Kaieteur News

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AIETEUR NEWS

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UG Executives triple their salaries within five years

Sunday Edition April 21, 2019 Online: www.kaieteurnews.com

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Online readership yesterday 116,049

Procurement officer caught on tape prepping colleague about tampering probe - talks about $20,000 payment

Trinidadians build their offshore platform, instead of hiring foreigners - Guyana, others must also make local content priority - Industry Analyst

Int'l airlines body asks CJIA to delay fees increase

A NARROW ESCAPE!

Teen loses life in new home during antenna fixing; dad survives

What happened with Kaieteur, Canje oil blocks - Dr. Jan was daylight robbery Mangal

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Procurement Officer caught on tape prepping - talks about colleague about tampering probe $20,000 payment

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few weeks ago, the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) was rocked with allegations that one of its most senior staffers was allegedly fingered in a plot to tamper with a bid document involving a project of the Ministry of Public Works.

The Senior Procurement Officer was alleged to have entered an off-limits room that had sensitive tender documents stored and removed one, with the sole intention to make illegal changes.

He was able to make changes to two of three copies.

Someone reportedly blew the whistle and senior officials who reviewed the security cameras during an immediate probe by the Ministry of Finance, which has jurisdiction, indeed caught him entering the restricted room. He was seen with a bag later.

The Procurement Officer is alleged to have made changes to a bid document for a road project, said to worth over $100M. The matter has been handed over to the police.

The Procurement Officer was sent on administrative

leave.

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, has made it clear from his information something irregular happened and that it is something that this administration does not tolerate.

NPTAB is the body through which bids for government contracts are opened, recorded and processed. There had been accusations of wrongdoings in the past with the Coalition Government announcing plans to clean up the system.

Guyana would have lost millions of dollars over time because of rackets there.

The Public Procurement Commission, as the regulator, had reportedly expressed alarm over the incident and the fact it was not alerted sooner to the incident.

There has not been an official statement from NPTAB. However, there is a shocking tape that has now surfaced in which a voice, identified as the Procurement Officer, meets with a work colleague shortly after the matter came to light, to urge him to hold his composure.

The work colleague,

whose name was mentioned on the tape, admitted on the tape that he was given $20,000 on the day that the Procurement Officer was allowed to enter the restricted room.

The almost eight-minute tape indicates that the staffers were careful when they met, knowing that an investigation involving the Deputy Finance Secretary of the Ministry of Finance was underway.

Below is a transcript of that recording which is said to be in the hands of the police: For sake of brevity, the Procurement Officer is (PO) while his colleague is (Coll).

PO: What going on?

Coll: Me meself want fuh know wha guying on.

P O : Yo u h a d a n y conversations…leh we talk the truth…If there is a problem...me and you will confront each other...you understand? And me ain't want you tell me wan ting…

Coll: Me ain't had no conversation with nobody.

PO: Nobody ain't call you yesterday afternoon?

When I call you, u ain't answer your phone…You probably think ah calling you to look for documents or

Food for thought Consider the unconditional sacrifice of our parents

T

hat night, Sue quarreled with her mother, then stormed out of the house. While en route, she remembered that she did not have any money in her pocket, she did not even have enough coins to make a phone call home.

At the same time, she went through a noodle shop, picking up sweet fragrance, she suddenly felt very hungry. She wished for a bowl of noodles, but she had no money!

The seller saw her standing wheat faltered before the counter and asked: – Hey little girl, you want to eat a bowl?

– But … but I do not carry money … she shyly replied.

– Okay, I'll treat you – the seller said – come in, I will cook you a bowl.

A few minutes later the owner brought her a steaming bowl of noodles. After eating some pieces, Sue cried.

– What is it? – He asked.

– Nothing. I am just touched by your kindness! – Sue said as she wiped her tears.

– Even a stranger on the street gives me a bowl of noodles, and my mother, after a quarrel, chased me out of the house. She is cruel!! The seller sighed: – Girl, why did you think so? Think again. I only gave you a bowl of noodles and you felt that way. Your mother had raised you since you were little, why were you not

grateful and disobeyed your mom?

Sue was really surprised after hearing that.

