Guyana Chronicle E-Paper 27 10 2016

SEE INSIDE

No. 104717

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2016

Price: $80

Greater ease in money transactions (VAT Inclusive)

Page 9

…AG promises, as Guyana removed from FATF watch list President David Granger signs the guest book at the Complex of Technical Maritime at Valparaiso at the conclusion of the meeting (Ministry of the Presidency photo)

Granger wraps up State visit to Chile Page 3

AK 47 found in haversack

‒ along with matching ammo in Linden house P.12

Expert committee to review bauxite …advise govt on feasibility sector of alumina plant 22 P.

Probe ordered into ‘mystery’ P.10 death of West Dem schoolgirl

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Chandisingh needy students to get help ‒ through Mohabir Mookerchand Persaud Foundation for Excellence

By Nafeeza Yahya JC CHANDISINGH Secondary School (JCCSS) students can now access funding to assist them to complete school, thanks to the launching of the Mohabir Mookerchand Persaud (MMP) Foundation for Excellence.

The Foundation which came into being last week was launched by founder Mohabir Persaud, a former JC Chandisingh Secondary School student in the school’s auditorium.

According to Persaud, the Foundation seeks to assist students, who due to circumstances beyond their control, lack financial resources necessary to complete their studies.

Students from Grades 7-11, who are desirous of funding, can submit a request in the form of a letter via email to mmpfoundation@gmail.com detailing their situation.

Persaud said while the Foundation will accept students that are disadvantaged financially, they must be doing well academically with at least a 65 per cent or above grade to be con-

sidered.

He explained that the requests will be evaluated by members of the Foundation’s Board and funding will be provided accordingly.

“We will accept students who are deprived financially but with good academic standing… my hope is that students from JC will be given priority for now but later expand to all schools in Region Six,” he said.

While noting that the Foundation is in its initial stages, Persaud said it will seek to address issues of mental health and homophobia later on.

His hope is that others, especially the Guyanese diaspora, will be inspired to effect change in the lives of children who are suffering to get an education.

The first beneficiary of the foundation is Mahendra Phagwah from Number 2 Village, East Canje, who will received full funding to sit 16 subjects at the next sitting of CSEC examinations.

In his remarks, Phagwah struggled to contain tears and also had members of the audience in tears when he detailed the struggles he endured from being one

Mahendra Phagwah (left) receives the sponsorship cheque from MMP founder Mohabir Persaud

of the top students at his primary school to dropping out and now finally given a chance to obtain a secondary education.

Phagwah stated that he was awarded a place at the New Amsterdam Multilateral School, but being poverty-stricken due to his parents being disabled, he sought a transfer to Berbice High School where he rode daily

to school.

He was forced to stop riding due to a heart condition and was unable to attend school regularly because of financial constraints.

The young man recalled many nights going to bed with little or nothing to eat nor to take to school the following day, while some of his friends were well equipped with the “best bags

and books”.

He was forced to drop out in 2014 after he felt the pressure was too much and he opted for a job to earn himself some money.

His desire to continue and get a secondary education led to him meeting with a teacher from JCCSS and subsequently the Region Six Education Department.

He was readmitted into

the education system and now with the funding from the Foundation, he can now sit the examinations in a few months’ time.

Phagwah stated that he is elated beyond words to be given the opportunity he was given and hopes that the launching of the Foundation will touch as many lives as possible.

He called on the members and founder of the Foundation to try and assist “every single student that stretches their hand in need of help to you”, noting that “no child should be turned down; no child should be deprived of an education”.

He thanked the Foundation for its help, noting that it “undoubtedly would have a positive impact on the lives of our youths and in return provide better communities”.

Aside from the launching of the MMP Foundation for Excellence, Persaud has provided financing to repaint his alma mater and to install an air-condition unit in the headteacher’s office.

Ten students were also awarded certificates of commitment to assist in their studies.

Regional Education Officer, Valika Jaikishun thanked the Foundation for investing in education.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Granger wraps up State visit to Chile PRESIDENT David Granger has described his State visit to Chile and meeting with President Michelle Bachelet as highly successful and one that needed to happen, as not only does it open the door to deepened cooperation between the two countries, but it solidifies linkages between Chile and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Speaking at the end of sectoral bilateral meetings in the areas of trade, mining, telecommunications and management of maritime zones, the Head of State said, “it is a strong statement on South American cooperation and it is a strong statement on Chile’s engagement with the Caribbean Community,” adding that “it is not only good for Guyana [but also] good for hemispheric relations.”

With Guyana aiming to advance the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, following the passage of the Telecommunications Bill, Bill No. 15 of 2016, the Government of Guyana is keen to learn from Chile, which has what is described as one of the most developed telecommunications sectors in Latin America.

President Granger and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge, who accompanied the President on the visit met on Monday with Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Mr. Pedro Huichalaf at the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications.

Minister Greenidge said that Government is currently in negotiations with the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited (GTT) to bring an end to the monopoly in the sector in keeping with the new legal framework and open the way for wider investment in the sector, but the regulatory framework

has to be enhanced. “They have to look carefully at their telecoms framework. They have to take decisions about bandwidth. They have to see whether the Public Utilities Commission, which new legislation has been passed on and the telecoms authority for which legislation has been passed, whether those are adequately structured and staffed and whether the mandate covers all that could be expected of it and the people within the agencies perhaps need to have the benefit of some exchange experience with those in the sector,” he said.

Chile, the minister reported, has offered to provide technical assistance for strengthening of the capacity of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications as well as the PUC to ensure efficient and seamless implementation. The mining sector is also coming in for support, with Chile offering to provide technical assistance for geological mapping, which would allow for a scientific determination of the location of mineral-wealth deposits in Guyana. To this end, President Granger and Minister Greenidge met with Undersecretary of Mining, Mr. Ignacio Moreno Fernandez at the Ministry of Mining on Wednesday. Chile has already issued a call for project proposals in the area of Geological and Metallogenic maps and Petrographic Studies from Guyana. This is being reviewed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission.

President Granger said that cooperation in this area can lead to more sustainable management and regulation of the extractive sector. Supporting that point, Minister Greenidge said, “It will help us to define what is there and to fashion plans about the development of existing

President David Granger makes a point at a meeting on maritime zone and environmental management at the Complex of Technical Maritime as Rear Admiral Osvaldo Schwarzenberg and Minister Carl Greenidge listen keenly

resources, whether [it] is bauxite or manganese or to go into new resources.”

Describing the management of the operations of small and medium-scale miners, at the meeting, Mr. Fernandez disclosed that the country has about 1000 small mines operations with an average of seven employees each and that his ministry has been able to ensure that they are licensed, that they pay taxes and social security for their employees as well as have adequate safety and mines-closure plans. The environmental impact of their operations is also closely monitored by the relevant government environmental body.

Minister Greenidge indicated that this information will be passed on to the Ministry of Natural Resources to further the discussion on technical cooperation in

that area. The President’s final official engagement was held with the Director of Maritime and Environment, Rear Admiral Osvaldo Schwarzenberg at the Complex of Technical Maritime in Valparaiso. The Head of State noted that not only is cooperation important to Guyana in this area, but noted that CARICOM states have already received disaster management and response support from Chile.

Additionally, the country has significant capacity in the management of its maritime space that can contribute to regional security with regard to smuggling and other transnational threats.

“We went to the navy to discuss ways and means of providing support for the Caribbean Maritime effort. I think that is very important, not only in terms of search and rescue, but also in terms

of training and collaboration and ensuring that anti-narcotics operations are given support from the Chilean Navy, which is a very strong navy,” he said.

Minister Greenidge also indicated that he discussed bilateral trade and investment with his Chilean counterpart and indicated that opportunities for technical cooperation were offered in the areas of trade and added that “we discussed investment and how best might we encourage Chilean investors with capital to look at Guyana to see what opportunities there are. The assessment on the Chilean side is that Chilean investors do not really know enough about Guyana to make a judgment and it was their view that the first step ought to be, apart from the provision of general information, to arrange for private sector [engagement].

As follow-up action on all of the areas discussed, the relevant subject ministries will advance collaboration and follow up on offers of support. Part of the state visit included visits by the Guyanese delegation to Neruda’s house in Valparaiso. The house was home to Chilean poet and Nobel prize winner Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, who was best known by his pen name Pablo Neruda. The delegation from Guyana to Chile included, in addition to the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Director General, Ambassador Audrey Jardine-Waddell, Desk Officer of Guyana/Chile Bilateral Relations, Ms. Sondra Cheong and Political Advisor to the President, Mr. William Cox. (Ministry of the Presidency)

Government assessing multiple green energy options ‒ to fuel Guyana’s development THE Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana is examining a number of options to fuel Guyana’s development in line with its commitment to a green economy.

A recent study found that Guyana can finance its energy plan for under US$1B for a 20-year period from 2016-2035.

As of December 2015, the total power generation capacity was 181.8 megawatts (MW) with 123.8 MW distributed in Demerara and 58.0 MW distributed in Berbice.

The electricity demand forecast for the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), as well as the interconnection of Linden,

electricity demand in DBIS is expected to experience significant growth, with a two-fold increase in electricity consumption estimated for the next ten years.

Projected growth puts demand at 304 megawatts by the year 2035, including Linden interconnection in 2021.

It has long been recognised that Guyana has significant hydroelectric potential that has been es-

timated at 8,400 megawatts.

Kamaria, Tiger Hill, Tumatumari, Kumarau and Amaila are all possible sites that can be developed and which the Government is examining.

It is estimated that an optimal expansion programme would cost below US$1 billion and this would include the development of a mid-size hydroelectric power plant and other green

technologies.

Recently the Government has undertaken a number of initiatives to provide the policy, regulatory and technical frameworks for the development of wind energy in keeping with international standards.

This includes a US$50Mplus 26MW of wind energy generation capacity project from 2017.

The Skeldon co-generat-

ing plant that had capacity to produce 20MW of energy per hour was sold by the previous administration for US$30M. The coalition Government has given its commitment to pursue a developmental path that is aligned to safeguarding the environment through the use of green energy at the same time providing a reliable supply of energy.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Venezuela’s MPs vote to try Maduro VENEZUELA’S opposition-led parliament has voted to open a trial against President Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of violating the constitution.

The move comes after last week’s suspension of a referendum process seeking to remove Mr Maduro.

The government said the vote was meaningless, referring to an earlier court ruling that had declared parliament illegitimate. President Maduro later accused MPs of attempting to stage a “coup”.

He said a meeting of the country’s defence council would be held on Wednesday.

The further rise in tensions comes despite the fact that on Monday both the government and the opposition agreed to hold crisis talks.

Mass protests planned During Tuesday’s session, MPs also voted for President Maduro to appear before par-

Lawmakers also voted for President Maduro to appear in parliament next Tuesday zuela and the world that in National Assembly does not in any sort of action against this crisis, responsibility for exist”. He was referring to him, the BBC’s Will Grant in breaking the constitution has the Supreme Court’s ruling Central America reports. clearly been Nicolas Mad- that parliamentary resolutions The country’s military uro’s,” parliament majority were null and void until the top brass also delivered an leader Julio Borges said. removal of three MPs linked address on national televiReacting to the vote, to vote-buying accusations. sion supporting the Socialist

MINISTER of Finance Chris Sinckler is strongly rebuking businesses that pass the recently introduced National Social Responsibility Levy on to their customers.

The Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) last week issued a statement indicating that it had been receiving reports that “some retailers have been adding a tax to customer purchases at the cash register” and attributing it to the levy, which took effect on September 1.

The BRA warned that the

“practise is inaccurate and quite frankly illegal” and advised retailers against applying the tax at points of sale.

Speaking to reporters Monday following the launch of the St Michael Battle of the West Primary Schools Quiz Competition, Sinckler admitted that some businesses were likely applying the tax out of ignorance.

However, he expressed concern that some companies were wantonly disregarding the guidelines for its applica-

liament in a week’s time. “We will show clearly to Vene-

Vice-President Aristobulo Isturiz said that “legally, the

The parliament’s trial of Mr Maduro is unlikely to result

government. The army said it was watching the political situation carefully. A member of the riot police throws a tear gas bomb during a protest by students opponent to Nicolas Maduro’s government in San Cristobal, state of Tachira, Venezuela on October 24, 2016Image copyright AFP/ Getty Images Mr Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, is blamed by the opposition for Venezuela’s dire economic situation. The oil-rich country is facing widespread food shortages and spiralling inflation.

The opposition is trying to hold a recall referendum that would allow Mr Maduro to be removed from office - but electoral authorities suspended the process last week. The official reason was allegations of fraud during the gathering of signatures for the first petition required

to enable the referendum.

However, opposition lawmakers have long accused the National Electoral Council of being under the government’s control. In an emergency parliamentary session on Sunday, MPs approved a resolution accusing Mr Maduro’s government of engaging in “an ongoing coup d’etat”.

The Organization of American States (OAS) also said it was “profoundly worried” by the electoral authorities’ decision.

Hundreds of students protested on Monday in San Cristobal, a city near the Colombian border.

Nationwide protests are planned for Wednesday.

Mr Maduro has accused the opposition of having links to foreign states, the US in particular, and of seeking to overthrow him to “lay their hands on Venezuela’s oil riches”. (BBC)

be. The only thing that should appear on an invoice is VAT and nothing else. That is the law,” Sinckler insisted.

The levy has caused much consternation among manufacturers, who recently demanded an immediate review on the grounds that there were still too many ambiguities. During his August 2016 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals, Sinckler had explained that the new tax was to be applied on the customs value of all imports, with the exception of goods for the manufacturing, agriculture and tourism sectors.

However, while retailers and economists said it would result in price increases, some manufacturers openly com-

plained that even though they were exempted from paying the tax on imported raw materials, locally produced products would still attract the levy.

This, they argued, amounted to a disincentive for using local products in their production, a point that was forcefully made during a heated meeting at the headquarters of the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation on Harbour Road last month at which BRA officials were bombarded with questions.

During that meeting, Chief Executive Officer of Robert’s Manufacturing Jason Sombrana had beseeched Government not adopt a heavy handed approach to entities not yet in full compliance with the tax, while arguing that the ambiguities of the levy had left many on an unsure footing.

Without going into details, Sinckler Monday expressed confidence that all concerns raised by the manufactures had been addressed.

“Of course you never have a 100 per cent compliance or people understanding and appreciating everything, but where issues arise we will address them,” he said. (Barbados Today)

Sinckler urges retailers to follow the rules

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tion. “We have always indicated up front when we delivered the Budget that the National Social Responsibility Levy is not a sales tax. So, therefore, nobody should be putting it on an invoice and anybody who does that either does not know or knows and is doing it deliberately,” Sinckler said.

“I was surprised when I heard it [businesses placing levy on sales invoice] and I believe the President of the Chamber of Commerce also expressed surprise, even though he himself had not seen it. “It is not a sales tax. It is applied for example, if you import an item, you pay excise tax, duties and other items, you don’t see that when you go into the store and get you

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bill from the cashier. So why should you see the levy which is imposed at the same time? I don’t see why people should have had challenges with that,” the minister stressed. However, it was not immediately clear what redress was available to consumers who had already paid the tax at the counter, with Sinckler advising that BRA, along with the business sector, would determine the best course of action.

