strive,
they should not endeavour, that everything should be handed to them at the
expense of the State, not to mess with the heads of the people for whose
welfare and protection she primarily holds the portfolio, as well as the
mandate covered by that portfolio, to represent their interests in the
highest law-making forum in the land.
And she should rightly be lauded for her unequivocal stand that she does not
see it fit that they should be encumbered with the profile of beggars or
bullies in the national social, political, or economic framework.
The indigenous peoples of this land are resourceful and resilient. They have
lived and thrived without any real national recognition of their needs and
have historically been sidelined within the context of Guyana's nationhood.
However, with the establishment of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs within
recent times, they are now taking their rightful place within the national
collective.
Their products, culture, and their knowledge of the flora and fauna peculiar
to Guyana's rainforests and the topography of the hinterland have proven
invaluable to Guyana's drive in eco-tourism.
Derisively labelled "Buckman," the Amerindians have been stigmatised as
backward and social misfits. Today, with equal access to education,
healthcare, communication and other facilities Guyana's indigenous peoples
are proving that they can hold their own in any area of endeavour, so it
would be a tragedy if this merger and cohesion into the national dynamic
goes in tandem with the simultaneous removal of the peculiar qualities that
contributed to their survival in Guyana's jungles.
While teaching a man to fish he needs to live until he learns the technique
adequately enough to survive on his own skills, so allocations to the
indigenous communities are not intended to encourage a culture of beggary in
their expectations; but to aid in and facilitate the transitional process
whereby the doctors, lawyers, engineers and other skilled and trained
professionals will emerge to serve their communities and the nation.
Government should not blame in totality the misguided Guyanese who prefer to
sit in idleness and complain, or even worse, take a gun and kill and rob
someone else who preferred to work and earn his keep. Entire communities
prefer to complain and lament about marginalisation and discrimination
because the leaders they trust and respect have taught them to think in this
way as this is conducive to having at their disposal enough disgruntled
people with perceived injustices to create trouble in the land when called
upon.
The people in these communities have access to the same facilities as other
communities, with an added advantage. Many have extensive yards which are
taken over by weeds. No one with that amount of land should go hungry, but
laziness and indolence can lead to real poverty. People from other
communities augment their incomes by cultivating kitchen gardens and rearing
poultry, the excess of which they sell.
Our ancestors cleared jungles to create farmlands with the most rudimentary,
if any, tools. Today, when there are support systems to encourage
agriculture and a voracious and expanding global market why should people
with so much land cry marginalisation?
All the communities on the East Coast corridor should be allotted backlands
cleared (not dams) for agricultural purposes, even if in a co-operative way,
in partnership with the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) and Ministry
of Agriculture. The opportunities for self-employment would be greatly
enhanced in this way.
So kudos to Minister Rodrigues for attempting to nip in the bud attempts to
infuse a culture of slothfulness, beggary, and bullyism into her people

Plans to promote Iwokrama locally on the way - Minister Prashad

Guyana Chronicle news article, Wednesday 19 March 2008

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/news.html

Plans to promote Iwokrama locally on the way - Minister Prashad

A PROMISE was made last year for tourism to become a significant contributor
to Guyanaxs economy.
This was said by Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram
Prashad at the 2008 presentation of the national budget.
The major objective of the historic round table conference -- Moving
Guyanaxs Tourism Forward, that was organised by the Ministry of Tourism,
Industry and Commerce, was to develop innovative ways to propel the countrys
tourism drive.
The conference was attended by 200 participants from all across Guyana and
resulted in a more aggressive promotional strategy of Guyana, Minister
Prashad said.
The direct result of the conference was the initiative to promote Kaieteur
National Park by making it accessible to local Guyanese.
This initiative resulted in the park seeing an increase by 64 percent in
visitor arrivals in 2007. Plans are also on the way for special incentive
package to be continued for Kaieteur National Park.
Minister Prashad noted that consultations are ongoing with the various
stakeholders to ensure that the reduced package is offered to local
Guyanese.
A similar initiative will be taken to promote the Iwokrama International
Centre.
Minister Prashad noted that, This year deliberate efforts will be taken to
market Iwokrama.
Special incentive packages will be offered by local tour operators so as to
make the visit to Iwokrama more affordable.
He further noted that a meeting will be held with the management of
Iwokrama, the local tour operators and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and
Commerce to put together an affordable package.
The construction of a new airstrip at Iwokrama will provide easier access to
the centre. However, as this is still very costly, bus tours to the centre
will be introduced so as to allow local Guyanese the opportunity to
experience the wonder of Iwokrama.
Minister Prashad also mentioned that this initiative is in keeping with
President Jagdeoxs call after the last historic round table conference for
affordable domestic tourism. The Minister stressed that this package will
only be available to local Guyanese because they would like Guyanese to see
the beauty of their country.
Iwokrama is an international centre for rainforest conservation and
development, it manages one million acres of forest in central Guyana . The
centrexs main objective is to show how tropical forests can be conserved
while sustainably being used to provide ecological, social and economic
benefits to local and international communities.
One of the major components of Iwokramaxs drive for financial self
sufficiency is eco-tourism.
Iwokrama possesses a rich biodiversity, as such it has immense ecotourism
potential. It offers visitors the opportunity of an exceptional natural and
cultural experience in the heart of Guyanaxs rainforest.
Features of Iwokrama include the only state-of-the-art canopy walkway in the
entire Guianas, birdwatching with over 500 species of birds, jungle trekking
through one of the nine designated trails, guided nature walks, nocturnal
wildlife spotting by vehicle, foot and boat, Indian island sunrise boat
ride, and coming soon the butterfly farm where visitors can enjoy a guided
tour of the farm, viewing at least ten different species, and learn the
Amerindian technique of using a bow and arrow.
A special tourism incentive package will be announced in three weeks time to
allow Guyanese the opportunity to visit Iwokrama. (GINA

We must start taking climate change seriously now and plan ahead

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56541295

We must start taking climate change seriously now and plan ahead
Stabroek News, Tuesday, March 18th 2008

Dear Editor,

Ideally, I do not venture into areas in which I am ignorant. However, I
will make this an exception. I have just come out of a climate change
and governance workshop in London, part of the Commonwealth Day
celebrations and wish to endorse the sentiment of Mr Clairmonte Lye.

We cannot continue to sit in ignorance of climate change and like some
of the Pacific Islands hold on to a perverse incentive to just 'wait
and see' and when disaster strikes, expect the international agencies
to rush to our assistance. This is not to say that the rest of the
world is far ahead of us either as it seems that only a few are
prepared to take the issue of climate change seriously and it is hoped
that a change in the US presidency will lend support to an
international regime which can seriously commit to sustainable
development.

I am glad that in Guyana's case, while civil society seem blissful in
their ignorance or silence, the President is awake and has even had
climate change on the Commonwealth Ministers of Finance meeting agenda
last year. But we need civil society fully on board as it is the only
way we can sustain interest and voice on the issue.

Why am I suddenly awake? The answer simply is a woman called Meredith
Hooper (author of The Ferocious Summer, named as the Daily Mail Science
Book of the Year in 2007) witnessed first hand the effects of global
warming - higher temperatures in the Antarctic peninsular, which means
more snow (as a result of warmer air holding more moisture) which
affects the breeding grounds for the penguins (Adelie) while the
melting ice sheets as a result of the warmer air changes the salinity
in the water and drives away the shrimp like krill on which the
penguins feed. We never saw dinosaurs. Our great grandchildren may
never know what penguins look like.

But that is not all. It is not just that the weather patterns change
and there is heat when there should be snow/rain and there are
unexpected storms and heatwaves which are all dictated by the waves and
currents in the ocean. It is not just that the sinking ice sheets mean
that the level of the sea will rise and the islands in the Pacific and
countries under the sea will be inundated and people will need to
relocate. The frightening reality is that the food that we consume
depends on our geographical characteristics. For example, in Guyana, we
depend on rice and sugar as our main exports and these are planted and
harvested according to our traditionally two main seasons.

We have witnessed first hand how these seasons have changed in the past
few years and how these and other crops have been devastated by floods,
excess rainfall and drought. Did we link it to climate change?

Now just imagine if the world continues along this path of development,
without factoring the environment as one of its factors of production
to be used sustainably and carbon emissions continue unabated in the
race to develop faster. We will have a world of superpowers clashing
with hundreds of new factories and cars with the backlash of rapidly
changing weather patterns of heat and snow/rain and higher sea levels.
There will be less sea food as the water salinity changes and less
crops as the periods of harvests become sorter or populations have to
move to different locations which will affect the crops actually
cultivated.