“Why did I not think of that? A bowl of noodles from a stranger made me feel indebted, and my mother has raised me since I was little and I have never felt so, even a little.”

On the way home, Sue thought in her head what she would say to her mother when she arrives home: “Mom, I'm sorry. I know it is my fault, please forgive me …”

Once up the steps, Sue saw her mother worried and tired of looking for her everywhere.

Upon seeing Sue, her mother gently said: “Sue, come inside honey. You are probably very hungry? I cooked rice and prepared the meal already, come eat while it is still hot …”

Unable to control it any longer, Sue cried in her mom's arms. In life, we are sometimes easy to appreciate the small actions of some people around us, but for the relatives, especially parents, we see their sacrifices as a matter of natural …

Parental love and concern are the most precious gifts we have been given since birth.

Parents do not expect us to pay back for nurturing us but have we ever appreciated or treasure the unconditional sacrifice of our parents? [Translated from a Vietnamese story by Tina]

something…

Coll: Me phone went in me bag.

PO: Oh s%&t Coll: … and I beat out.

Is wha really going on?

PO: Hear wha happen.

Like somebody, after I ask you for the document and I keep searching for the document…I left and I went out. And I don't know what happen. Like somebody called and seh they got me on camera and see me and you go in the room and dis and da and all kind of thing, right?

Anyhow, you ain't got no problem…and am…suh minister (??) get involve.

Berkley (Wickham, Chairman of NPTAB) get involve…the DFS (Deputy Finance Secretary…Miss Dummett and all of them.

But nobody ain't call you and tell you anything?

Coll: Nobody ain't call me and tell me anything.

The only thing the DFS' secretary call me and tell me must come over…want see me…suh me ain't know wha is going on.

PO: So when you go over wha happen?

Coll: No, me na fo over yet you know… later on down in the day. Suh me na know wha really going on…that is why I seh I gotta to ask you.

PO: Dem see something on document. Dem want to know if I tek out some document. ..tamper with some document. Fuh wha he name and some kind of foolishness right? So dem must be asking if you touch (continued on page 64)

Mentally ill manslaughter convict starts fire in cell

A

lerted by screams of alarm from inmates, warders at the New Amsterdam Prison managed to thwart attempts by a mentally ill manslaughter convict to start a fire in his cell. The incident occurred at around 19.00 hrs yesterday.

An official said that the inmate, Devon Griffith, 30, tampered with an electrical fitting in a fitting in a security block in which he was the lone inmate.

Kaieteur News understands that other inmates observed smoke emanating from the cell.

Their shouts alerted prison warders who quickly removed Griffith.

He is being confined to another area.

Prison Director Gladwin Samuels said that Griffith was isolated from other mentally ill prisoners after he displayed signs of aggression.

Griffith, called 'Elephant'

and 'Two Kick' of Cemetery Road, Hopetown Village, was given a 25-year manslaughter sentence in January, 2018, for raping and killing his great-aunt, Vaulda Britton called 'Auntie Vaulda' 78.

He was initially charged for murder in connection with the October 2015 incident.

Devon Griffith

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Why was GAWU’s general secretary silent when the PPP was ruining the sugar industry?

PLEASE DELIVER EXCELLENCE TO LINDEN

DEAR EDITOR, About three weeks ago, the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News published a letter by the general secretary of GAWU in which he criticized my positions on the sugar industry and expressed his opinion that I took no position on the dismissal of 7,000 sugar workers and claiming that I was trying to be relevant, when, I really was not, in the current political climate.

Underlying his claims against me, he uses President Cheddi’s name and good graces in the history of the sugar industry to relegate me to the dustbin of irrelevancy while trying to score points as to the great job he’s doing as G AW U ’s representative.

Editor, I would like to ask him some questions, since he is so relevant and so informed about the sugar industry: 1. Why is it that the dues over the years from the poor sugar workers have kept him and his fellow “union leaders” living a much better life than the average worker?

2. Why is it that he had nothing to say when Jagdeo as President, squandered US$300 million on the Skeldon fiasco? -money which could really have helped to alleviate the plight of all sugar workers!

3. Why is it that he and his fellow leaders in GAWU and the PPP government never prepared the sugar industry for its collapse, with all the writing on the wall, for anyone who cares, to see?