“I believe that Barbados Revenue Authority has already put out a statement in relation to that and we would be speaking with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce [and Industry] and other partners to indicate to their members and generally that it ought not to

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Trump says Clinton policy on Syria would lead to World War Three U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Democrat Hillary Clinton’s plan for Syria would “lead to World War Three,” because of the potential for conflict with military forces from nuclear-armed Russia.

In an interview focused largely on foreign policy, Trump said defeating Islamic State is a higher priority than persuading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, playing down a longheld goal of U.S. policy.

Trump questioned how

Clinton would negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin after demonizing him, and blamed President Barack Obama for a downturn in U.S. relations with the Philippines under its new president, Rodrigo Duterte. In addition, Trump bemoaned a lack of Republican unity behind his candidacy and said he would easily win the election if the party leaders would support him.

“If we had party unity, we couldn’t lose this election to Hillary Clinton,” he said. On Syria’s civil war, Trump said

Clinton could drag the United States into a world war with a more aggressive posture toward resolving the conflict. Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” on the ground to protect non-combatants. Some analysts fear that protecting those zones could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian warplanes. “What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria,” said Trump as he dined on fried eggs and sausage links at his Trump

National Doral golf resort.

“You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton,” he said.

“You’re not fighting Syria any more, you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk,” he said. Trump said getting Assad to leave power was less important than defeating Islamic State.

“Assad is secondary, to me, to ISIS,” he said.

On Russia, Trump again knocked Clinton’s handling of U.S.-Russian relations while secretary of state and said her harsh criticism of Putin raised questions about “how she is going to go back and negotiate with this man who she has made to be so evil,” if she wins the presidency. On the deterioration of ties with the Philippines, Trump aimed his criticism at Obama, saying the president “wants to focus on his golf game” rather than engage with world leaders. Since as-

suming office, Duterte has expressed open hostility towards the United States, rejecting criticism of his violent anti-drug clampdown, using an expletive to describe Obama and telling the United States not to treat his country “like a dog with a leash.”

The Obama administration has expressed optimism that the two countries can remain firm allies. Trump said Duterte’s latest comments showed “a lack of respect for our country.”

(Excerpted from Reuters)

NATO seeks troops to deter

Russia on eastern flank

NATO will press allies on Wednesday to contribute to its biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War as the alliance prepares for a protracted quarrel with Moscow.

With Russia’s aircraft carrier heading to Syria in a show of force along Europe’s shores, alliance defense ministers aim to make good on a July promise by NATO leaders to send forces to the Baltic states and eastern Poland from early next year. The United States hopes for binding commitments from Europe to fill four battle groups of some

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg addresses a news conference after the NATO-Russia Council at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 13, 2016. REUTERS/ Francois Lenoir

4,000 troops, part of NATO’s response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and concern it could try a similar tactic in Europe’s ex-Soviet states.

France, Denmark, Italy and other allies are expected to join the four battle groups led by the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada to go to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, with forces ranging from armored infantry to drones. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the commitments would be “a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond.”

Mississippi: Call for investigation over ‘noose put on black student’ A rights group in the US state of Mississippi has demanded a federal hate crime investigation after the family of a black high school student said white students put a noose around his neck.

The alleged incident took place during a break in football practice, according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

As many as four students are believed to have been involved in the case.

The parents say they have not been told if the school is taking action.

The alleged victim, a second-year student football player at Stone High School in Wiggins, has not been identified. He has since returned to school and football practice. Names and

ages of the students accused have also not been released, but reports say they are all under 17.

In the 13 October incident, the noose was “yanked backward” while on the student’s neck as the group was in the locker room, Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, said. “No child should be walking down the hall or in a locker room and be accosted with a noose around their neck,” he told reporters.

“This is 2016, not 1916. This is America. This is a place where children should go to school and feel safe in their environment.” The incident has echoes of Mississippi’s past when the lynching of black people by whites was still a frequent occurrence.

The state has struggled with racial division and is

the only one in the US that still incorporates the Confederate battle emblem on its state flag. He added, in an interview with ESPN, that the student was not physically harmed but was “terrified” by the incident.

Mr Johnson also said the parents were advised against filing a police report, because the father of one of the alleged assailants was a former law enforcement officer, the Associated Press reported. But Capt Ray Boggs of Stone County Sheriff’s Department disputed this, saying his advice was that pursuing criminal charges could result in hard feelings among students that could make the teenager’s life harder at school, AP added. The school has not reacted. (BBC)

Diplomats said it would also send a message to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has complained that European allies do not pay their way in the alliance.

The battle groups will b e b a c k e d b y N ATO ’s 40,000-strong rapid-reaction force, and if need be, further follow-on forces, for any potential conflict, which could move into Baltic states and Poland on rotation.

The strategy is part of an emerging new deterrent that could eventually be combined with missile defenses, air patrols and defenses against

cyber attacks. However, the alliance is still struggling for a similar strategy in the Black Sea region, which Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said is becoming a “Russian lake” because of Moscow’s military presence there. Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey are expected to soon come forward with a plan to increase naval and air patrols in the area, as well as a multinational NATO brigade in Romania.

“TO PREVENT CONFLICT” For the Kremlin, the U.S.-led alliance’s plans

are already too much given Russia’s grievances at NATO’s expansion eastwards.

Stoltenberg denied going too far. “This is a credible deterrence, not to provoke a conflict but to prevent conflict,” he told reporters on Tuesday. Next year’s deployments have taken on greater symbolism since Russia pulled out of several nuclear disarmament agreements in the past two months while moving nuclear-capable missiles into its Baltic exclave in Kaliningrad. (Excerpted from Reuters)

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Vetting of army recruits necessary Editor-In-Chief

Nigel Williams Editor

Godfrey Wray

Editorial: 227-5216; 227-5204 guyanachronicle.com wnigel10@hotmail.com gnnleditorial@gmail.com

Editorial An Industrial Relations Tribunal

NO society can grow and develop without the inputs of its most vital resource, i.e. the people, and this requires putting a nation’s human capital at the centre of governance and decision-making.

President David Granger in his address to the National Assembly on 13th October, pronounced on the Government’s intention to establish, under the Laws of Guyana, an Industrial Relations Tribunal. On examining the industrial relations landscape such pronouncement should be welcomed.

The tripartite partners- government, employers and trade unions- must now work assiduously to bring to realisation this institution.

There is no denying the current industrial relations climate continues to be volatile as seen in relationships such as in the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated, a company managed by Russia Aluminum (Rusal), and the workers’ union, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union. This company has decided that it will not deal with the union which runs counter to the Trade Union Recognition Act, Section 23 (1) and the Guyana Constitution.

Similarly, the management of the Demerara Timbers Limited has taken the decision to dismiss workers who have exercised their fundamental right under the Constitution and Collective Labour Agreement between the company and their union, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union. While these too companies are managed by expatriates, companies owned and managed by Guyanese are said to be taking the opportunity to dismiss workers who are not organised in trade unions in violation of the labour laws. It has been advised that when such decisions are challenged by the aggrieved and the Ministry of Social Protection asks of the management for an account of what has informed the decision, it is not unusual to see management resorting to hiring lawyers to fight their cases in court.

Also what exists today is that companies and individuals who are summoned by the Labour Department to account for their conduct either refuse to attend or reluctantly do so. Labour officers and the department will also attest to the disdain and disrespect shown to the office and department.

The operationalising of the tribunal will require technical staff who are au fait with industrial relations, laws, conventions and time-honoured principles. But the commissioners on the tribunal need not be lawyers, but persons who have acquired experience in industrial relations. Its establishment also means the non-lawyer, who is a labour or industrial relations practitioner, making representation on behalf of an aggrieved employee. Our industrial relations system while guided by a legal framework, the day-to-day elements and practices are premised on a body of knowledge emanating from the International Labour Organisation Conventions, customs and practices within industries, supported by collective labour agreements (CLA), inclusive of the interpretation of the spirit and intent of the decisions within the CLA. Drawing from Trinidad and Tobago which has an industrial relations court, the judges on the bench com-

Dear Editor,

I WISH to give special recognition and applause to Brigadier George Lewis for putting things in place to properly vet recruits into Guyana’s armed forces.

This is a necessary procedure which should have been in place for some time now.

It is no secret that many military personnel are involved in criminal attacks on civilians of this country who pay them via their tax dollars.

It is also known that some policemen have been involved in criminal activities during their service, while being active members of the Guyana Police Force and, after they had left.

It would appear that many join these historic service institutions of our nation, not for the purpose of serving the people of this country,

or to protect our borders and our people, but to profit from their appointments by taking advantage of the people and country they were hired to protect.

I recall sometime in the past, the Police Force had a policy of publishing the photographs, names and addresses of recruits or persons applying to the Guyana Police Force, so that people who are aware of any nefarious activities they might have been involved in, can identify them and forward such information to the relative department.

I know also that many persons objected to the fact that photographs were being published in the media for persons who are applying to join these forces. I believe personally that a government is employed by the people, and in that employment, is

a contract by which they make decisions. Sometimes decisions may not be agreed upon by all, but that is what they are hired for. To make decisions that will be in the best interest of the people and country.

In my opinion, it is the same with Guyana’s armed forces, as they have to make certain decisions. An example would be the practice of publishing the photographs of recruits in the national newspaper. Regardless of objections from people in the country, it should be done.

It is also possible that one may not have a record, as the police department has a unique system of vetting persons’ criminal records via their fingerprints. However, some of them might be serious delinquents and involved in banditry in the communities, but it is not recorded

in the country’s fingerprint department, which houses the only way they will be able to identify persons involved in criminal activities.

I encourage these law-enforcement agencies of great calibre and history in our county to do all they can to keep away negative elements from the Guyana Police Force and Guyana Defence Force. Once again, congratulations to the Brigadier for his appointment as Brigadier of the Guyana Defence Force and for this excellent idea of trying to identify recruits who may be involved in activities and who could be dangerous to the people of this country.

Sincerely, ROSHAN KHAN CEO/Chairman/ Founder RK’s Security Services

Improved care facilities on offer at GPHC Dear Editor,

I WOULD like to thank the stakeholders for providing the high quality and standard of care and services on offer at the GPHC Emergency, VIA Department and the Pharmacy. The waiting time at the GPHC emergency section has also been drastically decreased, and there is now a total-care facility provided by the said section.

The emergency section conducts blood-screening, diagnoses, and the caring doctors adequately attend to patients’ health needs. There is also an increase in the asthmatic care facilities offered by the emergency section of the GPHC. The VIA Department offers the service of examining the unique female organ, diagnoses and treat on the spot if necessary to save patients’ lives.

There are caring doctors and nurses who are readily available to deal with any health issues presented at the time of examination. And for these reasons, I would like to extend heartfelt gratitude to the stakeholders who played a part in providing the patient-care facilities offered by the GPHC. Thank you stakeholders, for the value you place on the lives of Guyanese. Thank you to the doc-

tors, medexes and nurses for choosing to be of service to and doing a service to humanity. Thank you to the pharmacist who diligently reads and attends to the patients’ prescription needs.

I do hope our government acquires the necessary finances to pay medical officers a better salary.

Regards, MARSHA ARCHER

Middle-class growth essential to economy Dear Editor,

I AM tremendously delighted at seeing many new small and medium-sized private businesses entering the Guyanese commercial market.

The starting-up and continuation of businesses are very beneficial to the Guyanese economy. These businesses will create jobs, increase local consumer spending, and boost the revenues of the Government. I have also noticed an increasing number of persons providing online shopping facilities to the trendy and fashionable

Guyanese population. This specific business venture is also a good idea for the economy.

But I would like to think that with the creation of a specific Ministry of Business (MoB), more is expected of the Government of Guyana.

Guyanese are well aware that the MoB is still in its infant stage, and the current government only recently came into office; therefore, it would be unjust to place unreasonable pressure on the government.

However for the future, I am hoping that Government would aspire to pro-

mote Guyana as an ideal business hub, and try to attract multinational corporations such as Walmart, large manufacturers and other large businesses.

Guyana is perfectly blessed, and has everything to be the ideal business hub. The setting up of large business facilities would prove very beneficial to Guyana, since those businesses will provide to the Guyanese economy multi-dimensional benefits such as large-scale job opportunities, foreign direct investment, increased foreign reserves and en-

hanced Gross Domestic and National Products. It is reasonably expected that the Guyanese people and their government would currently concentrate on growing the middle-class population and introduce a large middle-class between the two extremes and main classes in Guyana. Middle-class growth is essential in sustaining a viable, healthy socio-economic population.

prise practitioners from industries and the trade unions, some of whom are not lawyers. The framers of this tribunal, i.e. the social partners (government, employers and trade unions) must keep in mind that the decision of the tribunal must be final and binding on the parties, and must only be challenged in

the court where fundamental rights and freedoms are perceived to be violated.

A tribunal will improve the industrial relations climate and bring a sense of balance in worker/management relations. While on the part of the worker it brings the psychological comfort of knowing that a mechanism is in place

that can address his/her grievance at a minimum cost with some degree of alacrity, on the part of the employer it allows the decision to guide and improve their management decision. Ultimately,the development and growth of people and society are hinged on building respectful relationships. While

the call for this tribunal predates the APNU+AFC administration, its realisation during the administration’s stewardship will enhance the labour pillar in its push for a Green Economy, which is a macro policy that encompasses Sustainable Development, the Environment and Labour Policies.

AMOURA GIDDINGS Chief Executive Director/ Consultant – The Consultancy Firm

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Electricity woes and concerns Dear Editor,

THE growing power problems of the last two weeks have been giving me nightmares. Are we stepping back to the 70s and 80s?

And the talk about ending the operations and maintenance contract of Wartsila, and a sole-sourced Wind Farm with Mr Lloyd Singh: are we, GPL and the customers, being set up to be exploited?

Adequate provisions for electricity in a small but growing economy like ours needs constant knowledgeable and appropriately experienced attention, with regular, timely and economic investments to stay ahead of growing demand and to allow for the ageing of the installed equipment, both generation and distribution. Of course, the quantities of money available to GPL, the cost of fuel and the ability and willingness of customers to pay are important considerations.

The damage to the cable crossing the Demerara River (it is said by their own dredging contractor) must be considered a great failure at all levels of GPL. How did it happen? Everyone knows that there is an underwater cable and GPL knows exactly where it is and should have had sure methods of avoiding its damage. Also, thinking of the number of days being taken to find a suspected fault on the five (5) kilometre line linking Kingston and Sophia, one wonders whether GPL, including its board, are not already stretched. There is word about other incidents being kept quiet. That is why the talk of ending or changing the operations and maintenance contract with Wartsilla seems ill-advised at this time, when it doesn’t appear that the board and management of GPL are ready to take on additional load; nor can I imagine GPL ending the contract with Wartsilla to hand it to any other.

Losses, both technical and commercial, have been the big problem of our electricity sector. A few years ago one IDB consultant produced and we published the losses for the geographical areas of some 30 feeders. The great variation in commercial

losses was brought before the public and I believed that keeping this focus with half-yearly determinations and publications of the information would put limits on what individuals inclined to stealing electricity would do or be allowed to do. I am very disappointed and consider it a great mistake that this programme has not been pursued.

