Keeping you updated on current events... Thursday, February 18, 2021
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AG GOES AFTER BK FOR $8.4M OWED IN RENT FOR WATER STREET BOND, BUT OWES BK $1.3B Pg2
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Two remanded for Rev. Chuck-a-Sang’s murder Pg2
CARICOM INSISTS ON EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF VACCINES
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Guyana Post Thursday February 18, 2021
AG goes after BK for $8.4M owed in rent for Water Street Bond, but owes BK $1.3B
Government owes BK back to January 25, 2010. International $1.3 billion Records produced by for contracts executed. the company showed This indebtedness dates that $21,388,089 is
outstanding for works on the Supenaam Wharf. A further $82, 468,100 is owed for sea defence
works funded by the European Union since September 5, 2012. The Ministry of Works is still to pay $26,330,520 for works on the Ogle Airport Expansion project. This money is outstanding since April 12, 2012. On September 24, 2013, BK International completed the Parika/ Supenaam roll-on/roll-off ferry. The government is still to pay the outstanding $37,530,784. Most of the money is owed for the valuation of the work on the West Coast Demerara road project which was completed
nearly a decade ago. This project was a joint venture with a Jamaican company, SBK. The government is still to pay the valuation of US$4,399,589 ($879,917,800) The government further owes the company for works on sea defence projects at Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara. The breach at Prospect, Mahaicony, was sealed on January 12, 2021 but the government is still to pay $98,797,104 to the contractor, BK International. The sea defence breach at Content was completed
earlier but the government is still to pay the outstanding $94,501,978. On May 11, 2020 BK International completed construction for a building now occupied by the Environment Protection Agency. It is still to be paid $15,432,455. In court papers, Nandlall outlined BK Marine’s failure to pay for the rental from August 1, 2009 to January 15, 2021. As a result, he says, the arrears now amount to in excess of $8.4M. BK International declined to comment on Nandlall’s actions.
Two remanded for Rev Chuck-a-Sang’s murder daughter had made contact with him. They had a normal conversation. The daughter Renata Chuck-a-Sang, then related that the next day, she had no contact with him. As such she went and checked on him. On getting no response, she returned with the current priest to the house and it was then the former priest was discovered with stab wounds about his body, a swollen forehead while he lay motionless on the floor clad only in his underwear on the upper floor of the building. Close to two months after an 82-year-old, Retired Priest was found stabbed to death in his home, two men were today charged and remanded to jail. The two charged, 45-year-old, Rawle McPherson, of Victoria, East Coast Demerara, and 43-year-old, Mohanie Mohabir, of Corentyne, Berbice, both info@guyanapostonline.com
appeared before the Chief Magistrate and were not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge. According to the charge sheet, both men between December 21 and December 23, 2020, at the St. Sidwell’s Anglican Church, Vlissengen Road, Lodge, Georgetown, murdered Rev. George Chuck-A-Sang. In the court, it transpired
that the pair knew the priest and would visit him often. The murder was done on one of their visits along with another person, who is being sought at the moment. The two men were later remanded to prison until February 25 for the continuation of the matter. It was reported that just a day before the Former Priest went silent, the
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Guyana Post Thursday February 18, 2021
CARICOM INSISTS ON EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF VACCINES In a rare display of unity, the 14 i n d e p e n d e n t CARICOM states today insisted on the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. A resolution that CARICOM sponsored was adopted by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States by acclamation. The Resolution was presented on behalf of CARICOM by Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador, Sir Ronald Sanders, who was the architect of the original resolution and who was the chief negotiator for its adoption along with Trinidad and Tobago’s Ambassador Anthony P h i l l i p s - S p e n c e r, the Chair of the CARICOM caucus. Speaking for C A R I C O M , Ambassador Sanders told the OAS that its 34 member states
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accounted for 45% of the infected cases and 48% of the deaths globally. “That is almost half the global number of infected cases and nearly half the number of deaths in the world”. The Ambassador added, “Those figures alone should give each of us – and all of us – every good reason to be gravely troubled about the damaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of our peoples. In many – if not all – our countries, our hospitals are finding it enormously difficult to cope”. Sir Ronald explained that while the majority of developing states, including in Latin America and the Caribbean, are still without stocks of vaccines, “some developed countries have ordered vaccines, in one case five
times the size of its population, and are hoarding them, at a time when they are desperately needed throughout the world”. Ambassador Sanders cited studies which indicate that some of the world’s rich nations, representing only 15% of the global population have bought 60% of the available vaccines”. He said, “The world will not survive if 15% of the world holds for itself 60% of vaccines, and 85% of the people must struggle for an equitable share.” Presenting grim figures for the member states of the OAS, Sanders emphasized that only two counties have managed to give one shot of vaccines to more than 10% of their populations. The countries are the U.S. at 12% and Chile at 10%. He revealed that only three other
Sir Ronald Sanders,
countries have inoculated more than 1% of their people, but “none of the remaining 29 member states have sufficient vaccines to inoculate more than 0.95% of their people”. The Antigua and Barbuda diplomat also warned wealthy countries that “even if they are fully vaccinated by the middle of this year, and
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poor countries remain largely shut out, the global economy would suffer losses exceeding US$9 trillion, a sum greater than the annual output of Japan and Germany combined”. “No one will benefit”, he said, “We are truly all in this together”. The Resolution called for a scalingup of production by
the main vaccineproducing countries; faster distribution of the vaccines, low-cost financing from international financial institutions so that developing countries can buy needed stocks. It also called expressed grave concern about inequitable access and distribution of vaccines.
