Dear Editor,
I write in response to the letter captioned ‘Has an appointment been made to the chairmanship of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority’ in your letter columns of Tuesday, December 28, 2010.
The letter serves to suggest that clandestine activities have been taking place in respect of the establishment and operationalization of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA). The GLDA Act 2010 was passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President on April 14, 2010. The commencement date of September 1, 2010 was made by an order signed by Minister Robert Persaud on August 16, 2010 and published in the Official Gazette on Saturday, August 21,2010. Publication in the Official Gazette is recognized as notification to the world at large.
Section 5 of the act requires the Minister to appoint a board of fifteen directors of whom seven shall be chosen from nominations submitted by “associations or interest groups including poultry producers, pig producers, cattle farmers, agro processors, beekeepers and traders and exporters of livestock and livestock products.” This has been complied with in all aspects.
The GLDA has retained all staff from the Livestock Services of the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Diary Development Programme (NDDP) and the Livestock Division of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). GLDA will advertise for additional skills where necessary.
The letter writer apparently has a problem with the appointment of Dr Steve Surujbally, a highly regarded veterinarian, as Chairman of the GLDA Board, while he is at the same time Chairman of the Elections Commission. For our part there is no irregularity since the appointment as GLDA Chairman can by no stretch of the imagination be considered “employment.” We understand that Dr Surjubally would himself have anticipated such a scurrilous attack and discussed the issue with several politicians and gained their approval.
Our only regret, so far, is that we have not had a public launching of our offices at Mon Repos on the East Coast of Demerara.
This has only been the case because of some delays in the completion and handing over of the facilities. The opening will be done shortly and this country will embark on a new course of livestock production – one that hopefully will make a reality of our potential to export.
Yours faithfully,
Dindyal Permaul
Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Agriculture
