Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes said the 2016 Budget allocations point to the government’s effort to raise the level of attention given the natural resources sector which can do much to take the economy and country forward.
In her presentation on the budget, Broomes stressed that better standards are needed in the sector to combat corruption and promote worker safety and environmental protection as it moves forward.
“One of the real challenges in the natural resources sector lies in changing old habits,” Broomes said. “Even now, the pockets of poor administration, lack of attention to safety and health and corrupt practices in the areas of the sector, continue to unfold… Bringing a sense of order to the natural resources sector is one of the serious challenges of this APNU+AFC administration.”
Referencing the large amount of gold which is regularly smuggled out of the country, the minister declared, “It must surely disturb this House as a whole, that, as a nation, we appear unable to benefit directly from more than half of the gold that we produce. That, surely, is unacceptable. We must ensure that we work towards re-directing that which we have been losing over time.”
Training as allocated for in the budget, the minister noted is essential to combatting lax practices. However, she noted that training alone cannot realize the necessary results as such incentives and the encouragement that contribute to the creation of committed professionals along with new and workable ways of fending off corruption are necessary.
These efforts, the minister noted, must begin with an acknowledgment that there are those companies and those individual operators whose only concern is with the profits they can make from mining and logging. Such an acknowledgement is the first step in realising true commitment to protecting the environment.
Broomes also signalled her intention to see the small miners “who for far too long have been operating in a discriminating environment,” get their just reward as the government works to see all players treated fairly.
She credited a 16.4 per cent gold production increase with propping up the mining sector which grew by 9 per cent despite reduction in bauxite production and noted that it was “our own local miners, through their hard work in the face of many challenges, who accounted for more than 90 per cent of the 451,490 ounces declared at the end of last year.”
In relation to the forestry sector, she stressed the government’s intention to focus on responsible timber harvesting, which is to be achieved through education as well as the formation and equipping of a compliance unit within the ministry.