Guyana Post Thursday February 18, 2021
The View from Europe: A new US initiative for the Caribbean is needed When the economies of the Caribbean and Central America finally exit the pandemic, most will be in crisis. As a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) review of The Bahamas put it, recovery to prepandemic levels ‘will likely take years’ and the ‘downside risks loom large’. The same prognosis is expected to apply to virtually every nation in the region other than those with newfound oil and mineral reserves. So much so that the IMF suggests it will be as late as 2023 when output recovers, and 2025 when per capita GDP rebounds and pre-pandemic levels of employment, production, and the revenues necessary to underwrite social provision are restored. In response, some in the region have called for a modern equivalent of the 1948 Marshall Plan which saw the US transfer billions of government dollars to Western
Europe to support postwar recovery, and as a bulwark against the then Soviet Union. In some respects, the parallels are close – the Caribbean and Central America form a vital element of US national security – but in others, they are not, as today most western governments regard the private sector as the principal driver of sustainable growth. President Biden recently indicated that he intends “rebuilding the muscle” of Washington’s democratic alliances and intends finding common solutions to common problems. “There’s no longer a bright line between foreign and domestic policy”…. “the US cannot afford to be absent any longer on the world stage”, he told US diplomats in a speech at the State Department. “When we invest in economic development of countries, we create new markets for our products and reduce the
likelihood of instability, violence, and mass migrations”. In the coming months, these themes will be fleshed out in a hemispheric context. Already, Washington’s think tanks and lobbyists are seeking to inform the policy announcements that are expected to be made at April’s virtual Summit of the Americas. Governments in the Caribbean and Central America, close to the new administration are also making suggestions. What is missing is the voice of private sector leaders in the Caribbean, Central America, and the US who in the real world will have to drive post-pandemic economic recovery. Put bluntly, this is the moment when influential private sector leaders from the region and the US should be doing more. They need to make their voice heard by the legislative and executive branches of the US government and ensue that there is substantive
Caribbean participation in the CEO summit that will accompany the US-led government encounter. Unfortunately, having the regions corporate voice heard in a sustained manner is no longer straightforward. There is no obvious private sector-led institution in Washington related exclusively promoting a hands-on Caribbean and Central American agenda. In the 1980s, the USCaribbean Basin private sector relationship was catalysed by Caribbean Central American Action (CCAA). At the time, president Carter and then president Reagan had come to recognise that a part of the answer to their security concerns lay in stimulating regional economic development and creating new employment. Both administrations understood that if this were to happen, business leaders had to be involved. Responding, CCAA
brought together and took to the White House small groups of US and regional business leaders and with their support went on to significantly influence US policy though ideas, initiatives, events such as the annual Miami conference, and regional dialogues that promoted practical solutions that governments, agencies and institutions were able to support. In the US, it resulted in the shaping of the Caribbean Basin Initiative and then the legislating of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, while in Europe near parallel representations by key Caribbean sector actors influenced the negotiation of pathways out of preference and the creation of treaties and agreements that provided private sector related support. Despite CCAA being no more and the world being very different, those who fashioned these original private
By David Jessop sector initiatives believe this is the moment when a new private sector-led post-pandemic initiative with its genesis in the region is required. “There needs to be a coming together of the best private sector leaders from all sides. The Caribbean and Central America must build its own advocacy and constituency in Washington, but the impulse must first come from the region”, Peter Johnson, CCAA’s first executive director recently told me. He feels that recovery from the pandemic poses many of the same problems, and that a small high-level group of private sector leaders from the Caribbean and Central America should be meeting now with their US counterparts.
A pathway to Guyanese and Caribbean excellence in mathematics By Terrence R. Blackman, Ph.D
.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the strength of the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and fiscal stimulus programs, expects the global economy to post a stronger-than-expected recovery from the pandemic in 2021. In an updated forecast, it has predicted that oil prices will average just above $50 billion in 2021. If the IMF’s projections hold, each lift of Guyana’s share of crude oil from the Liza Phase 1 Development could be worth around US$50 million. Last year Guyana info@guyanapostonline.com
earned almost US$200 million from oil sales and royalty from the export of four million barrels of oil from four lifts. More lifts, likely six are expected in 2021, with rapid growth to follow in subsequent years as additional field development projects come online These revenues necessitate visionary, sustainable and transformative ideas for the use of Guyana’s oil revenues to support a better Guyanese and the Caribbean future. This essay, in memory of a colleague, Arturo Montes DeOca
Baltazares of the University of Guyana (UG) proposes to do just this. Arturo Montes DeOca Baltazares, Lecturer at the University of Guyana (UG) was born in Mexico City on July 27, 1969. Mathematics represented for Arturo a grand challenge and an opportunity to engage the world. He earned an undergraduate degree in Mathematics in the Faculty of Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In July 2018, when we met at the University of Guyana, he was studying for a Master’s degree in
Mathematics. During his years of service at the University of Guyana, he taught calculus, analytical geometry, linear, modern, and abstract algebra, real analysis and complex analysis, and topology. In July of 2018, the UG mathematics, statistics and physics faculty members and I engaged in a mathematics curricular enrichment initiative, a mini-course conceived for third and fourth-year students in mathematics in a content area not reflected in the traditional UG mathematics curriculum.
