Border controversy
Gov’t, opposition slam Venezuela over further escalation of illegal claim: The government and the opposition last Thursday condemned Venezuela’s latest activation of legislation to annex Guyana’s Essequibo region, noting that it violates the Argyle Agreement signed in December last year. Georgetown put Caracas on notice that it will not countenance any decision that impugns this country’s sovereignty. “The Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana has taken note of the action taken today, April 3, 2024, by the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to promulgate ‘the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba’. This attempt by Venezuela to annex more than two-thirds of Guyana’s sovereign territory and make it part of Venezuela is an egregious violation of the most fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the Charter of the Organisation of American States and customary international law,” the government said in a statement through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “It also contradicts the letter and spirit of the Joint Declaration of Argyle for Dialogue and Peace between Guyana and Venezuela agreed to on December 14, 2023 in St Vincent and the Grenadines. This unlawful act calls into question Venezuela’s obligation to abide by the principles of that declaration. In this light, the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana wishes to put on notice the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the governments of the Caribbean Community and the Latin American and Caribbean community of nations, as well as the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States, that it will not countenance the annexation, seizure or occupation of any part of its sovereign territory,” the statement added. Lawmakers in Venezuela allied with the Maduro regime had last month approved the creation of a new state in Essequibo, despite an ongoing international court case. Reuters had reported that the approval was in line with the rhetoric from Nicolas Maduro about his country’s supposed right to govern the 160,000-square-km (62,000-square-mile) Essequibo region, but will have no immediate practical effect. The two countries agreed last December to avoid any use of force and not to escalate tensions in the dispute after a meeting between Maduro and President Irfaan Ali, brokered by Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves.
Accountability
Ramkarran and Goolsarran urge government to act on corruption reports: Guyana’s expected large spending from oil proceeds brings the propensity for corruption, former speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran has warned and he is advising the government to act swiftly on safeguard recommendations given by international agencies, civil society and watchdog bodies. Ramkarran, who said that being sidelined and abused by the PPP/C for being vocal on anti-corruption measures needed in 2012 forced him to leave the party, is pleading with the government to not ignore criticisms of alleged corruption. He urged too that people complaining not be victimized but that the government does introspection and seeks to have anti-corruption measures implemented. “Apart from infrastructure, overall expenditures in the entire gamut of social services and social benefits have multiplied by gargantuan proportions. Consequently, nepotism and corruption now have far more fertile soil in which to flourish,” Ramkarran wrote in his weekly “Conversation Tree” blog which is published in this newspaper’s Sunday edition. “Facing a brick wall of denial and confronted by challenges to prove it when alleging corruption, most people have given up in frustration in their efforts, not to blame anyone or to expose any individual, but to seek government’s support for additional measures. Many also fear government retribution,” he added. Ramkarran said that Guyana has now achieved a high international profile as a richly endowed oil producer, poised to make a substantial economic and political impact on the Latin American and Caribbean region. This country, he also noted, currently serves on the United Nations Security Council and with the projected growth and future international profile, it should not risk tainting its image. “In 2012 the PPP could afford to ignore and penalize a leading member for raising the issue of corruption. If the government ignores the ICCPR Report, it runs the risk of jeopardizing its influence and stature. Unfortunately, if the past is a guide, the government will act only if there is a crisis, such as being viewed as a corrupt oil oligarchy. But no such crisis is imminent,” he posited. Referencing the recent report by the ICCPR, he pointed out that wide-ranging recommendations were made, including some in relation to corruption. “The state party should expand its efforts to adopt and implement efficient, and prompt measures to promote good governance and combat corruption and impunity at all levels of government. In this respect, the committee urges the state party to: (a) adopt concrete measures to address the root causes of corruption as a matter of priority…,” he quoted from the report. Meanwhile, Guyana’s former auditor general Anand Goolsarran also pointed to the recent UN Rights Committee questioning and recommendations for this country in the area of corruption. He too noted that the government’s “go to” whenever faced with corruption allegations was that persons have to bring formal complaints and they needed to be proven. With precedence right here as an example, Goolsarran recalled that deceased PNCR president Desmond Hoyte had initiated investigations of corruption without a formal complaint to the police. “We refer to the response by Guyana’s Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance to a question posed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The question relates to allegations of corruption against a very senior member of the current administration and the failure of the government to initiate an investigation into the matter. In response, the minister stated that no formal police report had been filed and that without such a report, law enforcement authorities were unable to launch an investigation,” Goolsarran stated. He also pointed out recommendations related to constitutional issues, the Optional Protocol, implementing the Human Rights Commission, and many others.
