Several companies investigated as…Timber scam busted wide open

Several companies investigated as…
Timber scam busted wide open
Kaieteur News, 26 September 2007

Government, yesterday, disclosed it has launched an intensive
investigation into the forestry sector after several discrepancies were
unearthed.

The spotlight is now on several companies that have been granted forest
concessions.

The announcement by Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and
Commissioner of Forests James Singh comes swiftly on the heels of the
dismissal of a high ranking officer – a Deputy Commissioner – last
month, and the suspension of a forest ranger for alleged wrongdoing.
However, the officials yesterday pointed out that these investigations
have nothing to do with that one.

It also follows widespread debate in the opinion columns of the dailies
on the state of the forestry industry in Guyana .

Both the Minister and Singh declined to name the companies involved,
noting that the investigations, conducted primarily by GFC, were still
ongoing.

The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) unearthed its suspicious findings
after it started to conduct checks on records for the past three
months.

According to a statement read by Minister Persaud at his Ministry
yesterday, there were indications that several companies deliberately
under declared what they were producing. In addition, there were
indications that logs belonging to one concession were being passed off
as belonging to another.

The allegations, if true, will have far-reaching implications, said
Persaud. “The above breaches, if verified, will have implications for
GFC's revenue, tax concessions issued to companies by the government,
and GFC staff members at the locations.”

While the officials did not elaborate, under-declaring logs harvested
will mean that GFC will be receiving fewer royalties. With GFC staff
members mandated to monitor the reaping of logs, the under-declaration
will signal some form of collusion between Forestry officials and
companies operating concessions.

GFC said that it will be updating the Minister by October10 on the
status of the investigations.

The disclosures yesterday by the Minister and GFC have signalled a zero
tolerance stance by Government in the mining and forestry sectors.

Several initiatives have been taken by the government to regulate an
industry beleaguered with allegations of corruption and fraud.

According to Singh, it is still too early to say how widespread the
breaches are, but the few cases found were enough for a more intense
investigation to be launched.
According to Singh, the government will not be ruling out the
possibility of revoking the licenses of concessions for the guilty
businesses; it all depends on the severity of the individual cases.