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Our intent was to establish a mechanism for introducing mathematics at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level in an exciting way to the highly motivated undergraduates, math teacher education candidates, and first-year postgraduates from the University of Guyana and perhaps from colleges and universities across the wider Caribbean. It is important to reiterate here the critical importance of math and STEM subjects generally as a prerequisite for Guyanese as they seek and assume
leadership roles in the oil and gas industry. For example, Partial Differential Equations arise quite naturally in several aspects in oil engineering: reservoir simulation, well tests and seismic exploration. Guyanese leadership in the Oil and Gas sector will require Guyanese excellence in STEM education.
Guyana Post Wednesday February 17, 2021
Guyana’s Republic anniversary will be observed but more focus is on Independence Some of the funds slated for Guyana’s 51st Republic Anniversary will be averted into Independence Day celebrations. Minister of Culture Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson said the public should expect certain features like the ceremonial flagraising ceremony, etc but because of the pandemic, the government will now place emphasis on the Independence
Anniversary, as President Ali has a unique idea for those celebrations. “The President is very keen…… I guess we could say ideas and programs for the May celebration, our independent celebration, so right now we are in the phase of planning for that. It’s rapidly advancing so some of that money will be deferred,” Ramson said. The Government in
this year’s budget has allocated the $4 Billion for activities under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. Guyana will be celebrating its 55th year as an independent nation. The government is hoping that with its vaccine programme public events would return to some normalcy
OUT OF CONTROL VENDING AND OTHER ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED DURING MAYOR’S WALKABOUT G e o r g e t o w n Mayor, Ubraj Narine is challenging policy enforcers to get their act together as he urges them to get things done for the city. Describing the situation around the city as one that is “terrible” Mayor Narine is asking officers at City Hall to step out and have the city fixed. During the walk-
about around the busy Stabroek market area, Narine registered his disappointment with several matters noting that the state of the city remains a concern. “It’s terrible and why I say it’s terrible when you look at the drainage of the regent street, king street, the alleyways, the amount of garbage and stuff inside the drains; it’s terrible,”
Mayor Narine said “We are the policymakers, the policy body of this council. We have the prerogative to create the policy, we did so but we are not the enforcer. The enforcers; it is the officers the local Government officer, who has to enforce these policies, the guidelines given and set
out by the council,” the Mayor continued. The Mayor said that urgent attention should be placed on the aesthetics of the city as he pointed out vending is now out of control. Illegal tents near roadways and parkways along with the food vendors operating without the relevant certification remain
some of the burnings issues the city seems incapable of dealing with. “We are not after anyone, at the Mayor and City Council, no officer no staff, we want betterment for the city, we want the city officials to do their work. They are being paid by taxpayers, and they have to do their
work, they have to enforce these policies,” the Mayor explained Over the years, the City of Georgetown continues to face an uphill task to maintain the city. All of this has been made even more difficult as the council faces a series of financial battles that continue to hamper its work.
Four prisoners on the run Police Officer accused of rape
Four prisoners are now on the run after they escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on Tuesday morning. On the run are Kenrick Lyte and Imran Ramsaywack, Rayon Jones, and Samuel Gouveia. Reports are that it was just around 7: hours on Tuesday that the men were discovered missing. info@guyanapostonline.com
Checks around the facility revealed that some bars of the prison were breached. Authorities suspect that the four men may have cut their way through. Lyte was sentenced to death in 2019 for the 2014 murder of 72-yearold, Osmond Fiedtkou. Imram Ramsawack was also serving a sentence for the murder of United
States trader, Samantha Benjamin. On the other hand, Jones was currently serving a 28 years jail sentence for the killing of Mechanic, Purand Baljit during a robbery in 2016 while Gouveia was charged for the murder of Santee Solomon, who was stabbed to death back in 2015.
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A serving member of the Guyana Police Force is being accused of raping a woman in the Kumaka Moruca, North West District. In a release, the police said that it is investigating the report of rape committed on a 42-yearold woman.
Reports are that around 16:00 hrs on February 14th victim was at a shop in the at Kumaka Water Front area with some friends when the Officer joined them. The group then moved to another location as they were imbibing. On 15th February 2021
about 00:10 hrs the victim alleges that she became intoxicated and was escorted to her home by the accused and a female friend who then left her alone in the company of the accused. Later that night, the victim was left along with the accused, where she was followed to her home. The woman told officers she was in a semiconsciousness state and she realized that the police officer was on her body. She pushed him off and raised an alarm which alerted the household which caused the accused to leave the premises. The Guyana Police Force is yet to say if the officer will be charged.
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