Dear Editor,
“Gov’t must investigate gold smuggling and ensure prosecution of those guilty of robbing the national coffers” by Mr. Robin Singh (SN, July 30) thunders. I support 150 percent. Investigate and prosecute are ultra-demanding undertakings in Guyana on most things. To do either with gold smuggling is to run into a furnace. The challenge is where to start, piece together coherently, while keeping simple. Time spent at the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) imprinted indelibly several realities. First, investigating gold smuggling begins on a slope, and from there flows forward on ice-cream. Put differently, starting any investigation is observing a precipice from upstairs: goes downhill; as for ice-cream part, touch gold smuggling and things melt, become sticky, attract numerous flies.
I thought that the GGB should be investigating gold smuggling reports, gathering its own intelligence, or conducting surveillance. Correction: investigating power rests with other national institutions, plus targeted assistance from any ministerial or presidential unit. In fact, I had solid encounters with the latter, with contentions arising about weaknesses in related government agencies that undermine matters. Before a real investigation into smuggling could breathe, there was smuggling of information and plans. When the idea was presented that the GGB should conduct investigations, the showstoppers about law, authority, and territory came in play. What should be a streamlined process has too many people, too much turf, and too many relationships intertwined, which inhibits any bona fide investigation into gold smuggling in Guyana. Smuggling benefited.
Second, from a purely numbers perspective, it is better to smuggle gold out of Guyana than to declare it to the GGB. Whether to Suriname or Brazil, the royalty and tax savings are attractive compared to Guyana’s regime in both streams. This definitely lessened declarations to the GGB; the State entity could not compete, lost out. Third, following on the heels of proceedings against a mid-level presence in the murky gold world, which made sensational headlines, the result was a suspension of all gold shipments from Guyana, within weeks of my arrival at the GGB. This was when gold was the major foreign exchange earner, a primary lynchpin in Guyana’s revenues. When tightening was introduced, clamor and resistance resulted. The downside of regulations was that gold declarations to the GGB declined.
For starters, declarants had to account for their gold sold to the GGB (origins, provide documentation) as the microscope was fixed sharply and immovably on Guyana. What was on the books was refined, with implementation following. I heard about “too much regulation”, which baffled for there was nothing extraordinary, other than putting activities on paper, and retaining records. Standard business practice, transactions memorialized, clean info flow. Of course, smuggling of any kind has no paper. Bottom line: lower declarations. As an aside, during the teeth of US sanctions on Venezuela, gold from there (and more distant locales) were reported, suspected, or known to come into Guyana. Venezuelan woes made the Guyana market a necessary outlet, given that country’s dire need for hard (US) currency.
Declarations at the GGB were screened even more when overseas warnings came. Much tension resulted, plus fallout. Try this way: lesser scrutiny likely would have significantly increased declarations, but with consequences. Aiding in sanction busting could have been one, assisting with money laundering another. Fourth, there is the issue of the players in gold. They are not pennyweight pork-knockers, nor 10 and 100 oz, miners, winners, producers, and declarants to the GGB. Their words still ring, ‘we are the mainstay of the economy’ and ‘we are the economy.’ Those are the superheavyweight gold magnates that I label ‘players.’ Powers fit better. Those players in gold are more powerful today, which begs this question: who investigates them? Which PPP Government (or leader), which PNC Government (then) or ever, will launch an authentic investigation into their major financiers?
These are the champion presences, with money and influence that reach anywhere here. Anywhere and to any leader! What kind of investigation would be done? Investigate what to prosecute whom? Let’s get real. Be honest with ourselves just once. Fifth, when Irfaan Ali took office, he committed to dismantling “onerous regulations.” What he did, or didn’t, doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are still talking about gold smuggling, and we don’t know a quarter of it. Further, we have not done much with what we have. Now, I read about some taskforce, some investigation, for what the Vice President once pretended didn’t exist. I am all for taskforces and investigations, but putting thieves to catch thieves only creates more thieves (smuggling). In a country that is a sieve, we shall see how this unravels.
Finally, where gold is concerned, there is this reality: mine, document, declare, screen (regulate), pay, ship, earn. Then there is another one: smuggle in-smuggle out, sidestep regs, lower costs (royalties and taxes), prosper, pay pols, buy protection. Investigating and prosecuting are mandatory to slowdown smuggling. But by which men and aimed at which men? This is the unreal world of Guyana, after political speeches and spirited defenses.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
