Corruption
Allegations against Brutus being probed by SOCU – Benn: Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn last week said that the allegations of financial impropriety made against Deputy Commissioner (ag) of Police, Calvin Brutus is being investigated by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU). “Mr. Brutus has proceeded on leave to facilitate a full and complete investigation by SOCU. There will be no action in relation to any promotion of Mr. Brutus under these circumstances. Any promotion will be subject to the outcome of the investigation. SOCU has already commenced its investigation and the Government will be guided by the outcome of such investigation”, Benn said. SOCU is part of the Guyana Police Force and the decision for it to investigate the Deputy Commissioner will be seen as inappropriate. Reports had swirled around Brutus and others in the police force but Eve Leary had shrugged them off. Last week the police force said that there had been a rotation of personnel and it rejected allegations against Brutus which had surfaced on social media. On Thursday, it said that Brutus had asked to proceed on leave to enable an investigation of the allegations.
Oil & Gas
ExxonMobil unveils oil spill equipment: ExxonMobil yesterday commissioned a brand-new capping stack to be housed here, saying it is demonstrative of its commitment to address any offshore spill eventualities, although it hopes to never have to use the well-sealing equipment. “We certainly expect never to use this equipment in real life, but we certainly have to look after it, to preserve … ensuring it is always prepared for deployment and we have people prepared and ready to do so. President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge said last Tuesday at the commissioning ceremony, held at the Guyana Shorebase Inc (GYSBI) headquarters, Houston, Georgetown. “Until then, our aim is to ensure we never actually have to use it as our first and foremost focus is preventing any incidents and looking after the environment,” he added. Built by Trendsetter Engineering, the 22-foot and 93,000-lb piece of equipment with specifications including pressure ratings of 15,000 lbs per square inch and flow rate of 0 to 330,000 barrels of oil per day, is currently being housed at the GYSBI location at Houston until the Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base which has a man-made island, is completed. A capping stack acts a well plug and takes similar action to that of a bottle cap. ”A capping stack is a large piece of equipment that can be placed over an oil wellhead in the unlikely event of a spill. The stack acts like a cap to stop an oil leak until engineers can permanently seal the well. It can connect to and cap virtually any subsea wellhead in the event the well’s built-in blowout protector safety device fails,” ExxonMobil explained on a fact sheet about capping stack technology. Owned by the industry-funded United Kingdom-headquartered, not-for-profit – Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) – ExxonMobil will be paying an annual subscription on the equipment, which is one of only two in Latin America, and according to the company, one of 13 in the world. It is unclear what the annual subscription rates are, as those sums were not immediately available, with Routledge promising that the company will make it available if needed.
Legislative
Bill to end preliminary inquiries passed: The historic Criminal Law Procedure (Paper Committals) Bill 2024, which seeks to abolish traditional preliminary inquiries (PIs) in Guyana’s criminal justice system was passed in Parliament last week. In moving the second reading of the bill, Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC said the move is aimed at streamlining the process and reducing the lengthy delays that often plague the system. Under the current system, a preliminary inquiry is conducted before an indictment can be made, where prosecution witnesses are required to testify and be cross-examined by the accused or their lawyers. The evidence is then reduced to a written deposition, which is presented to the court. However, this process has been criticized for being lengthy and inefficient, often resulting in accused persons being remanded for extended periods without a trial. Nandlall highlighted two examples of the problems caused by the current system. One case involved a man who was charged with a sexual offence in 2000 and was still awaiting a preliminary inquiry nearly 20 years later. Another example referred a citizen who was on remand for over seven years, with his legal proceedings still ongoing. The new bill aims to replace oral preliminary inquiries with paper committals, where all evidence is presented in writing and submitted to the court. This will allow for a more efficient and expeditious process, reducing the length of time spent in remand and minimizing the financial burden on the state. Nandlall acknowledged that there have been challenges to the proposed bill, including concerns about its compatibility with Guyana’s Constitution. However, he emphasized that the bill is designed to ensure that accused persons are given a fair trial and are not unduly prejudiced by delays in the justice system. Following Nandlall’s presentation, Shadow Legal Affairs Minister Khemraj Ramjattan took the floor briefly to express his opinion. According to him, the Paper Committals Bill should have been introduced earlier, as it has been implemented in England since the 1960s. He attributed Guyana’s delay to the Bar Association and negotiations over oral hearings.