4.When Mr. Raj Singh from New York was brought

by Jagdeo to run Guysuco

and paid top dollar, he significantly did nothing to save the sugar industry but helped to destroy any chance to change direction and help the workers- why were you so silent?

5.What do you have to say about the conflict of interest where GAWU reps. were a part and parcel of the government which pays all sugar workers and Komal Chand actually sat in Parliament with the employer while supposedly representing the poor exploited workers- that is unheard of in the history of trade unionism?

6.Why is it that you drive a car and the average sugar worker rides a bicycle?-and do you care?

7.Why is it that when Robert Persaud was Minister of Agriculture-put there by Jagdeo-and his only contribution to betterment for agriculture was the meaningless slogan of “grow more food” while showing absolutely no concern for the sugar workers, you had nothing to say?

8.Why do you use President Cheddi’s good name to excuse your failing the sugar workers for many years now? Jagan doesn’t belong to GAWU or the PPP, but to our Republictake note- Matahma Gandhi was the great leader of the Congress party and affiliated unions in India, but today Congress Party can’t win elections- Gandhi belongs to India, not the corrupted Congress partyw i s e u p , M r. g e n e r a l secretary and stop using Jagan’s good name to fool the public.

9.Why is it that you never spoke out on the other failures of the PPP government which you supported like Donald Ramotar’ s fiber optic cable fiasco, Jagdeo’s numerous fiascos like Motilall’s road, the forestry fiasco, the airport and his good friends smuggling with private planes and special hangers, the Rusal fiasco, the computer “giveaway” fiasco, the collapse of President Cheddi’s dream project at Black Bush and the list could go on and on, all impacting on the welfare of sugar workers who deserved better?

Editor, I hope that this letter will be answered by such a relevant union expert as the general secretary of GAWU who should stop his ridiculous propaganda and pay attention to the urgent needs of all sugar workerspolitical chicanery does not elevate the betterment of their lives but, in reality, it hems them in and leaves them in economic trouble while weakening their great contribution to our dear Republic.

Yours faithfully, Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)

DEAR EDITOR, As Banks DIH products are to brand and lace the community of Linden for the annual Linden Town Week celebrations from this weekend, it is apposite to take a closer view of this conglomerate beverage company as it descends on this town.

Back in December as the 6th edition of the UDFA’s Banks GT Beer year end football tournament kicked off before massive crowds at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground, I tried to nudge Banks DIH to do the right thing.

I implored this illustrious corporate giant not to subject the UDFA to a down grade of the level of sponsorship for this tournament. Banks DIH responded well with promises of support for substantive levels of prize monies and expenses.

Prize monies have been paid to clubs as promised, but as of today no funds have been received to cover the expenses incurred back in

December 2018.

It has also been brought to my attention that the beverage giant continues to give other Linden sports organizations an unpleasant ride.

It is reported that clubs have not been paid their cash incentives for a Linden Basketball Association March 2018 tournament that Banks DIH promised sponsorship for.

The unpaid clubs have silently withdrawn their support for current tournaments planned by the association in Linden. The basketball authority in Linden, it seems, has pleaded with the beverage company, over time to no avail, as the most recent excuse was that a document handed in was not properly addressed. Could this be possible after one year has passed that Banks DIH is using excuses after gaining the confidence of the people of Linden, not to support this

sports association? The mining town people who have been so faithful to them, needs better treatment.

It is clear the football and basketball associations in Linden are hesitant in going public.

Region 10 continues to consume record volumes of their product. Corporate sponsorship of community activities is usually seen as thank you for support of businesses.

A more altruistic reason for Banks DIH to perform this community service is the recognition that exercise through sports is one of the most effective ways of offsetting the effects caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages and sugar laden drinks.

Your success in industry did not arise from breaking faith with your corporate plans, so please be faithful to your supporters.

Victor Wrong

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Guyanese must eschew the Love of Power and seek to espouse the Power of Love DEAR EDITOR, For the past several years, seldom a day goes by without some letter, report, or editorial in the printed press lamenting the social ills (crises) that have been plaguing the Guyanese society. As recent as April 17, 2019, the SN editorial “Dangerous Lives” which commented on the widespread perpetration of violence against women, suggests that we have to be doing something wrong.

