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Saturday June 19, 2021

CDEMA TEAM ARRIVES IN GUYANA AHEAD OF DDSA MISSION

PRIME MINISTER ROWLEY CALLS ON GUYANA TO DISTANCE SELF FROM DR. LESLIE RAMSAMMY’S STATEMENTS

GGMC ISSUES 16,502 ACRES TO MOHAMED’S FOR QUARRYING, WAIVES THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Saturday June 19, 2021

CDEMA TEAM ARRIVES IN GUYANA AHEAD OF DDSA MISSION

Officials from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the Regional Security System (RSS) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) arrived in Guyana on Thursday.

The team held a meeting with the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) ahead of the commencement of works for the “Detailed Damage Sector Assessment” (DDSA) on Guyana’s flooding situation.

Present at the

meeting, from the CDC, were Director General, Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig; Preparedness and Response Manager, Major Salim October, Senior Preparedness Officer, Captain Lakshman Persaud, Mitigation and Recovery Manager (acting), Ms. Alana Walters and Logistics Manager, Captain Michael Andrews.

The CDEMA team was led by Programme Manager, Joanne Persad, and also included Programme Manager

Rasheed Pinder, RSS Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance Officer, Keisha Linton and PAHO Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Adviser, Adrianus Vlugman.

Thursday’s meeting, which was a planning meeting, focused on what the operations will entail, how it will be executed, and discussions on specific peculiarities that could be encountered during the execution of the assessment.

Persad expressed CDEMA’s commitment

to assisting Guyana in whatever way possible as the country continues to deal with the national disaster.

“We want to make sure our presence here adds value not only to our work but to the next step. That’s critical for us at the end of the day,” Persad reassured the CDC officials.

The remaining members for the CDEMA mission are scheduled to begin arriving next week and will include representatives from a number of United Nations (UN) agencies

including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), PAHO, as well as representatives from several Caribbean agencies.

The DDSA will be focusing on analysis of the health, water and sanitation, infrastructure and housing, agriculture, social sector, shelter and mining.

“Those are some of the key sectors being affected,” Colonel Craig stated.

“The DDSA will see teams going into the most affected regions, which are Two, Five, Six, Seven and Ten.” The assessment will include analysis of the sectors to determine the extent of the damage that has occurred, an analysis of the estimated cost to recover, and look at how the recovery estimate can lead to additional

support for Guyana in the rebuilding and long term recovery.

“What the report does is it supports the access to financing, it supports projects and programmes, long term recovery and initiatives.

It’s the evidence and justification for accessing aid,” Persad stated.

The report will also look at recommendations of what systems could be put in place, if any, to mitigate future such occurrences.

“Generally speaking we work on the principle of building back better, reducing risks and building resilience and reducing vulnerability,” Persad related.

During the meeting the CDC gave the CDEMA officials a thorough overview of what data has been gathered so far as pertains to the flooding situation in Guyana, as well as gaps that still exist, and challenges being faced in data gathering.

Guyana, in response to the Government of Guyana`s request through CARICOM for help with their response to heavy floods.

Further, Dr. Rowley as Chairman of CARICOM has been well recognized for his robust and consistent advocacy and frequent communication with US and global leadership on behalf of all CARICOM people, including the people of Guyana, in pursuit of greater access to COVID-19 vaccines for our region.

Additionally, Dr. Rowley intervened to help achieve the release of Guyanese fishermen detained in Venezuela earlier this year, he led CARICOM’s support for Guyana during a critical period of the border dispute with Venezuela, and he physically went

to Guyana during the pandemic to work with fellow Heads to assist in CARICOM`s efforts toward ensuring that the outcome of Guyana`s most recent general elections was peaceful and reflective of the will of its people.

The Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs strongly condemns the published falsehoods against Prime Minister Rowley

by Dr. Ramsammy and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

It calls upon the authorities in Guyana to disassociate themselves from such unwarranted, scurrilous, and disrespectful attacks on the sitting Chairman of CARICOM, which incidentally is headquartered in Georgetown, Guyana.

PRIME MINISTER ROWLEY CALLS ON GUYANA TO DISTANCE SELF FROM DR. LESLIE RAMSAMMY’S STATEMENTS

Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley.

The Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs has noted with concern the recent misleading, disrespectful, and potentially damaging comments in the Guyanese media ascribed to Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Advisor to the Ministry of Health of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.

There is also a most reprehensible and

slanderous Statement ascribed to the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), directed against the current Chairman of CARICOM and Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley.

The comments and Statement attempt to associate Prime Minister Rowley with views which he does not hold and which he has

never expressed. It is noteworthy that in his published commentary Dr. Ramsammy could offer not one single quotation from the Prime Minister to support his false allegations, nor did Dr. Ramsammy offer a shred of evidence to support his misleading claims.

