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Thursday March 18 , 2021

Sugar workers at odds with GuySuCo over pay increase

CID calls Trevor Benn again, YET ANOTHER PRISONER HAS ESCAPED THE LUSIGNAN PRISON spark large protest in city

Guyana Post Thursday March 18, 2021

Sugar workers at odds with GuySuCo over pay increase

As the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) continues to drag its feet on salary increases, Uitvlugt sugar worker have joined the picketing line along with their Blairmont and Albion colleagues.

Today marks two days since workers are demanding that GuySuCo pay them their increases in salary and stop stalling the process.

Leaving their tools behind and arming themselves with placards,

the workers expressed their unwillingness to work under conditions under which they have had no increase since 2019, even though the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union continues to have negotiations.

According to the Union and the Workers, in a statement, the GuySuCo hierarchy has taken their cooperative attitude for granted.

“They shared that they have learnt that while

they are asked to be patient they are learning that some in the top brass of the sugar company may be engaged in selfaggrandizement. This the workers pointed out, does not send a positive message and undermines the calls for cooperation,” the statement added.

The Union continues to note that Uitvlugt workers underscored their willingness to engage the Corporation, meaningfully, to find an amicable settlement to

the long-standing issues.

They are like their colleagues of Albion and Blairmont, hopeful that the Corporation could come to its senses and serious talks could begin in earnest with a view to finding a solution.

On Tuesday, sugar workers attached to the Albion and Blairmont estates protested and threatened to down tools if their demands for salary and wage increases are not met.

The workers who

protested noted that pay rise for 2019 remained unresolved and therefore discussions ought to have begun from that point but unfortunately, days turned into weeks and then into months as the workers and the Union waited to hear from the Corporation.

In correspondence on January 28, 2021, the GAWU reminded the Corporation of its undertaking to respond to the Union and the

workers.

According to the union, the corporation, at that time, communicated that it was still engaged in consultations.

At a meeting on March 9, 2021, the GAWU and the GuySuCo resumed discussions.

At that time, given the protracted period, the Union and the workers had high expectations that they would have received a firm position from GuySuCo. However, those expectations were dashed as the Corporation sought the Union to table proposals on wages/ salaries for years 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The GAWU’s d e l e g a t i o n , which comprised representatives from the various estates along with union officials, was most upset as it pointed out that the GuySuCo was already in receipt of proposals for years 2019 and 2020.

Therefore, it found the request bizarre.

It bluntly refused to accede to GuySuCo’s demand.

CID calls Trevor Benn again, spark large protest in city

Former Lands and Survey Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Trevor Benn, is yet again being questioned by the police into the acquisition of

lands during his time in office Benn was called in this morning at the Central Investigation Department in relation to the sale and leasing

of Cevons Waste Management and Car Care Enterprise Land while the Irfaan Ali government says he had no authority to do so.

This comes as the

Car Care Enterprise is being taken to court for its Aubrey Barker Land, which was said to be leased under market value, while the Cevons Waste Management is

currently being looked at by the Government for being sold while the Commission had no authority to do so.

This move sparked a protest in the city. The protesters were relatives and friends of Benn armed with placards as well as leaders of APNU+AFC. They stood outside the CID Headquarters calling for the halting of the vindictive approach against him.

As the time went by and protesting continues their call, Mr. Benn emerged, to thank his supporters. He called on the Government to stop their level of dictatorship by using the system

against him since he has “We cannot allow the creeping dictatorship that we are seeing…creeping up in this country. If you want to sit down indelibly every time something happens and allow it to continue, it’s your thing as a person.

Listen, anybody who knows me knows that I try to be as apolitical as possible, non-partisan as possible. I don’t own a party card, I don’t overly get into politics, so, I’m not sure why I’m the target, ”Mr. Benn said.

