When it was confronted on November 19, 2020 with the murky issuance of two trawler licences to a then unknown person, the Ali administration should have done what every government committed to good governance does in such circumstances: suspend the licences and have an independent investigation done of what had transpired.
It did the opposite of this. It circled the wagons and engaged in dogged defence of the opaque issuance of the licences which remain in dispute and this will lose the government accountability points until properly settled. The two licences were issued sometime before November 19 last year, the exact date is unknown as the Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha – a senior executive of the PPP – has provided information elliptically and in dribs and drabs. Again not a good sign in this era where the demand for accountability is higher than it has ever been even if delivery often falls very wide of the mark.
The context of the PPP/C’s advent to office on August 2nd, 2020 is a useful backdrop. Having won the March 2nd 2020 general elections, the PPP/C was denied its legitimate right to office by a months-long bizarre and crude attempt to rig the elections in favour of the incumbent APNU+AFC whose many hitherto upstanding Mandarins waited patiently for the delivery of the goods. Thankfully, that rigging machine was derailed by a combination of thousands of voices and institutions here and unprecedented pressure from the international community.
Relief at his accession to office was evident in President Ali’s inauguration address of August 8, 2020 which though it didn’t address transparency in government touched on the need for fairness and consultation.
He stated “And, I promise one and all – those who supported me and those who didn’t – that I will be the President for all the people of Guyana, and I will serve each of you with affection, without discrimination and with every attention to fairness and equity”.
President Ali further said: “Central to fulfilling those pledges will be the collaborative and consultative relationship with the private sector…”
Within a matter of months, those high-sounding precepts appeared to have been defenestrated by the Ministry when The Guyana Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors (GATOSP) wrote to Mr Mustapha expressing alarm at the issuing of the licences – without any notice to it or consultation – and warning that it could sink carefully crafted and costly international sustainability certification.
Three months after that letter the issuance of the trawler licences remains as fishy as ever and in the clearest sign of the unwillingness to act, the obligatory committee has been set up by the ministry to wear down the resolve of GATOSP and the public. It appears that these licences have some higher ordination about them and for that very reason they must be canned and transparency introduced. The evasiveness and sanctimonious rhetoric must also be dropped.
At a press conference jointly hosted with the European Union on December 10th last year, President Ali was asked about the issuance of the licences. His response was that he had asked the Agriculture Ministry to furnish him with a comprehensive report on the fisheries sector. He then went on to say that the issuance of the licences was not the only troubling issue in sector and it was in light of this that he requested the report.
There are undoubtedly many things wrong in the fishing sector and every other sector for that matter but the issue at hand was the irregular issuing of the licences and this had to be addressed frontally by the President and not enveloped in other matters.
On February 9th this year, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had his say on the matter. At a press conference, he declared that the PPP/C government will not contribute to “monopoly behaviour” and said he was assured by the Minister of Agriculture that the holder of the controversial trawler licences existed. Asked about the identity of the individual, Mr Jagdeo said, “This person actually met with the ministry and is not a ghost individual, it is a Guyanese.”
Mr Jagdeo also said that that while he agreed that sustainable fishing in the sector should not be jeopardised, there must be equity in the industry and everyone should be given a chance.
“We should periodically review this, it should not contribute to monopoly behaviour because a few guys have this, and they feel there should be no new entrants. One and two of those guys feel if they have a licence from government they should have it forever. It should not be, we should look at equity in this issue too… if a few big guys have everything no new person can break into the sector with one licence or two licences, you can’t have fifty licences… and a man gets two and you complaining he will destroy the sector,” Mr Jagdeo added.
Undoubtedly monopolies should be frowned upon. However that was not the issue at hand as Mr Jagdeo attempted to portray. What was under consideration was the stealthy award of licences in contravention of an agreement among the trawler owners in 2011, the year that Mr Jagdeo last held the Presidency, and which culminated in the seeking of Marine Stewardship Council certification in 2015.
If the PPP/C government wanted to end what Mr Jagdeo described as a monopoly surely the first port of call was GATOSP so that they could be properly consulted and jointly consider undoing what had been agreed under his administration.
Following Mr Jagdeo’s intervention, the Agriculture Minister then made available to the press a statement and a photo from the properly masked holder of the two licences, Rampersaud Sookhdeo who declared that he was “not a ghost,” had been in the fisheries business for 20 years and deserved an equal opportunity as a Guyanese to operate in the sector. Mr Sookhdeo deserves as equal an opportunity as any other Guyanese who might be interested in trawling operations. The problem is that any other person who might have been interested in trawler licences was completely unaware that they were available as there was no notification to the public of this.
Furthermore, GATOSP has said it knows nothing of Mr Sookhdeo’s standing in the local trawling industry, making the award of the licences to him even more mysterious. In the interest of transparency, fairness and rectitude, the licences must be cancelled and the public advised on how they were issued and who signed these. A decision should then be taken on disciplinary action. Thereafter, consultations should be held with GATOSP and as long as sustainability stewardship is not jeopardized the stakeholders could agree to an open process for the awarding of licences.