With the IDB looking over our shoulders and differing with them any number of times over some 20- plus years, systems were developed for the good management of GPL. One of the most important is the requirements and practice of submitting each year to the minister and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the rolling five-year development and expansion (D&E) plan, with a 15-year perspective added later. The development of the Amaila Falls was our 15-year perspective. The need for new, comparatively small HFO-fuelled gen sets for new generating stations at Bartica and Anna Regina was evident and urgent. After our first discussions with Wartsilla we wondered whether the small, 1.0 to 2.5 MW, units required had not fallen below Wartsilla’s economic range and looked farther afield to the 1MW unit being installed (then) by RUSAL (they use the larger Wartsilla units at other locations) and the 1MW Hyundai unit at Banks-DIH Thirst Park. I contemplated a selected tender process, inviting Wartsilla and at least these two others to bid for the gen sets (with auxillaries) for new stations at Bartica and Anna Regina. We also contemplated that the next large station, five years or so further on, would be at the Canefield location (outside of New Amsterdam) The fact is that except for studied and selected hydro sites (such as Amaila) renewable energy, highly desirable as it is, and it is the energy of the future, is still generally today not directly competitive with fossil fuels.

The people of the developed countries, much richer than we, have been knowingly providing premium (higher) prices (which they could readily afford) for energy/

electricity provided from renewable sources, so as to meet their commitments to lower their total and per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) production. Our own Guyanese figures are so low, we are way below such requirements; there is no need and no economic justification for us preferring more overall expensive renewable energy; diesel units would have to be installed anyhow to back up the renewable energy sources of solar and wind.

Looking back now, there can be no doubt that the calls by the new coalition government for a green Bartica and a green Guyana were not fully informed and created confusion so that Bartica and Anna Regina (Essequibo Coast) have been suffering electricity outages of about 12 hours per day and there will likely be a 15-month delay in providing an economic, reliable supply of electricity.

These evident misinformation and misjudgements of the coalition government deepen concern about whatever arrangements would be made with whomsoever for the Wind Farm at Hope Beach or elsewhere (or other renewable energy).

With our current income levels and where we are at in Guyana, lowest lifetime cost should prevail and apart from Amaila, diesel engines are difficult to beat (except in the hinterland and wherever homes are so far apart that the distribution cost is prohibitive). As everyone should recognise, solar and wind do not provide continuous, always-available power. It is economical for GPL to pay only for the avoided fuel and maintenance costs discounted by the arrangements to offset/ absorb the variations in the renewable energy supply.

With such an understanding, we of the PPP/C kept our doors open to proposals for solar and wind-generation and we would be looking to see that such principles are respected by our coalition government (if not, GPL consumers may well end up subsidising the investors).

No doubt the generation-mix in the long term was something to start thinking about. For the record, on seeing a call from the

Government of Japan for developing countries to apply for 1 to 3MW demonstration, utility-grade solar photo-voltaic (PV) plant we immediately applied, prepared and submitted a proposal, but along the way the Japanese Government suspended the programme, pleading budget cuts. Also, we kept on extending an MoU first entered into in the late 1990s or early 2000s for a Wind Farm at Hope Beach. In about 2014, Mr Lloyd Singh, who had lately become a partner in the company, brought a particularly attractive proposal in which the Chinese manufacturer was offering about 75% financing at a very low interest rate. It began to appear that a Government guarantee of the loan may be required and shortly after we were told that that Chinese manufacturer had withdrawn the offer. Mr Lloyd Singh brought another

Chinese manufacturer but it was much more expensive, unacceptably so. Aware that the development of the Wind Farm at Hope Beach whenever it might happen had to be coordinated with our projections for Amaila for a number of considerations, we the PPP/C administration, took a turn towards: (i) A public invitation for proposals for a Wind Farm (coordinated with our projections for the development of Amaila) (ii) A government guarantee should not be expected to cover any loans.

But by then the 2015 elections were in the air.

As indicated by our Leader of the Opposition, the coalition government recognising the huge conflict of interest in an AFC minister and party executive negotiating a large, sole-sourced award with an AFC financier, should have seen an open

invitation to tender as a minimum requirement for good governance. We have some protection in that whatever the outcome of the government’s sole-sourcing negotiations with Mr Lloyd Singh, the law requires the PUC to approve any Independent Power Producer (IPP) agreement which GPL intends to enter into. Public hearings with an open-book presentation are to be expected, disclosing all cost items and in particular the financing and the rate of return of each component of financing.

We, the PPP/C, are proud of how we steadily improved and extended our electricity supply in an economical way and we will expect and accept no less from our coalition government.

Regards Samuel .A. A. Hinds Former Minister Resvponsible for Electricity and Energy

Enough is enough 8

GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

‒ GBGWU accuses BCGI of frontal aggression against labour THE Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) is of the view that the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) is displaying “frontal and unrelenting aggression” in the way it is dealing with Guyanese workers and their rights.

A GB&GWU statement released to the media on Tuesday has said that the BCGI’s latest move of instructing workers to sign a document addressed to the Government and stating that the BCGI workers do not want GBGWU as their representative union constitutes the “deepening of aggression” against workers and continued attempts to violate the Constitution of Guyana, thereby posing a threat to the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Constitution is sacrosanct. The pleas of Guyanese workers employed at BCGI -- to have their right to be associated with a trade union of their choice and collective bargaining conducted on their behalf -- is consistent with Article 147 of the Constitution and Section 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act, the statement added.

Section 23 (1) of the Act

President of the GTUC, Leslie Gonsalves (left) and General Secretary of the GTUC, Lincoln Lewis, were at the news conference on Tuesday

states: “Where a trade union obtains a certificate of recognition for workers comprised in a bargaining unit in accordance with this Part, the employer shall recognize the union, and the union and the employer shall bargain in good faith and enter into negotiations with each other for the purpose of collective bargaining.”

Further, section 23 (3) states that: “An employer who fails to comply with the provisions of subsection (1)

shall be guilty of an offence and (be) liable on summary conviction to (pay) a fine of twenty thousand dollars, and in addition a fine of five hundred dollars for every five days the breach continues, until the employer has complied with such provisions.”

And while the union is accusing the company of being liable in regard to the foregoing, it is viewing the issue in a broader context.

According to BG&BWU, when external foreign forces recognize Government’s

Carvil Duncan court matter

Magistrate to rule on no-case submission next Wednesday CITY Magistrate Leron Daly is expected to make a ruling on a no-case submission next Wednesday in the matter against Carvil Duncan, a former director of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) who is accused of stealing from the company.

The ruling on a no-case submission made by Duncan’s attorney Glen Hanoman was scheduled to be made on Wednesday by Magistrate Daly, but it was deferred until November 2.

Hanoman, a substitute attorney in the matter, has since requested that previous submissions made by his client’s former lawyer Charles Ramson Jr on August 17 be regarded as no-case submissions.

The prosecution is be-

ing led by Corporal Bharat Mangru.

Carvil Duncan, 73, of 1977 Williamstad Road, Festival City, Georgetown, is accused of stealing $984, 900 belonging to GPL on March 31, 2015.

It is also alleged that between May 7 and May 8, 2015, at Georgetown, Duncan conspired with former GPL Deputy Chief Executive Officer Aeshwar Deonarine to steal the sum of $27,757,500, property of GPL. Duncan has pleaded not guilty to the charges and he is currently on $1M bail.

An arrest warrant is out for Deonarine who has fled the country.

The charges against the accused stem from payments that were made by Deonarine

Former GPL Director Carvil Duncan

and Duncan to themselves and which were uncovered by a forensic audit that was commissioned after the APNU+AFC Government entered office last year.

The money allegedly stolen by Duncan purportedly represents retroactive payments for his tenure on the GPL board.

unwillingness to uphold the nation’s Constitution, which safeguards the country and its people, these foreign forces become more emboldened in their claims to parts of Guyana.

BCGI is co-owned by the Russia Aluminum (RUSAL) company and the Government of Guyana. RUSAL owns a 90% stake in the company, while the Guyana Government owns the remaining 10%.

“What we are seeing at

BCGI is frontal and unrelenting aggression by foreign management in the abuse of our workers, the citizens, and communities in the Upper Berbice River, where this company operates as though this area is annexed from Guyana, and the environment and people [are] no longer protected by the Laws of Guyana”, the union charges.

GB&GWU has indicated that labour is deeply concerned and troubled by Government’s refusal to uphold the ruling of the court, which would ensure that workers’ rights are upheld and employers discharge their responsibilities. It also questioned if this is a case where the trade union movement is seen as a threat and this is the Government’s way of “undermining” labour; the same labour that is needed to protect and defend Guyana.

“Bauxite workers have been supportive of the parties in this Government in and out of office. Yet, their rights continue to be transgressed

by RUSAL – a presumptuous foreign entity,” GBGWU has declared. The union also noted that the gains workers enjoy today were fought for, and were not willingly conceded by any employer.

The union is informing

the BCGI workers that BCGI could not have their best interest at heart when that company is calling on workers to “dismantle their choice of union.”

“We encourage labour to continue not to lose faith in their numbers, because when we speak in one voice and unite, whether to hold Government or private employer accountable, it is our collective will that gives us our strength. When any employer seeks to undermine the trade union, it is not to operate in the interest of workers.

“BCGI can only become emboldened in a weak environment and where weak leadership exists,” the GB&GWU statement added.

In March of last year, the Guyana Trades Union Congress expressed its dissatisfaction with BCGI, noting that it had been five years and counting since the company took a decision to flagrantly disrespect the Labour Laws of Guyana. And while this issue is not a new one, the GTUC contended that successive PPP Governments had failed to address the issue, and in some cases give legitimacy to the BCGI disregard of the Guyana Constitution.

Two years for break and enter and larceny MURDER accused Nyabinghi Gobin, who is slated to stand trial at the High Court for fatally shooting a man in Tucville last year was on Wednesday sentenced to two years in jail on a charge of break and enter and larceny.

City Magistrate Leron Daly convicted Gobin after she found him guilty of breaking into James Samuels’ dwelling house and carting off one Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, a Glock pistol, 14, 9mm rounds, 58 shotgun cartridges and other items, all totaling $17.2 M. The offence occurred between July 2 and July 4 at Relief, East Bank Demerara.

The magistrate ruled in the favour of Police Prose-

Murder accused Nyabinghi Gobin

cutor, Corporal Bharat Mangru, since he had proved his case against Gobin beyond a reasonable doubt.

On August 12, Magistrate Fabayo Azore had committed Gobin, along with Edward Skeete, to stand trial at the next practicable sitting of the Demerara Assizes.

Magistrate Azore had announced that a prima facie case was made out against both men for the murder of Ryan Clementson, whose murder occurred between July 14 and July 24, 2015.

Clementson was in the vicinity of the Turning Point snackette in Tucville, Georgetown, when he was shot.

He was shot in the thigh and succumbed about two weeks later from a cardiac arrest after undergoing surgery.

GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Greater ease in money transactions

…AG promises, as Guyana removed from FATF watch list

By Svetlana Marshall THE business community and even the man in the street can expect an ease in conducting local and international financial transactions, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams said as he alluded to one of the many benefits to be derived from the country’s successful exit from the FATF/ICRG regime.

“It would be much better for Guyanese businesses, and Guyanese businessmen to do transactions around the world because Guyana has been cleared as a member of the international community, where business could be done, because it no longer poses a threat to international financial institutions,” Minister Williams told reporters on Wednesday at the Legal Affairs Ministry.

Executive Member of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo had also said that this new

development would foster a better business climate.

“This is a major breakthrough for Guyana,” Dookhoo had told Guyana Chronicle, while noting that companies within the Private Sector will now be better positioned to conduct international transactions with ease.

The PSC Executive Member said too that although the country is still being monitored by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), the Private Sector is comforted by the fact that permission has been granted for Guyana to exit the FATF Review List.

In May 2014, the Caribbean Financial Task Force (CFATF) had handed over Guyana to the Financial Action Task Force due to the country’s then failure to meet the agreed timeliness in its Action Plan.

CFATF had identified Guyana as a jurisdiction with significant Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams

(AML/CFT) and a risk to the international financial system; hence members were warned about doing business with Guyana.

“Members are therefore called upon to implement further counter measures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from Guyana,” the statement

which was published in May 2014 by CFATF read.

More than two years after, under a different Government, Guyana has successfully exited FATF’s International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) regime, and therefore the counter-measures are expected to be reversed.

This achievement, Minister Williams said, is a “collective victory.” “The high level political commitment of President David Granger, his drive and the leadership given by the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Basil Williams, and his Compliance Team and the contribution of the FIU under the helm of the Minister of Finance Mr. Winston Jordan were matched by the responsiveness of the Guyanese Financial Institutions, the Private Sector and law Enforcement Institutions,” he said.

During the FATF conference in Paris last Tuesday, Spain moved a motion to rec-

ommend that Guyana be removed from the Compliance Document. The motion was subsequently supported by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, France and Mexico.

It was adopted two days after.

According to the Legal Affairs Minister, Guyana’s removal from FATF’s Compliance Document paves the way for a similar removal from CFATF’s monitoring process come November 2016. Exiting FATF was critical, he emphasised. “We expect also to exit there because we have already been cleared for exit, but couldn’t exit because of the FATF,” he explained.

Though the country has made significant progress in its fight to combat Money laundering and the financing of terrorism under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government, it will have to ensure that persons in the business of money laundering, terrorist financing and theft of state assets are convicted, ahead of the Fourth Round of Mutual

9

Evaluation.

“Guyana cannot be complacent as the fourth round Mutual Evaluation, beckons, where the test is whether we would have shown ‘sufficient progress on the effectiveness,’ for example, having more convictions for offences of money laundering, terrorist financing and the purloining of state assets,” the Attorney General said.

The collaborative work between the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) has landed a number of suspected money launderers before the Courts but no conviction has been made thus far. “You can’t tell them you charged a hundred people and you don’t have a conviction. Therefore…We have to start ensuring that the legal framework and regulatory framework that we put in this Third Round are effectively addressed in the Fourth Round,” he explained, while reiterating that convictions must be made by 2020.

AG to challenge order blocking Student charged …says evidence shows with forging bank Duncan’s tribunal he was written to by PM cheques ATTORNEY General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams, is maintaining that the embattled Chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC), Carvil Duncan, has no case against the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government.

After being placed before a Tribunal, Duncan, who also sits on the Judicial Service Commission and the Police Service Commission, through his attorney Anil Nandlall, filed a motion in the High Court challenging the legality of the Tribunal appointed to determine whether he should be removed from the constitutional office after being charged with fraud.

Duncan is maintaining that he never received a letter from Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, calling on him to explain why a tribunal should not be appointed.

On Wednesday, Williams debunked the claims being made by Duncan, saying that he has seen the evidence. “I have seen that record that the Prime Minister did serve Mr. Duncan. I have seen it, and so now that I am back, I will take custody of the case,” he told reporters during a press conference at his Carmichael Street office.

After consulting with the Prime Minister, the Attorney General said he will file a response; however, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the judicial process being employed. “We note that this is just another case, unlike the past 23 years, first it was against the Attorney General. He was not given the opportunity to be heard before an order was made against him, and now equally, the same thing has been done with the Prime Minister, an opportunity was not given to him for him to be heard before this order nisi was granted.”

Minister Williams is also sticking by Government’s decision to suspend Duncan from office pending the outcome of the Tribunal. “If you have a criminal offence and you are working with an employer, your employer doesn’t have to wait to see if you are convicted before the employer could decide whether you are good for his employment or not,” he remarked. He pointed out that Duncan is a public servant who is charged with an offence that person is interdicted and as such, there is no exception. “How could you be interdicted and the person who is supposed to be supervising you, is charged, and they don’t suffer the same consequence? What kind of country do we have?”