Indeed we have! We have failed to eliminate the seeds of various forms of violence and discord so skillfully sewn by our former imperial masters. Given Guyana’s stark social realities, it is likely that the most salient question confronting Guyanese might very well be: “How can our society be reconstructed?” or,

“How can we change the direction of our cultural evolution?”

We are a nation consisting of several ethnicities. Unfortunately, we do not understand one another. We may tolerate one another, but few of us actually do love one another.

We interact daily, but it is extremely doubtful as to whether we are making any progress at building a Guyanese nation of one people with a common destiny.

Attempts at increasing the levels of cooperation and social cohesion are ineffective, and are easily undermined by those who wish to keep the nation divided. We seem oblivious to the fact that a divided nation has no future.

The crucial question is: “How

can this intricate and difficult issue of building a nation of one people with a common destiny be achieved?” There are no easy answers to this question, but progress might be possible if we can find a way to transform the love of power, which is a primary source of violence and division, into the power of love. This is absolutely essential for our viability as a Guyanese nation.

Changing a culture (social mindsets) can take decades, or even generations but, we can be encouraged by the truism that the longest journey begins with the first step. The Leader of the Opposition in Trinidad & Tobago, The Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar, on her recent visit to Guyana, made an excellent suggestion

The art of kite-making is dying, the culture of flying is declining DEAR EDITOR, The Easter Holiday and season is of major significance not only for Christians but for all Guyanese just as the other holidays observed

by Muslims and Hindus are seen and viewed by all.

The flying of kites is a remembrance of the ascension of Christ to be at the side of the Father, the Almighty in heaven and that is what kite flying is all about, but the art of making the kite is dying and the culture of flying is declining, but the Christian population is increasing and so are the denominations.

There was a time when almost every home, weeks before Easter Monday would select the

‘pointers’ or board frames and start to make the kites.

As for the board frame kites, many were over three feet in height, and decorated with hundreds of pieces of patchwork; with a ‘bull,’ ears and frills.

You don’t see that many kites and children and adults doing it these days.Raising and flying of the kite is a major significance, and reminds of the crucifixion and the resurrection and the ascending of Christ to heaven, but sad to say that the art of making the kite is dying and the culture of flying is declining.

Archie Cordis

in her address to the Guyanese Private Sector. The Honourable Lady suggested that there can be no better investment for Guyana than to invest in education with its new found wealth. I am in total agreement with this suggestion.

Schooling is compulsory by law, and all Guyanese must pass through the school system. It is, perhaps, one of the more appropriate places to begin to do the right thing, and that is to begin to sow the seeds of a more humane and caring mindset in our future citizens. I, therefore propose that Guyana undertakes, as soon as it is humanly possible, a comprehensive investment in quality holistic education.

Quality holistic education is defined as education that meets the needs of each individual student (that is, the

multiple intelligences of each individual are challenged daily), the needs of the teachers, and the needs within the environment.

In addition, to the historical fact that our inherited Eurocentric system of schooling was not designed for human development, but as a means of controlling the behaviour of the former slaves, Rudyard Kipling the poet laureate of European colonialism exposed another sinister goal of the imposed system in his poem “The White Man’s burden”: Take up the White Man’s burden Send forth the best ye breed Go bind your sons to exile To serve the captives’ need The text of this poem (Knowles, F.L.1974), includes

both an explication of the naked motives for imperialism and the euphemistic rationalizations that were used to obscure the ugliness of stealing someone else’s homeland and degrading their culture.

Guyanese must understand that our traditional inherited Eurocentric, elitist, export oriented schooling with its hierarchical authoritarian organization, and emphases on competition, individualism, indoctrination, provision of skills for the labour market, and which has brought civilization extremely close to the brink of environmental disaster, has not only been the source of widespread mental health problems and winner take all mentality, but is also inimical to our nation building Continued on page 7

Appealing for Govt., GCAA, to end this dilemma faced by Fly Jamaica passengers DEAR EDITOR, I am among several other passengers who were booked to travel on Fly Jamaica Airways in December 2018 when the plane crashed and caused subsequent flights, including mine, to be cancelled. Soon after, I was informed via email from the

airline to seek alternative arrangement and that the ticket money would be refunded in eight weeks’ time.

