-given agency’s lack of credible response to gold scandals
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) says the startling allegations about gold smuggling from this country and the inaction by the mines commission on these matters can only be addressed by an external investigation.
In a release yesterday, the GHRA referred to a Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) release in the aftermath of the US Treasury’s sanctioning of the third largest gold company in Guyana over accusations of large-scale gold smuggling, which made allegations of the existence of a virtual parallel illegal gold industry in Guyana. The GHRA noted that less dramatic but similar allegations about irregularity and illegality in the gold sector have been steadfastly ignored by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) for years, and both the Commission and government had failed to offer any credible public response. “… neither the GGMC, nor the government have responded publicly to any of the actions by the US or the allegations by the GGDMA. Over the past decade the US and other international agencies have on numerous occasions sought government action to address criminality in the gold sector, but without success.”