Stabroek News understands that Lindener Andrew Forsythe and Tarachand Balgobin, Head of the Project Cycle Management Division at the Ministry of Finance, were tapped to sit on the Board but an official statement is still to be made. There has also been a name change to the new entity set to succeed LEAP; it is now to be called the Linden Enterprise Network. It was originally expected to be named the Demerara Enterprise and had also been previously called the Guyana Enterprise Corporation. A poster with the new name was put up in the front office of the Region 10 Business Centre which houses LEAP’s offices. The new entity is expected to take over operations of the credit arm of LEAP, the Linden Economic Advancement Fund (LEAF) which opened in 2005.
The contract with Caricom Insurance which managed LEAF was not renewed after it ended in June and the entity succeeding LEAP is expected to take over management of LEAF. LEAF was set to receive 1.9 million euros from the over $2.2B which was earmarked for LEAP, instead it received 1.6 million euros amounting to $465M. The new body is also expected to continue to provide advisory services, manage the Demonstration Farm at Moblissa; the incubator at the Business Centre and the Industrial incubator at Kara Kara inside the old Guyana Stores building which it shares with the Toucan Connection Call Center. It is also expected to do marketing and support Go-Invest around investment promotions, LEAP International Project Manager Kathleen Whalen had said.
Whalen’s term as manager ends this month as well as the extension to LEAP’s technical assistance programme. The first extension was granted in July after the seven-year LEAP programme was set to end in June. Whalen and a number of staff were hired through TRANSTEC which won the public tender to manage LEAP and some of its components including providing supervisory assistance to LEAF. Persons with outstanding loans from LEAF are expected to repay them to Caricom Insurance which has to repay the principal sum of $465M to the government. It is these sums which are expected to be put back into the facility.
Already, Caricom Insurance has repaid $50M and it is expected to pay another sum this month. However, once the new management is fully in place, it will operate the credit facility. It is unclear how much money the new unit will have to issue loans initially, since the entity’s operating expenses is also expected to come from the credit arm.
Some of LEAP’s staff was retained under the technical assistance programme. LEAP and LEAF had a combined staff of 25 persons. The new management is expected to employ less than 10 persons, Whalen had said in August. She had also said since the entity will be locally funded it will have to cover all costs and as such there will be no infrastructural component, hence no need for engineers. Whalen’s office space along with others will be rented in order to provide an income to the new management. Income from services LEAP had provided during its seven years will also be given to the new entity to help fund its operations. (Nicosia Smith)
