Dear Editor,
Not diverted, not stolen, and not corrupted; there is no deception, no chicanery! The moneys are on hand at the GGMC. The fund will be set up at such time and location, as procedures, and applications of the fund, have been determined.
I take it now that all who would have read the Amerindian Act 2006, and, in particular, Part V-Village Land (Sections 44 to 58 inclusive); more particularly, sections 48 to 53 inclusive, which speak to mining; and even more particularly, Section 51 in all its sub-sections of (1), (2), (3) – would now accept that the monies to be sent to the fund, is 20% of royalties received by the Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) from mining approved by villages, and located within the village boundaries.
All would have rejected by now, the preposterous interpretation that 20% of all royalties, from all across Guyana, were to be sent to the fund!
It must be noted that this 20% of royalties received, is separate and distinct from the tributes which the small and medium-scale miner is required to pay directly to the village, as part of their mutual agreement, and which the law sets at a minimum of 7%. The traditional tribute to be paid by miners working on other miners’ properties is 10%. The royalties paid, on any production, to the state, are 5% on gold and 1½% on the standard valuation of diamonds. The GGMC, together with the GGB (Guyana Gold Board) has no mandate or role in the law, in the collection of the tribute, but they, nonetheless, stand ready to be helpful as, and when, requested.
The GGMC is aware of mining within, or in the vicinity of, fourteen villages: Isseneru, Kamarang/ Warwatta, Baramita, Jawalla, Micobie, Campbelltown, Arau, Tassawini, Chenapau, Kako, Chinese Creek, Waramadong, Issano and Hururu, across the Berbice River from the bauxite-mining town of Aroaima/Mapletown. In some cases, the lack of demarcation of village boundaries on the ground, has created some uncertainty – the government has authorized the GGMC, in cases where lack of demarcation has been a potential source of conflict, to provide financing for the demarcation.
The GGMC acknowledges that from declaration records of gold to the GGB, and diamonds to the GGMC, from 2006, G$213 million was collected as royalties from declarations of production within eleven villages making about G$43 million due and payable into a designated Amerindian Development Fund. It should be noted that the accumulated tribute payments made directly to villages which have participated, should be at least seven times this figure, ie, at least G$300 million.
Prime Minister can say that, as the law was being drafted, there have been different ideas about how much these funds might be, and how they might be utilized. However, arriving at the point of making decisions and making plans about location, application and procedures for the Fund, without any ideal of flow, would have been deciding, and planning, in the air.
The quantity, obviously, would depend on, amongst many other things, the number of villages which would freely enter into agreements with mining partners, and on the success of those ventures. Now that we have had some years of experience, and now that the Toshao Council is getting into place there is now some basis to arrive at some determinations on how the fund should be set up, and whether it should be a separate fund, or part of some larger fund, and so on.
Even though the government has specified, in the Amerindian Act, certain cash flows to the villages, other government support from funds accruing to the GGMC, has not been constrained, but has even been increased. There is no hiding of moneys designated for Amerindians, but, rather, much more is being provided!
The GGMC, in its historical role of supervising mining which occurs overwhelmingly in the hinterland, has been recognized as an appropriate vehicle for advancing a number of government hinterland programmes.
The biggest area of assistance has been the programme of improving hinterland roads and airstrips.
Whilst those roads may assist miners and mining, they have also improved the livelihoods of all villages and all who live in the hinterland, both Amerindians and non-Amerindians.
Amongst these, we can count, as direct payments from the GGMC, the following:
-Extension of the Mekdeci Road to Mahdia, about 1996 – about G$120 million expended on initial construction costs and periodic maintenance to date.
– The Linden Lethem Road – about G$250 million a year, from 2002. This has brought a tremendous change in outlook to all of Region 9.
– The Mathews Ridge to Baramita Road – about G$150 million from 2006. No longer is the trip from Mathews Ridge to Baramita a three-day, two-night walk; while longer for the old, the young and the six, it, nonetheless, in a few weeks, will be a four-hour drive.
Additionally, over the last three years, government has directed the GGMC to make available G$2 billion to the Ministry of Public Works & Communications for the overall improvement and sustainable development of hinterland roads.
There should be no doubt about the government’s commitment to improving the livelihoods of Amerindians and, indeed, those of all our people, with no regard to race, religion, or region of Guyana. The article ‘Where is the Fund?’ and the pretending articles seem intended to be only mischievous and malicious, being themselves guilty of the very deception and chicanery of which they hurry to accuse the government!
Yours faithfully,
Samuel Hinds
Prime Minister