The population explosion has not helped as it demands products which
consume trees or the clearing of the trees (which breathe in very
carbon dioxide). What does this mean in the distant future? The weather
changes will consume low lying land. Its effect on crops and sea food
will be such that there will be a diminished supply of food, and much
of the world will have to go without food especially the poorer
countries. Food prices will go up and we will be in a situation which
we never imagined possible.

I remember Charles Ceres telling me just after the 2005 floods that
Guyana needs to shift its capital into the interior as in another 20
years, the coastland will be under water. I heard, but like many
others, I did not take it seriously. The government will shore up the
sea defences and we will all be happy.

Guyana needs to start planning ahead. We can kill each other in
politics, but there will be nothing to fight over in another 50 years
if we do not act now. There is need for a strong public relations
campaign so that farmers do not destroy the waterways in the use of
fertilizer and pesticides, so that residents are aware of the dangers
posed by mining and logging and the other economic activities.

Climate change in effect means that even renewable resources will
become less renewable.

Guyana needs to be in a position of strength to bargain in the trading
of emissions for its own development. It needs its people behind it.

As the Pacific Islands are finding out, they are not being taken
seriously by the west because they simply do not matter in the
hegemonic scheme. Guyana has its forests on its side and we need to
leverage that. The government needs to seriously consider its
investment programme, including its housing programme and public sector
investment programme and how this affects catchment areas for water
which compromises drainage. And civil society, of course, needs to be
on board, ever alert.

As Meredith said, when the rain comes heavier than usual it does not
come with a label 'this one is as a result of climate change'. The
climate has been undergoing changes for a long, long time. What we are
seeing now is an acceleration of that climate change. It was in the
1940s when the UK stationed its Royal Navy in Antarctica but could not
leave them there with nothing else to do, that they were given
instructions to monitor the temperature every three hours. It was only
in the 1990s with the wide use of computers that the data was assembled
into a programme and someone decided to see what the trend was and
discovered that the temperature was rising. The temperature will fall
and it will become hotter. That is the reality of climate change.
Whether the heat is a result of more greenhouse gases or more heat
being felt from the sun is a matter for scientists to decide but we are
reeling from its effects.

It is a wake up call. Of course nature has a way of healing herself.
She will. But at what price? The BBC website (science & nature) is
educational on what earth looked like millions of years ago, what plant
life existed and what animals were there. We seem headed to change the
face of the earth for another few million years.

Yours faithfully,

Gitanjali Singh

Corporate Social Responsibility

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56541047

Stabroek News, Business Editorial
Corporate Social Responsibility
Friday, March 14th 2008

Last Wednesday the Canadian High Commission in Georgetown hosted a
forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a concept that has
gained considerable ground in recent years in the global discourse on
the issue of desirable operating practices in the international
corporate community.

In practice CSR is about the infusion of socially acceptable practices
into corporate behaviour. The refinement of the concept is linked to
studies on the nexus between various forms of socially responsible
behaviour and the growth, development and even the survival of people
and communities.

Canada being a country that is well-known for its large and
technologically advanced mining sector, the forum placed the discourse
on CSR within the framework of the desirability of environmentally
friendly practices in the mining sector, recognizing at the same time
that CSR embraces the behavioural practices of the corporate community
as a whole. It is no secret, of course, that the global mining and
resource extraction practices are facing a range of social challenges
arising out of divergent views on the impact of mining on communities
and the environment. The case for the sector's track record on socially
responsibly practices is often weakened by numerous examples of
environmental degradation and economic exploitation and abuse of the
human rights of indigenous communities.

The tenets of CSR oblige mining operations to pursue their extraction
of minerals in such a manner as to ensure a mindfulness of the need to
protect and preserve the environment and a sensitivity to and support
for the social, cultural and economic interests of host communities -,
in most cases, indigenous communities and that, in considerable
measure, is what last Wednesday's forum addressed.

While the concept, in its purest form, derives from a voluntary, "good
citizen" approach to socially responsible corporate behaviour - though
it should not be confused with corporate philanthropy - it has now
become enveloped in a strong element of compulsoriness, a circumstance
that has resulted from increasing global emphasis on issues like
environmental protection, human rights, the rights of indigenous
peoples and the right of workers to fair wages and safe working
conditions. In fact, it is largely because issues like these have
assumed an increased global significance that CSR has been
incrementally refined to a point where it has become a 'discipline' in
its own right.

While it is probably reasonable to assume that there are business
enterprises that have for years been quiet adherents of CSR long before
the term was even 'invented', the elevation of CSR to its current
exalted status and the element of compulsoriness derive, at least in
part, from a realization that issues like the preservation of the
environment and the protection of people's rights, including the rights
of indigenous peoples, are too important to be left to the altruism of
the corporate community whose primary focus, after all, is profit.

But that is not all. The concept of CSR is premised on the perfectly
sound argument that environmentally friendly operating practices and
respect for the rights of workers and host communities - in the mining
and forestry sectors, for example - can actually create a more socially
and economically sustainable working environment. In other words, CSR
is good for business.

The degree to which CSR has become institutionalized in the global
business environment is manifested in the fact that agreements between
countries and major international mining and forestry entities actually
contain clauses that bind companies to various forms of socially
responsible behaviour particularly in relation to the environment and
interaction with host communities.

Guyana has followed this trend in its contractual agreements with
mining and forestry companies. As far as we can tell there has been an
acceptable degree of adherence to CSR by expatriate companies even
though there are examples of mining undertakings by expatriate
companies that pose environmental challenges.

The same level of compliance with CSR standards is of course not
evident in some locally run mining operations where self-regulation
simply cannot be relied upon and where logistical considerations make
official monitoring and enforcement difficult.

A good example of the challenge that we face in domestic mining
operations lies in the recent incident in Region Eight where roads were
dug up, water pipes displaced and an entire community discommoded as a
result of irresponsible mining activity.

This of course gives rise to another issue. While the importance of an
environmentally responsible approach to mining (and logging) operations
can hardly be overstated, questions arise over Guyana's ability to
effectively enforce responsible practices in those sectors and
particularly in the mining sector.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds who speaks for the mining sector in the
National Assembly is not unaware of this dilemma though one suspects
that his 'report card' of "eighty to ninety per cent good" and "ten to
twenty per cent bad" as far as responsible mining practices by local
operators is concerned, errs on the side of considerable generosity to
the local miners.

Incremental hinterland development and the increasingly important role
of the mining (both gold and bauxite) and forestry sectors to the
country's economy are bound to place increasing pressure on both the
government and the corporate community to take a more serious look at
incorporating the tenets of CSR into the wider interior development
strategy. Here it is not just a question of protecting the environment
and respecting people's rights. It is also a question of adhering to
internationally acceptable CSR standards failing which, as the
international CSR lobby intensifies, we may well find ourselves
confronting economically damaging sanctions.

Beyond the mining sector, of course, there are other issues that
surface within the CSR framework……… like the questionable nature
of health and safety practices in several public and private sector
workplaces, the poor record of several local businesses as far as the
remittance of employee NIS contributions is concerned; and the piles of
garbage derived from commercial activity that litter our streets and
clog our drains.

One hopes, of course, that the initiative by the Canadian High
Commission serves as a precursor to the creation of a strong and
enforceable policy framework for CSR in Guyana given the importance of
socially responsible corporate behaviour to the country's social and
economic advancement.

What we do not want is for CSR to become a cliché out of which emerges
a host of 'experts' and a mind-boggling body of academia that places
the issue in a thicket of time-consuming and meaningless discourse that
loses sight of the importance of expeditious implementation of socially
responsible practices in the local corporate community.