Gov’t cracking down on shoddy project work – Ali: The government is moving to safeguard itself as it stringently manages projects and will be establishing a monitoring unit for this purpose, President Irfaan Ali last week disclosed. “As project engineers and managers, we have to ensure that the files are updated, the minutes are recorded and signed… Because as we take action, we have to get our paper trail and work intact,” Ali yesterday said as he met with Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill; Attorney General, Anil Nandlall SC; Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh; and several government project managers and engineers. Ali stressed that having lapsed contracts or shoddy works will not be tolerated and he put contractors on notice. “I have said publicly that the contracts must be managed tightly and contractors who are not keeping in accordance with their timelines, liquidated damages must be charged and that the contract files must be updated to ensure that once they go past the 10 per cent of liquidated damages then termination must take place,” he stated. “Secondly, to financial institutions, we have to levy on the bonds when the contracts are terminated. Those mobilisation advance bonds we have to levy on those. Of course, [we are] working through some key issues to ensure that we are on time and that any hurdles are mitigated,” he added. Nandlall explained to Stabroek News that, “The rational for all of this is simple. Negligence and delinquency cannot be tolerated.” Said Nandlall, “In keeping with Cabinet’s decision, to deal swiftly and condignly with undue and unjustifiable delay in the completion of contracts, substandard works and every form of breaches of contracts in the public sector, the President has outlined a series of initiatives designed to achieve this important objective.” “These include strengthening the state’s capability and capacity to effectively manage and monitor these contracts and to impose liquidated damages and other lawful sanctions, including, termination and blacklisting of contractors when it is considered appropriate to do so.” Additionally, Nandlall said that he has been instructed by the President Ali to establish, “specifically a special unit within the Attorney General’s Chambers to dedicatedly monitor the various contracts under execution and to receive regular reports on their progress.” “This unit’s functions will be to ensure contractual compliance and to advise on the measures to be taken when there is unjustifiable non-compliance and breach. These are the first set of initiatives that will be implemented. Others are to come…,” he added.
Development
President says over $1b to be spent in Rupununi: The Department of Public Information (DPI) recently reported that the government is set to spend over $1 billion in the Rupununi region, exceeding its 2024 budget allocation. This was announced by President Irfaan Ali at an outreach in the village of Nappi, situated in Central Rupununi yesterday. He was accompanied by Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat; Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, and other officials. At the outreach, the President emphasised that these additional investments reflect the government’s commitment and support for the people, aiming to empower them to contribute to the development of themselves, their communities, and the country as a whole. According to the release, just three days ago, approximately 500,000 pounds of cassava was delivered to communities in the Deep South Rupununi, with Ali disclosing that an additional 500,000 pounds, valued at $20 million, will soon be distributed to Nappi and eight surrounding villages. In addition, he unveiled plans to procure and install a cassava mill in Nappi at a cost of $20 million. “To support you in these villages and to ensure that you have sustainability, excess production, and value-added, without you asking, we are going to install a cassava mill and we will start it within 14 days right here to service these communities around here,” the president told the residents gathered at the village benab.The supply of cassava to the Deep South would confirm ongoing food security issues in Region Nine. Last September, Toshao Charles Simon from Awarewaunau, Deep South Rupununi, Region 9 told Stabroek News that floods earlier in the year had destroyed most of the crops in his village. After the floods receded, farmers replanted the root crop but were experiencing the El Nino weather system, and the excessive dryness was hastening the rotting of the crop. Simon also attributed the cassava scarcity to foraging wildlife, a possible consequence of El Nino’s larger impact deeper in the rainforest. Simon said then that the food security situation in his village was critical. Because of low cassava production, cassava bread and farine production had also been significantly scaled back. Toshao Michael Williams of Annai, North Rupununi, Region Nine told Stabroek News in September last year that after the floods, cassava crops were replanted but these would not be available for another three months. Williams told Stabroek News that the shortage of cassava had also sent the prices in Annai for farine, cassava bread and casareep skyrocketing. Farine, where available, is consumed by families but is hardly being bought due to cost.
Electricity
Gov’t lacks foresight, strategic planning for power sector – Patterson: Alliance for Change (AFC) Executive Member David Patterson has lambasted the government for what he termed “lack of foresight and strategic planning” as it relates to the frequency of power outages. At his party’s press conference last week, yesterday, the former minister of Public Works was adamant that the state should desist from blaming the David Granger administration for a situation that was over 30 years old. He informed reporters that currently there is a shortfall in generating capacity of approximately 35 MW to 40 MW, as several units are down at the Kingston location, while the new plants at Garden of Eden are operating below their listed capacity – all because of poor maintenance practices. “The Alliance for Change joins with the rest of the country in bemoaning the state of our power generation sector, this woeful situation is not unexpected. The AFC, via numerous public statements, predicted this national catastrophe since 2020. Sadly, the PPP government [was] too blind and arrogant to heed our warnings,” he said. Patterson summarised that in 2015, the coalition government – A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) – inherited a dysfunctional power system that was in dire need of major capital and technical investments.