He added, “We are trying to create some super class in this country and see other people in Guyana as grass.

How do you accept that?”

The Tribunal is expected to submit a report to

Fraud accused, Carvil Duncan

President David Granger on or before October 31.

Duncan has been suspended pending the outcome of the report. Duncan is currently before the court on fraud charges after it was discovered by auditors that he paid himself approximately $1M and allegedly conspired with Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Power and Light, Aeshwar Deonarine, for an unapproved transfer of approximately $27M into the latter’s personal account.

A 20-YEAR-OLD Morgan Institute student appeared in court on Wednesday before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan charged with forging bank cheques.

The allegation stated that on September 20, 2016, Deoharry Odit conspired with others and forged a Republic Bank cheque of GYD$800,000, property of Naipaul Ramotar.

It is also alleged that on September 27, 2016, in Georgetown, Odit again conspired with others and forged another Republic Bank cheque valued at GYD$1.2M, property of Naipaul Ramotar.

Odit pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted $50,000 bail.

The prosecutor made no objection to bail; however, both parties have entered into a promissory note agreement where payments have already been made.

The matter was adjourned until November 14, 2016.

Mother on bail for embezzling over $2M A 42- YEAR- OLD mother of four was on Wednesday placed on $40,000 bail after she appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court charged with defrauding her employer, Country Pride, of over $ 2M. It is alleged that between January 1, 2015 and July 18, 2016 in Georgetown, Pauline Stewart, while employed as a Clerk

at Country Pride embezzled $2,085,305.

It is alleged that the money was given to her to be passed on to her employer, Raymond Butch Parmonand but she converted same to her own use.

Stewart was granted bail and ordered to report to the Brickdam Police Station every Friday. She is slated to return to court on November 3, 2016.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Probe ordered into ‘mystery’ death of West Dem schoolgirl

By Ariana Gordon AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 13-year-old student of New Era Academy, a private school located at Parfait Harmonie.

Minister of Health, Dr George Norton when contacted on Wednesday told Guyana Chronicle that he has requested a thorough report on the circumstances surrounding the death of the teen and noted that the report ought to be with him sometime today.

“I am awaiting a report on the matter, an investigation has been launched,” said the Minister, who described the death of the child as “a sad situation.”

“I am going to get to the bottom of this,” he assured.

Mariza Kissoon died last week after collapsing, while in her classroom and according to reports she was rushed to the Emergency Room of the West Demerara Regional Hospital but was not attended to immediately.

Kissoon’s classmates, teachers and friends all contend that the alive, but unconscious teen, was panting for breath when she was taken to the Hospital but it was due to lack of medical attention that she lost her life.

A friend of the teenager told Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday that they were

13 year-old Mariza Kissoon

in their Grade 7 classroom when their head teacher, Amelia Sammy was conducting a Health and family life education (HFLE) class.

Kissoon was asked a question to which she promptly answered, but shortly after answering the question she collapsed in her chair. “…when she go to sit down she faint…When she go to fall and I held her up and I called for Ms. Sammy,” the classmate recounted.

Another classmate said he observed when the 13-year-old collapsed and rushed to her assistance.

He disclosed that the teen earlier that day said she was unwell, and complained of a headache. She had also told her classmates that she was upset because she spilled her mother’s coffee and her mother was harsh towards her. “Everybody held her

up and took her outside… we called her sister and her sister came and we took her to the hospital…teacher said she will take her to the hospital,” a young man recounted.

He explained that while at the hospital there was no one there to assist them to take the unconscious girl to the emergency room of the West Demerara Regional Hospital and so it was he and another male student who lifted her and placed her in a wheelchair they found at the hospital. “While at the hospital they had nobody to put her on the stretcher or wheelchair so myself and colleagues and a security guard there bring a wheelchair and put her and pushed her to the emergency room.”

The lad noted that there was one nurse stationed at the Emergency Room and so they pushed Kissoon towards her but she looked at them and showed then “the wait sign”. “…at the moment waiting at the triage area she was checking a small girl’s weight…so I was thinking that this is an emergency, why you have to check the girl’s weight… when all of that finished I pushed her to the desk and I assisted to put her on the bed.”

He said up until he and his school mates were putting the girl unto the bed in the emergency room, no nurse, or porter from the

High Court trial for murder accused

TREVOR Abrams, Josephine Henry and her husband Frank Henry, who were jointly charged with the capital offence of murder, were on Tuesday committed to stand trial in the next sitting of the High Court.

The decision was made by Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty when they appeared before her at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

The allegation stated that on July 22, 2010 at Friendship, Canal, Lower Pomeroon River, the accused murdered Victor Williams called “Willo”.

The magistrate made the ruling based on the facts presented by the prosecutor.

She stated that sufficient evidence was led by the prosecution to have the defendant stand trial in the High Court at

the next sitting of the Demerara Assizes.

According to report, Williams who suffered injuries to the forehead and legs had identified his killers before he succumbed to his injuries.

It was previously reported that Williams had attended a wedding a mile away from his residence and was seen socialising with friends.

But he later went missing and relatives launched a search for him. His body was found by his two sons in a trench and the accused, who were nearby, fled the scene.

Both sons later assisted their father out of the trench and subsequently transported him to the Charity Hospital where he died.

Police recovered a blood stained T-shirt, a hat and a pair of slippers from the scene.

hospital was there to assist, instead it was the security guard who lent a helping hand.

“The security helped to put her on the bed… she wasn’t saying anything but she was breathing,” he explained. Shortly after being in the emergency room, the teen recounted that Kisson was connected to an oxygen machine, which subsequent-

Amelia Sammy, head teacher of the New Era Academy located in Parfait Harmonie

ly fell. “I helped to pick it up and then the doctor came in and told me to leave…her sister was in there.”

He estimated that approximately 15 minutes was spent at the triage area waiting for the nurse to complete weighing the little child.

Eventually, a nurse and doctor arrived. Unfortunately, the doctor arrived without an ophthalmoscope (instrument used to look into the fundus of the eyes and other organs). “When one of the guys went to check her eyes he wasn’t finding his torchlight or whatever it was called… so he left to find it,” the lad added.

Meanwhile, the Head teacher of the school Amelia Sammy made it clear that when she, along with a few of her students took Kissoon to the hospital she was alive.

She refuted claims made by the Regional AdministrationRegion Three via the media that the child arrived at the hospital dead.

She explained that she took about 10 minutes from her school to the Hospital and it was her students who took the 13-year-old out of the car as she left to park the car. “After I got there, I took about 10 minutes to park and after I got in I saw them at the triage area… I

told the children we have to take her in because nobody is here. I asked the nurse what is going on and told her it is an emergency.”

By that time, Kissoon had already slid from the wheelchair causing her school mates to hold her head and upper body up.

“The children were fixing her…holding her up,” Sammy told Guyana Chronicle.

According to the head teacher, when the doctor arrived “he asked if we had a light…I lend him my little phone but mine wasn’t working effectively, so he left to find his.”

The head teacher said during the time to which the doctor left the emergency room, the oxygen that was placed on Kissoon came off and the equipment used to test her pressure as well. She recounted that it was one of her students who assisted in picking the equipment up but then they were asked to leave the room. “We left them inside with the sister and two nurses came but said they were off duty… so I screamed why is it y’all don’t do a heart test on this girl to see what is going on… when they put on the heart machine, the heart rate was 27.6.”

Shortly after, Sammy said a Cuban doctor arrived in the emergency room and demanded that she leave the room but she still peeped. “I saw him put his hands on her chest and so on and then said ‘no, no’.”

Thereafter, the head teacher said another doctor asked the girl’s sister her relationship to Kissoon and also asked for her mother.

Kissoon’s older sister said her mother was unwell and she was the only person at the hospital related to the 13-year-old.

“Then he asked about me and I said I am the head teacher- he asked me to call the parent so I asked why, he said, she is not responding – not regaining consciousness,” said Sammy who believes that had proper care and attention been given to Kissoon she may have been alive today.

“We are not in control of life but if they had taken a little bit more care and given more assistance, I think it would have been different… they left her there and they didn’t even try to do any-

thing…shock her body… they didn’t try anything; they just left her there.” Kissoon reportedly died as a result of inflammation in the brain and a bursting of a major vessel.

The teenage only started the private school recently after her older sister approached Sammy and asked her to register Kissoon, promising to return to pay the school fees. The teenager’s school fees were never paid by the family as she informed the school that her mother was unwell and her father resides in Trinidad and was not working.

Sammy disclosed that from the little interaction she had with the teenager she was disturbed by issues affecting her family. She said the child disclosed her discomfort with her just before her death but attempts by Sammy to contact the teen’s mother was unsuccessful.

NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY Notwithstanding the reports of the students and head teacher of the New Era Academy, the Administration of the hospital is not taking responsibility.

In a statement to the media, the administration said Kissoon was transported to the emergency room within 5 minutes after arriving at the Emergency room and was immediately triaged by a nurse who was at her bedside.

That nurse, the statement said did not find any “vital signs” and therefore assumed the assistance of a doctor on duty.

“Upon assumption at Ms. Kissoon’s bedside, which was in less than two (2) minutes, she was already cyanotic, cold to touch, there was no rise and fall in her chest, her pupils were already dilated and not reactive to light, there was no corneal reflex, no pulse, no breath sounds and no heart sounds. After careful examination of the child and knowing that the child had no signs of life and could not be resuscitated the nurse was instructed to remove the oxygen because it was useless at that point. This was a death before arrival at the hospital (D.B.A.).”

The hospital has also accused the head teacher of the school of attempting to “manipulate the truth.”

Kissoon was laid to rest on Wednesday.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

…about budget cuts to constitutional bodies THE Government has rejected what it termed the “baseless and false propaganda” of the opposition PPP that the proposed financial allocations for constitutional commissions and agencies for 2017 have been maliciously reduced from the 2016 budgeted amounts.

In a statement issued by the Department of Public Information, government said while the law clearly provides for government to recommend reasonable amounts for constitutional bodies in keeping with what is affordable, of the 16 list-

ed constitutional agencies, only one (GECOM) has a reduced allocation. “The reason for the reduced allocation is completely logical and eminently sensible. Both 2015 and 2016 were election years. 2017 is not an election year. Therefore, it cannot be expected that the GECOM allocation for a non-election year would be greater than its budget for election years,” the statement read. Budget estimates for Constitutional Agencies were presented a few weeks ago to the parliamentarians for perusal and ultimate deliberations today.

However, on Monday with support from her party members, Anil Nandlall and Juan Edghill, Chief Whip of the PPP, Gail Teixeira accused Government of attempting to weaken and undermine the constitutional bodies. She argued that constitutional agencies ought to be provided with the requested amount of finances, noting that the “slashing of the requested budget to less than what was received in 2016 is highly unacceptable.”

Teixeira, a former government minister, told reporters about cuts to the budgets

This chart contradicts statements by the PPP’s Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira

for Parliament Office, the Auditor General’s Office, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the Supreme Court , the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Indigenous People’s Commission to name a few.

However, except GECOM, all of the other agencies received increased allocations.

In its statement,the DPI said in the case of two agencies – the Public Service Appellate Tribunal and the Judicial Service Commission – the budgeted amounts for 2016 and 2017 are exactly the same (see attached chart).

There is a new head – the Public Procurement Commission – which has been provisionally allocated $76.2M in

the 2017 budget estimates for the establishment and functioning of this agency.

“Therefore, the Coalition Government is recommending increases in the 2017 budget estimates for 12 of the 16 constitutional agencies.

The Coalition Government calls on the Opposition PPP to act responsibly and to desist from wilfully seeking to mislead the Guyanese public and using the constitutional agencies for political theatre.” Government said during the PPP’s tenure in office, notoriously under the governments of Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar, a stubborn refusal was shown to give block sums to bodies such as the

judiciary.

“They never amended the law to allow this.

The reason why the former government did not permit the independence of these agencies in keeping with the intention of the Guyana constitution, was clear and evident. The PPP government used finances as a weapon of manipulation of these bodies. The Coalition Government is proud of its record of elevating the constitutional bodies to their status of financial autonomy, and for respecting the time-honoured principles of the separation of powers and the supremacy of the constitution,” the statement said.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

RUSAL seeks gov’t AK 47 found order before paying in haversack ‒ along with matching ammo tax-free overtime in Linden house THE Bauxite Company Guyana Inc. (BCGI) has retreated from its earlier decision not to pay tax-free overtime to workers, but instead is now seeking a government order before they carry out the decision by the government.

BCGI-a subsidiary of Russian Aluminium (RUSAL), had refused to sign on to the tax-free overtime agreement, saying that it does not support the workers’ representative-the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union, as a signatory to the pact.

Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Keith Scott had confirmed this saying that they do not

agree with the approach being taken. Scott said that the company had proposed a different approach to treat with the issue and discussions were being held currently on the matter.

In August, Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence had said that the tax waiver was a done deal, but while BOSAI and Oldendorff Carrier have signed onto the agreement, BCGI is withholding its signature.

Tax-free concession on overtime work was implemented in 1988. This concession was enjoyed by workers up until 2007, when it was taken away by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Administration. The move

by the PPP Administration had adversely affected the earnings of bauxite workers from Linden and Kwakwani, and was viewed by critics as a punitive exercise for not supporting the PPP. On Wednesday at the Bauxite Centennial Symposium held in Linden, one BCGI worker, Elymawell Barkoye posed a question to Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman in the presence of his superiors, asking when the workers will be granted the tax-free overtime. Trotman in response said that BCGI has asked for an order from the Ministry of Finance before following the mandate. When this is granted Trotman said that

the workers will be paid retroactive for the period the tax exception should have been granted. “So there has been a commitment, it is a matter of having it done legally, “Trotman said.

The Minister said that his Government will not allow foreign companies to disrespect the laws of Guyana and the workers that serve them. This position he said was made clear to both companies on several occasions and will not change. “I’ve said that the government’s position is that one: we must respect the laws of Guyana, two you must respect the contracts of agreements you entered into with the Government of Guyana and thirdly you must respect the workers of Guyana, that position is not going to be changed at all,” Trotman posited.

POLICE have recovered an AK 47 rifle, two magazines and 15 rounds of matching ammunition along with 15 .38 live rounds; 39, 9mm live rounds and 21, .223 live rounds and a magazine in a house in ‘E’ Division (Linden/Kwakwani).

According to a police release, the discovery was made by a 42-year-old citizen who was doing “house cleaning” and stumbled upon a haversack behind a wardrobe.

During an examination of the haversack, the firearm and ammunition were found.

The man went to the police station and made a report and soon after a team of police responded and took possession of the cache.

The policed release noted that the house is owned by persons residing overseas and persons were renting

same prior to the discovery.

Earlier this month, a Chinese restaurant in Port Mourant, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) was robbed by bandits carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.

Sangeeta Lall, who worked at the Lai Li Chinese Restaurant, said the men took her cellular phone and money from the restaurant before leaving. One eyewitness related that two men entered the restaurant carrying a gun.

Other reports indicate that it was an AK-47 and one shot was fired.

In July, Custom Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) ranks conducted a search and seizure raid on a business in Canal Number 2, West Bank Demerara where they found a large amount of AK-47 compatible ammunition.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Fire victims appeal for help

By Nafeeza Yahya

A FAMILY of five is appealing to the public for help to return to some state of normalcy after a fire of unknown origin destroyed their Lot 75 Lesbeholden, Black Bush Polder home on Sunday last.