Luncheon leads PRSP consultation discussions on governance

Guyana Chronicle top story, Tuesday 18 March 2008

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/topstory.html
Luncheon leads PRSP consultation discussions on governance

THE Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) consultation on Governance and
Security was held yesterday at the Umana Yana in Georgetown. Leading the
discussions was Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon.
In his discussions, Dr Luncheon pointed out that several areas had been
highlighted during the consultation for the 2001 - 2006 period.
These included administration and issues to do with transparency and
accountability. In this regard, legislation had been enacted to deal with
the ambiguities and to repose statutory responsibility in individuals and
agencies to overlook these matters.
He pointed to the Public Procurement and Tender Board Act which gives
oversight to a number of persons holding Constitutional offices with
Parliament as the final oversight body.
The HPS acknowledged that there will always be concerns as to whether
management of public funds could be greater enhanced and the PRSP
consultations were meant to address those issues.
With regard to public administration, Dr. Luncheon said that some of these
issues were already addressed beyond what was recommended at the
consultations.
The creation of autonomous and semi-autonomous agencies were meant to make
their service delivery more efficient.
Dr Luncheon said, too, that in the area of political administration, it was
made mandatory for all public officers and Government functionaries to
declare the assets of themselves and their immediate family.
The issue to be resolved is the manner in which this declaration should be
made and what should be done with it. This, he said, is an issue that could
be decided by these consultations.
The need for Parliamentary reforms was also raised at the last consultation.
The steps taken so far included the strengthening and creation of
Parliamentary Committees, Rights Bodies and Commissions and giving them
oversight into the management of several functions of the State.
He acknowledged that all that was recommended was not achieved but said that
the changes to be realised was a 'work in progress'. There was an identified
need to have civil society more involved in the work of the State and
efforts will be made to address that.
Addressing the gathering, trade unionist Carvil Duncan acknowledged that
progress was taking place in the society.
These benefits, he said, will be felt as communities begin to reap the
rewards in the various social sectors.
Joseph Hamilton, of the PNCR, who attended in his capacity as a citizen,
expressed concern that the impact of the developments were not being felt in
the communities since there may be a disconnect between the consultations
and the 'ordinary citizens' and they may not be seeing immediate progress.
He suggested that community leaders be used to convey development plans to
communities.
Presidential Adviser on Governance, Ms. Gail Teixeira, in her contribution
stated that several safety net programmes that were implemented by
Government were not being accessed by the intended recipients since they did
not know about the programmes. She suggested that funding should be provided
for sensitizing persons about these programmes.
Additionally, surveys should be done on a regular basis to determine the
effectiveness of government services and programmes.
She also suggested that contracts for works in communities should be posted
up in public places in the communities so that persons could see the scope
of works and be the watchdogs of the government.
In wrapping up the discussion, Dr Luncheon admonished that the role of law
in conflict resolution and creating the conditions for poverty eradication
should never be overlooked. He said that the recent incidents in Lusignan
and Bartica have proven that there is a "mobilizable" force which could
contribute to the development of Guyana.
The PRSP consultations started in January and should have been completed in
three weeks but the massacres in Lusignan and shortly after in Bartica
caused them to be delayed. (GINA)

Where do Messrs Persaud and Chand stand on the withdrawal of the subvention

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56541229


Where do Messrs Persaud and Chand stand on the withdrawal of the
subvention
Stabroek News, Monday, March 17th 2008


Dear Editor,

I hope the political parties, Critchlow Labour College , trade unions,
the media, and other stakeholder bodies will continue to demand that
the government engage in equitable distribution of the State's
resources. Many have said it, but it needs to be repeated that the
money the government refuses to give to the students of the College is
taxpayers' money.

Mr. Robert Persaud, Minis-ter of Agriculture was a student of the One
Year Indus-trial and Social Studies Program. I know, I saw him there.
He used this opportunity to improve his education that allowed him
entry to the University of Guyana where he read for the Communica-tion
degree, which later led to his Master at the University of the West
Indies . The opportunity Mr. Persaud now enjoys is largely due to the
foundation laid by Critchlow.

Those who follow Mr. Persaud's political and government growth will
accept that the he plays a very significant role in the PPP party and
government. Recall his role as President Jagdeo/Office of the President
Liaison Officer and GINA, and now Minister of Agriculture. It is also
generally felt that Mr. Persaud exercises great influence in the PYO
and PPP and media outlets affiliated/associated with the Party. It is
also felt he is being groomed for the Presidency.

Mr. Persaud should be asked what was his contribution to that Cabinet
meet-ing that took the unjust decision to withdraw taxpayers' money
from the College. He should also tell us if he agrees with the
government treatment of his Alma Mater, and, if not, what he plans to
do to reverse it.

There have been calls to hear from Mr. Komal Chand, GAWU leader, PPP
Central Executive Member and Member of Parliament. To date he has not
spoken. His opinion must be solicited and shared with the public. Both
Messrs Persaud and Komal Chand are public figures who benefited from
Critchlow, are paid by tax dollars and hold influential positions in
the PPP party and government. If anyone within the PPP hierarchy can
reverse this unjust act, it will be Robert Persaud and/or Komal Chand.
Young people and workers must hear from them.

I read the College is seeking ways to survive without the subvention
and former students are calling for a scholarship fund. Both are good
pursuits. The College needs to pursue the scholarship fund.
Additionally while it is good to have the College wean itself off the
subvention, the college should continue to pursue the issue of ensuring
the subvention is returned. After all, this is tax payers' money, now
unjustly withheld that was given to the College for many decades, to
which the students and their parents have and are contributing.

Yours faithfully,

Sonjay Thom

Gold-smuggling trio held on return to Guyana

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56541148

Gold-smuggling trio held on return to Guyana
Stabroek News, Sunday, March 16th 2008


The three men who had been held in Suriname with a large quantity of
gold were arrested on Friday on their return to Guyana and remained in
custody up to yesterday.

Meanwhile, the police are still working to determine whether there is
any link between the illegal exportation of gold to Suriname and the
incident at Bartica involving robbery under arms and murder of 12
persons.

Police in a statement yesterday said the men were being questioned in
relation to the illegal export with a view to determining whether it is
linked to the Bartica incident.

On February 17, when gunmen stormed Bartica, they had first attacked
the police station where three policemen were shot and killed. They
then went to the CB&R Mining Company where they shot and killed a
security guard and stole 12 guns, a quantity of gold and some petty
cash, which was in an iron safe. Neither CB&R Owner Chunilall Baboolall
nor the police had ever revealed to this newspaper the amount of gold
stolen.

The gunmen had also destroyed security cameras at the location.

They then proceeded to the home of gold dealer Gurudat Singh, from
where, it was reported, they escaped with a safe. A source told this
newspaper that the gunmen would have taken a large quantity of gold
from this family's home.

The gold that was taken from the men has been confiscated by the Dutch
authorities, though it is not the property of Suriname. This newspaper
understands that the men told Surinamese authorities that they had
purchased the gold in Guyana but had carried it over the border since
they got more money for the mineral there.

Suriname sources said the men were being held for some time before the
authorities decided on their course of action. They were then taken to
court where they were fined.

A well placed source had told this newspaper that the men may be a part
of a well established, gold smuggling ring supported by a network of
Chinese businessmen operating out of Suriname.

This newspaper was also reliably informed that the gold, which the
authorities intercepted, might not have been the full booty and that
more of the mineral had missed the authorities' vigilance on that day.
The source informed Stabroek News too that the smuggling of gold to
Suriname was a regular occurrence and this was possible because some
gold and diamond dealers continue to be dishonest in their declaration
of production.

"The problem is historical and they are not declaring their full
produce, so some are able to escape and they make much more money in
Suriname. It is fairly well established and is a historical problem
which lies mostly in the issue of proper declaration," the source said.

Observers as well as stakeholders in the mining industry had in the
past, raised many concerns with regard to declarations by gold and
diamond dealers and some had gone as far as saying that they were
convinced that only one third of the country's total gold production
was being declared.

"Even while we are seeing declaration increasing to some extent, this
has mostly been so because of increased production capacity. But they
are indeed producing far more gold now and we are still only seeing
less than half of what is produced," the source said.

The source who is also knowledgeable about local mining operations told
Stabroek News that for the authorities to clamp down on smuggling,
vigilance would have to be heightened at the level of mining officers
on the ground.

The source said the record keeping measures in this regard, sometimes
leave much to be desired and added that the declaration system would
have to be enhanced. As such, the source suggested that the forms which
miners are made to full out would have to be done properly and a proper
policing and vetting system implemented.

Many gold dealers have found the Suriname market for gold more
lucrative since the laws there are a bit different and more favourable
in terms of royalties and taxes.

US$26M saw milling investment set to take off next month

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56541146

US$26M saw milling investment set to take off next month
Stabroek News, Sunday, March 16th 2008

US saw milling company Simon and Shock Incor-porated (SSI) hopes to get
its US$26 million investment in Guyana started next month.

It is in the process of working out some aspects of its agreement in
the light of changes owing to problems in the industry with
land-lording of small concessionaires.

Speaking to this newspaper on Tuesday, CEO Kelly Simon said that with
the new measures in place to prevent land-lording by companies on other
concessions, the newly tailored arrangements for the use of equipment
in these concessions were in their end stages.

He said that the company proposes to lease its equipment to the
concession holders and train them in the safe and proper use of the
equipment, which he described as brand new.

According to Simon, someone on the government side asked whether the
company was willing to give the equipment to the concessionaires, to
which he said no way, since his investors wouldn't allow US$4 million
in equipment to be handed over just like that.