Politics
Ramkarran says Dr Kissoon has acted fraudulently by not resigning from Parliament, has no credibility: Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran has launched a scathing attack on The New Movement’s (TNM) Dr Asha Kissoon for not resigning from Parliament to make way for the third member of the list-joinder parties, ANUG. Ramkarran, a member of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), said Kissoon’s fraudulent action has left her without any credibility. Under an arrangement among the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), ANUG and TNM, Kissoon was to have relinquished her seat to the ANUG representative last year but has not done so up to now. Repeated queries to her by this newspaper for an explanation have not yielded a result. In his column in last Sunday’s Stabroek News, Ramkarran noted that it was agreed with the TNM, which gained only approximately 500 votes and was entitled to only a three-month stint in the National Assembly, that the latter’s representative should take up the seat after LJP as if early elections were called, TNM would have lost the opportunity of sitting in the National Assembly. “Despite the expiration of her entitled period, she has steadfastly refused to resign in accordance with the several agreements that punctuated this “joinder” electoral venture. Her perpetration of this fraud on her erstwhile colleagues and the tarnishing of the electoral process by her deceit has denuded her parliamentary status of any legitimacy”, he said. He noted that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the Speaker of the National Assembly have been engaged on the matter. Ramkarran pointed out that GECOM can only fill a vacancy but cannot appoint a new member of the National Assembly by displacing a member who holds a seat. Only the Speaker, he explained, can declare a seat to be vacant. Ramkarran said that the TNM list representative has sought to have Kissoon removed from Parliament to no avail.
CARICOM
Damage from Beryl has affected island agriculture, setback Caricom’s 25×25 plan – Ali: The Caribbean Community (Caricom) food import reduction programme 25 by 25 will see setbacks due to the impact of Hurricane Beryl on a number of countries’ agricultural sector and other sectors, Chair-person President Irfaan Ali said. Caricom has begun to analyse the damage done and set long, medium- and short-term plans for getting back some semblance of normalcy soonest. And with a focus on agriculture, the chairman of the ministerial taskforce will this week hold a meeting to begin those discussions. “It is important to note that Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, St Lucia, and Barbados, were all islands and countries that were on track mostly in achieving the 25 by 2025 targets set by themselves,” Ali said in an address last Sunday on the impacts of the hurricane that has devastated some countries. “I asked the chair of the ministerial task force to give me an assessment and from his assessment, it is sad, with its immediate effect, that Hurricane Beryl in some instances would have damaged or completely wiped out the agricultural sector,” he added. Caricom is hoping to reduce its US$5 billion food import bill by 25% by 2025 by implementing food and nutrition programmes. In 2022, following the conclusion of the Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Suriname, a communique said that the majority of Caricom member states had developed and submitted to the Ministerial Task Force (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security, their national targets which were expected to help achieve the lowering of food imports by 25% by 2025. The Caricom Chair said that Hurricane Beryl has been an impediment to those plans, since not only is the initial investment and cost of damage concerning to him as the Lead Head in Agriculture, but looking at the long-term investment costs to rebuild the infrastructure, to find resources and recapitalize the farmers, was heartbreaking.
Money laundering
Three Chinese nationals held over gold smuggling, $39m seized: last Tuesday at 12:40 pm, the police said that an inter-agency intelligence operation led to the arrest of three Chinese nationals — two males and one female. This operation was conducted at a city hotel, which led to the seizure of a sum of thirty-nine million Guyana currency ($39,000,000) and one unlicensed 9mm pistol with fifteen matching 9mm rounds of ammunition, a release from the police said. Investigations thus far revealed that the suspects are part of a transnational criminal group involved in gold smuggling and other illegal activities, the police said. They are currently in police custody, assisting with the investigation.