He added, however, that it is clear that the Government plans to inflict pain on him since they would have Con’t on pg3

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Guyana Post Thursday March 18, 2021

Spanish woman dies from brain haemorrhage after receiving AstraZeneca vaccine

Yet another Prisoner has escaped the Lusignan Prison

TAccording to a statement coming out from the Guyana Prison Service, 45-year-old Taje Singh who was serving time for larceny and wounding has escaped.

Reports stated that Singh jumped the

southern prison fence and escaped into a clump of bushes just around 07:10h.

Since his escape, the police along with the Guyana Police Service has launched a manhunt.

Singh’s last known is

listed at Lot 81 Zeelugt North, West Coast Demerara.

The force is asking that anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of the escapee should contact the nearest police station.

Graham Keeley

CID calls Trevor Benn again........

Con’t on pg2

allowed things to happen smoothly as normal but that has not been done.

The new allegations could have been read to him since his first matter.

“These allegations could have been read to me on Thursday, but again they want to inflict maximum pain on me, maximum embarrassment and harassment. So, they decided not to read the charges to me, while I was locked up in a cell all day Thursday.

“The only reason they info@guyanapostonline.com

brought out Thursday is that the opposition leader came at 2 pm…So, we had all day on Thursday that they could have done this. So, it’s a waste of your time, you would not have been here if I wasn’t called again.”

Benn was placed on $200,000 bail last Friday after it was alleged that between the 1st January 2018 and the 31st March 2020, Benn acted improperly when as Head of the Lands and Surveys Commission, he allowed the lease

of six acres of land to Janico Vide Industrial Engineering at a cost of $27 Million.

The Prosecutor in that matter is contending that although the land is state-owned, it did not fall under the Lands and Surveys Commission at the time, which means Benn had no authority to authorize the leasing of the land.

The prosecutor ignored the law that said all state lands fall under the purview of Lands and Surveys Commission.

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Spanish authorities launched an investigation on Wednesday after a woman died from a brain haemorrhage after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19.

The 43-year-old mathematics teacher was vaccinated on March 3 but hours afterwards she started to feel ill and went to the hospital.

She complained of headaches but doctors attributed this to the normal side effects associated with the vaccine, reported Diario Sur, a Spanish newspaper.

The woman returned to the hospital in Marbella in southern Spain on March 13 but specialists did not detect any serious problem.

Four hours later, a scan revealed fluid accumulation on the brain and she had to be operated on immediately.

The mother-of-two, who has not been named, died shortly afterwards on Tuesday.

The woman, who worked at a school in

Marbella, tested negative for Covid-19 and had no previous health problems, health authorities said.

The Spanish health ministry has reported the case to the European Medicines Agency.

Three cases of thrombosis in people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine, including the teacher who died, have been reported in Spain.

Along with a growing series of European countries, Spain decided on Monday to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for two weeks after reports of cases of thrombosis.

María Jesus Lamas, the director of the Spanish Medicines Agency, said the teacher’s case was the first known case of cerebral venous thrombosis in a vaccinated person.

“There are few cases, 11 at the moment around the world and 17 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses have been administered,” Ms Lamas stressed at a press conference.

The European Medicines Agency will meet on Thursday to conduct a scientific analysis of the latest reported side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Experts will try to determine if there is a direct relationship between the dose and these serious and undetected effects in the development of the vaccine.

The Junta de Andalucia, the regional government which covers Marbella, issued a statement on Wednesday in which it said that the teacher’s case involved a thrombosis that “by itself, though infrequent can occur in the general population”.

It added: “In this case, it has the particular nature that thrombotic events have been associated with a decrease in the number of platelets in the blood.”

Several European countries including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have suspended the rollout of the vaccine.

(Taken from The Independent)

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Guyana Post Thursday March 18, 2021

COVID-19 has helped the resilient but cursed the wider society

Adam’s Note Book The lockups have become a toy for Anil Nandlall. It has to be because every person detained by the Criminal Investigation Department and later kept in custody at one of the lockups was the victim of Anil Nandlall.

