By clustering all of the various natural resources under a single ministry the Government of Guyana is sending a signal that it intends to lend much closer official attention to those sub-sectors. There are two distinct sets of interests which the government would have in the natural resources sector. The first, of course, has to do with the contribution which minerals, gold particularly, and forestry, make to the country’s economy
The prospects for gold would appear to be quite exciting given, firstly, the high market price for the commodity; secondly, the continual increase in the volume of gold mined annually – upward of 300,000 ounces for the third consecutive year; thirdly the increasing investments by local miners in the industry and, finally, the promise of significantly increased external investment in the opening up of mega gold-mining operations in the immediate future.
The second reason why the government would want to be concerned over what happens in the natural resources sector has to do with the nexus between the mining and forestry sectors and the environment. Over the years the government has dug a hole for itself by neglecting to properly regulate mining and logging activity and having recently committed globally to higher standards of environmental awareness, it has, it seems, decided that more pressure must be put on loggers and miners to pursue their activities with the environment in mind.
During his meeting with stakeholders on Monday, Natural Resources Minister Robert Persaud also alluded to the problem of smuggling in both the gold and diamond sub-sectors, pointing out that government intended to close that particular gap. What he failed to mention was whether or not government was aware of and, more particularly, whether it intended to do anything about the rumoured corruption in the gold-mining sector involving officials of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) or about what now appeared to be what Prime Minister Sam Hinds described some years ago as a “gold frenzy”. For example, the returns from gold are sufficiently lucrative to have enticed businesses that traditionally had nothing to do with the sector to begin investing in it and this reported trend is coinciding with complaints by small miners that new regulations are being brought into force to push them out of the industry.
In addition to all this, there is the somewhat longer-term likelihood of oil which might mean that, down the road, we may see the significant expansion of the Natural Resources Ministry.
It is of course worth mentioning that the choice of Robert Persaud as the subject minister points to his own growing importance in the PPP/C Cabinet and perhaps even his place in the political pecking order. It does appear, however, that his new ministry is a reward for the energy and dynamism that he demonstrated at the Ministry of Agriculture though one must hope that the seemingly peculiar decision to assign that ministry to Dr Leslie Ramsammy is not indicative of the possible decline of agriculture on the economic totem pole.
One of the questions that arises is whether the efficiency of the country’s natural resources sector can be assured by placing it under a government ministry given the historical reputation of the public service for inefficiency, incompetence and a dearth of skills. Perhaps the idea here is to have the Natural Resources Ministry operate somewhat differently from its more or less run-of-the-mill counterparts by benefiting from a level of human and technical resources that befits its importance.
Some of the other considerations that now arise have to do with the fact that state agencies like the GGMC and the Guyana Forestry Commission that have responsibility for the gold and forestry sectors will now come under even closer ministerial scrutiny, giving rise to an altogether legitimate enquiry as to whether the heads of those agencies may be no more than sinecure officials run by remote control from the minister’s office.
Then, of course, there is the issue of corruption. Dark clouds already hang over the heads of both the gold and forestry sectors as far as adherence to proper procedures and accountability are concerned. The profligate manner in which the government has granted forestry concessions should be added to the rumoured corruption involving GGMC officers mentioned above.
On the face of it, there is nothing really wrong with the creation of a Natural Resources Ministry. If, as he has promised, the minister lends some attention to issues of environmental propriety, smuggling, the fair even if not equitable allocation of mining claims and significantly improving the efficiency of the existing state agencies concerned with mining and forestry, that would mean that the ministry would be serving its purpose. On the other hand were that to prove not to be the case then those sectors of the economy could be irretrievably lost to us.