After months of due diligence and some tension between the company and
the Guyana Office for Invest-ment (Go-Invest) last year, government
through the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion (GFC) granted a State Forest
Exploratory Permit to SSI about two and a half months ago.

The company has been awarded concessions totalling 391,892 hectares in
Regions Six and Nine and expects total employment to exceed 112 with at
least 85 per cent local hire, ranging from senior management to
starting positions.

The company plans to invest over US$26 million in three years.

The technology that the company hopes to introduce to Guyana is said to
have impressed government, which has been chirruping its desire lately
to bring sustainable forestry, high recovery rates, and value adding
investment to the industry. This followed President Bharrat Jagdeo's
offer of Guyana's forests to the world to combat the effects of climate
change.

The company is also working out with the government, the exact location
for the sawmilling plant to be constructed at Linden.

While on the phone with this reporter, Simon was also speaking to the
company's lawyers on the paperwork to be drawn up for the commencement
of the investment. He said that another company executive would be in
Guyana during next week to further the arrangements with the
government.

Simon said SSI hoped to achieve recovery rates upwards of 70 per cent,
twice as much as is being achieved in Guyana today.

The company is building from the ground up, a brand new, modern
sawmill, which, with the aid of computer imagery, will be able to scan
a log and calculate the number of boards that it would yield.

In this way, the little waste it produces would be used to power its
kiln-drying plant. The company would be buying about half of its logs
from other concessions.

As a direct result of the talks with the government, the company
offered three written guarantees. Firstly, that SSI would not export
logs from Guyana, since it was a lumber company and not a logging
company; secondly, that SSI would build an advanced milling complex in
Linden before any logging activity took place; and thirdly, that if SSI
did not build the advanced mill in Linden in a specific time period,
all logging concessions granted to SSI by the government would be
returned uncut.

Seminar puts focus on bolstering forestry research - network to be set up for Guyana and other ACP countries

Guyana Chronicle news article, Thursday 13 March 2008

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/news.html
Seminar puts focus on bolstering forestry research
- network to be set up for Guyana and other ACP countries

By Tajeram Mohabir

IWOKRAMA International Rainforest Centre, in collaboration with Guyana
Forestry Commission (GFC), yesterday conducted a one-day seminar to
strengthen forest research priorities in the Guianas.
It was attended by representatives of several key stakeholders in the sector
and convened at Red House, High Street, Kingston, Georgetown.
Iwokrama Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Dane Gobin, said it was part of
a seven million euros project to establish a researching network for
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, as well.
He said the programme seeks to bolster the networking to facilitate transfer
of results between applied research initiatives, which will contribute to
the building of effective tools to monitor sustainable development.
It would also test the criteria and indicators of sustainable forest
management under different socio-economic and ecological conditions, Gobin
disclosed.
The ACP states involved are The Cameroons, Central African Republic,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guyana, Suriname,
Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Gobin said the network stations and tropical research teams will contribute
to the extension of training for EU and ACP graduate and post graduate
students.
He explained that yesterday's workshop will facilitate inter-regional
collaboration between ACP forest research organisations, by strengthening
capacities of selected structures to effectively promote and implement
common themes.
Other expected results are:

* strengthening the capacities of selected ACP forestry research structures
to document biodiversity in support of sustainable use of forest goods and
services;

* creation of appropriate training opportunities and

* improvement of capacities for inter-regional and international
collaboration with ACP and European forestry research institutions,
networking and information dissemination.

Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud, said the aim was, essentially,
to update the work of a National Workshop on Forestry Research held in
September 1999, by prioritising areas for forestry research.
In addition to the areas previously identified at that 1999 workshop, I
challenge you to take on board all recent developments that are occurring
locally and internationally in the sphere of forestry and other renewable
natural resources," he told the participants.
Persaud said new tropical areas present Guyana with golden opportunities to
expand on the types of services and products the local forests offer,
especially globally, when much more recognition and emphasis are
increasingly placed on the role of forests in mitigating climate change and
as a source of renewable energy.
He expressed optimism that the research priorities will, in the long run,
reinforce Guyana's call to the international community for a market-based
compensatory mechanism to reward standing rainforests for environmental
services.
The minister, whose portfolio encompasses forestry, appealed to the various
stakeholders to work together as a team and respect the roles in which they
operate.
is the only way we would be able to synergise our varied talents to maximise
our outputs and take the forestry sector forward in a constructive and
positive manner," he stated.
The GFC is tasked with the responsibility of managing the nation's State
forestry resources which total some 13.6 million hectares of tropical
rainforest and some of what is responsible for includes allocation,
harvesting, extraction, industry development and processing, marketing and
research.
However, its regulatory and revenue collection activities take priority over
research, in which University of Guyana (UG), Conservation
International(CI), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WFN) and Tropenbos-Guyana are
all partners.

Minister Rodrigues urges early appointment of Indigenous People's Commission

Guyana Chronicle news article, Thursday 13 March 2008
http://www.guyanachronicle.com/news.html
Minister Rodrigues urges early appointment of Indigenous People's Commission

MINISTER of Amerindian Affairs, Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues, has urged that the
Appointive Committee of Parliament conclude its consideration of the
Indigenous People's Commission (IPC) as soon as possible.
Making a presentation in the National Assembly during the 2008 Budget debate
recently, Minister Rodrigues said that for every day the House failed to
appoint this and other Commissions; the people of Guyana will be short
changed.
On October 24, during a National Toshaos' Conference at the Guyana
International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, three members were elected to
the IPC. Ms. Yvonne Pearson, Toshao of Mainstay/Whyaka is the first woman
elected, while the other two members are opposition member of Parliament Dr.
George Norton of Riverview village, Region 10 and Mr. William Andries of
Toka Village, Region 9.
Minister Rodrigues said, "Let us put aside our differences and demonstrate
our confidence in our Guyanese people, regardless of where they are from and
what they look like, by appointing some of them to these Commissions."
The IPC will address all aspects of Amerindian rights and development and
will be accountable for the interest of all indigenous people.
Twenty members were unanimously elected by their fellow Toshaos from various
sub-regions within the ten administrative Regions to form the National
Toshaos Council (NTC) out of which the IPC evolved.
These Toshaos are mandated with the responsibility of protecting the
interest of Amerindians in the country and will give support to the IPC.
The council will make decisions in accordance with the new Amerindian Act
for the benefit of all Amerindians.
This is a very important body that has long been called for and the
Government looks forward to working in a collaborative manner with the NTC,
Minister Rodrigues said.
Government was highly praised by the NTC for making the long-awaited Council
a reality and for continuing the development of Amerindians. (GINA).

Gold smugglers busted in Suriname?

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56540959

Gold smugglers busted in Suriname?
Stabroek News, Thursday, March 13th 2008

The three Guyanese men who were intercepted with a large amount of gold
in Suriname may be part of a well-established, gold smuggling ring,
supported by a network of Chinese businessmen operating out of
Suriname. The trio was reportedly travelling in a locally registered
car.

However there is still a question as to whether there is any link
between this find and the robbery of a gold dealer at Bartica on the
night gunmen waged war in the community and took 12 lives.

A police source told Stabroek News yesterday that the police here have
been provided with the names of the men who were apprehended and are to
be informed as to what action will be taken against them. The source
said the incident could be dealt with as a customs matter and the
persons made to pay the necessary fines in that regard.

Another well-placed source told Stabroek News that there were
suspicions that persons here with close links to mining camps would
purchase gold illegally, accumulate it and then smuggle large amounts
of it to neighbouring Suriname where the laws were a bit different and
more favourable in terms of royalties and taxes, which would have to be
paid. In Guyana, miners are subject to royalties of five per cent and a
tax of two per cent and so selling gold here was not as lucrative.

"So the police there may have caught up with some from that chain of
smugglers," the source said. "But whether the gold they had may have
come from the Bartica robbery is still to be determined."

On February 17 when gunmen stormed Bartica, they had first attacked the
police station where three policemen were shot and killed. They then
went to the CB&R Mining Company where they shot and killed a security
guard and stole 12 guns, a quantity of gold and some petty cash, which
was in an iron safe. Neither CB&R Owner Chunilall Baboolall nor the
police had ever revealed to this newspaper the amount of gold stolen.

The gunmen had also destroyed security cameras at the location.

They then proceeded to the home of gold dealer Gurudat Singh, from
where, it was reported, they escaped with a safe. The source told this
newspaper that the gunmen would have taken a large quantity of gold
from this family's home.