At no point in time has Prime Minister ever disparaged the vaccine programme in Guyana or has he ever implied that the vaccines in use in Guyana are defective or unsafe or inferior. It is extremely unfortunate that the Advisor to the Ministry of Health of Guyana would use falsehood to publicly attack the Prime Minister of a friendly neighbouring country.

The Statement of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and

Industry as published in the Guyanese media also makes references to Prime Minister Rowley that are completely false and appear to simply repeat the fake narrative of Dr. Ramsammy.

Further, that Chamber Statement’s disgusting slur to the effect that Prime Minister Rowley “fulfils his historical trait of demonstrating scant regard for the lives of Guyanese” must be regarded as a particularly scurrilous attack against the Chairman of CARICOM. Ironically, that slanderous Statement was issued by the Georgetown Chamber mere days after Prime Minister Rowley instructed the relevant arms of his Government to organise much needed relief supplies and assistance for

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Saturday June 19, 2021

GGMC issues 16,502 acres to Mohamed’s for quarrying, waives the Environmental Impact Assessment

On 16 June, 2021, BK Quarries Inc filed a 500-page lawsuit against the GGMC, the Commissioner of the GGMC, the EPA, and Hadi’s World Inc just one day after the GGMC handed 16,502 acres of land to Hadi’s World for quarrying operations.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent Hadi’s World from occupying or taking any steps to develop the 16,500 acres of land recently awarded by the GGMC as four (4) quarrying licences. The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the EPA took the decision to fully permit and issue four (4) Quarrying Licences to the company,

which is owned by Mr. Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed, despite several objections raised by BK Quarries Inc. Hadi’s World Inc. had only applied to the GGMC for these four (4) licenses in December 2020.

The lawsuit which is filed by prominent attorney Mr Siand Dhurjon explains that the Notices of Intention to Grant Quarry Licences were published in the Official Gazette without the approval of the board of the GGMC as is required under law.

The lawsuit also explains that the EPA illegally waived the requirement for Hadi’s

World Inc to have to perform an assessment of the environmental impact of the four quarrying operations over 16,500 acres of land for the reason that the quarry operations ‘would not significantly impact the environment’.

The EPA arrived at this decision in spite of the understanding that the quarry operations of Hadi’s World would require the clearing of over a thousand acres of vegetation and the use of explosives to destroy the face of the land.

This decision to award a company, which does not own even a single crusher, 16,502 acres of land for quarrying was made although BK

Quarries had applied for a Quarry Licence since August 16, 2018 for a portion of the same area.

Further, BK Quarries Inc. was issued a Prospecting License for the said portion since 2014, a license which remains in force up to today. BK has been carrying out exploration and developmental works on the Prospecting Licence since 2014.

The prospecting licence is for an area located on the left bank of the Mazaruni River

this project.

There is a mountain of correspondence between the company and GGMC to evidence this.

On January 9, 2020 the company wrote to GGMC confirming a meeting on January 14, 2020, with the Commission’s Technical Sub-committee to advise on the way forward in relation to the QL application being processed. The result being that the GGMC through its Technical Sub-Committee decided

was necessary for the finalization of the Quarrying Licence. The updated map and the other requirements were submitted on August 6, 2020.

There was no further communication from GGMC. This prompted a letter from BK Quarries to Commissioner Newell Dennison on December 9, 2020. All this happened before the application from Hadi’s World Inc. was even submitted.

On January 20, 2021

in the vicinity of Itaballi and covers 9,364 acres.

The purpose of the PL is for the conduct of exploration and developmental activities, the QL is for the extraction of rock and production of aggregate.

Commissioner of GGMC, Newell Dennison, wrote to Mr Brian Tiwarie of BK Quarries Inc, on December 30, 2019 stating that the application for the quarry at Itaballi was being processed. Mr Dennison even pointed out that the area applied for was “a considerable expanse of land” and that the GGMC would require that the company reduce the acreage being sought.

BK Quarries Inc. has been in constant communication with the GGMC since 2014 over the progression and development of

that the size of the area to operate under the Quarry License was to be reduced by 50% from — 9,364 acres to 4680 acres.

This recommendation was taken to the Board of Directors of the GGMC on 21 February 2020 where it was approved and entered into the minutes of the meeting.

The requirement that the area should be reduced was accepted

by BK Quarries Inc. and on January 15, 2020 the company wrote to GGMC to indicating that it will accept an area of 4,500 acres out of the 9,364 acres – this representing a reduction of more than 50% as required by GGMC. On July 2, 2020 GGMC wrote to BK Quarries requesting a map of the reduced area.