Editor, my ticket was purchased since October 2018 and to date no positive word was received from Fly Jamaica regarding the refund, neither was any refund made

to me. Phone calls went unanswered, visits to the office met with closed doors and emails not acknowledged.

I am quite certain that the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority are aware of this dilemma faced by Fly Jamaica passengers and the financial burden endured by not having a refund since this is a widely publicized matter ever since the accident occurred. In this regard, I humbly ask that the Ministry of the Presidency and the GCAA urgently address this matter and consider utilizing Fly Jamaica’s security bond held by the Government to refund passengers.

Regards Indrowtie Singh

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur M@ilbox Guyanese must...

From page 6 aspirations. Our present system of schooling does not educate, empower, or emancipate our citizens The present system of schooling in Guyana, therefore, must be replaced by a more development oriented education system that focuses on human development, emphasizes genuine democracy, cherishes and nurtures diversity, freedom for individuals to develop their innate potentials, morality, the building of relationships, responsibility, collegiality, cooperation, longer term thinking (stewardship for future generations), respect for all living things, the environment, and the interconnectedness between the living and non-living.

This type of education has great potential to facilitate and nurture the building of a compassionate, humane, democratic, development oriented and prosperous nation.

The development of a quality holistic education system in Guyana would take several years to accomplish.

However, we can take our first step by discussing and debating aspects of a comprehensive investment strategy in quality holistic education.

I cite eight of fifteen that I have identified as essential: 1) Funding: Much more money will be needed than is being allocated to education at the moment; 2) Land appropriation: Constitutional approval for the appropriation of land for

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the relocation of inadequate and unsafe schools; 3) Local Democracy: Communities must be allowed to play a greater role in the management of schools; 4) Schools must be purpose built. That is, possess all the facilities for the adequate delivery of the curriculum; 5) Teacher Education and Professionalization: There must be new policies aimed at recruiting the best candidates (the cream of the crop). All teachers must be competent in the following: a) area of specialization; b) information technology:, c) developmental psychology; and, d) action research; 6) Ideal sizes of schools and classes. These must be limited in order to facilitate frequent interaction between students and adult role models; 7) Protection of younger teens; There is need for an Intermediate level (Grades7, 8, 9, 10) where younger teens are offered some protection from bullying, and other vices; 8) Universal Literacy: Country-wide evening continuing holistic education classes should be established so as to provide second chance opportunities for adult citizens, and to enrich the environment to which students return when schools are closed.

The above list represents some of the main aspects to be considered in a comprehensive investment in quality holistic education in Guyana.

Yours truly, Clarence O. Perry

Kaieteur M@ilbox

The road to a new Guyana appears littered with the wreckage of the empty messages DEAR EDITOR, There is certainly a buzz around Guyana since the discovery of oil in commercially exploitable quantities. Every day you can read something about Guyana internationally, be it in the Oil & Gas Journal, the New York Times, and so on.

But no one speaks about the Guyanese economic prospect because the high risk of wasting all these funds because of corrupt ruling politicians and weak national institutions.

When President Granger spoke from the Parliament Buildings on May 16, 2015, he said, “Let us now put past rivalries behind us and work in unity to banish poverty, ignorance, fear, and hatred.

We assemble here today to witness the swearing in, not of a party leader, but of the President of all the people. I shall be a good President for all the people.” Editor, What do you think of his rhetoric now?

Between the rhetoric and the reality, all we got from Team Granger so far was a fairy tale after they spent some G$1.1 trillion of the taxpayers’ money. One is struck by the complete lack of commitment and competence by Team Granger toward this concept of the “good life”. After four (4)

years of Grangerism, the road to a new Guyana appears littered with the wreckage of the usually PNC empty messages from the past.

These messages - “the good life”, “a government of national unity”, “the opportunity to offer democratic renewal”, and so on, were all offered by Mr. Granger personally. But since that offering, all that Team Granger has done was embarked on a massive administrative disaster fueled by high levels of policy paralysis and gross incompetence. This situation is nothing but a bad omen for the Guyanese people.