Mohamed’s Enterprise bid $210m above engineer’s estimate but still got contract for fire station HQ: In the wake of severe US sanctions last month on two gold dealers, more questions are being asked about how their company, Mohamed’s Enterprise was awarded the contract to build the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Fire Station Headquarters when its bid was $210m above the engineer’s estimate and was the highest bid. Father and son businessmen, Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed, along with the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas were last month sanctioned by the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for corruption. Toussaint Jr Thomas was the Permanent Secretary in 2021 at the time a $648 million contract was awarded to the Mohameds for the construction of the new Guyana Fire Service Headquarters on Homestretch Avenue, in Georgetown, and for one lot of work at the Lusignan prison. Prior to these contracts Mohamed’s Enterprise had not engaged in this type of construction work. Whenever challenged about allegations of procurement fraud, the PPP/C government and the National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTAB) have typically raised the argument that the lowest evaluated bidder had won the contract. It is unclear how Mohamed’s Enterprise won this contract when all 11 other bidders bid below it. It is also unclear whether the contract subsequently awarded was for the engineer’s estimate of $648m although this had been the figure reported by government officials. One of the key contentions in the US sanctions in relation to Toussaint Jr Thomas was that contracts had been steered to the Mohameds in return for benefits Neither the Mohameds nor Toussaint Jr Thomas have commented on the US sanctions or the ensuing reports. One other contract had been awarded to Mohamed’s Enterprise during Toussaint Jr Thomas tenure. This was in relation to one lot of works at the Lusignan Prison. Based on the information seen by Stabroek News, Mohamed’s Enterprise entered a consolidated bid for all three lots of $1,071,777,483 which would have nearly matched the aggregated engineer’s estimate for all three lots. In the end, Mohamed’s Enterprise was only awarded one of the three lots.
Tragedy
Bodies of missing Unity youths found following swim outing: Two families were plunged into a state of mourning last week after the bodies of two cousins, who went missing during a swimming adventure at Unity Beach, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara were discovered. The bodies of 20-year-old Navin Seenauth and 17-year-old Daniel Boodram both of Unity Village, were found last Monday afternoon. They went missing at the beach on Sunday afternoon. Residents of Unity Village had launched several search parties to locate the two missing young men. Additionally, relatives had searched several villages located in the vicinity of Unity and Hope A search was also extended to Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara yesterday morning. The Guyana Defence Force’s Coast guards were also dispatched to the area yesterday morning and were accompanied by residents as the search continued.
Crime
Underlying issues have to be addressed to effectively tackle crime: President Irfaan Ali last week underscored that crime does not exist in isolation but is deeply embedded in societal, economic and environmental contexts. Addressing the First Legal Conference on Criminal Justice Reform – Advancing the Needham’s Point Declaration in Georgetown, he stressed the importance of addressing these underlying issues to effectively tackle crime and ensure sustainable justice outcomes. Speaking at the Marriott Hotel to an audience that included judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Guyana judiciary, President Ali’s speech underscored the critical need for holistic reforms in the criminal justice system, emphasizing regional cooperation, environmental challenges, and the pivotal role of institutions in shaping societal outcomes. In his opening remarks, President Ali acknowledged the distinguished audience and highlighted Guyana’s leadership in various domains while drawing attention to pressing environmental challenges. He commended the venue for providing a platform to discuss these critical issues and made note in a diplomatic way of the manner in which the discomfort from the defective air conditioning system within the hotel was akin to the conditions under which men and women of the past functioned. As members of the audience fanned themselves, President Ali delved into the historical context of societal and environmental changes, emphasizing their profound impact on human behaviour and societal structures. He drew a parallel between these changes and their influence on the criminal justice system, urging a comprehensive examination of these interconnected dynamics. Reflecting on the conference’s significance, President Ali praised the Chief Justice of Belize, Louise Blenman for moving beyond traditional conference declarations and emphasized the need for sustained dialogue and actionable outcomes.
