The Ministry of Natural Resources on Monday presented a cheque valued over $49M in royalties it collected from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to the Amerindian Affairs Ministry for Amerindian communities – six years after the relevant Act was passed in Parliament.
The $49M accounts for 20 per cent of the royalties from mining activities by small and medium-scale miners from hinterland communities including Isseneru, Jawalla, Chinese Landing and Campbelltown paid to the GGMC from 2006 to 2011. The transfer of the said funds is mandated by the 2006 Amerindian Act to benefit Amerindian villages, a press release from the Government Information Agency said. The Act further stipulates that small and medium-scale miners must pay to village councils not less than 7% of the value of any minerals obtained from village lands.
The absence of the transfer of the royalties to Amerindian communities was raised in 2010 by commentator Christopher Ram and later taken up in the 9th Parliament by the late PNCR-1G MP Winston Murray. It had been discovered that the government had not brought the 2006 Amerindian Act into force.
At the presentation ceremony on Monday, Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai said the funds will be used to develop Amerindian villages that are not engaged in mining or don’t fall within mining districts. According to the minister, the presentation marks another significant step to advance Amer-indian development through the availability of additional funds of up to $300,000 that could be used to supplement projects in those villages.
Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud said the funds will enable the National Toshaos Council and other stakeholders to embark on projects that will improve the lives and livelihoods of Amerindians.
“We have always talked about improving and expanding the village economy especially in the Amerindian communities and certainly the vision in the Amerindian Act is to ensure that the proceeds from mining contribute to the national effort… this will allow other communities to share in the wealth of our country,” he said.
Persaud also noted that since mining in Amerindian communities is a very sensitive issue an Indigenous Affairs specialist has been appointed to address concerns that generate suspicion and conflict among miners and villagers. “We are looking to revise some protocols, we are looking at ways to improve our regulations; we have developed a mechanism where a committee will address the issues of concerns in the relationships between Amerindian communities and miners,” he said.
In addition, Sukhai explained that measures are in place to process funding for the continuation or completion of any project that a community may have started. The community is required to seek the village’s consent to apply for funds and the village council must indicate its approval to the ministry in order for an application to be processed. The committee tasked with reviewing the proposal and making the decision comprises members of the toshaos council and the ministry.
In November 2010, the government had revealed that some $43M had been accrued in royalties for mining done on the lands of the indigenous peoples, according to the Amerindian Act of 2006, which the administration had recently scrambled to bring into force.
In a letter to Stabroek News, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who then had 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 the previous week when Minister of Amerindian Affairs Sukhai led debate on the second reading of the Amerindian Act 2006 (Commencement) Bill 2010, which was meant to enforce the Amerindian Act 2006.
When Stabroek News approached him after the Parliament session 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. It has taken nearly 18 months for this to happen. In his letter to the Sunday Stabroek in November 2010, 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 had pointed out that there were no provisions in GGMC’s accounts for such a fund—a fact which was also noted by AFC parliamentarian David Patterson during the Parliament debate.
Hinds had said that 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.
The issue first surfaced in September, 2010 when 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.
PNCR Shadow Minister of Finance 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.