I go back to the post-elections period after the PPP assumed power. There was talk about jailing Clairmont Mingo for his role in the elections. Nandlall kept that promise by having Mingo arrested and held at the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters for days.

Lawyers approached a judge on a writ of habeas corpus and secured a release but the police refused to release Mingo at the time stipulated by the judge. When the lawyers returned to the judge they learned from the judge that his order was nullified by the fact that the police were instituting charges.

Other people charged in connection with the March 2, 2020 elections were Chairperson of the People’s National Congress, Volda Lawrence; Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission, Keith Lowenfield; his deputy Roxanne Myers; Enrique Livan and Sheffern info@guyanapostonline.com

February.

Initially, these persons were charged on filings

by Daniel Kanhai and Desmond Moriah. The matter should have been prosecuted by Attorney Glenn Hanoman. When the matter was first called Hanoman vowed to provide the statements leading to the charges.

When they returned to court he could not present the statements and asked for more time.

He said that he had onehundred-plus statements.

But the people behind the harassment knew that Hanoman had no such statement so the matter suddenly became a police matter. The Criminal Investigations Department brought these people back to CID headquarters and formally instituted the same charges for which they were before the courts.

Now, these people were placed on bail on private criminal charges.

Believe it or not, they went back to court on the same charges, this time by the state, and had to post bail all over again.

The Director of Public Prosecutions stepped in to help Hanoman because she nolle prosequi the private charges against Mingo, Lawrence, Lowenfield, and the others.

Others had to be

charged so Nandlall went after Attorney James Bond ostensibly for being involved in a fraudulent land sale. Bond spent the mandatory seventy-two hours in the Brickdam lockups and was released.

I expected him to be charged but to date, he has not been.

More recently, former head of the Lands and Surveys Commission, Trevor Benn, ended up in Anil Nandlall’s sights.

He too ended in the Brickdam lockups, this time for two days, before being placed before the courts on a charge of malfeasance in public office. That is a most interesting charge and I am willing to bet that it is the first time it has been filed in Guyana.

If a public servant or someone in a government department is caught kissing a woman in his or her office both can be charged for malfeasance in public office. This is a most interesting charge.

Trevor Benn must now think about all the things that he did while holding the office. The talk is about the sale of state lands but given the nature of the charge, it could be anything.

I am fascinated by all this talk about illegal land sales and what should have been the

value. Guyana has not had a systematic valuation, especially in Georgetown, since 1996.

I remember the qualified Dennis Patterson. His valuations involved the city and just about everywhere.

To the best of my knowledge whoever is the Valuation Officer is very quiet. Properties in the city should be evaluated every five years; this has not been done. But Anil Nandlall has been able to come up with a valuation for properties in the city. He must be the Valuation Officer but he is doing a poor job.

How could he evaluate some property, in fact, only those properties that he feels were fraudulently sold or leased? Does he have the documentation showing the valuation?

That explains why he is running from those cases he initially filed seeking to reclaim property

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because they were undervalued.

And this explains the charge against Trevor Benn—malfeasance in public office.

So far, he gets his satisfaction from having prominent people placed in the lockups. There must be something Freudian in this regard.

He was charged and so made to suffer some embarrassment. In fact, he suffered a lot of embarrassment because he was called on to lead a defense.

Is there some vendetta?

But Anil is not the only one in the party and government to go after people. Oudho Homenauth is just another casualty because somebody does not like him. The next thing he knows is that he is fired.

Over the weekend, some reporters met with the contractor who was once contracted to repair the Leguan stelling.

I remember Works Minister Juan Edghill saying that the contractor had a long time to complete the project but failed. He described the contractor as being incapable.

It turned out that the Transport and Harbours Department caused numerous delays, one of them lasting 238 days.

Obviously, such a delay would push back the completion date. But that did not matter to Edghill.

It is reported that a Regional Chairman has a son or a nephew who is a contractor and who wants this project.

And it is said that the Regional Chairman is related to President Irfaan Ali.