According to him, unlike the current government, his party did not seek to cast blame on its predecessors but rather set about repairing and upgrading the entire power-generating network. “Our priority was to determine the challenges facing the sector, then we proceeded to develop short, medium and long-term strategies to improve the network. This required hiring new management staff (an internationally recruited CEO), technical training for the existing staff, procurement of additional generating capacity, upgrade and repairs to our poorly functioning transmission and distribution network. While we will readily admit that the sector was not perfect by 2020, it was, however, heading in the right direction,” he told the media.
GPL short of technical personnel – President: Forty-four months into the life of his administration and amid growing public exasperation at the instability of the power supply, President Irfaan Ali last Wednesday lamented the deficit of technical personnel at GPL and said that he is currently engaged with the utility to address this and other issues. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the swearing in of members of the Constitutional Reform Commission, President Ali said that in light of the frequent power outages and generation shortfall, the company needs a full complement of technical support. “There is a human resources gap we have to get more engineers, more linesmen and technicians, we have to get those urgently because of the demand in the system. GPL had published vacancies for these positions but no one has come as yet, but I was to made to understand that they are putting out these vacancies again, and if we don’t get anyone then we will have to explore the option of getting technical help outside”, Ali told reporters. Last week was the first time that the administration had raised the shortage of personnel as a dire need and it came after weeks of breakdowns across the power system. The President told reporters that during a meeting on Tuesday with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Power Producers and Distributors Incorporated (PPDI) – which manages key generators – and Finnish company, Wärtsilä, he raised concerns about these recurring issues and demanded that all parties devise a viable solution as soon as possible. While expressing his disappointment at the performance of the state power utility company Ali acknowledged the myriad problems inherited, the exponential growth in demand, aged assets, and lack of redundancy in transmission. He remarked, “The problem is multi-faceted, firstly we are dealing with issues of aged infrastructure some of these generators are 30 years old, we are dealing with a situation of maintenance, for five years there was no maintenance so you have that to catch up with”. “The other challenge we are dealing with is the exponential growth in the sector itself as to what is happening in the country”, the President continued. “This year alone in addition to the shortfall which we have in generating capacity we are projecting another energy demand of 35 megawatts so that will take total demand by the end of this year to 220 MW that is on the system right now”, Ali told reporters.
Health
Gov’t looking at hotline for poor medical service complaints – Ali: The government is looking at establishing a customer service hotline for citizens who receive poor service at healthcare institutions and would like to file complaints. President Irfaan Ali made this disclosure last Friday during an engagement with healthcare professionals at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown. “We are working on establishing a customer response mechanism. One of the things we’re thinking about is to have a call centre approach, where if our citizens go to a health clinic, or a hospital and they’re dissatisfied with the service then that citizen can easily… make a complaint, so that we can have a more professional treatment system more responsive to the needs of people,” he said. President Ali also noted that as announced by Minister of Health Frank Anthony last November, the ministry was moving ahead with the citizen health information mobile app. He added that the Health Ministry, in partnership with other health care institutions, was engaging medical personnel in robust training. He said that as the administration was pushing for electronic services through the introduction of digital identification, this will also be incorporated into the healthcare sector for citizens to have efficient services. While admitting that there is room for improvement as regards services at many healthcare institutions, the President said he did not intend to prevent medical doctors from working simultaneously in both private and public sectors. However, this must not hinder their efficiency in the delivery of care to the nation.
