Chairman Stanley Ming yesterday said the new Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) board would work to “unshackle” the mining sector and he stressed the need for a delineation of responsibilities
“I want to say to you today we have to understand our respective responsibilities and not be carried away by what some people believe is the norm,” Ming told the members of the board at the National Library.
The members of the board were also reminded that one of its first tasks will be the appointing of a new GGMC Commis-sioner.
Rickford Vieira was fired from the post of Commissioner last month on the recommendations of the previous board, whose tenure came to an end at December 31st, 2015. Ming replaced former Chairman Clinton Williams, who was himself mired in controversy at the GGMC.
Using a personal anecdote, Ming told of his experience establishing a business in North Cummingsburg, notoriously called ‘Tiger Bay,’ when all of his friends and fellow business associates warned that it would be dangerous and tried to discourage him. He said that he believed if he formed a mutual, trustful and working relationship with the community all would be well.
He then explained how evidence of the strength of that relationship was demonstrated when a fire damaged the property some years ago and it was the residents of the community who came out in their numbers to save his belongings from his building. “They told the police at the fire they were in charge and moved everything from the building to the nearby School of the Nations compound. When we did an inventory I can tell you that nothing was missing,” he related.
He said that it was against this background that he believes that once a working understanding is established within the GGMC and the agency in turn sees “an unshackling,” there can be a turnaround of the mining sector, which has been marred by controversy.
“Our job as directors of the board is not to run the GGMC; [that] is the purview of the Commissioner and his staff… It is not my intention or desire to learn everything in the GGMC or have my board members [do that]… there are people in the GGMC who are suitably skilled and suitably capable of doing the things that are required of them,” he said.
“The people of this country have been shackled… our job is to unshackle, to give them the tools and support to do the things they know they need to do to make their organisation function correctly… I believe firmly as a person that human beings by nature would like to do certain things and take care of themselves…our job, as members of the board to the GGMC, is to ensure we create the environment to give them the impetus needed,” he added.
As the new, Chair he promised to do his part in working closely with the GGMC to ensure positive growth in the mining sector.
In brief remarks, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman reminded the board that whatever decisions it makes and policies it crafts for this year should be in the best interest of the not only the current citizenry but future generations.
“We speak not of natural resources per se but we speak about national patrimony. It is our duty, now, to preserve for the future. It has been given to us now in the sense of a baton and it is our duty to use and hand over the rest but some of the practices in the past have not been in the national interest,” he said.
“Prepare now to craft Guyana’s mining policy for 2016 and everyone need rest assured that this policy will be cognisant of and respective to the issues raised by our miners and will be moulded to Guyana’s unique geological, geographical and social charteristics…,” he added.
He also said that he wanted to ensure that lands are available for all miners—large, medium, and small-scale. “There is too much of a cry from small miners that they are being left out, shut out, and that there is nothing for them or what is given to them are not viable lands…We hope that the GGMC and the Closed Area Committee can work through those allocations of lands,” he added.
Trotman charged the board to put greater emphasis on occupational health and safety as too many lives are being lost to mining accidents.
The new board comprises Ming, Mark Waldron, Nageshwari Lochanprasad, Euliene Watson, Vanda Radzic, GGDMA representatives Terrence Adams and Anthony Shields, Women Miners representative Urica Primus, Briony Tiwari, Derrick Lawrence, and Tom Dalgety. There will also be representatives from the GGMC, the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion, the parliamentary opposition, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Gold Board, the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commis-sion and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs.