Roopchand Hemraj, 30, and Devi Hemraj, 23, lived in the house that they worked hard to build and made comfortable for themselves and three children ages three months, one and nine years.

Their years of hard work were reduced to ashes in less than 30 minutes last Saturday.

At the time of the fire, no one was at home and neighbours tried to put out the blaze by forming a bucket brigade, but to no avail.

According to Devi’s mother Kamlawatie Budhu called “Nadira”, her daughter was visiting her at Friendship Village on Sunday last when they received a phone call stating their home was on fire.

Nadira said she and her daughter got into a car and rushed to the scene and when they arrived, they found their home destroyed.

Nothing was saved and Devi broke down in tears on seeing what had happened to her home.

“We wuk hard and build lil lil now all gone… me had everything, stove, TV, freezer -- nothing nah save,”

Hemraj sobbed as she spoke with reporters.

Roopchand, a labourer, said he was at work when he was told about the fire.

“When me hear me nah believe, but me jump on meh motorbike and ride when me reach was only smoke me a see, them neighbours done out a fire.

Me start fuh cry cause me nah able save anything.”

The Hemraj family is appealing for help after fire destroyed their home

The house destroyed by fire last Saturday

The estimated loss in property is said to be around $900,000.

The family has since been staying with the parents of Roopchand and neighbours have been helping out by providing pieces of clothing and some finan-

cial assistance to ensure their nine-year-old son goes to school.

“We nah get nothing left, only the clothes we had on was saved, so anything wah people give we gun tek, even if it old and all.

Me thankful fuh wah help

me neighbours them give we so far and me guh work, but it nah easy right now so please help we,” pleaded Roopchand.

Persons desirous of assisting can make contact the family on 687-0498, or 653-6523.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Several pupils affected by skin infection

By Alva Solomon

SEVERAL children on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD) are being treated for Impetigo, a highly contagious, superficial skin infection that most commonly affects children between ages two and five years.

Reports are that at least 10 children who attend a nursery school in the area were treated for the ailment at the Diamond Hospital, East Bank Demerara over the past month.

They were asked to remain isolated for at least a week. Several children from other parts of the East Bank

were in recent times treated for the condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The skin infection is characterised by red sores which pop easily and leave a yellow crust. In addition, the patient will experience fluid-filled blisters, itchy rash, skin lesions and swollen lymph nodes. It usually lasts for a week-long period.

Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton told the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday that he is not aware of an outbreak of the medical condition. He said however that “there are always cases”, but not at an

alarming number.

According to the Public Health Minister, treatment of the skin infection depends on its severity.

“If it’s an infection, it will need antibiotic treatment or ointments and it (treatment) can go down to capsules or injections and so on,” he said.

Medical reports of some students seen by this publication indicate that patients ages four and five were taken for treatment at the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital at various times over the past month after their parents had observed several lesions on their skins.

In one report, the parents of a four-year-old were told that she was suffering from the condition and they were advised to ensure the child remains isolated for a week until the treatment for impetigo was completed.

Other reports, which were written earlier this month at the Diamond Hospital also recommended isolation during treatment.

The parents of a fiveyear-old patient, who sought treatment at the GPHC Paediatric Clinic, were asked to ensure that the child remain isolated until the lesions on her skin healed.

The child has lesions that stretched from the left ear to other parts of her face.

Medical personnel attached to the GPHC told the Guyana Chronicle that several children have received treatment at the public medical institution for the ailment.

It was noted that several persons have complained that while their children were given medication to counter the ailment, the condition was ongoing with slow signs of healing.

Among children, impetigo is the most common bacterial skin infection and the third most common skin disease overall, behind dermatitis and viral warts.

According to online research, impetigo is usually transmitted through direct contact. Patients can further spread the infection after removing part of the infected skin.

Infections often spread rapidly through schools and daycare centres it was noted. Although children are infected most often through contact with other infected children, fomites (objects which can spread or carry infection) are a key factor in the spread of impetigo.

The incidence is greatest in the months when an area is experiencing dry weather conditions and the infection often occurs in areas with poor hygiene and in crowded living conditions.

Thursday, October 27, 2016 - 10:30 hrs Friday, October 28, 2016 - 14:30 hrs Saturday, October 29, 2016 - 14:30 hrs

GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Guyana jumps up on ‘Ease of Doing Business” chart GUYANA has jumped some 16 places up the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ chart, moving from 140 last year to 124 this year, a report by the Bank stated.

The country however dropped points in the ‘starting up a new business in Guyana’ category with the Bank ranking Guyana 99

when it comes to starting up a new business, which represents a downward move from last year’s ranking of 86.

Meanwhile, according to a statement by the Bank, a record 137 economies around the world have adopted key reforms that make it easier to start and operate small and medium-sized businesses.

The Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All, the World Bank Group’s annual report on the ease of doing business. The new report finds that developing countries carried out more than 75 percent of the 283 reforms in the past year, with Sub-Saharan Africa accounting for over one-quarter of all reforms.

In its global country rankings of business efficiency, Doing Business 2017 awarded its coveted top spot to New Zealand, Singapore ranks second, followed by Denmark; Hong Kong SAR, China; Republic of Korea; Norway; United Kingdom; United States; Sweden; and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The

world’s top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken, are Brunei Darussalam; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Belarus; Indonesia; Serbia; Georgia; Pakistan; United Arab Emirates (UAE); and Bahrain.

The report cites research that demonstrates that better performance in Doing Business is, on average, associated with lower levels of income inequality, thereby reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. “Simple rules that are easy to follow are a sign that a government treats its citizens with respect. They yield direct economic benefits – more entrepreneurship; more market opportunities for women; more adherence to the rule of law,” said Paul Romer, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice-president. “But we should also remember that being treated with respect is something that people value for its own sake and that a government that fails to treat its citizens this way will lose its ability to lead.”

Doing Business data points to continued successes in the ease of doing business worldwide, as governments increasingly take up key business reforms. Starting a new business now takes an average of 21 days worldwide, compared with 46 days 10 years ago. Paying taxes in the Philippines involved 48 payments 10 years ago, compared to 28 now and in Rwanda, the time to register a property transfer has dropped from 370 days a decade ago to 12 days now. This year’s Doing Business adds gender measures to three indicators - Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts - finding disparities in 38 economies. Of these, 23 economies impose more steps for married women than men to start a business. Sixteen limit women’s ability to own, use and transfer property.

Doing Business finds that, in these economies, fewer women work in the private sector, both as employers and employees.

The report also features expansions to the Paying Taxes indicator, to cover post-filing processes, such as tax refunds, tax audits and administrative tax appeals, to better understand the overall tax environment. Since 2004, when Doing Business started, a total of 443 reforms have been recorded under the Paying Taxes indicator, the second highest number of reforms, with 46 reforms

implemented in the past year.

However, easing the requirements for Starting a Business is, by far, the most common area for reform, with almost 600 reforms recorded since 2004. Of these, 49 reforms were introduced during the past year. “Government policy plays a huge role in the daily operations of domestic small and medium-sized firms and onerous regulation can divert the energies of entrepreneurs away from developing their businesses or innovating. This is why we collect the Doing Business data, to encourage regulation that is designed to be smart, efficient, accessible, and simple,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group, which produces the report.

This year’s Doing Business report includes a pilot indicator on public procurement regulations. The report studies procurement in 78 economies across five main areas: accessibility and transparency, bid security, payment delays, incentives for small and medium enterprises and complaints mechanisms. Public procurement represents, on average, 10 to 25 percent of an economy’s GDP, making the procurement market a unique pool of business opportunities for the private sector.

The report states that business-reform activity accelerated in Latin America and the Caribbean with over two-thirds of the region’s economies implementing a total of 32 reforms in the past year, compared with 24 reforms the previous year. The bulk of the reforms were aimed at improving tax payment systems, facilitating cross-border trade and starting a new business, with Brazil implementing the most reforms in the past year. “The overarching goal of Doing Business is to enable entrepreneurship, for women and men, particularly in low and middle- income countries.

That governments around the world are taking up the challenge of improving the business climate, to enable job-creation, is worth celebrating and we look forward to continue recording the successes we have seen this past year in the years to come,” said Rita Ramalho, Manager of the Doing Business project.

GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday, October 27, 2016

Guyana hosts first Hackathon next Friday

By Shauna Jemmott

WITH the aim of advancing the speed of business and national development, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications has launched its first Hackathon and is inviting applications from groups of

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) software developers to compete for some $750,000 in cash awards.

Groups of persons are invited to apply to participate in ‘HACKATHON 2016,’ which will be held under the theme “Code Til’ Yuh

Drop” at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre for 24 hours, beginning at noon on November 4.

The first-prize winners will take away $300,000, while second and third-prize winners will carry $200,000 and $150,000 respectively.

At the launch of the

Hackathon at Colgrain House on Wednesday, Minister of Public Telecommunications Cathy Hughes told reporters that the event offers an opportunity to software product developers to own and market their own products and develop their skills.

Hackathon, Hughes ex-

plained, is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) marathon for software developers According to the Wikipedia online dictionary, “a Hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) is a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, and others, often including subject-matter experts, collaborate intensively on software projects.”

Hackathons typically last between a day and a week and some are intended for educational or social purposes, even though the goal is mainly to create usable software.

Minister Hughes said the Ministry of Public Telecommunications seeks the first Hackathon event here at a major level to encourage technological solutions for positive developments.

The ICT marathon invites participation of software developers, computer programmers, graphic designers and other creative people, both novices and experts, to collaborate and explore with creativity, inventing a variety of programmes and applications, the minister said.

The possibilities are endless as to what can be the result of conceptions in the minds of folk, even as external groups and individuals from Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago have expressed interest in participating.

“There are very few limits to what can be achieved when groups of people, especially small groups, turn their minds in the same direction and create fantastic things … perhaps to write flexible computer programmes, or find ways to improve existing services, public and otherwise,” Hughes told the press.

The ministry has used this as a launch-path to its future collaboration with the Ministry of Education to offer training in ICT in schools and rural centres throughout the country. “… we still have to conduct training and knowl-

edge-based sessions, especially for the managing committees of the rural community centres where we have installed computers and wireless equipment for the use of everyone there,” Hughes said.

She said while Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, many Guyanese are still to be taught to use modern devices which are readily available.

“We in Guyana have a bigger purpose. We have a whole nation of people of different generations to teach how to use the modern devices that they now have at their disposal… We don’t have to convince Guyanese that they would do better with modern technologies. They already know it …. Our people – the young and not so young -can learn and earn, establish new businesses, create linkages in and out of Guyana and ultimately contribute to the drive to digitise this nation,” Hughes said.

She said the ministry plans to help create more avenues for new jobs by staging about three more hackathons next year, as it plans to continue to encourage those with technological skills to innovate and create specific programmes that will make reality tele-medicine, or e-health, and training aids for e-learning.

Meanwhile, Ministerial Advisor on ICT Lance Hinds described the event as a tournament where developers, programmers, database designers come together as teams and compete to develop particular products.

Hinds said participants will know what products they are expected to develop an hour before the project starts and a panel of expert judges will be on scene to make final decisions.

“They have 48 hours to do it. It will be 48 hours of non-stop work… There must be at least two persons… The work could be done only at the convention centre,” Hinds stated.

Application information is available on the ministry’s Facebook page and deadline for applications is October 28.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

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By Vaness e it a w h Brait

Young Linden farmer encourages -Quit liming, start planting other youths MANY WOULD expect a 23 year old male to use his leisure time relaxing with friends on the street corner trying to get the attention of every passing female or playing his favourite sport on the community’s ball field.

With an employment rate of over 70% in Linden, most youths are taken up in activities far from constructive, blaming the lack of job opportunities for this unfortunate social phenomenon.

Christopher John, a 23 year old farmer of West Watooka Linden, begs to differ. This young man rubbishes the fact that youths place all the blame on the Government and regional officials for not providing enough jobs for them so that they can be meaningfully employed. He confidently said that there are plenty of opportunities for a youth to earn and those opportunities lie in the crust of the earth. John said that with so many farm lands available in Linden, no youth should be categorized as unemployed.

For those who may not be academically or vocationally inclined to secure them an office job, there is always the option of farming which does not require any qualification but allows you to make a decent earning.

“It’s all about not being lazy and it’s only the lazy ones

Christopher John West, Watooka young farmer would complain, I started planting six years ago and now I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” he said. John said that he was not going to settle as just another statistic on the unemployment list but became self-employed and believes that all other unemployed youths should follow his footsteps.

For Christopher his day begins very early as he has over 100 acres of fruits and vegetables to take care of.

After doing that, he then sells produce wholesale to retail vendors before setting up his own retail stall at the junction of West Watooka.

“As a farmer you have to plan ahead so when you

wake up, you already know what you have to do or what you left off from the day before and continue on that….. because the cash crops you have to be on it every day to maintain them, all like pak choi you does got to be on it since like 5 in the morning,” he revealed.

Though the majority of

vendors in Linden purchase from farmers out of the region who come to Linden by truck loads to sell their produce, Christopher said that he is not afraid of the competition as he is away from the rush.

He has already earned the trust of many customers who would journey from Amelia’s Ward to purchase his produce

because they are organic. He said that he will not switch from planting 100% organic even though it requires more time and more land. “When you planting organic you cannot use back the land.

You have to find virgin land all the time. I plant organic because I use only organic so I want to give my customers what I eat,” he affirmed.

John said that though he does not depend on the government for anything, he would suggest that they provide more equipment, seeds and training for young people who are interested in farming. “The most challenging thing is getting the seeds because there are expensive, so we need more recent seeds that we guaranteed will burst out.” In addition to the seeds, John said that the layers manure is also expensive as that is the only manure he uses to support his organic farming.

Despite these challenges, this young farmer is determined to continue plowing the land as he receives the fruits of his labour in full. “I wouldn’t give it up for anything, farming pays more than any Government work right now and I would encourage any young generation in Linden to get some land and farm and stop complaining that work not there”.

Beauty of the Week

Beauty and Brains THIS AFRICAN Queen who proudly flaunts her radiant skin which is complemented by her attractive eyes and captivating smile is none other than Reycia Nedd - a character to love and admire. This

born Lindener is not only beautiful but enthusiastic and intelligent. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies, Reycia is now Manager of the National Communications Network Linden

Branch.

Being the selfless individual she is, she is extremely passionate on voluntarism and displays this in many ways. She is currently a member of the Linden’s Lion Club

and Girl Power. Being the sassy, fun and spontaneous individual that makes her so lovable, Reycia’s favourite quote describes her personality to the fullest - Life is short, so break the rules.

Reycia Nedd

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

Blind MHS student gifted with audio recorder

TWO WEEKS after the Guyana Chronicle reported on the challenges faced by 12- year-old visually impaired student Roell Sumner and his brother Relon who both attend the Mackenzie High School, Roell was gifted with an audio recorder donated by a U.S.based Guyanese on Tuesday.

The recorder was presented to the youth by Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland who also made pleas for help for the differently abled children on social media.

Roell who gained 465 marks at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) is now a Form One student at the top high school in Linden but according to his mother Ronella Jarvis, the boy no longer benefiting from school as no system was in place to deal with his disability.

She described the situation as frustrating as her sons are “simply passing through school.” Jarvis said that her eldest son who is Form 4 Arts previously has a recorder but it was not as effective since most of the teachers did not use it. She is hoping that this is not the same with Roell as both boys are naturally intelligent but are being sidelined because of their disability.