GGMC said that this information

GGMC Commissioner Newell Dennison wrote to BK Quarries informing the company that “all quarry licences extant and otherwise are to be reviewed by the Commission’s Board of Directors.” That letter continued, “Your further cooperation and patience is requested while this action by the Board is being expedited.”

Shockingly, on February 6, 2021, as published in the Official Gazette, BK Quarries observed that GGMC had published its Notice of Intention to Grant four (4) Quarry Licenses to Hadi’s World Inc of Lot 29 Lombard Street, Georgetown over the areas which were covered by the 2014 PL B-70 and the 2018 QL application by BK Quarries.

Immediately BK

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Continued on page 4

Saturday June 19, 2021

GGMC issues 16,502 acres to Mohamed’s......

Quarries protested to GGMC on the grounds that the award is unfair, unlawful and unacceptable. Several letters from the company and its attorneys to the GGMC on this matter went unanswered.

At a meeting of the board of directors of the GGMC on the 18 February 2021 it was pointed out by several board members, to the commissioner and all present, that the applications by Hadi’s World Inc., which was still before the board for consideration, had already been approved unilaterally by Mr. Newell Dennison, whose signature is on the publications which were in the Gazette dated 6 February 2021. This was done more than one week prior to the meeting of the board on 18 February 2021. The gazette which is dated 6 February 2021 is apparently backdated as the page numbers run in sequence with the one dated and published on the 13th February 2021. Based on the sequence numbers of the publications and the sequence page numbers it would seem that the gazette dated 6 February and the one dated 13 February were both published on the same day, but one was backdated by a week.

A few days after the GGMC gazetted the info@guyanapostonline.com

notice of intention to grant, the EPA posted a notice in the daily newspapers that they had waived the requirement for the conduct on an EIA for all four of the Quarry Licenses being issued to Hadi’s World Inc. for the 16,502 acres.

This EPA notice was to notify the public and allow for a 30-day period for any objections to the issuance of the EPA authorization to Hadi’s World Inc. It is important to note that according to the law an applicant must obtain an environmental authorization and submit same to the GGMC before being considered for approval. In this case the GGMC had published the Notice of Intention to grant long before the applicant was in possession of an EPA authorization.

It boggles the mind that the EPA would waive the requirement for an EIA for the issuance of four contiguous quarry licenses that cover a stunning 16,502 acres.

This is an area that is five times the size of the capital city of Georgetown and almost four times the 4500 acres that was approved for BK Quarries Inc. in the same place.

BK Quarries Inc. also objected to the EPA, notifying them that the area being applied for by Hadi’s World

Continued from page 3

Inc. is currently held by the company under prospecting license B-70 and was in the process of being converted to a QL since 2018. BK Quarries Inc. also objected on environmental grounds against the waiver of the EIA based on the expected negative environmental impacts associated with stone quarrying.

The objections raised

by BK Quarries Inc. regarding the ownership of the area and the need for detailed environmental assessment were all dismissed by the EPA as

personally handed over by him to the principals of Hadi’s World Inc. Present at this ceremony were Mr. Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed, his son – Azrudeen Mohamed, both of Hadi’s World Inc., Mr. Newell Dennison – Commissioner of GGMC, and Mr. Jimmy Reece, – Chairman of the Board, GGMC. BK Quarries complains that it did not benefit from equality of treatment under the law by state agencies in breach of the constitution since the GGMC had ‘a serious’ concern that the

fact that Hadi’s World Inc told the government entities that its quarrying operations would only utilize less than 1,000 acres combined across the four licenses covering the 16,500 acres of lands given to them for quarrying operations.

The also lawsuit alleges that the board of the GGMC was biased in favour of Hadi’s World Inc’s applications as a result of a close relationship to a director of Hadi’s World Inc. Among the orders applied for by Mr Dhurjon to the Supreme Court on behalf of BK Quarries Inc are orders of: (1) Certiorari to quash the decisions of the GGMC dated 15th June, 2021 to grant four Quarry Licences to Hadi’s World Inc. over four areas of 3,713 acres, 5,152 acres, 3,220 acres and 4,417 acres respectively (altogether being 16,502 acres of state lands) on the grounds that the decisions are against the legitimate expectation of the Applicant, in breach of their statutory duty, in breach of natural justice, arbitrary, ultra vires, unreasonable, irrational,

‘inconsequential’ on 14 June 2021.