Two brothers die in bloody battle with miner at St Lawrence: In a statement the police said they are investigating the deaths of Marvin Joseph, a 17-year-old labourer and his brother Ellis Joseph, a 30-year-old labourer — both of whom resided at Parika Facade, EBE. The killings occurred at about 3 pm on July 10th at Lot 4’A’ St. Lawrence, EBE, which is occupied by Annette Miguel, a 51-year-old housewife and her family. Investigations thus far have revealed that at about 3 pm yesterday, Ryan Fredericks, a 25-year-old miner from Pomeroon, who is the nephew of Miguel, disembarked a minibus and headed towards his aunt’s house. As he was walking in the yard where his aunt lives, he saw the two brothers passing on a motor canter, heading in a northern direction. The brothers disembarked the canter, armed with cutlasses and rushed towards Fredericks. “The brothers started to chop Fredericks about his body. He then ran into the yard toward the house with the men pursuing him. However, he jumped through a glass louvres window at the lower flat of the house in a bid to escape. It was suspected that during the confrontation, the two deceased (brothers) chopped each other along with Fredericks, who also collapsed in the house”, the police said. Marvin Joseph ran out of the yard and collapsed on the wooden bridge, where he became unconscious while his brother Ellis Joseph was seen bleeding. He was picked up by a passerby and rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital where he died while receiving medical attention. Fredericks was also picked up by Police ranks and rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital to seek medical attention with one incised chop wound to the right side of his back and other small cuts about his body. His condition is listed as serious. The body of Marvin Joseph was examined and one incised wound was seen on his abdomen. Two incised wounds were seen on the abdomen of Ellis Joseph.
Woman with bullet to head identified as mother of three: The woman, whose body was found in Diamond, East Bank Demerara with a gunshot wound to the back of her head on Sunday (July 7th) , was today identified as Evelyn Alfonzo Alves also known as Fabianna Bentancourt, a 23-year-old unemployed mother of three of East Street, Georgetown. Alves, who is a Venezuelan of Guyanese parentage, was last seen on Saturday evening by her mother, Juliet Alves, and it was hours later the horrific discovery of her body bearing the gunshot wound was made. According to the police, the woman’s body was found by workers from a construction company who were in two vehicles on their way to refuel the company’s excavator. The discovery was made on the roadway in the New Diamond Development Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara. At the time of her death, Alves resided with her mother and her three children, two boys and a girl.
Enterprise labourer stabbed to death in row over motorcycle: A 25-year-old labourer of Enterprise, East Coast Demerara was murdered on the night of July 6th , allegedly by three men during an argument over a motorcycle at Park Street, Enterprise. A police release said that Mangal’s mother, Nalanie Chand, a 61-year-old housewife of Gandhi Street, Enterprise, told investigators that her son left home at about 17:00 hrs on the night of the incident,wearing a cream-coloured jersey and short brown pants. It is alleged that at about 18:30 hrs, Mangal purchased a beer at a bar in Park Street Enterprise, and sat outside the bar. About ten minutes later, the three suspects entered the same bar, went to a pool table, and a game began. All three suspects are frequent customers at the bar, the release said. The bartender told police that he overheard Mangal arguing with one of the three suspects over a motorcycle. Subse-quently, the three suspects left, heading West on Park Street, and Mangal followed, the release stated. At about 19:00 hrs, residents standing in front of PlayLand Restaurant observed the three suspects chasing Mangal. They caught up with him, the police were told, and a “scuffle” occurred. Mangal managed to escape his attackers and ran back towards the bar while the three suspects continued to chase him, the release said. It added that when he got there, he called out to the bartender, then collapsed and lost consciousness, at which point, the trio escaped. Mangal was picked up by a police mobile anti-crime patrol in an unconscious state with a single stab wound to the chest. He was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he was seen by a doctor on duty and pronounced dead on arrival, the police said.
Accident
Former national footballer, grandson die in highway crash: Former national footballer Carlyle Hunte and his grandson, Malique Roberts died in an accident along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway on July 12th. The accident, which occurred shortly after 4:00 pm, involved Hunte’s vehicle and a lumber truck. Two other grandchildren who were also in the vehicle survived the collision but are currently hospitalized in serious condition at the Mackenzie Hospital. Carl Hunte, as he was affectionately known, was a well-regarded figure in Linden, celebrated not only for his contributions to football but also for his presence within the community. According to initial reports, Hunte was driving towards Linden when the accident took place. It is suspected that he may have lost control of the car, colliding with the lumber truck and subsequently flipping several times. Authorities have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
