The opposition on Wednesday allowed the approval of the $775,656,000 in budget estimates for the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, but not before battering Minister Robert Persaud with a series of questions ranging from areas such as the salary of contracted workers to building maintenance.
APNU MP Carl Greenidge sought an explanation as it related to the increase of the allocation for contracted workers. Persaud, while noting that the ministry is a new one, said that the sum of $13M covered salaries for about nine staffers between the period May to December of last year, while the $38,395,000 sought for this year is intended to cover the full year’s salary of close to 14 staffers.
Greenidge later pointed out that the new figure does not “mesh” and Persaud in his bid to further justify the increase gave a general breakdown of the staff and how much they earn: he said that there are three accounts clerks being paid $47, 605 each monthly; two senior engineers, $159, 459 each; one compliance manager, $388, 500; the permanent secretary, $532, 980; two forest rangers, $50,360 each; a policy coordinator, $436, 884; internal audit manager, $126 594; a stakeholder assistant, $60,224; and a driver, $44,408.
Greenidge later asked the minister to provide a table to show how the final figure was arrived at and Persaud agreed to do so.
APNU MP Volda Lawrence asked the minister to state why many of the 2012 staff were “doubling up on their work”. Persaud said that the staff, who he described as hard working, “double up and sometimes triple up” and that it was not necessarily reflected in their remuneration package.
Asked by Lawrence how many buildings the ministry has under its control for the $3.6M allocated for maintenance, Persaud said it is for one building which had three flats. Asked to explain how telephone charges went up by $1.5 M, he said that now that the ministry is “standing alone,” the service will have to be borne by it. He explained that while located within the compound of the Office of the President (OP), the ministry did not have to pay some of the bills.
Greenidge then pointed the minister to the line item for rental of buildings and for which there were no allocations attached. Persaud explained that the ministry was temporarily being housed within the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) complex. Asked if the location is being made available free of charge, he said “there is an arrangement whereby the charges associated with the building… there is an element of cost sharing.” He said that cost sharing relates to maintenance and utility charges. Pressed on whether there is any rental fee attached, he said “there is no existing rental arrangement….”
Persaud said that he is sure the GGMC “values the leadership of the ministry,” when asked if GGMC is authorized to make its infrastructure available to ministry’s free of charge.
Meanwhile, under questioning about subventions for training, the minister said that this includes monitoring and evaluation within the mining sector, policy analysis, the low carbon development strategy, project cycle management, environment resource education, Geographic Information System (GIS) training as well as skills training in relation to management and issues such as climate change. This training, he said, would target staff as well as agencies that fall under the ministry.
He also said that his ministry is currently working on a programme to centralize the GIS, a part of which is currently being operated within the Lands and Surveys Commission, GGMC and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC). He said that because of the integrated nature of land use and land management, “at times they don’t see each other and that at times can give rise to conflict.” Persaud stated that what they are doing is building a system within the ministry where these three elements will come together and can be viewed at one point.
He later expressed hope that sometime this year the ministry will be able to launch the Guyana Mining School, which would focus on specific areas. He said that in terms of training, there is also the Guyana Forestry Training Centre.
Greenidge later asked for the Minister to provide an integrated training plan to the House. Persaud that the ministry, through a UNDP programme, is currently working on a programme to develop a strategic development plan for the extractive industry. A component of that, he said, would address human resources requirement, training and development, capacity building and would target areas to move the sector forward. Persaud said that once the strategy is completed, it would be tabled in the National Assembly.
