Some persons are questioning the commissioning charges they allegedly owe to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).
The GRBD in an advertisement in the newspapers named a number of persons and entities who allegedly owe the board money for commission charges. The money allegedly owed to the board ranges from $894 by one J. Shamsudar to $36,880,258 by Kayman Sankar.
Repeated efforts to contact GRBD General Manager, Jagnarine Singh, over the past few days on the issue proved futile as on each occasion this reporter was told that he was in a meeting or had gone out of town.
A representative from Agriman Inc, who the GRBD said owed over $20 million, and who asked not to be named told Stabroek News that as of yesterday the company had no outstanding debt to the GRDB. “Our record shows that we have nothing outstanding to them,” the representative said, asserting that the rice board had no “substantiated document” to prove this. The representative said that all accounts with the board had been settled and expressed the view that the rice board should have contacted the companies, who allegedly owe it, before publishing the advertisement.
Another alleged debtor, Shairaz Ali, who, the advertisement said, owed the GRDB over $2 million said he would not be paying the rice board anything because he had not been paid for the shipments of rice that had been set up and facilitated by the GRDB.
He said the alleged debts arose as a result of two shipments made about five years back; one worth US$55,000 to Jamaica and another worth US$125,000 to Haiti. He said the contracts had all been set up by the GRDB but after the shipments were made and an initial payment was made by one buyer, but the rest of the payments never came. Ali said even though he sent a representative to Jamaica to try to get the money, the effort was futile. He revealed that ever since that experience he has only accepted cash payments.
The businessman said he had spoken to a GRDB representative when the payment issue arose but had been told that they could not help him. “We ain’t even get pay for the rice. How we gon pay them?” he questioned. He said he would be visiting the office shortly on the issue. He said that since the disastrous shipment, the issue of the export commission payment had never been raised by the GRBD until he saw the advertisement in the newspapers.
A representative for Angad Rupee, who allegedly owes the board $1.9 million and who declined to give his name said the sum owed would have to be confirmed by checking the books and would have had to be backdated for some time. The representative said a visit would have to be made to the GRDB on the issue.
Other persons and entities that the advertisement said owed the board large amounts include Grains (Guy) Limited with $10 million, Ivor Allen with over $17.1 million, Commodities International with over $2 million, Tropical Trading with $5 million, World Export and Import Incorporated Inc with over $3.7 million, among others.