The source explained that many gold dealers have been taking advantage
of the Guyana Gold Board having opened an office in Bartica and were
selling their gold to avoid the security risk of holding it at their
homes or offices.

Many have concluded that the real intention of the February 17 massacre
at Bartica might have been robbery and if the gold found in the
possession of the trio in Suriname came from the Bartica robberies,
then the theories of community members' participation would add up.

On that night, after attacking the community's arm of law enforcement
and crippling any element of protection, the gunmen shot and injured
innocent persons, supplemented their weaponry, and then executed six
men who were on boats docked at the Transport and Harbours stelling.

Killed in the Bartica attack were residents Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian
and Irving Ferreira; policemen stationed at the Bartica Police Station,
Lance Corporal Zaheer Zakir, and Constables Shane Fredericks and Ron
Osborne, and Deonarine Singh of Wakenaam; Ronald Gomes of Kuru Kururu;
Ashraf Khan of Middlesex, Essequibo; Abdool Yasin; Errol Thomas of
Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo and Baldeo Singh of Montrose, East Coast
Demerara, who were shot execution style at the stelling.

The gunmen were dressed in military type clothing and in bulletproof
vests and armed with rapid-fire guns. They numbered around 20,
residents estimated. The police said some of the gunmen were dressed in
foreign camouflage and khaki clothing and some residents said they also
appeared to be wearing helmets. After the incident the police said that
165 spent shells of 7.62 x 39 calibre, eight 7.62 x 51 spent shells,
three .32 spent shells along with eleven 7.62 x 39 and fifteen .32 live
rounds were recovered.

The joint services have since recovered a gun stolen from the CB&R
Mining Company. Law enforcement officials said they unearthed an
abandoned camp at Bucktown, Wismar, which had been the likely hideout
of the men. Searches at the camp produced a Guyana passport and NIS
card in the name of Baboolall along with a quantity of eating utensils,
a searchlight, a green tarpaulin, a hacksaw blade, and an empty plastic
water container among other articles.

Aid to Amerindian communities for development not handouts -Rodrigues

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56540473

Aid to Amerindian communities for development not handouts -Rodrigues
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News, Thursday, March 6th 2008




Minister of Amerindian Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues has chided the
opposition for referring to government's assistance in the form of
transportation, machinery and equipment to Amerindian communities as
handouts, declaring that they are much needed items for the development
process.

As one of the four speakers on the budget in the National Assembly
during the first three hours yesterday, Rodrigues took to task PNCR-1G
MPs Dr George Norton and Anthony Vieira for referring to the much
"needed items" as handouts when given by the government but not
classified in the same manner when the PNCR does likewise.

"Stop that and stop that today," she told the opposition MPs in the
parliament chambers while students from the Bina Hill Institute of
Annai, North Rupununi and a number of other hinterland students looked
on from the gallery.

Speaking about the welfare of hinterland students, she said that the
government would be building a students' hostel in the city to
accommodate hinterland students in keeping with requests from parents
and the students themselves. At present she said there are 150 students
who are staying at various homes across the city.

This plan, AFC MP Raphael Trotman told the National Assembly in his
presentation, is commendable but it is not meeting the needs of the
Amerindian communities which are in dire need of improvement.

Rodrigues noted that the educational needs of Amerindian students were
being met in many of the hinterland communities by secondary schools
which the PPP/C government has built. In addition, she said, most of
the students coming from the hinterland to attend the residential
President's College were performing very well.

Also in terms of educational inputs, she said that in recent years
1,000 teachers were trained in the hinterland and 70 teacher trainees
were currently at the Cyril Potter College of Education and another 200
were being trained in the region.

Noting that Dr Norton had raised the issue of awarding scholarships to
Amerindian students who perform excellently in sports, Rodrigues noted
that there was no precedent but she had discussed this issue with
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony and reported that
it was an idea that could be further explored.

Casareep

Her remarks on the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on cassava bread,
farine and casareep (all cassava products) brought laughter to the
house.

Reporting on issues related to the Amerindian communities, she said
that 75 per cent of the 96 titled communities are now demarcated.
Moreover, titled communal ownership by most Amerindian communities was
an achievement Guyanese in general should be proud of since many
indigenous groups in other parts of the world move to the courts to
challenge their governments on land rights issues.

Referring to improved telecommunication in the far-flung regions, she
congratulated the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph company and Digicel
for making this possible, while expressing confidence that they would
continue to extend their service to all parts of the country.

Rodrigues was loud in her praise for the success of the malaria
eradication programme in the hinterland.

She said that she expects the number to be greatly reduced this year
owing to the Ministry of Health's vector control programme which has
distributed impregnated mosquito nets to hinterland communities.

In terms of vector control, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy
announced to the house that the ministry has taken on to its
establishment a 'health emergency coordinator' to work in the area of
vector control. It was the first time that the ministry was employing
someone in this position who will be dealing with vector control to
include control of rodents, he said.

Dr Ramsammy noted that vector control would no longer be part of the
disease control mechanism but it would be placed in environmental
health.

Supporting the budget which he boasted provides the social sector with
the largest allocation, he said his ministry has also received its
largest allocation ever in the sum of $12.1 billion.

Stating that "we must never defer the social needs of our people," he
said "the PPP budgets have always had that hallmark" of catering to the
social needs.

In spite of the allocation, he noted that it was not sufficient and
even the developed USA has some 37 million people who do not have
access to basic health care. He noted that even though there was
improved health care in Guyana there were a number of areas that needed
attention such as treating with kidney failure and making open heart
surgery accessible.

And contending that "Health insurance was not going to work in Guyana,"
he invited the opposition MPs to work with the government on finding
solutions to the problem areas in health which need to be tackled.

Equal participation, not dictatorship, for strategy on forest industry

Equal participation, not dictatorship, for strategy on forest industry
Kaieteur News, 6 March 2008

Dear Editor,
I would like to thank Ms Samantha Griffith for informing us that
“Article 8 B (Export Tax) of the agreement signed between the Guyana
Government and Barama on 14th August 1991” requires that company to pay
the export commission on greenheart logs only (“The Forestry
Commission’s critics are now criticising it for enforcing standards”,
SN: February 23, 2008).
I pointed out in my public lecture that Barama owed this tax but was
contesting payment on logs harvested from illegally rented concessions
(“Country getting a pittance from Asian forestry companies – Bulkan –
monitoring agency ‘weak’”, SN: November 13, 2006).
The GFC has not publicly stated that Barama has paid this
long-outstanding debt, nor its other debts and penalties (“Barama still
to pay second fine – Minister Persaud”, KN: January 19, 2008; “Loggers
to pay $275M fines for forestry breaches”, SN: January 20, 2008).

Ms Griffith evidently has privileged access to secret Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) agreements. The new Section 13 (2) of the Guyana
Forestry Commission Act passed by the National Assembly in July 2007
sets out what is essentially a gag order on any GFC “member, employee,
consultant, or adviser,” unless authorised by the Commission. Section
27 of that Act sets out severe penalties for the disclosure of any
information, so that any person convicted and found guilty under this
Act is liable to up to 10 times the statutory fine set at one year’s
imprisonment and G$1,000,000 (US$5,000). It is not clear if this Act
has received Presidential assent, but let us assume that it has.

The Commissioner of Forests himself recently stated that “as the
regulatory agency for forestry in Guyana, the GFC is duty bound to let
stakeholders be aware of what the real issues are…” (“Timber producers
were advised well in advance of the requirements for approval”, SN:
February 13, 2008). So Ms Griffith appears to be authorised to write
on behalf of the Commission. Mr. Editor, as she is able to disclose
one article in the Barama FDI, could Ms Griffith publicise the entire
text of the Barama agreement, including all amendments since 1991, and
the FDI arrangements for Bai Shan Lin, Jailing and other Asian-owned
loggers?

This would be one way for the GFC to demonstrate transparency. As the
Commissioner chairs a standing committee of the International Tropical
Timber Organisation (ITTO), he will be familiar with the exhortation
about trade transparency in the ITTO annual review and assessment of
the world timber situation 2006, including “It is only through the free
flow of reliable information on forests and trade that governments and
industry can evaluate their resources, set development goals and take
appropriate action to grow the trade, capture more of its value, and
discourage illegal activities”
(http://www.itto.or.jp/live/PageDisplayHandler?pageId=91&id=561).