The boys made it through their primary education be-

Visually impaired student Roll Sumner receiving the audio recorder from Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland. Giving support is visually impaired teacher from Wismar-Hill Primary School Shellin Saving cause there is an established visually impaired unit at the Wismar Hill Primary with specialized teachers. The distraught mother is calling on the Government to provide a similar unit for high school

children so that they too can get a fair chance at education similar to those in Georgetown who are successful at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC).

Ronella said that she engaged

several Regional Officials and Government Officials on the matter but all she receives are promises and nothing else.

She already has to deal with the challenges of parenting two differently abled chil-

dren and four other children at home and should not be stressing over their education as well.

For Ronella the challenges started when the eldest child was six and the older

one was four. She exhausted all energies and funds on doctors trying to understand how both her sons have become blind. “When we take him to Dr. McDonald, that is when we were told that they have this congenital toxoplasmosis,” she revealed.

Congenital toxoplasmosis is a group of symptoms that occur when an unborn baby (fetus) is infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The infection can be passed to a developing baby if the mother becomes infected while pregnant.

The infection spreads to the developing baby across the placenta. Most of the time, the infection is mild in the mother.

The woman may not be aware she has the parasite.

However, infection of the developing baby can cause serious problems. Problems are worse if the infection occurs in early pregnancy. Ronella said that when she tested for the disease it showed a small percentage in her blood that may have been passed on to the children through pregnancy.

At this time she is happy to gain closure and try to give her children all the support she can give. She will continue to fight for them to get the education they deserve.

Linden author and poet launches fourth book

RENOWNED Guyanese author and poet Leon Labastide who hails from the mining town of Linden is on the verge of rapping up his fourth book with a release date set for February 4, 2017. The book titled: ‘Pink Cover; Things are important,’ has its entire chapter three dedicated to Guyana. The hallmark of the chapter is a poem entitled ‘Moving Forward,’ which aims at encouraging citizens of Guyana to look past the hate, suffering and negativities that plagued the nation for decades and to rise up and unite to create a new Guyana in recognition of the jubilee year.

“The Golden Jubilee was far more than a spectacle.

It was historical. It uplifted culture, giving us millennial, a sense of pride for our country. It was so much more than a celebration.

It was a unification of all peoples from within every

region, coming together for the greater good to celebrate the moving forward after 50 years.

“As a community as well as a country, there is urgent need to look past 2016. We have to look and think futuristic. It’s all about the next step, the next journey, the next conversation between countries and civilians. It’s about uniting, to keep and maintain the rhetoric of the 50th anniversary,” quoted the poem.

Labastide also hailed the new Government for the progress made thus far and encouraged the populace to support this new body of leaders for the development of Guyana.

In addition to being a poet and spoken word artist, this renowned writer has also published three books; Breath of Life Poetry, Here Comes the Dreamers: the Journey, and Transparency.

These publications were completed within the span

Leon Labastide of 5 years as Leon’s passion for art is indeed spectacular.

He has mesmerized hundreds of audiences during his career with his inspirational prose, insightful short stories and authentic life experiences. Many have experienced his natural talent of story-telling at poetry events, church services, college campuses,

motivational conferences, and book tours in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Curaçao and in his homeland Guyana.

Last year Labastide launched his three books while on tour at the National Library in Georgetown and the Linden Library as a way of giving back to his

homeland. He is anticipating the commencement of creative writing workshops with young Lindeners so that those who possess the talent to write can perfect their skills since he was motivated by his teachers in High School who prioritized on creating writing.

“I started writing from the age of 15… just writing my thoughts down then I started to take classes to get my skills going, writing workshops, college courses and slowly I started writing poetry and my books came right after,” he shared.

Currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, Labastide strives to spread words of wisdom to many nations around the world using this God given talent to motivate his emerging generations to speak out. He is currently the CEO of SpokenWordAndCoffee organization: The organization’s tagline is “It’s bigger than poetry, it’s bigger than you and me, it’sPoVe-

try.)

PoVentry is the combination of poetry and poverty. “Poverty is what has been plaguing my generation for so many years. This catchy phrase has people asking questions like, how do we get involved…. PoVetry is a unique sound mix with a unique opportunity for young-minded individuals to get involved and provoke the change we all wish to see.”

Labastide has overcome several hurdles and challenges to attain his goal and advises the youths not to stop believing in themselves “One of the things I struggled with was people telling me no. If you have a talent or gift that you want to pursue, don’t be afraid to pursue it because I’ve done it - wrote three books and almost finished with the fourth, travelling the world and doing it and people said I couldn’t,” articulated Labastide.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

Linden’s craftsman says business is slow but sure MAKING and selling craft items from ship rope and materials from the coconut tree for over 35 years have become not only a means of earning but a way of life for Ivan Sancho, a 53- year-old Rastafarian of West Watooka, Linden.

Sancho, who calls himself the ‘Original Craftsman of Linden,’ has transformed his entire home into a craft workshop where he toils day and night on his products.

These include mats, hanging baskets, calabash and coconut shell works, ornaments and pointer brooms.

Sancho who is originally from New Amsterdam lives with his four-year old grandson in West Watooka where he practices his skill in addition to doing subsistence farming. He describes himself as a private person who ‘minds his business.’

The Rastafarian said that the genesis of doing craft began over three decades ago when he joined the Rastafarian religion and since he had no formal training or practice, he knew it was a gift from God. After perfecting his skill, Sancho decided to sell his products and it is now his primary means of earning.

He says that he sells his craft so that he can get money to buy fertilizers, seeds, manure and other necessities to plant the crops to provide for his

Ivan Sancho - ‘Original Craftsman’ family.

“Without me doing this I can’t get to farm. When I sell the stuff I buy back things to get to farm.”

Being a vegetarian for most of his life, Sancho says that he farms his own food so

that he is confident that he is eating fresh organic produce as he needs to stay healthy to make the items.

“I plait in the day and stitch in the night but I mostly work after hours. I does deh pun it all the time even

if sales not coming is something within me that I can’t stop,” the craftsman revealed.

He journeys to Georgetown regularly as there is where he sources his ship rope from. ‘First we used to use the rice bag but after

the rice bag start get scarce, I started using the ship rope because I use to work on the ship as a small boy so when I go rope always there for me.”

With the advantage of getting the material free,

Sancho said that he takes his time to craft quality items which serve his customers a long time. This may be a disadvantage because the demand is sometime very low.

“For now I have no market but I does still deh on it, if they get exhibitions and so I would go out and get sales but what mostly sell is the pointer brooms and the mats,” he revealed.

Being a private person, he prefers not to have a permanent shop in the market arena but believes that the government agencies and the corporate community should support local craftsmen as products made in other countries do not last long. In addition, Sancho believes that if tourism is boosted in Linden, his sales will increase as tourists are more interested in locally-made products.

Sancho concluded that though business may not be booming, he will not give up the craft and it allows him to live and pay the bills. “All like the other day the water girl tackle me for the bill. I sell couple broom and get to pay me bill. Sometimes I would go out and get a little painting work and so.”

Sancho is hoping to live a long life filled with strength to continue crafting so that for a long time he will enjoy the title - ‘Original Craftsman.’

Linden Hospital gets resident psychiatric doctor A PSYCHIATRIC doctor has commenced services at the Linden Hospital Complex though the facility has not yet been furnished like a psychiatric doctor’s office with clinic and ward. The Cuban psychiatrist, Sandra Gilart Aranguren has been a specialist since 2012 but started serving in Guyana in April, 2016. Given the urgent need for a resident doctor in Linden as a result of the increase in mental health cases, Aranguren willingly took a transfer to the mining town to serve the patients who were only receiving monthly attention from a team of visiting doctors.

Now that she is permanently attached to the hospital, clinic has been increased to once a week but the specialist is hoping for a change since for one session she attends to more than 40 patients, some suffering from severe mental health problems. She hopes to hold clinics more than once a week to deal with different age groups on different days.

“For example yesterday at my clinic I had to attend to more than 40 patients, two of them being children ages 4 and 7.

Given this situation, Dr. Aranguren is hoping that the psychiatric ward will soon be established as the hospital is in dire need of same.

Dr. Sandra Gilart Aranguren

“That is why I need my own ward and my own staff for these patients because not everyone can deal with these patients.” She also said that there was not an adequate supply of a variety of psychiatric drugs to treat patients. She hopes that this changes soon. * Public Relations Officer of the Linden Hospital Complex Shanteal Alleyne affirmed that the hospital should see such an establishment before January and Dr. Aranguren should have her own office and clinic days will increase from weekly to three times per week.

When asked why she chose this specialty, Dr. Aranguren revealed that she felt

a connection with persons suffering from mental health especially those experiencing discrimination. “Since when Iwas a student, I felt some kind of rare connection with them because these people need someone to care of them. For the most part many persons don’t want to deal with them, even family, so I felt this field was good for me, to help the patients,” she said.

After hearing of the need for psychiatric doctors in Guyana, she selflessly left her home and family to come to Guyana, then later to Linden. She said that she will be in the mining town for as long as she is needed.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

Expert committee to review bauxite sector …advise gov’t on feasibility of alumina plant

GOVERNMENT has announced the setting up of an “expert bauxite sectoral review commission’ to assess the industry and offers recommendations for the feasibility of an alumina plant.

This announcement was made on Wednesday when Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman delivered the

feature address at a symposium held by the Bauxite Century Committee. The symposium was held at the Linmine Constabulary Hall, Linden. Speaking at the event Trotman said the committee was expected to commence work in November 2016 and conclude by February, 2017. “Collectively, these individuals represent decades

of combined management, and leadership expertise in Guyana’s bauxite operations,” he said. Lance Carberry and Sylvester Carmichael will headline the review and will be supported in their work by representatives of the Regional Administration of Region 10 – Upper Demerara-Berbice, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers

Union (GBGWU), and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC). “Given the national significance of this exercise the Government will once again be inviting the Opposition to participate, and is hopeful that, on this occasion our entreaties will not be rebuffed,” Trotman said.

According to the minister the Committee will make recommendations for regulatory and other changes to enhance the GGMC’s operations vis-à-vis bauxite exploration and production, and revisit the age-old question about the feasibility of an alumina refinery.

LANDMARK Meanwhile, Trotman said the year 2016 signifies an iconic landmark in the still-unfolding story of bauxite mining in Guyana as we proudly celebrate 100 years of this glorious industry. “This provides an opportunity for all Guyanese to commemorate a century of rich history that is marked by numerous accomplishments, continuous expansions and notable challenges. Bauxite production in Guyana is one of the leading mineral sub-sectors, and accounts for a significant part of the GDP generated from exports of the mineral. It is safe to say that the mining of bauxite has been one of a very few indelible influences that have shaped the way we think, behave and live as a people.”

Trotman said thanks in large measure to bauxite mining, Guyanese have been imbued with a sense of pride that couples, and equals, “our keen determination and sense of capability. Indeed, it is in these hills that previously unaccomplished feats of engineering and strength were achieved and mastered.” He noted that one hundred years after “we began, much of that history is at risk of being lost and too, that sense of pride and prowess has retreated. Government and Opposition, the companies, the unions, and most especially, the workers must all commit - jointly and severally, to keeping that history and ‘can do’ attitude alive.”

The theme of Wednesday’s event was: “Is Bauxite going to be an economic pillar for Guyana for the next centennial?” Trotman said this was very apt and timely. “Research has confirmed that there is an average of 100 more years left in the region’s reserves.

This calculation is positive for residents of Region 10 and all

Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman Guyanese. And now, 2016 has thus far seen an increase in production of bauxite by some 38,000 tonnes as at September 30, in comparison to the same period last year; current total is 1,138,182.80 tonnes. However, for us to continue to benefit from the Bauxite Industry, we must reflect on the successes and failures of the industry and implement measures to transform the industry, utilizing new technologies, and thus increasing production figures and value added products .”

ACHIEVEMENTS Trotman also used the occasion to reflect on a few notable achievements in the evolution of the bauxite industry in Guyana. He noted that early bauxite discoveries of the late ninetieth and early twentieth centuries, led to the official commencement of bauxite mining in 1916 at the “Three Friends” Mine, Upper Demerara - Berbice. Bright prospects, he said led to the construction of long term infrastructure in the form of a bauxite processing plant at Mackenzie and a 9 mile long railway and steam-driven locomotive system. Operations were widened to forty miles south of Mackenzie to the Ituni area. “This expansion, coupled with the demand for Aluminum driven by World War II, led to record production. Another defining moment in the history of the sector was the construction of the Alumina refinery in 1961. The sector has transitioned from being nationalised to being completely privatized between the 1970s to early 2000s and to what and where it is today.”

The minister said the bauxite industry here has benefited from more than US one hundred and eighty million dollars

(US$ 180 million) in Capital Investment between 2005 2014: Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. capital investment (2005 – 2014) was US$ 92 million, Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc. capital investment (2005 – 2014) was US $ 88 Million. In terms of job creation, more than one thousand persons are directly employed by the two (2) operating bauxite Companies: Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc. directly employs 545 persons while the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. directly employs 524 persons. The Government of Guyana is pleased to see that the two Bauxite operators have announced a move to grant its employee’s tax-free overtime which was a burning issue that the companies tried to settle for a long time and workers were expected to take strike action. Indirect employment offered by the bauxite companies would include the many contractors providing a wide range of services to the bauxite companies.

Meanwhile, he said First Bauxite Corporation, a Canadian Company was granted a 50 year land lease through its local subsidiary- Guyana Industrial Minerals Inc. and they have completed and submitted a Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the Bonasika, Proppant Project in Essequibo.

If approved, it would be Guyana’s third Bauxite Mine in operation.

“The sector has been instrumental in the development of Guyana’s economy and has supported livelihoods and capacity building in addition to numerous other achievements.

However, world market prices coupled with other externalities have affected trade and the industry is in need of creativity and innovation to improve efficiencies and competitiveness. It is against this background that the Ministry of Natural Resources will, in keeping with a Manifesto commitment, review the sector by Commissioning a “high level technical team to develop plans, including, in the first instance, the commissioning of a feasibility study for mine development and the construction of an international scale alumina refinery in Linden, as part of the strategy to forward integrate the bauxite industry while transforming the economy of Region 10.”

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

Kuznetsova edges Pliskova to Antigua & Barbuda, reach WTA semis in Singapore Bermuda advance in

Caribbean Under-20

By John O’Brien

SINGAPORE,(Reuters)-Svetlana Kuznetsova claimed her second titanic victory in a row when the Russian outlasted Karolina Pliskova 3-6 6-2 7-6(6) in a thrilling White Group encounter at the WTA Finals to reach the semi-finals yesterday.

In the second pool match, Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska got her title defence back on track with an accomplished 7-6(1) 6-3 victory over French Open champion Garbine Muguruza, a result that eliminated the Spaniard.

After battling toe-to-toe for two hours and 17 minutes, Kuznetsova collapsed in a heap on the court after sealing victory on her fourth match point with a backhand winner down the line to finally break the Czech’s resistance.

“With all the support of the crowd and my team, I couldn’t afford to let myself and everybody down so I had to fight,” twice grand slam winner Kuznetsova said.

“I haven’t been at my

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Radwanska and Pliskova meet on Friday with the winner advancing along with Kuznetsova to the semis. kova took full advantage

best in recent years but something changed this year... I enjoy my game, I enjoy the crowd and I feel blessed to be playing the best players in the world.”

