There is no evidence of widespread corruption of mines officers, head of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) William Woolford says.
While allegations have been made, those making the allegations have not followed up on matters, he told Stabroek News in an exclusive interview yesterday. “We’re a rules based organisation as you’d expect us to be. We want to follow due process as you’d expect us to do and people who make the allegations and don’t step forward tie our hands,” the GGMC Commissioner said.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, addressing the annual officers’ conference of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) on Tuesday, told the officers that there is need for some of them in the state agencies and he singled out the GGMC. “I need some soldiers in there. The corruption in the field is unbelievable, particularly with the price of gold where it is and I need to clean up some of this situation there too,” Jagdeo had said.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the evidence of that at the moment and we’re prepared to act on any of the evidence presented,” Woolford said yesterday. He said that any concern of that nature by the Head of State is definitely of concern to the agency and assurances have been given to the Minister of Mines and he is aware that they have worked assiduously to deal with matters of corruption at the GGMC.
Woolford stressed that there is zero-tolerance for corrupt activities of staff. He said that they understood that as the industry blossomed and more people got involved that there would have been some pressure. Around the middle of last year, allegations were received of increased corruption among officers in the field and top officials, including Woolford went into the fields to check. More recently, over the last three weeks, a couple of miners said that there was rampant corruption but have not provided a written statement, Woolford said. He noted that they have been actively out there checking on some of the allegations.
Over numerous meetings with miners and mining communities in all the mining districts, it was stressed that if anyone had any evidence of corruption by the GGMC’s staff, they could bring it to the attention of any member of the team. In the visits over the last six months, very few persons came forward to speak on this matter and in instances the allegations were vague. If anyone comes along and brings evidence, the agency would act condignly on it, Woolford assured. “We’re mandated to work with due process so anybody making an allegation that is of concern to us and any allegation of corruption is of concern to us, we would expect that they would put it in writing,” he said.
He added that they have worked with the miners association on the issue but “very few people if any at all stepped forward to give any written evidence which is a requirement so that due process could be followed.”
Eliminate
He said that the agency has sought to eliminate “any reason that would lead to corruption” and referred to the establishment of standard operating procedures, the streamlining of services, the training and education of staff and the revival of the Code of Conduct and the Conflict of Interest Code, to which all the employees have signed on. He also noted the establishment of a mechanism for customer feedback. Further, the GGMC head said, field reports are continually reviewed and if there are any allegations, “we say to the officer involved, ‘look this is what we’re hearing, the person hasn’t put it in writing but we’re warning you that if at anytime your behaviour doesn’t meet with what…’ [and] we will deal with it according to the rules of the organisation.” From time to time, Woolford said, staff have been moved to ensure that whatever is alleged cannot continue and sometimes staff have even been moved out of the field altogether.
He said that over the years, they have dealt with allegations but there is a major problem and this is that “nobody wants to write down and give evidence.” He said that the allegations are made but when asked to name and state the nature of the incident, at that point “it just breaks down.”
“We’re concerned as an organisation that allegations are out there and the people who are making the allegations or know of the allegations appear to be unprepared to see action taken,” Woolford said. He said that in recent times, there have been two matters, one completed and another pending.
He listed several instances where allegations have been made. One involved a miner who said that he had first-hand information and on six occasions, when he was contacted, he promised to put it in writing, but to date has not done so. Woolford said that even if the person does not want to deal with the GGMC, there are others, including the Chairman of the Board and the miners association, where they can go and give statements. “So long as they give evidence and it is substantiated we will take the action that is appropriate, which includes dismissal,” Woolford explained. He said that because of the reluctance to come forward by those making the allegations, there have been matters which were pending for a year or more. He said that the GGMC has even made it known that they would come to communities within the districts.
He said that they were not satisfied that miners are not coming forward to make complaints. “If you’re gonna make that allegation, write it down, follow due process and let’s deal with it,” he said.
Situations
While he would not give a number, Woolford said that persons have been dismissed for corruption and there have been situations where officers have resigned, when confronted with allegations. But he noted, over the past three years, they have not had “those type of corruption dismissals,” with dismissals stemming from non-performance. “We haven’t had presentation of evidence by miners against the majority of our officers so that [the] majority of our officers have not been faced with these allegations,” he said. He acknowledged that the agency is not a perfect organisation and “there has to be things going around.”
Meantime, Woolford said, they have improved turnaround time in several areas and performance has improved immensely “and that in itself is a strong anti-corruption component of our approach.” He said that they have been pushing for the GGMC to satisfy international standards through the ISO quality management system and “that in itself is one of the strongest anti-corruption measures that could be put in place.” In the near future, all field operations would be under focus with this, he said. “We have improved our performance immensely and we are not guessing at that, we’re measuring that performance so while there may be instances that miners could bring forward, we’re saying to them step forward with information, [and] we’re also saying at the same time that miners need to know it is an offence to offer bribes and so on to our officers.”
“We are strong against corruption. We don’t tolerate it. We don’t support it. Our core values speak to it. Our approach in terms of training our staff…establishes that,” he said. “We’re saying to the miners, ‘if you got information, step forward and let due process begin.’” He said that he could not say that corruption is out of control. “It’s a problem that we have in Guyana where people talk but they don’t put themselves in a position to facilitate action.” He said that there is need to work on this culture.
“If you talk and you do nothing about it, it’s not good for anybody and it could demoralise people.
“We can’t just talk anti-corruption and anti-corruption can’t be just policing. It’s got to be changing people’s culture, people’s mindset and that is what we’re focused on as an organisation,” he said.
He suggested that aggrieved persons could have also made allegations. Woolford said that over the last year charges against dozens of miners at all levels were filed. Many opted to settle out of court. “As a regulatory agency, we’ve been doing our job,” he said. Over the last four years, hundreds of miners were prosecuted, including some of the biggest miners, he added.
Meantime, he said that miners have been complying with regulations and he noted that there have been improvements in several areas, including environmental compliance and health and safety. “The evidence shows that the compliance has improved over the last couple of years but it is still not what we’d like it to be,” he said.