Ms Griffith did not dispute the estimate that Guyana is losing at least
US$50 million a year from improper Customs declarations of FOB values
of prime hardwood logs to India and China (which together take 95
percent of all logs exported). Declared log export volumes declined in
2007 compared with 2006, but so did sawn timber exports. Ms Griffith
referred to “the logs that Bulkan wants banned”. Log exports are
nowhere endorsed in national policies. On the contrary, national
policies from the National Development Strategy onwards encourage
on-shore processing and value addition. Indeed, the PPP election
manifesto of 2006 mentioned value addition in the timber industry four
times on one page. My letter noted that “350 stakeholders at the
public consultation on a log export policy convened by the Guyana
Forestry Commission (GFC) endorsed overwhelmingly the replacement of
log exports by local timber processing.” And I have never suggested a
ban, only an appropriate tax or levy which shifts the financial
incentive from log exports to local processing, as advised to the GFC
and Forest Products Association by reviewers since at least 1994.

So who opposes national timber processing and the export of value-added
wood products? Those who are involved in the export of raw logs to
Asia. And who are those exporters? Mostly the Asian-owned companies
which receive FDI tax incentives from our Government for on-shore
processing, increased local employment and skills enhancement. And
what is the response of such companies? “Barama plywood mill to shut
temporarily over supply”, SN: December 5, 2007. Barama closes or
threatens to close the plywood mill, which it runs at 25 per cent
capacity, if it is not allowed to continue logging in illegally rented
concessions for our fine timbers, which it and its associated companies
export as logs for manufacture in flooring and furniture factories in
Asia.

At his press conference on December 8th, 2006, Minister Robert Persaud
referred to non-compliance by Barama and Jailing with their FDI
agreements and provided some details of the 12-month plans proposed by
those Asian loggers to achieve compliance. Through your columns, Mr
Editor, perhaps Ms Griffith, or the Commissioner of Forests, or
Minister
Persaud will provide status reports on the performance of these and
other FDI-benefiting companies?

Concerning technical standards for sawmills and lumber yards, the GFC
was quite right to show pictures during presentations in 2007
contrasting poor standards of timber handling in Guyana with those of a
mill or mills in Belém, Brazil. What does not make sense is to impose
requirements which are unrelated to specific market demands and which
lack implementable legislative backing, as has been mentioned
previously in SN. Writers with direct involvement in product
processing have commented on the inappropriate GFC approach (“The
punitive requirements imposed by the Forestry Commission on timber
producers have severely affected them”, SN: February 9, 2008; “The
Guyana Forestry Commission is crippling the forestry sector” KN:
January 26, 2008).

The repetitive responses from the GFC do not deal with the substance of
the complaints: that the GFC lacks the business experience to tell the
industry how to improve, and I would add that it lacks the legal
mandate to do so. It would make more sense for the GFC to develop in a
participatory, non-dictatorial manner a coherent strategy for industry
improvement, taking account of recommendations reiterated in, for
example, the ITTO diagnostic survey of 2002, which had been requested
by the Government.

At a public talk in Guyana in 2006, a visiting anti-corruption expert
put forward a formula for corruption:- C=M+D -T — (Corruption is
facilitated by Monopoly plus Discretion minus Transparency), (“World
body ranks Guyana poorly on corruption - says anti-corruption expert”,
KN: July 14, 2006). Legislators, recently gathered in Brazil from the
Group of Eight (G8) richest economies and five key developing
countries, have called for countries to pass domestic legislation that
would make it a criminal offence to buy illegally logged timber. Both
houses of the US Congress are working in a bi-partisan effort to amend
the Lacey Act so that penalties now applied to traders in illegally
obtained wildlife would be extended to trees and plants harvested in
other countries. ITTO has issued a similar call.

Guyana needs to take serious note of these developments. Instead of
penalizing its forest workers and small processors, our regulatory
agencies need to focus on those nodes of the supply chain where the
forest wealth of Guyana is haemorrhaging while FDI-benefiting companies
remain in non-compliance with their agreements.

As the GFC continues to demonstrate both disregard for local
stakeholders and incompetence in supervising forest harvesting, I urge
readers through you, Mr. Editor, to add their signatures to a
submission on the Forests Bill 2007. This submission to the Special
Select Committee of the National Assembly is open for signature during
working hours at the Jesuit Presbytery, Camp Street and Brickdam. The
submission must be transmitted to the Parliament Office before 7th
March 2008.
Janette Bulkan

'STOP IT!' - Rodrigues slams opposition, calls for end to stigma against Amerindians

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/topstory.html

Guyana Chronicle top story, Thursday March 6th 2008 -

'STOP IT!'
- Rodrigues slams opposition, calls for end to stigma against Amerindians
By Neil Marks
AMERINDIAN Affairs Minister, Ms Carolyn Rodrigues, yesterday slammed
opposition Parliamentarians for referring to state provisions to Amerindian
communities as "handouts", saying such utterances further drives the stigma
attached to Amerindian people.
'We must stop that and stop it today!" Rodrigues declared during her
presentation to the National Assembly in defence of the 2008 national
budget. Witnessing the debate was a large group of hinterland students on a
city tour.
"Why do we refer to it as handouts when we give to Amerindian communities,
and when we give to other communities it is not called handouts?" she
charged.
She further knocked the opposition for suggesting that the Amerindian people
live in oppression. "Freedom is what we know...freedom is when we can send
our children to school," she stated.
Rodrigues, an Amerindian herself, was sharp on her heels as she picked apart
the arguments of the main opposition People's National Congress Reform
(PNCR) - from a bridge crossing and a student's hostel to cassava bread and
outboard engines.
However, it was the claim by PNCR Member of Parliament (MP), Ms Volda
Lawrence that cutting the 16 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on cassava
bread, farine, and casareep, would not significantly affect the life of
Guyanese that Rodrigues said "hurt the most."
She said these items are primarily associated with Amerindians, and by
cutting VAT on these items, the government was looking to create economic
opportunities for Amerindians.
She displayed a brochure of North West Organics, an organisation of
Amerindians producing organic products for sale. She said the products of
North West Organics, such as casareep, are being sold on supermarket
shelves.
&#xI hope it was an innocent mistake," she said of Lawrence's suggestion,
and at this juncture, the Speaker, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, had to ask the House
to "cool it, cool it", as members on both sides of the benches slew remarks
at each other.
Rodrigues' other arguments were sharp as she picked up specific claims by
the opposition.
She first snapped at speculation that the bridging of the Echilebar river,
which separates Regions Eight and Nine, has not yet commenced, when in fact,
the project contract was awarded last December at a cost of $10M.
The Amerindian Affairs minister also called a list of contractors from
hinterland regions, putting to rest claims that hinterland projects are
often outsourced to contractors from outside the region.
She did admit that transportation problems have forever plagued the
hinterland regions, but said the government was moving ahead with its aim to
ease the transportation woes of hinterland residents.
She said five more All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) will be given to the
mountainous Potaro/Siparuni region this year, adding to the five which were
given earlier this year.
Rodrigues also announced plans to acquire two boats to help communities in
the Berbice river get their produce out to New Amsterdam, as the smaller
boats cannot do the job.
Several other communities will receive boat and engines - the sort of items
the opposition called "handouts."
Turning to another PNCR Member of Parliament, the minister lashed out at Mr.
Anthony Veira for suggesting that the government bunk the project to build
the $50M students' hostel in Georgetown to accommodate hinterland students
on scholarships at city schools.
She said the building would accommodate all the students together and help
the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs to institute additional classes for them,
since this is not now possible given that the students have to be housed at
various locations.
Referring to questions about how many of the students from the hinterland
are attending Bishop's High School and other top schools, Rodrigues posited
that many of them were in fact at President's College and doing well.
Further flooring the arguments of the opposition, she said many parents in
the hinterland have chosen not to send their children to the city but have
chosen to send them to schools built in the hinterland.
Rodrigues said her Ministry has had discussions with the Ministry of
Culture, Youth and Sport to extend scholarships to those who excel in
sports, "if their parents want to send them."
She noted, too, that some 7, 111 hinterland children benefitted from the
government's uniform programme last year, while the school feeding programme
has seen an improvement in school attendance.
Also, she noted that 70 teachers from regions One, Seven, eight and Nine are
currently studying at the teacher's training centre at Turkeyen, East Coast
Demerara, while a further 200 are being trained in the various regions
through a distance programme.
Minister Rodrigues then went on to trump up the achievements of the
government in providing titles to the lands that Amerindians have for ages
lived on and off of.
In 2007, she said eight Amerindian communities received "absolute" grants to
their land, and with the 24 issued in the last three years, the total amount
of communities to receive such grants now amounts to 96.
Nine other communities have made claims to have their grants, she added,
noting that the budget has allocated $40M to continue the demarcation
programme.
She said around the world, indigenous land claims has been a thorny issue,
and while Guyana does not claim to have the prescription to settle land
claims, she said other countries can certainly learn a few lessons.

