News

The Integrity Commission is not functioning and the programme of reform recommended by the World Bank’s 2002 Country Financial Accountability Assessment (CFAA) and the subsequent recommendation by the Fiduciary Oversight Study is being stymied by a lack of funding and direction.

Wanted man David Leander called David Zammett and ‘Biscuit’ who was allegedly tortured by police while in custody is now a patient at the Georgetown Hospital under heavy police guard.

More than a month after he had been appointed the Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, Colonel Andrew Pompey has been off the job and well-placed sources at Camp Ayanganna said that he is in Cambodia completing a contract with the United Nations.

President Bharrat Jagdeo told the business community that the subprime financial crisis in the United States would mean higher international borrowing rates and the re-pricing of risk, which could impact financing for Guyana’s hydropower project next year The President also defended the inflows into the economy, saying these could be traced to economic development and were not from drug money.

The administration of the Critchlow Labour College (CLC) was on Friday still hopeful that subventions covering the past three months from the Ministry of Education to assist the institution in meeting its day-to-day expenses, including the payment of salaries for some staff, would be released this week.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) bill tabled by the minority opposition AFC has not been discussed by the governing party and the indications are that support for the bill might not be forthcoming in the near future.

Some 30 persons were detained early yesterday morning as police carried out several raids around the city and on the East Bank Demerara as far as Grove.

Relief workers in Guyana and the Caribbean can now access geographic data about displaced persons or downed infrastructure during disasters with the recent launch of MapAction Latin American and the Caribbean (MapLAC).

Sculptor and painter Josefa Tamayo and ceramist Anna Correia were the big winners in the fifth National Watercolour Competition hosted by the National Gallery.

A nine-year-old student of the Mocha Arcadia Primary School disappeared on Friday afternoon while on her way home from school and relatives have no idea where the child might be.

The police in their zero tolerance campaign to improve road safety in the country have brought over 1200 cases against defaulting motorists over a four- day period.

An Anna Regina man yesterday became the first person to have his photograph and name issued to the media after having his licence suspended following a charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

A 24-year-old Lodge resident accused of raping an 18-year-old woman appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday and was remanded to prison by Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle.

A 40-year-old fisherman who allegedly had carnal knowledge of two sisters was remanded to prison when he appeared at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Some students of the Port Mourant Community High School who allegedly threw an explosive device into the compound of the Belvedere Primary School yesterday were beaten by their third form counterparts which resulted in one of the high school boys having to receive medical treatment.

Wanted man David Leander called David Zammett and `Biscuit’ who was captured earlier this week during a joint services operation in Buxton that left two dead, appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday and allegations of police brutality marred the proceedings.

Two policemen from Suriname visited Guyana yesterday to view the two bodies which washed up on the Corentyne shore one week ago while persons from Tobago also arrived in Berbice last evening to determine if the men are their missing relatives.

In the wake of the postponement of the University of Guyana’s (UG) annual graduation exercise, the two unions there have said that the ceremony must go on with the Committee of Deans adhering to the statutes.

Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram Prashad, on Thursday confirmed that government had extended Common External Tariff (CET) waiver on extra-regional cement imports while Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) contends that this contravenes the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

Cabinet authorized a 6% increase for old age pensioners and public assistance recipients and approved seven contracts worth over $4B on October 9 and October 16, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, said at a post Cabinet briefing on Thursday.