The staff of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) is not being paid on time and Chairman of its Board Jocelyn Dow on Friday said it is owed millions.
After a presentation on the proficiency of the GFC’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) project, Dow was questioned on complaints by GFC staff on emoluments and not being paid their salaries and wages, uniform allowances, and outstanding leave payments, among others.
“The fact that workers have not been paid… people have not been paid their gratuity in 18 months, so it is not on one level, it is on the whole level. I would hate to tell you that we know some of our staff are being charged penalties for late payments when their salaries are deferred. This is a terribly unfair thing,” Dow said, while adding that she hopes the “noise in the press” would encourage Central Government to give the commission some money.
However, it was pointed out that the GFC is owed $60 million from private persons/entities, which, according to Dow, would cover salaries and wages for a month and a half. She said that they would be publishing a list of those owing the GFC money.
Dow also pointed out that programmes such as REDD+ ought to pump monies directly into the GFC since they often have to offset various costs to carry out the monitoring and evaluation required.
Restructuring
Dow also touched on the restructuring of the GFC and said that given that Friday’s event saw the attendance of representatives of the private sector, Forest Producers Association, Iwokrama, Conservation International-Guyana, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association, the World Wildlife Fund, and other stakeholders and active partners, the GFC Board will discuss holding a public forum, where the different stakeholders will be invited to contribute to the restructuring of the GFC.
“We will do this in our own sense and our own process, but we will invite those who are partners to work on this,” she said.
The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) had announced last week that a joint task force was established between it and the Board of Directors of the GFC to address the reorganising and restructuring of the commission.
The Task Force will include the technical and administrative talent and personnel of the MNR, the Board, and the Commission, which will examine the structure and functioning of the GFC to make recommendations to Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, who in turn will present a report to Cabinet, the statement said. The Convener of the task force will be the Coordinator of the Forest Carbon Partnership Project, Clayton Hall.
The mandate of this Task Force shall include, but will not be limited to, an examination and evaluation of current job descriptions and performance standards, personnel procedures, conditions of employment and appointment, wages and salary structures and payroll administration. It will further aim at improving the efficient performance and effective management of the commission by identifying training and development opportunities for staff.
The release said that the Task Force is expected to submit a work schedule with timelines and a preliminary report to the Minister of Natural Resources no later than July 2019.
