Major forestry breaches probe underway -GFC

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56529634

Major forestry breaches probe underway -GFC
Stabroek News, Wednesday, September 26th 2007

The Guyana Forestry Com-mission (GFC) is in the process of conducting
an investigation into several logging companies after instanc-es of
under declaration of forest produce and false declarations as to the
origin of those produce were unearthed.

According to Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud yesterday, the GFC
in a letter on Monday advised him that on the basis of monitoring
activities and further investigation by the GFC's Internal Audit Unit,
there is preliminary evidence to suggest that several forest companies
may be guilty of the breaches.

The Minister in a statement said that the breaches, if verified by the
investigation, will have implications for the GFC's revenue, tax
concessions issued to companies by the Government, and the GFC staff
members at the locations.

The GFC is expected to provide the Minister of Agriculture with an
update on the status of the investigation by October 10.

According to Commis-sioner of Forests James Singh, depending on the
severity of the offences, the penalties may include revocation of
licences, suspension or a fine. Persaud said that the maximum penalties
will be applied upon the conclusion of the investigation. The Minister
said too that the GFC has looked at about three months of evidence to
arrive at its preliminary conclusions.

The Minister and the Forestry Commissioner both agreed that the
breaches were outside of the allowable arrangement where one company is
allowed to harvest from another's concession.

Of late, the GFC and the Ministry of Agriculture have been taking the
fight to the sector, suspending some company's trading privileges and
concessions for their failing to live up to their end of agreements
signed for value adding.

The GFC has also stepped up internal controls and recently fired a
senior officer for alleged breach of procedure. A junior officer was
also disciplined in this instance. A slew of new regulations in the
forestry sector, including downstream processing, will come into force
in January 2008.

The action by the regulatory body comes amid an intense campaign waged
in the media by several civil society activists - in particular -
Janette Bulkan over fairness in the forestry industry.

Questions have been raised about whether there is transfer pricing in
the export of logs from the country, whether there is over-logging of
certain prime species, whether there is unauthorized `land-lording' of
concessions and whether all the revenue due to the state is being paid
over.

The transfer of ownership between companies and whether they shouldn't
be engaged in more downstream processing activities are other questions
that have been raised.

The stream of benefits to the country as compared to the fiscal
concessions granted to various companies has also come under scrutiny.

The forestry commission and the Agriculture Ministry have come under
pressure to provide answers to these questions.