Contract
Gov’t seals US$34m e-ID card deal: Arising out of its request for assistance from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2021, the Government of Guyana yesterday inked a US$34 million contract with German-headquartered company, Veridos, for the production and rollout of an electronic citizenship card that consolidates the data of the holder, providing for easier access to public and private sector services. But while Guyana hopes to boost easier access across platforms with the swipe of the card and privacy aspects being “second to none”, technology experts have expressed concern about this country neither having ample or robust legislation to guard against cyber threats nor a comprehensive Data Privacy Policy. Questions are also being raised as to whether this contract should have been subject to public procurement as opposed to direct discussions with the UAE. “Given the Government of Guyana’s commitment to promote e-governance in order to improve the productivity of businesses and delivery of government services through e-health, e-education, e-security, e-agriculture, electronic permits, and licence processing, et cetera, there is an immediate need to implement a robust national identity management system, one that focusses on the integration of identification services across government agencies, security ease of use and acquisition of IDs,” President Irfaan Ali yesterday remarked at the virtual signing. “By so doing, This ID system will improve access to all citizen-centric government services and benefits the citizens, private sector, and government alike. This will bring us in line with solutions used by the most developed economies and position Guyana to be a competitive sphere, in a world that is moving [and] advancing drastically along a technological landscape,” he added. Representing Guyana at the virtual signing ceremony were the President, Prime Minister Mark Phillips, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar. The other signing party included UAE’s Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Juma al Maktoum, a representative of Veridos, and other foreign representatives. Whether the UAE and al Maktoum are benefiting from this deal has not been clarified. Al Maktoum had also been connected to the sale of Sputnik COVID vaccines to Guyana in 2021.
Condemn
Nandlall condemns Ogunseye’s call to be `battle ready’: Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall SC has vehemently condemned statements made by Tacuma Ogunseye, executive member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), including for persons to be “battle ready” Ogunseye, while at a WPA meeting on March 9th night in the village of Buxton on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) made several claims about the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) using the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force in the past to “execute” Africans and encouraged his ethnic group, especially those who are members of the Joint Services, to be “battle ready” for a “fight.” During the meeting which was recorded and shared on the Facebook profile of KAMS TV, the party member could be heard referring to his version of events in Buxton, 2002, “…In 2002, 2005, when Buxton got interrupted into an unfortunate situation which arose because of the PPP policy of executing Africans using the police force and then the phantom force and Buxton find itself in the cross road.”
He went on to contend that the treatment that persons of African descent receive in this country is unjust and called it a “political urgency” which he declared must be acted upon as early as possible. “We in the Working People’s Alliance have decided once again to put the party on the line because we believe that with the present situation in our country… the treatment and conditions of the African community requires political urgency and we have to act and we have to act quickly… for the WPA in this present campaign we have some clear objectives, the first objective is to get the African team in a state of battle readiness… the Afro-Guyanese police and soldiers… would stand with Afro-Guyanese in resisting mainly Indo-Guyanese supporting the PPP/C.”
The WPA executive member said he was of the belief that once persons from the Joint Services who are of his ethnic group are guided to do “the right thing,” then there is a possibility of his party getting back into government. “…Sometimes people tell me that to remove the PPP will be hard and long but I don’t necessarily believe… because at the end of the day no government could survive if they don’t have the support of the military and those who carry weapons for the state… the reality is, the army, the police, are majority African Guyanese… once we organise our people and once we begin to fight we will ensure that our brothers and sisters in uniform will do the right thing and when they do the right thing this matter is over in days and not weeks… it have to be strategic.”
