Dear Editor,
I have taken note of Mr. Joel Bhagwandin’s letter titled, “[Prof] Hunte’s so-called “broken institutions” have little or nothing to do with declining gold production”, and respond as follows: Can Mr Bhagwandin give a short description of the Custom Dept’s check of the operation? A gold processing plant is located on the company’s concession in the interior. Workers turn in their gold each day at the plant. It is recorded and cleaned, weighed and packaged for export. Each week/month, the gold is packed on the plane at an airstrip outside the company’s factory and flown to the USA. Mr. Bhagwandin, can you describe for SN readers exactly whether and how Customs Officers check to see how much gold is checked daily and then flown out of the country? How big is the contingent of customs officers at the plant where the gold is cleaned, processed and stored?
I had written in these blogs over the last few days that in 1993/94, I ran into a pilot in NY who told me he had been hired to smuggle gold out of the country. I believe the pilot is credible and his story is very believable. I stand ready to be debriefed by the Guyana CID – so that the authorities can investigate the allegations of gold smuggling. Mr. Bhagwandin, your letter reads like someone hired to do push-back PR for the gov’t rather than trying to find the truth about the scale of gold smuggling – and how gov’t can crack down on these smugglers; how gov’t can monitor the gold mining companies more effectively.
It reads like you have a personal beef against Atty Chris Ram and Prof Hunte. Nobody seeks to indict the government for failures etc. It is always about stopping gold smuggling, about recording all gold mined and making sure gold companies pay all royalties due on that gold. That’s about all to this story. Nothing about blaming this gov’t or that govt.
So-called broken institutions have nothing to do with declining gold production, you say? Straight away your language seeks to demean and attack Prof Hunte for shallow “intellectualism”. So, what is the reason for declining gold production – operators pulling out? Lack of labour? Gold prices rising and production declining – investors stupid or something? JB, this does not make sense.
Personally, I think there is massive smuggling. And, you know what Mr. Bhagwandin… the U.S. government is saying exactly that. JB, the readers of these blogs would appreciate your description of what happens at the factory floor in the interior; how is the gold checked before it gets on the plane?
Sincerely,
Mike Persaud
