Dear Editor,
I note that Usha Pertab (letter captioned “The purpleheart exported by Bulkan Timber Works was either dressed or kiln dried” (07.10.14). has access to commercially confidential information supplied by the private sector to the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) or Ministry of Agriculture.
In view of the severe penalties for leaking information, specified in Article 13 of the recently revised GFC Act (enacted July 2007), we must suppose that Ms Pertab has authority to place such confidentially-supplied information into the public domain. As she has access to information about the privately-owned Bulkan Timber Works, could she also tell us, through Stabroek News, what are the comparable figures for purpleheart timber from those logging companies which have foreign direct investment arrangements with Guyana?
According to the GFC’s useful Forest Sector Information Report – year 2006 review, available on the GFC website – 49,000 cubic metres (m3) of purpleheart logs were produced, of which no less than 46,000 m3 were exported unprocessed, leaving only 3654 m3 (from the GFC’s data) for local milling. Using the log-to-lumber conversion (0.4) preferred by the Forest Products Association for fixed mills, these locally sawn logs would produce 1462 m3 of lumber.
In addition, 9115 m3 of purpleheart was chainsawn from logs directly in the forest. Adding together these two sources of purpleheart sawn lumber gives 10,577 m3. The GFC review for 2006 says that 10,160 m3 of roughsawn and dressed purpleheart lumber was exported in that year.
By subtraction, only 417 m3 were left for all local uses, which is the equivalent of one quarter of a board foot per person – thus, a piece of wood 12 inches long x 3 inches wide x 1 inch thick. In this same year 2006, 110 times as much purpleheart was exported unprocessed as logs. Surely this is not what the PPP intended in its four mentions of value addition in the timber industry in its 2006 election manifesto?
So, through the Editor, I would ask Ms Pertab to tell us, for each of the four corporate companies Bai Shan Lin, Barama, DTL and JaLing in 2006:
a. the volume of purpleheart they produced as logs?
b. the volume of purpleheart they exported as logs?
c. the volume of purpleheart they exported as sawn lumber?
d. the fiscal incentives (tax concessions) provided through the Guyana Revenue Authority?
e. the total capital investments made in Guyana?
f. the average number of employees in each year?
g. the PAYE and NIS paid?
Yours faithfully,
Mahadeo Kowlessar