Finance
Gov’t says to up fight on financial crimes: The government last week released its five-year national strategy to combat money laundering (ML) and the financing of terrorism (TF) with a key feature being enhancing the capabilities of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and improving the investigating and prosecuting competencies here. “This National Policy and Strategy is a five-year plan that aims to further enhance and improve Guyana’s AML/CFT/PF [Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism/Financing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction] regime by addressing the risks identified in Guyana’s Second NRA [National Risk Assessment] Report and implement the strategy in conjunction with Guyana’s Risk Based Action Plan”, according to the document released yesterday by the Attorney General Anil Nandlall who stated that government had approved it at the Cabinet level. “The National Policy and Strategy provides a guide of the actions required to be undertaken to improve Guyana’s effectiveness in mitigating ML, TF, and PF,” the document adds. The eight Strategic objectives are “1- ensuring policy coordination to mitigate ML/TF/PF risks; Strategic objective 2 – strengthening AML/CFT/PF legislative framework; Strategic objective 3 – strengthening and clarifying the AML/CFT/PF supervisory framework; Strategic objective 4 – enhancing the FIU’s capabilities; Strategic objective 5 – enhancing investigation and prosecution capabilities; Strategic objective 6 – developing greater cooperation and coordination among domestic competent authorities; Strategic objective 7 – enhancing regional and international cooperation; Strategic objective 8 – ensuring adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial ownership and control of legal persons and legal arrangements.” With regard to improving the necessary internal capabilities of the FIU, to optimally perform its role in receiving, analysing, and disseminating financial intelligence in terms of both staff and IT [Information Technology] capabilities, “The FIU will enhance its internal capabilities by continuing to increase and train its staff; it will request access (both legally and operationally) to any additional databases it needs to gather sufficient intelligence to support its analyses; it will also develop and implement IT tools that would enable it to facilitate and enhance its analytical capabilities. This is all towards the FIU ensuring its improvement of the quality of its Intelligence Gathering and Processing,” the document said.
Electricity
Plans in motion to upgrade GPL grid for gas-to-shore power: In preparation for the 300-megawatt (MW) Wales gas-to-shore power plant’s late 2024 completion, government has commenced plans to upgrade the Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) distribution grid and is awaiting evaluation of tenders for the installation of new electricity lines and substations, the Office of the Prime Minister announced. “We are moving to modernise the grid, to install the new transmission lines and substations for the integration…,” the Office of the Prime Minister said in response to questions from the Stabroek News. “The tender is already out for that [the lines’ transmission upgrade]… We are also doing a study… by the time the gas-to-shore project is completed the grid will be upgraded and ready to receive that [power].” Technical issues continue to plague GPL’s Deme-rara Berbice Intercon-nected System (DBIS) which serves about 90 percent of the country’s coastline where the majority of the 750,000 population lives. There are periodic power outages or shutdowns. Reference was made to the tender, which was published last December when government issued a call for proposals for the project. It had said that the tender would have been opened on January 31. It is unclear what has caused the delay. All bidders were asked to submit their proposals together with an original proposal security in the fixed amount of US$4,000,000 no later than 09:00 hrs on Tuesday January 31, to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB). That entity’s website has no record of the tender or postponement. Interested applicants were invited to submit proposals for the provision of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Services for the Installa-tion of Transmission Lines and Substations for the integration of the new 300 MW combined cycle gas turbine power plant. Giving an update at the energy conference last month, gas-to-shore project lead Winston Brassington had said that as at the end of December 2022, progress details showed that an engineering, procurement and construction model had been selected and a contract was signed in the same month. The supervisory contractor had also been selected based on a competitive tender and that contract was executed in January. The Environmen-tal and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) is completed and this included public scoping exercises on the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the ESIA, submitting the ESIA, having the review of the ESIA completed, and getting an environmental permit issued to ExxonMobil. An interim construction permit has also been issued to the special purposes company that will be set up to manage the project.
Investment
Chin eyes further investment as MovieTowne celebrates fourth anniversary: As Movietowne Guyana celebrates its fourth anniversary this month with a series of giving back activities, its Chairman and Founder Derek Chin is hoping that the legal impediment on the land nearby would be cleared up and he could put in an offer for a staggering US$500 million “dream” development or that government greenlights a Guyana DinoWorld project. Chin is Guyanese by birth and had lived during his childhood on Church Street in Georgetown where he was always fascinated by the nearby cinemas. “I had this Riverwalk of Georgetown [concept] planned for next door, which would make the country an even greater destination. It is like the riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas; this man-made river that goes to the hotel. It has this seductive lighting and great ambience…. that was my dream and still is,” Chin told the Sunday Stabroek in an interview on Friday. “Can you imagine if the Riverwalk of Georgetown was there? …If I had the additional land I would bring even more fancy things…,” he added. While he had made a deposit on the land, which at one time was earmarked to build a specialty hospital, he said that transaction became tied up in a legal battle. “They have said ‘boy that is [presently] caught up in such a legal situation, don’t go waste my time kind of thing’, but challenges are always there. If they want an investor or someone like me to come with new ideas, I would love to look at it,” Chin said. He said that about US$500 million would have to be plugged into such a development, and he would look for Guyanese investors to partner with, because people of this country must get back returns from their homeland. “It would be the river hotel and entertainment destination. I would build the walkover from [Movietowne to the facility] to connect. You will have a museum there that shows off Guyana’s vast history and artifacts and other history of its people. You would have entertainment areas… the lot,” he explained. Chin still has the blueprint for the facility and is optimistic that if the legal issues are resolved, investors would want to take up the offer. In the meantime, however, he said he has a plan to pitch to the Irfaan Ali government, replicating his DinoWorld Entertainment Park here in Guyana at a location government believes would be profitable. DinoWorld is a theme park in Port of Spain, Trinidad where patrons experience life sized mechanical dinosaurs, as they explore the forested amusement area. “I would love permission to do it and create an iconic park … that way, people would have another destination to go to. If government gives me land for the investment, I will make it happen,” he said. Chin prides himself on investments that are different, and many most times are scoffed at for being too outlandish or modern or risky.
