Prime Minister Sam Hinds says Government and the Region 10 Regional Administration have reached agreement on the Chairman of the Economic Review Committee but not for the Technical Review Committee and that a meeting should be held between the parties in the next few weeks to take this process forward.
Speaking to this newspaper on Saturday, Hinds said that Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon and Adviser on Governance at the Office of the President, Gail Teixeira will be liaising with Chairman of Region 10 Sharma Solomon on the date of the next meeting.
The committees were set up last year in the aftermath of the Linden protests to look at power tariffs and prospects for economic revival.
“We have not had a meeting in the last week for various reasons…but we seemed to have reached agreement on the Chairman of the Economic Review Committee…not for the Technical Review Committee,” said Hinds.
Solomon said, “We were to have had a meeting on Friday. We were advised by Dr. Luncheon that due to an unexpected commitment [it had to be postponed].”
Last month, Solomon had said that there seemed to be consensus for University of Guyana lecturer Joycelyn Williams to be the chair of the economic committee as neither side had any objection to her holding the position. It is likely that Williams will become the Chairperson of the Economic Review Committee, Solomon said. “So far the two parties are set to move in that direction,” he said.
For the chair of the technical committee, government had nominated John Lewis, who has worked in the bauxite industry in Linden for a number of years and has historical knowledge of the industry. However, the region was said to be in favour of Earle B John, a consultant at the Sandra Jones Associates Consul-tancy firm. Also in the mix for the chairmanship of the Technical Review Committee is engineer Charles Ceres.
With regards to the Land Selection Committee, he said that this has been established and its terms of reference and structure of management will be submitted to the Office of the President at the next meeting between the two parties. The region will also be raising the issue of the Linden Commission of Inquiry and related issues at this meeting.
The committees are all part of the August 21, 2012 agreement between Government and the Region 10 Regional Administration, flowing from weeks of unrest in Linden over electricity tariffs during which three protesters were killed.
Asked what the latest position of Government was with regard to the television station for Linden and its licence, Hinds said that the Region must apply for such licence. However, he said that it is his understanding that the Region feels the Government should grant the licence as a matter of course.
Solomon said: “We were told by the Government that they would consider our position but they still encouraged us to send in our application to the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority.”
Solomon reported that the construction of the site for the television station is now 60 percent completed and that the region has now purchased its own transmitter, since the Government is yet to hand over one promised to the region.
Then Acting Cabinet Secretary Teixeira had said at a press conference earlier in the year that the region could not expect the government to sidestep the legal and technical requirements under the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) regulations and the Broad-casting Act and grant a television licence “at the wave of a wand.”
She said Government assured the Region that it will facilitate as far as possible, their application in accordance with the law.