On the 15 June 2021 at 8 am the Hon. Minister Vickram Bharrat MP hosted a ceremony for the signing of these four (4) quarry licenses along with the four (4) EPA permits, which were then

BK Quarries Inc could not actually use and occupy some 9,000 acres for quarrying operations whereas the GGMC has licensed Hadi’s World Inc to use over 16,500 acres for quarrying operations.

This is in spite of the

and unfair, an abuse of power, whimsical, capricious, against their own policy and without any legal foundation or authority; (2) An Injunction to forbid and restrain Hadi’s World Inc, their agents and servants from taking

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any steps in furtherance of the quarrying activities or occupation on the lands held under the Quarry Licences granted on 15th June, 2021 covering the four areas designated as LM40: H-1000/000/2020, L M 4 0 : H-1000/001/2020, LM40: H-1000/002/2020 and LM40: H-1000/003/2020; (3) An Order of Certiorari to quash the decisions of the Environmental Protection Agency (‘E.P.A.’) made 21st Mar, 2021 and 16th April, 2021 and upheld by the Environmental Assessment Board (E.A.B.) made 14th June, 2021 to award four environmental authorisations to Hadi’s World Inc. in respect of quarrying operations over the four said areas encompassing about 16,502 acres; (4) And An Order of Mandamus to compel the GGMC to take all steps necessary to see to the favourable processing of the Applicant’s application made 16th Aug, 2018 for a quarry licence over the area of

9,364 acres designated by the GGMC as LM40: B-1000/000/18, upon the Applicant being issued the requisite environmental authorisation by the EPA to conduct quarrying operations on the said area.

Saturday June 19, 2021

RAINY SEASON ANTICIPATED TO PROLONG

With the raining season expected to be prolonged according to the hydro meteorological department, and with most of the regions under water, the Civil Defense Commission has said that the current weather only forms part of the

peak of what is to come.

According to the Manager, Major Salim October, of the Preparedness and Response, people must be prepared for what is come.

“We are still within the peak of the rainy season and so it is quite possible that we will continue to experience floods being reported in many areas in Regions One to Ten,” Mr Salim October said.

So far Guyana has seen over 36,000 households affected across Guyana reaching height of 7 feet.

Those most affected regions are Regions 10, 7, 6 5 and 2, with Region 10 being deemed the region most severely

The Soesdyke/ Linden Highway has recorded yet another fatal accident, this time a 56-year-old One Mile Wismar Linden, woman.

The car in which she was traveling to the airport collided with a motor lorry.

The victim has been identified as June Forde from the One Mile Wismar Linden.

Reports are that at the time of the incident, June was traveling by car driven by 27-year-old Michael Forde, while the motor lorry was driven by 25-year-old Cavel Carew of South Amelia’s Ward, Linden.

Motor lorry GZZ 2701 was proceeding north along the western side of the motorcar PTT 7073 was proceeding in the opposite direction. The motorcar ended up in the western drive lane and collided with the front left side of the motor lorry.

As a result of the collision, both vehicles sustained substantial damage. June Forde was taken out of the vehicle in an unconscious condition. Michael Forde was taken out of the said vehicle in a conscious condition.

They were both placed into a passing

Major Salim October

impacted.

President Irfaan Ali formally declaring the floods a national disaster.

The CDC and the Hydromet Department have predicted that Guyana can face more rainfall in the coming

days and months.

“Between now and Saturday, some area will expect rainfall to range between 40-100 mm. That will vary from region to region. The important thing here is that due the ground level

saturation, the limited run off is pretty much evident in the water accumulation on many of the lands across the country.

Siltation at the mouths of many of the rivers will also reduce the capacity

for run off and therefore waterlogged areas will become more prominent over this period,” Mr. October noted.

Guyana since November 2020 has been experiencing heavy rainfall.

Soesdyke/Linden Highway Police hunt rape suspect, detain another claims another victim

vehicle and taken to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where they were examined by doctors on duty. June Forde was pronounced dead on arrival.

Michael Forde was then transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was admitted suffering from a penetrated injury to the right eye.

The driver of the motor lorry was subjected to a breathalyzer test but no trace of alcohol was found on his breath.

He remains in custody as further inquiries are conducted.

Two men have found themselves in hot water after they allegedly raped a 17-year-old girl while taking turns and at the same recording the whole ordeal.

The incident occurred between April 1 and April 30 according to a statement from the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

The statement added that according to the victim, she was approached by the two who were in a car and forcefully taken against her will to the home of one of the perpetrators. They then took turns having sex with her while they each videoed the ordeal.

The victim further

alleged that the ordeal caused her to miscarry.

She related the ordeal to her relative on June 15 and on June 17 the matter was reported.

One suspect has been arrested and placed into custody while a search for the other suspect is underway, as investigations continue

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