Under-fire forestry man denies any wrongdoing

Under-fire forestry man denies any wrongdoing
Kaieteur News, 1 September 2007

A top official of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), one of two
employees disciplined on Tuesday for allegedly breaking regulations, is
protesting his innocence.

The other employee, a Forest Ranger, has been sent on one month no-pay
suspension, Kaieteur News learnt. A Georgetown exporter has also been
written to regarding the alleged deliberate breach.

Yesterday, the official, an Assistant Commissioner, said that after
receiving the disciplinary letter from GFC on Tuesday, he visited
Minister Robert Persaud, who is in charge of forestry, and appealed to
him for help.

According to the official, the Minister has promised to establish an
arbitration panel to review his case. This process should take about
three weeks, the man disclosed.

He said that he has not broken any laws; rather he pointed out to GFC's
management that he toed the line and even quoted from his job
description and the Guyana law in his defence.

GFC announced late last month that it was investigating a number of
employees for allegedly manipulating its systems and colluding with
exporters.

The Assistant Commissioner and another employee, a ranger, both
received letters on July 30, 2007 ordering them to proceed on special,
paid leave to allow for investigations to be conducted.

The letter also forbade the Assistant Commissioner to visit any GFC
premises and any stakeholder or exporter related to the forest
industry.

Almost one month later, the two officials were found culpable in the
internal investigations and issued with the disciplinary letters.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Commissioner also said that he has appealed to
the GFC to review the decision to discipline him. “I sent the appeal to
the Human Resources Department and I am awaiting the response.”

According to him, he spent more than a decade with GFC. He said that he
will await the outcome of the arbitration process and what GFC says to
his appeal before deciding his next step. A court challenge would not
be out of the question.

The actions against the two officials come in the wake of recent
announcements of management shake-ups within the army and prison
system, and are being viewed by many as Government's growing
intolerance of indiscipline and corruption within the public service
and governmental agencies.

A statement from GFC on Tuesday did not call any names or indicate
whether police have been called in. GFC said that “two officers of the
GFC have been disciplined in accordance with the GFC Human Resources
Policy Manual.”

Last week, a former manager of a top sawmill disclosed that wrongdoings
are widespread within the forestry sector. He leveled several charges
claiming that Guyana is losing a lion's share of the royalties due on
timber and accused Customs officials and GFC rangers of colluding with
exporters to defraud the government.

Against this background, Amerindian Affairs Minister, Carolyn
Rodrigues, also accused loggers of abusing Amerindians by short-paying
or in some instance not paying them.

Minister Persaud has since indicated that he is paying a close eye to
the industry.