Kuznetsova was the final qualifier for the elite eight-woman event when she successfully defended her

Kremlin Cup title on Saturday and the world number nine has shown incredible staying power to first outlast Radwanska on Monday and now Pliskova.

The victory had put Kuznetsova on the verge of sealing a semi-final spot at the year-end championships for the first time in six attempts and her berth was assured when Radwanska beat Muguruza in the late match.

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to forge another break of serve in the first game of the second set but the Russian found her rhythm as her opponent wavered to stage an impressive fightback.

The 31-year-old Russian broke back immediately to prevent Pliskova from running away with the contest and then reeled off five of the next six games to send the match into a decider.

Wi t h b o t h p l a y e r s emerging from three-setters on Monday the fatigue finally kicked in and neither was capable of holding serve, so after combining for eight breaks in the set, it was only fitting the match would be decided in a tiebreak.

Service woes also littered the match between Radwanska and Muguruza with three breaks apiece sending it into a tiebreak which Poland’s world number three sealed with a spectacular backhand winner as she captured the last six points in a row.

Radwanska shrugged off an early break in the second set to overwhelm Muguruza with exceptional shot-making and brilliant service returns, closing out the 96-minute contest on her first match point with her sixth break of the match.

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao: Antigua & Barbuda (2W-1D0L, 7 points) captured the Group A crown in the Caribbean under-20 qualifying football finals, holding on for 3-2 win over Bermuda (1-1-1, 4) on Tuesday at the Stadion Ergilio Hato.

With the result, the Benna Boys earned a place in the regional semifinals and a berth in the 2017 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship. Despite the loss, the Bermudians did the same on the goal difference tiebreaker (+1 to 0) with St. Kitts & Nevis (1-1-1, 4), which defeated Curacao (0-1-2, 1), 3-1. St. Kitts can still progress to the CONCACAF event as the team with the best third-place record.

Mohammad Hakeem (1’, 11’) led the way for Antigua against Bermuda, striking for the game’s first two goals within the opening 11 minutes. Javorn Stevens (40’) made it 3-0 five minutes before halftime, striking in a third consecutive finals outing.

Bermuda’s second-half comeback bid saw Mazhye Burchall (53’, 86’) net twice, but it wasn’t enough to alter the outcome.

Both sides completed the game with 10 players as Knory Scott (56’) and Denie Henry (59’) were ejected for Bermuda and Antigua, respectively.

In the nightcap, St. Kitts & Nevis officially eliminated host Curacao.

After Javier Sutton (23’) put the visitor ahead 1-0 at the midway point of the first half, Jeremy Cijntje (42’) leveled just three minutes before the break. Delano Hodge (67’) and Dakarai Phipps (76’) notched second-goals to propel the Sugar Boyz to victory.

The tournament resumed yesterday with the last two Group B matches. Cuba and St. Lucia will meet in the opener, followed by an encounter between already-qualified Haiti and Trinidad & Tobago.

The competition, which runs through October 30, will qualify the top five finishers to the next CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, which will be played in Costa Rica from February 17-March 5, 2017. The 12-team field also includes the host nation; Central American qualifiers El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as automatic North American entrants Canada, Mexico and the United States.

STAG on board with Guyana Softball Cup sixth edition

ANSA McAl, through its STAG beer brand has come on board with the sixth edition of the Guyana Floodlight Softball Cricket Association (GFSCA) for the Guyana softball Cup, set for November 4-6.

During a brief ceremony yesterday at the company’s Beterverwagting office, Brand Co-ordinator Lindon Henry contended that the company is happy to be on board for its third year.

Vice-president Jilall Deodass took the time out to thank the company.

“There are about 24 participating teams from countries such as Canada,the United States of America (New York, Florida) as well as Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara. So it’s a big international tournament, ” he said.

Meanwhile, President Ramchand Ragbeer contended that the competition will feature major giveaways for fans attending the event, including four trips for a pair of persons each.

As has been the case in the previous five editions of the competition, the ‘finals day’ will be the showpiece with a grand day of softball cricket and family entertainment, starting at 11:00hrs and concluding under floodlights, at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground, Queenstown.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

Kiwis defend 260 to square ODI series

(REUTERS)-New Zealand beat India by 19 runs in the fourth one-day international to level the five-match series at 2-2 as the hosts suffered a mid-innings collapse at Ranchi yesterday.

Chasing 261 for a series clinching win, India were all out for 241 with eight balls to spare.

Opener Ajinkya Rahane’s fluent 57 put India on course for the chase and the right-handed batsman added 79 for the second wicket with the in-form Virat Kohli (45).

India looked firmly in the driver’s seat when Rahane and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (11) were batting but then they lost five wickets for just 39 runs which put paid to their hopes of bagging the series with a match to spare.

Seamer James Neesham dismissed Rahane and Dhoni in successive overs and paceman Tim Southee (3-40) picked up two wickets in consecutive deliveries as India were reduced from 128-2 to 167-7 in the space of a few overs.

Axar Patel (38) and Amit Mishra (14) added 38 for the

flick by Dhoni, also fell in the space of an over to rob the momentum off New Zealand’s innings.

The two teams will now travel to Visakhapatnam for the series decider on Saturday.

SCOREBOARD

Skipper Kane Williamson and James Neesham celebrate New Zealand’s series-levelling win in Ranchi. eighth wicket while tailenders Dhawal Kulkarni (25 not out) and Umesh Yadav added 34 for the last wicket to take India close but their efforts were not enough.

Earlier, openers Martin Guptill (72) and Tom Latham (39) gave New Zealand a brisk start after the visiting captain Kane Williamson won the toss and opted to bat on a slow surface.

The duo added 80 in the first 10 overs of fielding restrictions but Dhoni then brought on his spinners to restrict the flow of runs.

Guptill and Latham added another 16 for their opening stand before the latter fell to left-arm spinner Patel midway through the 16th over.

Mishra made a diving effort but could not hold on to a chance from Guptill on 29 and

the batsman had another life on 62 when the same fielder misjudged a chance in the deep and let the ball narrowly go over his head for a boundary.

Leg-spinner Mishra made amends by dismissing the dangerous Williamson (41) and Neesham in quick succession. BJ Watling, who replaced Luke Ronchi behind the stumps, and Ross Taylor (35), who was run out by a superb back-handed

NEW ZEALAND Innings M. Guptill c Dhoni b H. Pandya

72 T. Latham c Rahane b A. Patel

39 K. Williamson c Dhoni b Mishra

41 R. Taylor run out (Kulkarni, Dhoni) 35 J. Neesham c Kohli b Mishra 6 B. Watling c Ro. Sharma b Kulkarni 14 A. Devcich c H. Pandya b U. Yadav 11 M. Santner not out 17 T. Southee not out 9 Extras (lb-3 w-13) 16 Total (for 7 wickets, 50 overs) 260 F a l l o f w i c k e t s : 1 - 9 6 T. Latham,2-138 M. Guptill,3-184 K. Williamson,4-192 J. Neesham,5-217 B. Watling,6-223 R. Taylor,7-242 A. Devcich Did not bat: T. Boult, I. Sodhi Bowling: U. Yadav 10 - 1 - 60 1(w-3), D. Kulkarni 7 - 0 - 59 - 1(w-1), H. Pandya 5 - 0 - 31 - 1(w-8), A. Mishra 10 - 0 - 42 - 2(w-1),A. Patel 10 - 0 - 38 – 1, K. Jadhav 8 - 0 - 27 – 0.

INDIA Innings A. Rahane lbw b Neesham 57 Ro. Sharma c Watling

b Southee

11 V. Kohli c Watling b Sodhi 45 M. Dhoni b Neesham 11 A. Patel b Boult 38 M. Pandey c Latham b Southee

12 K. Jadhav lbw b Southee 0 H. Pandya c Latham b Santner

9 A. Mishra run out (Santner, Watling) 14 D. Kulkarni not out 25 U. Yadav c Taylor b Boult 7 Extras (lb-3 w-9) 12 Total (all out, 48.4 overs) 241 Fall of wickets: 1-19 Ro. Sharma,2-98 V. Kohli,3-128 A. Rahane,4-135 M. Dhoni,5-154 M. Pandey,6-154 K. Jadhav,7-167 H. Pandya,8-205 A. Mishra,9-207 A. Patel,10-241 U. Yadav Bowling: T. Southee 9 - 0 - 40 - 3 T. Boult 9.4 - 1 - 48 - 2(w-2) J. Neesham 6 - 0 - 38 - 2(w-2) M. Santner 10 - 0 - 38 - 1(w-1) I. Sodhi 10 - 1 - 52 - 1 A. Devcich 4 - 0 - 22 - 0(w-3) Referees Umpire: Anil Chaudhary Umpire: Bruce Oxenford TV umpire: CK Nandan Match referee: Richie Richardson

Warriors get wake-up call as Durant era opens with a thud (REUTERS)-When Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors many felt a championship was a mere formality, but a humbling season-opening loss has sent a sudden wakeup call to one of the NBA’s most talented teams of all time.

Durant had a team-high 27 points in his much anticipated Warriors debut on Tuesday but Golden State stumbled to a 129-100 blowout loss to the visiting San Antonio Spurs that prompted many in the sellout crowd to head for the exits early.

“It’s a slap in the face. It woke us up a bit, and we’re looking forward to getting

Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) shoots the basketball against San Antonio Spurs center Pau Gasol (16) and guard Tony Parker (9) during the first quarter at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY

better,” four-time scoring champion Durant told reporters.

Durant was one of the most sought-after free agents in years and his decision to join the Warriors in July formed one of the most impressive collections of talent the NBA has seen.

But it was not the start anyone could have imagined, especially for a Warriors team that opened last season with a stellar 24-0 run en route to a record-setting 73-9 campaign. That run also saw them win their first 36 home games.

“It’s a nice little slap in the face,” two-time reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen

Curry said.

“First game you want to come out and protect your home court and have the energy of the home opener live throughout the game. We didn’t do anything to let that happen.”

While the season-opening loss will not define the Warriors’ campaign, it was enough to showcase some areas they will need to address if they are to live up to the lofty expectations heaped upon them.

But while the Spurs, no slouch of a team having finished with the league’s second-best record last season, took advantage of the Warriors’ weak defense, rebounding, turnovers and bench produc-

tion, even they were somewhat stunned by the result.

“If there was an outcome I wasn’t expecting, it was this one,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. “A 29-point lead against a team like them? I truly didn’t expect it.”

The Warriors, whose bid to repeat as NBA champions fell one game short after they squandered a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers in June, will try to regroup in time for Friday’s game at the New Orleans Pelicans.

“What we can’t do is let these games pile up,” said Durant. “We can’t panic. It’s Game 1 of 82.”

Bayliss backs Stokes to join greats (REUTERS)-England’s Ben Stokes could mature into one of the greatest ever all-rounders, coach Trevor Bayliss said after the 25-year-old’s match-winning performance in the opening Test against Bangladesh.

Stokes was man-of-thematch in England’s thrilling 22-run victory in Chittagong, taking six wickets, including two in three balls to seal victory on the final day.

He also scored a vital 85

with the bat in the second innings after England’s top order had collapsed on day three.

“He could be right up there with some of the alltime best all-rounders,” Bayliss told reporters in Dhaka ahead of the second Test starting tomorrow.

“He’s young into his career and that’s going to be easier to judge the longer he goes. Only time will tell.

“But the strides he’s made on the subcontinent

playing spin have been top class.”

England captain Alastair Cook said after Chittagong that Stokes brought ‘X factor’ to the side and put the all-rounder’s improvement down to his work playing spin.

Bayliss agreed.

“It wasn’t all that long ago we were wondering how he might go on spin-friendly wickets, but he’s a guy that works extremely hard in the nets,” the 53-year-old Aus-

tralian said. “It’s his defence to spin that has improved out of sight.

“We know that if he gets a bad ball he can hit anything over the fence, but you’ve got to be there to get that loose ball. In the past he probably hasn’t had a lot of footwork, has played from the crease and backed his eye and his hands.

“But as we’ve seen on this tour, in the one-dayers and this test, he’s defended really well off the

front foot, got right out and smothered the ball before it had a chance to spin and jump past the outside edge.”

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid had a more modest performance in Chittagong, managing three wickets on a spin-friendly surface, but Bayliss urged patience with the four-test bowler ahead of a five-match test series in India next month “Look, it’s only been the very, very best

leg-spinners who have got the control and consistency and ability to take wickets,” said Bayliss of the 28-year-old.

“I think Rash is still on a journey there and he’s still improving. He’s getting more and more confident.

“I expect that once upon a time the spinners weren’t thought of as getting to their peak until their early thirties, so he’s still got a bit to learn yet. But I think he’s on the right track.”

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

Mata fires Man United into League Cup quarters

By Toby Davis

LONDON,(Reuters)-Juan Mata swept home to steer Manchester United into the League Cup quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over holders and bitter local rivals Manchester City yesterday as Jose Mourinho got one over old adversary Pep Guardiola.

Mata rifled in a low finish past City keeper Willy Caballero early in the second half at Old Trafford on a night of few chances but plenty of derby fervour as United boss Mourinho won the tactical battle against Guardiola’s much-changed City side.

The result lifted some of the pressure off Mourinho following Sunday’s 4-0 defeat to Chelsea, but for his old sparring partner, Guardiola, it was a sixth successive game without victory, his longest winless streak as a manager.

West Ham United also moved into the last eight after they overcame Chelsea 2-1 in a London derby spoiled by ugly scenes of fan violence at the end of

Manchester United’s Juan Mata scores their first goal Reuters / Darren StaplesLivepic

the game, while Southampton heaped more misery on struggling Sunderland with a 1-0 victory.

Recent results and the gathering pressure on both Mourinho and Guardiola ensured the clash at Old Trafford had all the usual spice of a derby encounter even if City made nine changes to their side against a virtually fullstrength United team.

City should have gone ahead after two minutes, but Kelechi Iheanacho darted in front of his

marker to direct his header hopelessly off target from close range.

United offered little attacking threat, but gained control of possession as the match wore on and were the more dangerous side for most of the encounter.

It took until the start of the second half, however, for them to create a meaningful chance when Paul Pogba’s low shot was turned onto the post

by Caballero, sparking an onslaught from the home side that ended with

Zimbabwe call up uncapped duo for Sri Lanka series

(REUTERSs)-Zimbabwe have called up uncapped seamer Carl Mumba and batsman Tarisai Musakanda for The two-Test home series against Sri Lanka starting in Harare on Saturday.

There is also a recall after five years for seamer Chris Mpofu, while all-rounder Malcolm Waller is back in the squad for the first time since 2014 having recently scored four half-centuries Tendai Chatara’s injury has left Zimbabwe with against a touring Pakistan next to no experience in their bowling attack.

A side.

Mumba and batsman ready scored over 600 runs. an Chari, Michael ChiThe pace duo of Tendai nouya, Graeme Cremer Tarisai Musakanda, who Chatara and Tinashe Pa- (captain), Craig Ervine, also turns 21 this month, have been rewarded for nyangara were not consid- H a m i l t o n M a s a k a d za, Tino Mawoyo, Peter good form in domestic ered due to injury.

Moor, Chris Mpofu, Carl The series will be the cricket.

Mumba has 59 wickets first for new coach Heath Mumba, Tarisai Musakanin 16 first class matches at Streak, who was appointed da, Taurai Muzarabani, Sikandar Raza, Donald an average of less than 18, two weeks ago.