Excel Guyana links with Duraflex, ready to fill gaps in cement, stone shortages: Considering the stone shortage that periodically affects infrastructural projects and construction, local oil and gas service provision company Excel Guyana Inc hopes that its Duraflex cement compound will fill that void as it offers a product of better durability and lower cost. “We had meetings with [the ministries] of public works, agriculture and other large companies here about usage of the product… It is an addition to cement, a compound which creates cement that is stronger and durable. By having this, you have a replacement for stone and aggregate… and it can reduce the cost of a project by up to 30%,” Chief Executive Officer of Excel Guyana Kris Sammy told the Stabroek News in an interview. “The key feature is no stone or aggregate is needed , big cost savings. Only cement and native soil . It’s an additive to mix with the cement, forms a hexagonal bond , more compact and solid No cracking and stays this way for centuries,” he added. Excel was one of the local companies which participated in the recently concluded oil and gas summit, during which it inked a franchise distribution deal for exclusive distributorship, covering Guyana and Suriname, with the Canadian company. Sammy explained that his company had given samples to companies in the oil and gas sector and that Excel Guyana should soon be receiving feedback on interests. In the first quarter of last year, there was a countrywide cement and stone shortage. Government had attributed this to an infrastructural and construction boom that has seen high demand for the items since the gradual reopening of the economy that had experienced a slowdown due to COVID-19. The shortage for products used in construction continued and with the capital projects at an all-time high here, forecasts show that there could be additional aggregate shortages. Sammy noted that Duraflex Solutions, is a Canadian innovator, designated as Cleantech Best Accepted Construction Method by the Government of Canada, and can provide a modern and alternate material for stone. Excel’s website states, “Duraflex is compliant with the International Climate Change Infrastructure protocols for Green Construction Materials. These protocols are considered to be the Gold Standards in environmentally sustainable construction as articulated in the Kyoto Accord. Duraflex Solutions exports Duraflex globally as a Best in Class product. Duraflex, a patent-pending product, was designed for soil stabilization and concrete modification. Duraflex changes the way cement hydrates at the molecular level creating crystalline structures within the soil or concrete matrix. These changes create an increase in both compressive and tensile strength. Duraflex closes the capillary action of the treated matrix thereby significantly increasing impermeability to water, acid, hydrocarbons, and chlorides (salt).”
Oil & Gas
Gov’t eyeing $$ from offshore gas – Jagdeo: Discussions with ExxonMobil have commenced on possible gas production with government eying monetizing the offshore resource as soon as the auctioning of oil blocks is completed, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said. “We are in a discussion with Exxon now. We have 17 trillion cubic feet of associated gas; a lot of associated gas and they were saying they needed to reinject this gas to keep the quality of the wells up. We are having a different conversation now, to move to monetize this gas,” Jagdeo told the Ceraweek 2023 Energy Conference, currently being held in the United States oil capital of Houston, Texas. “They [ExxonMobil] are doing some studies. We are also getting some external help to do a gas strategy, but we believe that is the next wave. Once we set this firmly on track where the production is already escalating [and] we get out of the bid round, we will start tackling that issue in earnest – the gas strategy – because we believe that Guyana has huge potential for becoming a gas producer”, he said. Before leaving for one of the biggest events on the global energy calendar, Jagdeo had last Friday told a press conference here that India was helping this country with its national gas strategy plan. “We have embarked on the Gas-to-Energy project that will utilise some of the natural gas that is produced or we have discovered offshore. We are now pushing Exxon to complete the gas utilization plan. We hope this would be completed very soon and we are working on our own gas strategy…” he said. “We are going to get some of the consultants from India and other places to work with us on having a National Gas Strategy, which will determine what we do with the gas that has been found offshore so far. It then deals with the potential areas for bilateral cooperation in an exploration and developing of our natural resources,” he added while informing that plan should be completed before the end of 2023. At ExxonMobil’s last public discussion on its Uaru project in the Stabroek Block, the company’s Project Manager, Anthony Jackson, had said that the company was working on a gas utilization plan.