Booklet on new Amerindian Act to be more user-friendly

Booklet on new Amerindian Act to be more user-friendly
Guyana Chronicle, 5 March 2008
THE Ministry of Amerindian Affairs is currently working on producing
booklets on the new Amerindian Act in languages that will be understood
by the Amerindians.

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues, said the legal
language is posing some difficulties and the Ministry wants to make the
document more user-friendly in order that its contents are easily
understood

It was noted that there are booklets on the Amerindian Act already
which are available to the public; however, Amerindian communities
specifically will be targeted for the distribution of these new
booklets.

Minister Rodrigues said that the project which started last year is
almost complete.

Additionally, templates of the forestry and mining sectors are in the
printing process which will serve as a guide for communities that are
involved in the two sectors.

The Minister said the project will be pursued because of several
complaints received by the Ministry, many of which relate to agreements
not properly formulated, resulting in communities losing out.

She said a workshop was completed with the communities’ Toshaos in
order that they understand and are knowledgeable of the contents of the
Act.

This will guide the people to read and understand the rules better.

In the long-term not only this, but future generations as well will
benefit, Minister Rodrigues said.

The Amerindian Act of 1951 was outdated and not reflective of today’s
situation and many communities had asked for it to be revised.

In early August 2005, the Amerindian Bill was presented to Parliament
and was subsequently debated on October 20, 2005.

The new Amerindian Act was passed on February 16, 2006 paving the way
for Amerindians to empower themselves socially, economically and
politically. (GINA)

Our forest wealth continues to haemorrhage while companies remain in non-compliance with their agreements

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56540417

Our forest wealth continues to haemorrhage while companies remain in
non-compliance with their agreements
Stabroek News, Wednesday, March 5th 2008


Dear Editor,

I'd like to thank Ms Samantha Griffith for informing us that "Article 8
B (Export tax) of the agreement signed between the Guyana Government
and Barama on 14th August 1991" requires that company to pay the export
commission on greenheart logs only ("The forestry commission's critics
are now criticizing it for enforcing standards", SN February 23 2008).
I pointed out in my public lecture that Barama was owing this tax but
was contesting payment on logs harvested from illegally rented
concessions ("Country getting a pittance from Asian forestry companies
- Bulkan - monitoring agency 'weak'", SN November 13 2006). The GFC has
not publicly stated that Barama has paid this long-outstanding debt,
nor its other debts and penalties ("Barama still to pay second fine -
Minister Persaud", KN January 19 2008; "Loggers to pay $275M fines for
forestry breaches", SN January 20 2008).

Ms Griffith evidently has privileged access to secret Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) agreements. The new Section 13 (2) of the Guyana
Forestry Commission Act passed by the National Assembly in July 2007
sets out what is essentially a gag order on any GFC "member, employee,
consultant, or adviser," unless authorized by the Commission. Section
27 of that Act sets out severe penalties for the disclosure of any
information, so that any person convicted and found guilty under this
Act is liable to up to 10 times the statutory fine set at 1 year's
imprisonment and G$1,000,000 (US$5,000). It is not clear if this Act
has received Presidential assent, but let us assume that it has.

The Commissioner of Forests himself recently stated that "as the
regulatory agency for forestry in Guyana, the GFC is duty bound to let
stakeholders be aware of what the real issues are…" ("Timber
producers were advis-ed well in advance of the requirements for
approval", SN February 13 2008). So Ms Griffith appears to be
authorized to write on behalf of the Commission. Mr Editor, as she is
able to disclose one article in the Barama FDI, could Ms Griffith
publicise the entire text of the Barama agreement, including all
amendments since 1991? And the FDI arrangements for Bai Shan Lin,
Jailing and other Asian-owned loggers?

This would be one way for the GFC to demonstrate transparency. As the
Commis-sioner chairs a standing committee of the Inter-national
Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) he will be familiar with the
exhortation about trade transparency in the ITTO annual review and
assessment of the world timber situation 2006, including "It is only
through the free flow of reliable information on forests and trade that
governments and industry can evaluate their resources, set development
goals and take appropriate action to grow the trade, capture more of
its value, and discourage illegal activities"
(http://www.itto.or.jp/live/Page DisplayHandler?pageId=91&id

=561).

Ms Griffith did not dispute the estimate that Guyana is losing at least
US$50 million a year from improper Customs declarations of FOB values
of prime hardwood logs to India and China (which together take 95
percent of all logs exported). Declared log export volumes declined in
2007 compared with 2006 but so did sawn timber exports. Ms Griffith
referred to "the logs that Bulkan wants banned". Log exports are
nowhere endorsed in national policies. On the contrary, national
policies from the National Development Strategy onwards encourage
on-shore processing and value addition. Indeed, the PPP election
manifesto of 2006 mentioned value addition in the timber industry four
times on one page. My letter noted that "350 stakeholders at the public
consultation on a log export policy convened by the Guyana Forestry
Commission (GFC) endorsed overwhelmingly the replacement of log exports
by local timber processing". And I have never suggested a ban, only an
appropriate tax or levy which shifts the financial incentive from log
exports to local processing, as advised to the GFC and Forest Products
Association by reviewers since at least 1994.

So who opposes national timber processing and the export of value-added
wood products?

Those who are involved in the export of raw logs to Asia. And who are
those exporters?

Mostly the Asian-owned companies which receive FDI tax incentives from
our Govern-ment for on-shore processing, increased local employment and
skills enhancement. And what is the response of such companies? -
"Barama plywood mill to shut temporarily over supply", SN December 5
2007. Barama closes or threatens to close the plywood mill which it
runs at 25 per cent capacity if it is not allowed to continue logging
in illegally rented concessions for our fine timbers which it and its
associated companies export as logs for manufacture in flooring and
furniture factories in Asia.

At his press conference on December 8 2006, Minister Robert Persaud
referred to non-compliance by Barama and Jailing with their FDI
agreements and provided some details of the 12-month plans proposed by
those Asian loggers to achieve compliance. Through your columns, Mr
Editor, perhaps Ms Griffith or the Commissioner of Forests or Minister
Persaud will provide status reports on the performance of these and
other FDI-benefiting companies?

Concerning technical standards for saw-mills and lumber yards, the GFC
was quite right to show pictures during presentations in 2007
contrasting poor standards of timber handling in Guyana with those of a
mill or mills in Belém, Brazil. What does not make sense is to impose
requirements which are unrelated to specific market demands and which
lack implementable legislative backing; as has been mentioned
previously in SN. Writers with direct involvement in product processing
have commented on the inappropriate GFC approach ("The punitive
requirements impos-ed by the Forestry commission on timber producers
have severely affected them", SN February 9 2008; "The Guyana Forestry
Com-mission is crippling the forestry sector" KN January 26 2008). The
repetitive responses from the GFC do not deal with the substance of the
complaints: that the GFC lacks the business experience to tell the
industry how to improve, and I would add that it lacks the legal
mandate to do so.

It would make more sense for the GFC to develop in a participatory
non-dictatorial manner a coherent strategy for industry improvement,
taking account of recommendations reiterated in, for example, the ITTO
diagnostic survey of 2002; which had been requested by the Government.

At a public talk in Guyana in 2006, a visiting anti-corruption expert
put forward a formula for corruption - C=M+D-T - (Corrup-tion is
facilitated by Monopoly plus Discretion minus Transparency), ("World
body ranks Guyana poorly on corruption - says anti-corruption expert",
KN July 14 2006). Legislators recently gathered in Brazil from the
Group of Eight (G8) richest economies and five key developing countries
have called for countries to pass domestic legislation that would make
it a criminal offence to buy illegally logged timber. Both houses of
the US Congress are working in a bi-partisan effort to amend the Lacey
Act, so that penalties now applied to traders in illegally obtained
wildlife would be extended to trees and plants harvested in other
countries. ITTO has issued a similar call.

Guyana needs to take serious note of these developments. Instead of
penalizing its forest workers and small processors, our regulatory
agencies need to focus on those nodes of the supply chain where the
forest wealth of Guyana is haemorrhaging, while FDI-benefiting
companies remain in non-compliance with their agreement.

As the GFC continues to demonstrate both disregard for local
stakeholders and incompetence in supervising forest harvesting, I urge
readers through you, Mr Editor, to add their signatures to a submission
on the Forests Bill 2007. This submission to the Special Select
Committee of the National Assembly is open for signature during working
hours at the Jesuit Presbytery, Camp Street and Brickdam. The
submission must be transmitted to the Parliament Office before 7 March
2008.