Constitutional
Constitutional Reform Commission members sworn in: Last week, 18 of 21 members of the Constitutional Reform Commission took the oath of office which was administered by President Irfaan Ali at the Office of the President. At the swearing-in ceremony, former Chancellor of the Judiciary, retired Justice Carl Singh was named as Chairman. Others sworn in were People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Members: Anil Nandlall, SC, Gail Teixeira, Dr Frank Anthony, Pauline Campbell-Sukhai and Kwame McCoy and APNU+AFC Members: Vincent Alexander, Sherwood Lowe, Ganesh Mahipaul and attorney at law Nigel Hughes. Additionally, Aslim Singh of the Labour Movement; Chairman of The National Toshaos’ Council Derrick Rowan John; Private Sector Representative Ramesh Persaud; Representative of Women organizations, Dr Kim Kyte-Thomas; Chairman of the Youth Advisory Council, Dr Josh Kanhai; Imran Ally of the Muslim Youth Organization; Farmers Representative Adrian Anamayah and Representative of the Hindu Community Radha Krishna Sharma were also appointed commissioners. A New and United Guyana Member, Timothy Jonas SC, Keoma Griffith Representative of the Christian Community and Member of the Guyana Bar Association Kamal Ramkarran will be appointed at a later date as they all were out of the jurisdiction. President Ali during his address said “The nation’s constitution is its foundational law, which outlines the framework for governance, and defines the structure of government, allocates power, specifies the functions of the arms of the state and guarantees the rights of citizens”. He was adamant that constitutional reform should be premised on several key issues against the backdrop of changes occurring.
“Political, societal and technological changes may present new challenges and opportunities that were not envisioned by the framers of the original Constitution or by its subsequent reforms,” he told those gathered after their oaths were administered.
Crime
Inmate stabbed to death at Lusignan Prison: A 23-year-old prisoner from the Lusignan prison died on March 30th at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) after he was stabbed by another prisoner. According to a Guyana Prison Service release, around 2.05 pm yesterday, prisoner Anthony Prince was allegedly stabbed by prisoner Shamar Davis with a piece of a mop stick in the neck. It is reported that at the time of the incident, the prisoners were making jokes about each other’s girlfriends. Prince was attended to by the nurse on duty and was subsequently referred to the GPH for further treatment. However, at about 14.45 hours yesterday, Prince succumbed to his injury. The police were informed and are currently investigating the matter. Davis has been separated from other prisoners. The Officer-in-Charge, along with the Welfare Officer are currently engaging the other prisoners on the matter. Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliot, expressed condolences to the family of Prince and will provide support during this time. Prince of Foulis, East Coast of Demerara, was remanded to prison on three counts of armed robbery, and two counts of break and enter and larceny back in 2018 and 2021. Davis, 23, of 56 ‘B’ Field, Sophia, was remanded to prison on the offence of robbery back in 2023.
Aviation
United Airlines launches flights between Houston and Guyana: United Airlines last Monday Monday inaugurated its nonstop flight from Houston, US to Guyana, a route seen as important to ExxonMobil which has its headquarters in the American city. A release from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri said that the route will be serviced by a Boeing 737-MAX 8. This aircraft has a capacity of 166 passengers, equipped with 16 United First seats, 54 Economy Plus seats and 96 United Economy seats, and features United’s NEXT interior with larger overhead bins, seatback entertainment in every seat and industry’s fastest available Wi-Fi. The new service, which will run four times a week, will give customers easy and direct access to both destinations. This also enhances the relationship between the two countries and opens up new opportunities for both business and leisure travellers. The release said that United now has the largest and most diversified international route network among U.S. airlines, offering non-stop service to 134 international destinations across 67 countries.
Tragedy
Two hinterland teachers killed in Moruca River boat crash: A boat crash in the Moruca River, Region One (Barima-Waini) last Friday claimed the lives of two teachers of St Bede’s Primary School, while another individual and a baby have been hospitalised. The deceased teachers were identified as 18-year-old Adrian Thomas of Kumaka Road, Santa Rosa and Helen Raybai of Waikrebi Village in the Moruca subregion. Police said the incident occurred in the Moruca River at about 06:30 hrs yesterday. It involved a GDF Coast Guard Radar Craft RC 17, under the command of a sergeant, assisted by two other ranks and a civilian boat with four occupants. A police press release said that the Coast Guard vessel was en-route to Santa Rosa and collided with the civilian boat whilst negotiating a turn. The civilian boat was en-route to Charity and was captained by Thomas. The other occupants were Raybai, her three-month-old baby and Shelly Allen. According to the police press release, Allen and Raybai’s three-month-old baby survived the impact and were escorted to Charity Hospital for diagnosis and treatment. The personnel on the Coast Guard vessel did not report any injuries. The Coast Guard vessel was damaged and is currently at the base in the Pomeroon River.
A GDF release said that Chief of Staff Brigadier Omar Khan, officers and ranks of the Guyana Defence Force extended their sincere condolences to the families and loved ones affected by this tragic incident.
The Ministry of Education also expressed sympathy at the deaths of the teachers. “Our hearts go out to their families, friends, and the entire educational community affected by this devastating loss. We offer our sincerest condolences during this difficult time,” it said in a statement. The People’s National Congress Reform in a press release called on the relevant authorities to launch an investigation into the incident, noting that Thomas was also a student at the Cyril Potter College of Education.
