President cites Barama, others over breaches of forestry procedures

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56530610

President cites Barama, others over breaches of forestry procedures
Stabroek News, Tuesday, October 9th 2007

President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday disclosed that recent alleged
breaches of forestry procedures involve collusion between Barama
Company Limited, some concessionaires and staffers at the Guyana
Forestry Commission (GFC).

It is the first time since a probe was launched into the fraud that the
name of a logging company has been mentioned publicly. Jagdeo warned
that there will be consequences for the company and the other parties,
noting that based upon preliminary investigations it seems as though
there was a system among the three groups to defraud the government.
Contacted for a comment last evening, Girwar Lalram, Chairman of Barama
said it was premature for his organization to make a comment on the
issue at this time.

Restraining himself from speaking at length on the issue at a press
conference at his office yesterday the Head of State said there needs
to be serious penalties for companies involved in false declaration. He
also noted that at present forestry still falls under his portfolio and
serious steps will be taken to regularize concessions owned by Guyanese
for decades. According to the President some of these logging
concessions are being exploited jointly by Guyanese concessionaires and
Barama, with the former collecting huge sums of money. "A lot of people
are collecting rent for concessions that they don't maintain, the
acreage fees are low and they have an arrangement with Barama who come
in and do all the heavy work."

The GFC two weeks ago announced that it was in the process of
conducting an investigation into several logging companies after
instances of under declaration of forest produce and false declarations
as to the origin of those produce were unearthed.

Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud had told a press conference that
he was advised about the breaches in a letter from the GFC. According
to Persaud 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. Persaud 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 with an update on the
status of the investigation by tomorrow. Commissioner of Forests James
Singh said too at the press conference that 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
had both agreed that the breaches were outside of the allowable
arrangement where one company is allowed to harvest from another's
concession.

Meanwhile, in a statement last week the Guyana Human Rights Association
(GHRA) said the announcement by the Agriculture Ministry that an
internal probe by the (GFC) into under-pricing and false declarations
of timber is an inadequate response to allegations of irregularities
taking place in the sector. According to the human rights body, two
minimum conditions for the credibility of the investigation are the
temporary suspension of Forestry Commissioner Singh and the appointment
of independent investigators. In addition to under-pricing, the release
said, the past decade has seen a catalogue of dubious and illegal
mismanagement, including over-logging of prime species, 'land-lording'
of concessions, non-payment of revenues, labour exploitation of
indigenous people, reverse buy-outs disguising true ownership,
preference for foreign over Guyanese labour, and destruction of
national and Amerindian forest assets. The human rights body said that
Singh has presided over a key statutory body over the period of years
this catalogue of accusations has accumulated, while the announced
probe is not the result of internal GFC zeal but external pressure from
national and international agencies and activists "outraged by the
plundering of Guyana's forests.

Social activist Janette Bulkan and others have been highlighting in
numerous letters to the media what they described as illegal
land-lording by Barama on concessions held by others who are not
gainfully utilizing them and a host of other issues.