In a letter to Stabroek News, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who has responsibility for mining, sought to document government spending on hinterland roads among other things, but again failed to say why the fund was not set up as stipulated in Clause 51(3) of the Act. It states: “The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission shall transfer 20% of the royalties from the mining activities to a fund designated by the Minister for the benefit of the Amerindian Communities.”
Hinds first addressed the issue of the fund in the National Assembly last Thursday when Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai led debate on the second reading of the Amerindian Act 2006 (Commencement) Bill 2010, which is meant to enforce the Amerindian Act 2006.
In almost two hours of debate on the commencement bill, Hinds, Sukhai, and government MP Gail Teixeira presented the administration’s arguments.
However, Hinds was the only one to deal with the fund directly and that was to say that the monies to be put in it would come from mining on village lands and not from all mining as had been reported before.
When Stabroek News approached him afterwards for a comment on the status of the fund, he said that the GGMC had the monies and would transfer them to the account once it was set up. This newspaper had already reported that after speaking to the agency’s Legal Advisor Rosemary Benjamin Noble the previous day.
In his letter, which was published in the last Sunday Stabroek, Hinds restated this information. “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.” There was no explanation however why after four years it had not been established.
Sources have since pointed out that there are no provisions in GGMC’s accounts for such a fund—a fact which was also noted by AFC parliamentarian David Patterson during Thursday’s debate.
Meanwhile, Hinds further said the GGMC was aware of mining within or in the vicinity of 14 villages: Isseneru; Kamarang/ Warwatta; Baramita; Jawalla; Micobie; Campbelltown; Arau; Tassawini; Chenapau; Kako; Chinese Creek; Waramadong; Issano; and Hururu.
According to the letter, the lack of demarcation of village boundaries on the ground in some cases has created some uncertainty. In those cases, he said, the government has authorised the GGMC to provide financing for the demarcation where the issue may be a potential source of conflict. “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,” Hinds said.
According to him, now that the National Toshaos Council is in place, there will be some basis as to how the fund should be set up. The council has however been in existence for several years now. “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 utilised. 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,” he wrote.
The issue first surfaced in September when chartered accountant and attorney Christopher Ram in a letter to Stabroek News pointed out that the Amerindian Act of 2006 had not been in force although it had been passed in parliament and the government on numerous occasions referred to it as evidence of its respect for the rights of the indigenous peoples.
He posited that a possible reason why the act was not brought into force was because of the GGMC’s obligation to transfer the 20% in royalties. In the wake of Ram’s revelation, the government hastily tabled the Commencement Bill two weeks ago in the National Assembly where it was passed last week
According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the Bill seeks to validate the commencement of the Amerindian Act 2006 with effect from March 14th, 2006. “It validates all acts and things done between 14th March, 2006 and the enactment of this Act which would have been lawful if the Amerindian Act 2006 had been brought into force by Order.
All persons are freed, acquitted, discharged and indemnified from all liability and legal proceedings of any kind in respect of acts and things done between the 14th March, 2006 and the enactment of this Act,” it says. It adds that no person shall be held guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission and no person shall be made or shall become liable to any penalty in respect of any act of commission or omission under the Amerindian Act 2006 between 14th March and the enactment of the Bill.
Further, it states, an order was made bringing the Amerindian Act 2006 into force in April 2006. “This order was signed by the Minister but a Gazette copy cannot be found. Hence it is necessary to proceed by way of an amendment Act to bring the Amerindian Act into force and to effect the necessary validation,” it says.
But PNCR Shadow Minister of Finance Winston Murray had argued that the commencement bill could be challenged since the Act specified that it be brought into force with the Gazetting of a commencement order. “What is written in the Amerindian Act does not go away. It still requires the minister to bring the Act into operation by order this is not an order this is a bill that is being brought here so we have a conflictual situation here and this I posit … is challengeable,” Murray said.
In closing the debate, Minister Sukhai said she was advised by the Attorney General’s Office that the commencement bill would “serve the purpose” and that was basis on which it was brought before the House.
Government representatives said the failure to ensure the Act was in force was a result of human error and linked it to the chaotic times that ensued following the April 2006 killing of Minister Satyadeow Sawh and that year’s General Elections.