Tiripano, Malcolm Waller, Squad: while Musakanda has played Sean Williams Regis Chakabva, Brifour fewer matches and al-

Mata’s opener on 54 minutes.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic shrugged off a challenge then played the ball back towards Ander Herrera, who went down dramatically in the box but Mata was following up to powerfully steer the ball home.

DERBY KNOCKOUT Then it was just a

case of holding on, which they did comfortably, as Mourinho recorded his fourth victory over Guardiola in a rivalry spanning 18 matches.

The greater satisfaction for the Portuguese, however, seemed to be erasing some of the negativity of Sunday’s thrashing by his former club Chelsea.

“The fans felt deeply such a negative result and today was a good chance to clear that feeling because a derby knockout and to win gives everyone a better feeling,” he said.

West Ham’s woeful start to the season is turning round and the revival continued in the first derby at their new London Stadium home.

Tight security arrangements, including a ban on the sale of alcohol in the vicinity of the Olympic Park, was intended to prevent flashpoints off the pitch, but there were still ugly scenes towards the end as

rival fans clashed behind the goal with several seats being ripped out.

On the pitch, a vibrant West Ham proved too strong for a Chelsea side much-changed from their weekend trouncing of Manchester United.

Cheikhou Kouyate put the Hammers on their way to a third consecutive win with a thumping header from skipper Mark Noble’s driven cross after 11 minutes and Edimilson Fernandes beat Asmir Begovic with a low shot three minutes after the restart.

Gary Cahill did grab a Chelsea consolation in stoppage time but by that time all eyes were on stewards trying to keep rival fans apart.

Southampton’s record signing Sofiane Boufal scored from long range in the second half in their 1-0 victory over Sunderland, a fourth defeat in five games for Sunderland manager David Moyes.

West Demerara Secondary gives back to student athlete ONE of Guyana’s top performers at the Inter Guiana Games (IGG) was yesterday honored for her accomplishments in the games. Joanna Archer, a student of West Demerara Secondary was given a pair of running shoes from her Head Master Harri Narine.

The fifth from Arts student, was part of the Guyana Athletics team which dominated Suriname at the National Track at Leonora over the weekend. She competed in the 800m, 1500m and 4x400m relay, and claimed three gold medals from her efforts.

According to Narine, this was partly the reason he decided to honor the student athlete.

“Over the years Jo-

L-R Harri Narine presents running shoes to Joanna Archer.

Boyce and Jeffords Classic anna has excelled at track winning gold in the 800m, and field events from the 3000m and silver in the time she started school International 1500m.

The young athlete will and running years ago, she also excelled at the IGG be writing 8 subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Edgames,” said Narine.

Archer, a member of the ucation Certificate (CSEC) Guyana Police Force Run- next year and according to ning Club, also won the her “I plan to become an Junior category of the recent Immigration Officer and 10km Road Race. She also continue running under the competed this year at the Police club.”

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

GCB NSSCL 2016...

Dindyal stars again for Diamond Secondary with brilliant 96

TWELVE year- old Mavendra Dindyal of Diamond Secondary starred again with bat and ball to spur his team to victory and book their place in the East Bank Demerara zone final of the 2016 edition of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) National Secondary Schools Cricket League (NSSCL).

In the match played at the GCC ground, the diminutive Dindyal, opening the batting for Diamond followed up his 82 in the first match with a masterful 96 as he helped his team to 184/8 in 30 overs.

Dindyal struck 8 fours and one six while executing some lovely shots to all parts of the ground.He batted with maturity beyond his age until he was run out attempting a second run off the last ball of the innings.

Mark Fredericks was

the only other batsman to offer support with 29.

Bowling for Soesdyke, Leron Crawford had figures of 3/49 while Neeraj Khan took 2/16.

In reply, Soesdyke were dismissed in the 22nd over for 115. Ridge Rajaram top scored with 38 and Leron Crawford made 22. Bowling for Diamond, Anil Singh had 5/14, Phillip McTork took 2/19 and Dindyal returned with his off spin to take 2/20.

In other matches played: At Everest ground , Tu c v i l l e S e c o n d a r y amassed 182/6 in 20 overs.

Godfrey Phillips struck 66 and Leon Chesney made 36. Aaron Glasgow had 2/17 bowling for David Rose Secondary.

David Rose then folded for 49 all out in 12.3 overs with Marlon Bowling doing the damage as he took 3/11.

…Tucville, Lodge, Saraswat and Enterprise record comfortable wins

Mavendra Dindyal of Diamond Secondary prepares to play a late cut during his innings of 96 in which he struck 8 fours and a six At GNIC ground: Lodge Secondary thumped South Ruimveldt Secondary after amassing 207/3 in just 20 overs. Shemar Smith top scored 74 including two fours and eight sixes while Omali Barker made 71 not out hitting 3 fours and 6 maximums.

The hapless South Rui-

mvledt batsmen barely manage 51 runs as they only lasted 10 overs. Bowling for Lodge, Troyston Louzsi took 3/15 and Shemar Smith had 3/6 to complete an excellent all round performance.

Over at the Zeeburg ground , Saraswat made 192 all out in 27.5 overs with

cater for all categories of riders, ranging from the sixyear-olds to the Senior and Veterans.

The youngsters will compete in the BMX Boys 6-9, 9-12 and 12-14, followed the up and coming riders taking the track in the Junior/Juveniles and Mountain Bike races.

This will be followed by rivalry in the Veterans Over and Under-50 categories, which will set the stage for the day’s feature event- the gruelling 35-lap School Boys and Invitational.

Andrew Hicks of Berbice won the main event last year in a time of one hour, 26 minutes, seven seconds, while Nigel Duguid (Juveniles), Ian Jackson (Veterans Under-50), Sean Budhan (Mountain Bikes) and Ronaldo Narine (1214 Boys and Girls) were some of the other category winners.

R e p re s e n t a t i v e s o f Payless Variety Store are expected to assist in the presentation of prizes at the conclusion of the races.

ALL-rounder Rahkeem “Jimbo” Cornwall, is hoping that his recent exploits with the West Indies A team in Sri Lanka is enough to impress senior team selectors.

The National and Leeward Islands cricketer returned from Sri Lanka Monday night, where he finished as the leading wicket taker in the three unofficial Tests.

The spinner bagged a total of 23 wickets for 456 runs at an economic rate of 3.08. He bowled 148 overs.

“Quite comfortable with the bowling performance because as usual, I really came off well with the ball, but I think I need to work a little bit more on the batting and try to balance off the two.

I think the performances are there to show, but that is just not my call really. The selectors are seeing the stats and it’s all up to them to do what they have to do,” Cornwall said.

Mohan Seepersaud making 67 while Kevin Latchoo and Rajesh Rampersaud made 29 and 27 respectively.

Windsor Forest Secondary could only make 60 all out in their reply. Dinesh George and Joshua Reddy took 3/8 and 3/16 respectively.

Meanwhile at the Enterprise ground, Enterprise Secondary racked up 169/3 in 20 overs with Hemnauth Dindyal hitting 67 and Edmond Person scoring 47 not out.

Annandale PIC were then routed for a paltry 25 in 11.1 overs as Yogendra Samarooand and Bryan Sooku had identical figures of 2/2 while Rajendra Niranjan took 2/12.

The NSSCL continues today with Lodge Second-

Himnauth Dindyal hit 67 for Enterprise Secondary ary taking on East Ruimveldt Secondary at the GCC ground in a South Georgetown zone fixture while Annandale Secondary play Bladen Hall at Enterprise. Diamond Secondary will face Friendship Secondary in the East Bank Demerara zone final tomorrow at the Everest ground from 10:00 hrs.

Payless Variety Store Cornwall relishing senior cycling set for Saturday West Indies team call up CYCLING action will return to the inner circuit of the National Park on Saturday, where national coach Hassan Mohamed will stage the fifth annual Payless Variety Store’s 11race programme, starting at 09:00hrs.

As is usually the case with the 11-race programmes for the day’s activities will

Defending champion Andrew Hicks

CRICKET QUIZ CORNER

(Thursday October 27, 2016) COMPLIMENTS OF THE TROPHY STALL-Bourda Market & The City Mall (Tel: 225-9230) & AUDREY’S TASTY SNACKETTE-176 Charlotte Street, Georgetown (Tel: 226-4512)

Answers to yesterday’s quiz: (1) 12 (2) Gordon Greenidge (7558); Clive Lloyd (7515); Desmond Haynes (7487); Chris Gayle (7214) Today’s Quiz: (1) How many Test matches Michael Holding played against Pakistan?

(2) Which two played only one Test each against Pakistan?

Dave Mohammed; Rangie Nanan; Len Baichan; Philo Wallace; Fidel Edwards Answers in tomorrow’s issue

Rahkeem Cornwall was the leading wicket-taker for West Indies A in Sri Lanka

The Liberta Blackhawks player was, however, poor with the bat, making only 30 runs in the three Tests. In the five times he batted, the Antiguan was out lbw [leg before wicket] on four occasions.

“The pitches in Sri Lanka are a little bit slower than the pitches in the Caribbean, but I think it was

just a little technical problem where I probably had my front foot locked up a little bit rather than straight down.

I think I have enough time to work out that before the start of the professional season, so I just have to go back and work hard in the nets,” the player said. (Antigua Observer article).

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GUYANA CHRONICLE Thursday October 27, 2016

Nationals set for November 21 – 25 at Providence Stadium THE annual National Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships is set for November 21 – 25 with the centre of activity once again taking place at the National Stadium, despite talk since last year’s hosting that the event would be moved to the Leonora National Track and Field Centre this year.

According to the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) officials, which hosts the event jointly with the Ministry of Education (MoE), many of the districts are still unable to provide proper footwear for the athletes, because many of the Regional Education Officers (REOs) “did not budget for it” or put any measures whatsoever in place to have the athletes furnished with the appropriate footwear.

This negates the event being staged at the Leonora facility which provides a synthetic track, as it is not advisable for athletes to compete on the rubber surface without footwear.

“We were supposed to be going to the stadium at Leonora, but because most of the districts are not prepared to provide running shoes for the athletes we did not move; we’re hoping that by next year that will happen so that we can utilise that stadium,” a GTU official told Chronicle Sport yesterday.

However, it was only last year organisers said that plans were being put in place to sensitise participating districts on the need for the athletes to have footwear, so that the event could be held in Leonora this year.

Apparently that was to no avail and nothing was done, while the GTU says ‘there’s no money for it at the REOs’ end.

“Every region is responsible for their athletes. We spoke with REOs who are saying that they did not budget for it, not all the REOs, just some of them, so they are saying that it would be difficult for them to source the shoes”, the official further noted.

As such, the highly anticipated track and field segment of the championships will continue to be held at the National Stadium, the swimming will be held at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC), and the cycling will be held almost exclusively at the National Park, instead of being held alongside the track events at the National Stadium.

In the past, the championships, known simply as ‘Nationals’ by most athletes

Some of the athletes decked out at the National Stadium last year and fans, used to be moved around, being held at varying venues across Guyana including Linden and Berbice, but in recent years the event has been centralised in Region Four.

The annual event features athletes from all across Guyana grouped into 16 districts and competing in various age groups ranging from eight and under to the open category.

It is the biggest multi-sport event among schools, and for many athletes from farflung communities it is their only opportunity to participate at events outside of their communities.

Despite the ministry continually touting the need to make sports an integral part of education, to the point where the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport was relegated to being a department within the Ministry of Education, not much effort is being put into the hosting of the schools sports, with many components being left to “last-minute” arrangements.

According to a GTU official, it was only last month that the MoE gave any indication that the planning of the school sports was of any real importance, leaving the event to once again see last-minute organisation, much as was the case last year. This, notwithstanding efforts for the two parties to meet earlier in the year and avoid the embarrassing last-minute organising that would only see the athletes suffering in the end.

“You got to understand the policy in this thing, it’s early September that the ministry calls us in and they start meeting again. Every

year we’re saying alright just after ‘Nationals,’ we’ll meet in December, we’ll meet in January, and you try to get a meeting and no meeting.

Sometimes you plan a date and [on the date] you get a call to say they have to go off to something, they have to reschedule, and sometimes it’s difficult to get a rescheduled date and stuff like that”, the official stated.

The Chief Education Officer (CEO) is reportedly the coordinator for the event at the MoE end. The current CEO (ACTING) is Marcel Raymond Hutson, who could not be contacted, although efforts were made to get a link to him.

The GTU said that plans are also still being mused over staging the Primary schools and Secondary schools’ events separately, so as to have two separate championships; however, like the move to Leonora, that idea also had to be shelved because of the late start in arranging the event.

Nationals set for November 21 – 25 at Providence Stadium (See Story on page 31 )

-Terrence Ali National Open Boxing..

Joint Services ready for fireworks

THE talk among boxing fans is that the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Prison Service are all set to come out with guns blazing this weekend when the Terrence Ali National Open Boxing gets underway.

The three military organisations all have their eyes on grabbing the coveted Champion Gym title and the Prison Service have gone as far as having an `AK 47’ in their corner, leaving fans to believe it will be a Joint Services firearm competition..

National heavyweight champion Jason `AK 47’ Barker will lead the Prison Service team that includes talented welterweight Joshua `JJ’ Joseph, a ‘Best Boxer’ at the last Andrew Lewis National Novices Championships.

The 27-year-old Barker has not lost a fight since Quincy `Biggie’ Small had

the better of him on points at the East Ruimveldt Community Centre in October 2014.

Since then, the `AK 47’ took aim and secured a Gold medal at the Caribbean Development tournament in 2015 and earlier this month had his first overseas engagement, when he travelled to Barbados to stop his opponent in the first round.

His attention is now turned to the GDF, the reigning Champion Gym. The last time the Republicans (Prison Service) and GDF met, the former won the competition for most supporters and the National heavyweight Light-heavyweight beating of drums.

National middleweight Desmond Amsterdam In order to retain thechampion Jason `AK 47’ Barker champion Dennis Thomas title the army has packed Development Tournament on the experience of Den- al tournaments except the Boxing Association holds its team with seasoned camGold Medalist and has lost nis `Menace’ Thomas and Olympic Games. a fund-raising take-away paigners, with 24-year-old only once in 16 fights. He Diwani Lampkin to secure The Terrence Ali Na- lunch. light-heavyweight Desmond would be ably assisted by gold medals.

The weighing-in of tional Open tournament Amsterdam spearheading national bantamweight Thomas is the nation- will punch off tomorrow boxers will take place this the soldier’s quest for honchampion Clairmont Gib- al middleweight champion evening at 7 pm. It con- afternoon at the Andrew ours. son. Meanwhile, The Guy- and has represented Guyana cludes on Sunday, the `Six Head’ Lewis gym comThe hard-hitting Amana Police Force is relying at most major internation- same day that the Guyana mencing at 17.00hrs sterdam is a Caribbean

STAG on board with Guyana Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda Softball Cup sixth edition advance in Caribbean Under-20 See story on page 27

(See Story on page 27 )

Ansa McAl Brand Coordinator Lindon Henry is congratulated by GSFA president Ramchand Ragbeer. Looking on are vice-presidents Ramesh Sunich, Ricky Deonarain and Jailall Deodass.(Adrian Narine photo)

Antigua & Barbuda (pictured) booked a place in the semifinals of the Caribbean under-20 qualifying tournament for the 2017 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2016