Yours faithfully,

Janette Bulkan

User friendly booklets on new Amerindian Act almost ready

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56540378

User friendly booklets on new Amerindian Act almost ready
Stabroek News, Wednesday, March 5th 2008

Special booklets on the new Amerindian Act which are being produced by
the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs in languages that will be understood
by the Amerin-dians are almost complete, the Government Information
Agency (GINA) reported.

GINA quoted Minister of Amerindian Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues as saying
that the legal language had been posing some difficulties and the
ministry decided to make the document more user-friendly in order that
its contents are easily understood.

There are booklets on the Amerindian Act already which are available to
the public but Amerindian communities specifically will be targeted for
the distribution of these new booklets.

Rodrigues said that the project which started last year is almost
complete. `

Additionally, templates of the forestry and mining sectors are in the
printing process which will serve as a guide for communities involved
in the two sectors.

The minister said the project will be pursued because of several
complaints relating to agreements not being properly formulated and the
communities losing out.

She said a workshop was completed with the toshaos in order that they
understand the contents of the Act, so they could better guide others.

The Amerindian Act of 1951 was outdated and not reflective of today's
situation and many communities had asked for it to be revised.

In early August 2005, the Amerindian Bill was presented to Parliament
and was subsequently debated on October 20, 2005.

The new Amerindian Act was passed on February 16, 2006 paving the way
for Amerindians to empower themselves socially, economically and
politically, GINA added.

OAS meeting in Washington… Agri Minister to speak on forestry’s role in renewable energy

OAS meeting in Washington… Agri Minister to speak on forestry’s role in
renewable energy
Kaieteur News, 4 March 2008


Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, is in Washington and
all set to address several high level ministers on renewable energy.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Persaud will be attending
two important ministerial forum convened by the Organization of
American States (OAS) and the United States Government in Washington,
DC, USA which among other things will be looking at hemispheric issues
concerning renewable energy sources, including bio-fuels/agro-energy.
Yesterday, an Inter-American Meeting of National Authorities and
Experts on Energy for Sustainable Development in the Americas was
scheduled to be held while from today until Friday there will be the
United States government forum – the Washington International Energy
Conference (WIREC).
The Minister will be speaking to the panel of the Ministerial Level
Concurrent Session on the theme, “The Role of Forestry in Renewable
Energy”.
Presentations will also be made by Ed Schafer, Secretary of
Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture; Kirk Kempthorne, Secretary
of the Interior of the United States; Pranab Kumar Murkherjee, Minister
of External Affairs, Republic of India; Samuel Bodman, Secretary of
Energy, US Department of Energy; John Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of
State, US Department of State and Paula Dobbriansky, Under Secretary of
State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Department of State of the US,
among others.
The OAS meeting follows the 37th regular session of the OAS General
Assembly, held in June 2007 in Pamama, where the Declaration of Panama,
“Energy for Sustainable Development”, was adopted. This document
requested that the Permanent Council and the Inter-American Council for
Integral Development (CIDI), with the Support of a Joint Working Group
of both councils, convene an Inter-American meeting of national
authorities and experts.
It is expected at the WIREC session that technology, policy,
cooperation, infrastructure, and changes and implications for
conventional forest products industry will also be presented from broad
perspectives.

Opposition parties bemoan lack of transparency in Kingston hotel project

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56540220

Opposition parties bemoan lack of transparency in Kingston hotel project
Stabroek News, Sunday, March 2nd 2008

Winston Murray

Representatives of the parliamentary opposition parties have expressed
concern about the lack of transparency in the awarding of land to a
consortium of unknown investors for the construction of a hotel in
Kingston, reportedly to carry the Marriott Hotels brand.

When this newspaper asked Prime Minister Samuel Hinds the week before
last who the investors for the hotel were, he responded, "I think it is
well known who these people are." When informed that the Stabroek News
did not know who they were, he replied, "Another time, not now."

None of the opposition parliamentarians to whom this newspaper spoke
was aware of the identity of the investors.

PNCR Chairman Winston Murray told Stabroek News that for the government
to maintain its own integrity and the integrity of the Battery Road,
Kingston hotel project, it needed to put all information on it in the
public domain.

Apart from the lack of transparency associated with awarding lands to
unknown investors, Murray told the Stabroek News there was also a great
deal of uncertainty as to whether or not the Marriott Hotels had given
the franchise to the investors.

"We do not know what has gone on behind the scenes," he said, adding
that "if the Marriott withdraws its franchise, we do not know if the
investors would be looking at alternatives or whether or not they would
cut their losses and move on."

With little or no information on the project coming from the
government, it appeared, he said, that the Marriott might be
reconsidering its endorsement.

The lack of transparency and accountability was a problem with the
Bharrat Jagdeo administration, Murray said, citing the manner in which
it was going about the hotel investment as a classic example.

There had been no bidding for the property in Kingston and no one knew
on what terms the property had been awarded or to whom. The process, he
repeated, should have been transparent.

He observed that he saw "no issue of confidentiality needed in that
process," and went on to refer to the land on which the National
Archives was currently located on Main Street, where the government
needed to do likewise.

"I don't think the government does itself any good by getting into
these transactions in an opaque manner; [it's] an act of betrayal of
accountability and transparency," he said, adding that "they need to
come clean on these projects and reveal the details to the public."

The opaque manner in which the transactions had been done, he
continued, represented a major drawback for the government since it
left room for rumours to run rife in the society, which was not in the
national interest because rumours tended to take on additional
dimensions.

Nothing was wrong with swapping lands in the nation's interest, he
said, if the exchange was fair in terms of market prices. Once the land
had been made available, certain negotiations and details of a project
would be subjected to confidential arrangements which should be
respected, Murray continued, but after negotiations had been completed
those details should be revealed.

Noting that the government was treating the lands as though they were
their private property, he said that the general public should have
been informed about the availability of the land for investment and for
what purposes.

Having had the chance to be a part of the tendering process and with
the award completed with information made available to the public, he
said that at that point it would be in the interest of the investors to
argue for confidentiality.

Asked to comment on the Kingston hotel investment and the exchange
arrangement involving the land on which the National Archives is
situated on Main Street, GAP-ROAR MP Everall Franklin told the Stabroek
News that that his party did not have enough information to comment
intelligently on them. Because of this, he would like details of the
projects to be made available, particularly on how the deals were
structured and the identity of the investors, given that the projects
in both cases were well underway.

"Once it is public lands the government cannot operate as though it is
private property," he said adding that at this stage when construction
had already begun it was incumbent on the government to let the
Guyanese people know who the investors were.

"It is not as though the investors have not acquired the property. They
have begun the groundwork and at this point the government ought to
make the details public. This would show clearly that they have nothing
to hide," he said.

He went on to say there was an added reason for revealing the identity
of the investors given that citizens were still getting problems in
obtaining leases and titles to state lands, and there was a backlog of
applications.

In respect of the deal between the government and a local businessman
to give land in Main Street in exchange for the construction of a
building to house the national archives on Homestretch Avenue, Franklin
said, "I don't think there should be any secret about that, once it was
done in accordance with the laws of Guyana."

"If it was done in a transparent manner and after a proper evaluation
and the government gets its value for money in the exchange, that
should be acceptable. These are the things that citizens ought to
know," he said.

Like Murray, Franklin and AFC Leader Raphael Trotman questioned the
lack of an open bidding process to give as wide a cross-section of the
society as possible an opportunity to be involved.

In addition Trotman told the Stabroek News that the AFC welcomed
investment to Guyana but due diligence had to be exercised because of
the challenges posed to economies by globalization. Some of the
challenges included money-laundering, which aided in funding terrorist
organisations from the proceeds of illicit trafficking in narcotic
drugs and weapons.

Trotman recalled that in the '80s and '90s the PPP was very critical of
the PNC administration over the Barama and Guyana Telephone and
Telegraph (GT&T) investments, forcing the government to be as
transparent as possible.

He too said it was difficult to be satisfied with the investment in a
hotel in Kingston and the deal involving the archives because the
details of those transactions had not made public.

Usually there was a lot of fanfare associated with a project such as a
hotel carrying the Marriott brand, and people would be apprised of it,
"but in this case there is, instead, something that is making us
uncomfortable," Trotman observed.

Reiterating that we definitely needed to know more about these
projects, he said that the PPP/C administration could find themselves
saddled with another national embarrassment.

Apart from the National Archives land on Main Street, he said there may
be a number of other government buildings on strategic sites that could
be surrendered for private development. However, fair market prices had
to be set for such exchanges so that they could stand the test of
scrutiny. (Miranda La Rose)