No one could accuse Minister Zulfikar Mustapha of being altogether clear in his mode of operating. There he was last week saying that the approval of two new trawler licences for seabob fishing operations does not breach the quota of vessels which are allowed to operate in the industry or risk international certification. He is basing that apparently on the fact that several licences were inactive and the current number of trawlers is 80, in circumstances where 87 are permitted. That notwithstanding, he did not appear to evince any interest in exactly how sustainable the seabob catches are at the present time; he just assumed that we are safe without making any arrangements to find out if that is so.
As it was he said the Ministry had launched an in-depth investigation into the trade, in order to get an understanding of the issues involved as well as the challenges faced by the operators. This, it might be noted was after the licences had been granted, not before, and only when the licensed trawler operators had raised questions and pointed to a lack of due diligence in the granting of the new licences. They had simply not been consulted, as if they were irrelevant to the issue.
The Minister said that the Ministry of Agriculture had obtained a vessel to conduct an inspection of the seabob trade, but there was no indication as to whether that involved sustainability issues, rather than just a monitoring of the trade as such. There seemed to be a total lack of clarity about how the licences were granted, and he had simply responded that the matter was being investigated.
Up until yesterday when questions were asked in Parliament no one even knew who had been granted the trawler licences, the Minister fobbing the press off with the reply that they had gone to a reputable Guyanese company which had been in the fisherfolk business. It is therefore outrageous that when faced with a question in Parliament, the Minister engaged in open defiance and refused to deliver the name of the company that secured the licences.
To MP Ramjattan’s simple question: “To whom were the two new trawler licences issued, for years 2020-2021, by the Ministry of Agricul-ture, Fisheries Department?” the Minister’s unacceptable response was “They were issued to a well-established Guyanese operator in the fishing industry who was duly qualified to receive the said licenses, who complied with the requisite procedures and satisfied all the legal requirements in relation thereto”.
The entire purpose of the lodging of the question was to elicit a direct answer as to who now holds the two new licences so that MPs and the public could begin deciding for themselves whether the allocations were above board and appropriate. The Minister has exhibited gross intransigence in refusing to answer and has now provided further grounds for the public to be concerned that the handing out of the licences was irregular and warrant immediate investigation.
By his evasiveness and unwillingness to be transparent Minister Mustapha has now relieved himself of this matter though there will be consequences. The Ali administration will now face the burden of answering the public for once and for all. Who secured the two licences in contravention of a pre-existing agreement and with the prospect of damaging international sustainability certification? The question will not go away. It will dog the Ali administration and raise very early concerns about its willingness to be transparent and open with the people’s business. It will no doubt take note of the release yesterday of the 2020 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
We had earlier reported that a Chinese company had put up the finance for the licensing. Mr Mustapha had gone on to remark that every Guyanese should have an equal opportunity to earn. He should be reminded that this should not be at the expense of sustainability in the seabob industry or good governance. It does not seem to have occurred to him that finding out the status of seabob in our waters should be a prerequisite before any decision on the trawler industry is made. But he seems to be operating back to front.
He did meet the stakeholders in the industry after delays caused by Covid, and recourse was had to that traditional bureaucratic standby – creating a committee. This will comprise members from the Ministry as well as from the Guyana Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors and will address the matter of the two new trawler licences as well as other findings from the ministry’s investigation. For his part Mr Mustapha said the committee will meet regularly and will propose recommendations for the sector. Both sides, he told this newspaper, were committed to ironing out the concerns. “I am prepared to listen to them and hear what they have to say and make recommendations,” he was quoted as saying, “We have to work together to realise the full potential of the industry.”
While the Minister was reported as having told members that the Ministry had no intention of acting in contravention of their agreement on the number of licences or undermining the international certification which they hold from the Marine Stewardship Council for sustainable fishing, given the whole way in which he has managed this matter it remains to be seen whether he will act on anything emerging from this committee.
What is unusual about this case is that the current Minister has changed the direction of the industry which was created by a previous PPP/C government – and that, as said earlier, without any prior investigation or thought. AFC MP Ramjattan has said that the previous APNU+AFC administration built on what was already in place, and granted no new licences. Guyana, he said, was one of the largest exporters of seabob in the world.
All one can say at this stage is that Minister Mustapha does not convey the impression he will entertain revoking the licences even if an incontrovertible case were eventually to be made out for him doing so. His refusal to answer the question in Parliament yesterday places him in an unwelcome spotlight.