Crime
Hope Estate woman stabbed to death by reputed husband: Almost on the eve of International Women’s Day a 26-year-old woman died last Monday after she was brutally stabbed by her common-law husband, who survived despite turning the knife on himself as well as consuming a poisonous substance and has been hospitalised under police guard. Dead is Aneeza Ishmael, a housewife of Hope Estate, East Coast Demerara. According to a police press release, Ishmael lived with Ricardo Kattow, a fisherman, but they had ongoing domestic issues. He would accuse her of being unfaithful. On Friday last, Ishmael left the home and went to her friend’s house at Better Hope, East Coast Demerara, where she stayed for a few days. Around 10:00 hrs on Monday, she returned to Hope Estate in the company of her 21-year-old sister, to collect her belongings. While there, she was confronted by Kattow, who asked her not to leave, the release said. When she insisted that she was only there to collect her clothing, the man pulled a knife from the waist of his pants and attacked her. The police said Ishmael’s sister pushed her away and told her to run, which she did. However, Kattow gave chase and caught her in the yard. There, he stabbed her to the neck, face and hands causing her to fall to the ground. He then attacked the sister, the police said, but she fought him off, receiving a wound to her thumb in the process. Kattow then turned the knife on himself, inflicting several wounds about his body before consuming a substance in a bottle. He, too, fell to the ground.
Accidents
Four dead in minibus, lorry collision at Greenwich Park: Four people are dead following a horrific vehicular crash last Monday on the public road at Greenwich Park, East Bank Essequibo. The crash, which involved a minibus and a lorry, claimed the lives of Vernon Prowell, 50, of Bent Street, Wortmanville; Margaret Kennedy, 72, of Tuschen; Olga Reddy, 57, of Parika; and Elvis Charles, 40, of Ruby, East Bank Essequibo. According to reports, the injured were taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, where they were examined by Dr Outar. Kennedy, Reddy, and Charles died there while receiving treatment. Four people were admitted and two others sent on to the West Demerara Regional Hospital for further treatment. Prowell, who was driving the minibus BWW 8364, succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital, after being transferred there from the West Demerara Regional Hospital. The driver of the lorry, GZZ 2285, was Ewart Stewart, 38, of Stewartville, West Coast Demerara. Among the others injured were Stella Parhoo, a 73, of Parika; Severn Austin, 44, of Den Amstel; Shemar Alleyne, 21, of Tuschen; Selmont Brisport, 64, of Tuschen; Samuel Ramdas, 46, of Ruby Backdam; and Junior Jack, 25, of Tuschen. The police said enquiries disclosed that the lorry was proceeding east along the northern side of the Greenwich Park public road at a fast speed approaching a pedestrian crossing, while the minibus was headed in the opposite direction. The police said the lorry driver claimed that a black car with licence number, HD 1708, which was proceeding in the same direction ahead of him made a sudden stop at the pedestrian crossing. The lorry driver said he applied brakes and swerved right to avoid hitting the car and in doing so, collided with the right front of the minibus.
Two dead in Corentyne crash: Two people are now dead after they were involved in an accident at Number 19 Village Corentyne, Berbice, last Sunday morning. Thirty-nine-year-old Qualis Crawford and Shelliza London of West Canje, Berbice were both pronounced dead on arrival at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital. There were two other passengers in the car who sustained minor injuries. Reports are that Crawford, who was the driver of the car, lost control and the car landed in a nearby trench. Malissa April, Crawford’s wife, told reporters that she was notified of the accident around 03:00 hours on Sunday by one of Crawford’s friends. She said when she arrived at the hospital Crawford and London had already been pronounced dead. She further explained that at the scene, she observed a dead cow and some sand on the right side of the road. She surmised that her husband hit the sand and that caused the car to flip. Crawford was described as a helpful and jovial person.