Very little of what they promised, they have

delivered after these four (4) years.

These people promised to solve the endemic problems of corruption, nepotism and domestic terrorism (crime) but they have not. It was Mr. Granger himself who promised to “protect our citizens” using his so called military training to guide policies to allow the Guyanese people to feel safe. Today every woman, man, and child are at greater risk from being robbed, murdered or physically harmed at the hands of the domestic terrorist (drug infused kick down the door armed bandits included).

Thus, if one reflects on these Granger phrases, they

appear as mere subterfuge and deception. All that talk on the foyer of the Guyana Parliament on May 15, 2015, were really a smokescreen for the real agenda, which Team Granger pursued diligently since coming to the office.

The rational middle was fooled because regardless of how you dress up the Team Granger, it is nothing but the same old PNC with its nepotism, political intolerance, major acts of conflict of interest, executive incompetence and financial squander.

That is their legacy. The Granger legacy! The PNC legacy!

Regards Sasenarine Singh

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

What happened with Kaieteur, Canje Blocks was daylight robbery - Dr. Mangal

By Kiana Wilburg Oil and Gas Consultant, Dr. Jan Mangal, is of the firm conviction that the award of

the Kaieteur and Canje Blocks by the Donald Ramotar administration just days before the General and Regional Elections 2015

amounts to daylight robbery.

During an exclusive interview with this publication, the former Petroleum Advisor to the

Government said, “The issue with the Kaieteur and Canje is one of possible corruption.

No country awards these two huge blocks next to a highly

prospective block like the Stabroek Block just days before the results of a wildcat well are announced (ie Liza 1), and just days before a general election.”

Dr. Mangal added, “And no country awards these blocks to completely unknown and unqualified companies like Mid-Atlantic and Ratio. If one looks at the evidence from Nigeria, Liberia, etc, what happened in Guyana with the Kaieteur and Canje Blocks was daylight robbery.”

The Oil and Gas Consultant told Kaieteur News that the people of Guyana were robbed of billions of US$ by their politicians and the private sector. He said, “The people of Guyana need to become active and take an interest in how their heritage is being squandered. El Dorado has been forfeited before our eyes. And what are we doing about it? Nothing!”

PRECONTRACT COSTS Just recently, Kaieteur News exposed how the contract signed between the Donald Ramotar administration and ExxonMobil for the Kaieteur

Oil and Gas Consultant, Dr. Jan Mangal

Block leaves the nation saddled with $31.4M in precontract costs.

The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) does not give any details on how this sum was arrived at. It only states, “The sum of US$150,000 (is) in respect of all costs incurred by Contractor prior to the Effective Date.”

According to Ratio’s website: https:// www.ratiopetroleum.com/en/ projects/guyana/, Exxon holds a 35 percent interest in the Kaieteur Block which totals approximately 13,535 sq. kms. It is also the lead operator.

Holding 25 percent of the rights is Ratio Guyana limited which was renamed Cataleya Energy Limited. It should be noted that Ratio Guyana Limited represents a joint venture partnership between ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and Cataleya.

Cataleya on its own, holds 25% of the petroleum rights in the Block while Hess holds 15%.

The Kaieteur Block is Continued on page 65

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Teen loses life in new home during antenna fixing; dad survives

DIED: Nicosi Junior Pryce

Moving into a new home and making a fresh start, can at times bring a true sense of accomplishment, something that warrants a measure of enthusiasm.

For 45-year-old Junior Pryce and 47-year- old Sharon La Cruz, moving into a new home on the Essequibo Coast was just the fresh start they needed.

Disaster, however, can be very untimely. Just three days after moving into their new home, the couple’s only son was electrocuted.

Based on reports, some time between 08:00 hrs and 08:30 hrs Thursday morning, 15-year- old Nicosi Junior

Pryce met his untimely death.

Kaieteur News understands that at the time of the incident, Junior Pryce, a former student of the Aurora Secondary School, was helping his father install the television antenna.

The father of the now dead child explained that he and his son were both holding the antenna pole, when it came into contact with the live electrical cables.

With tears in eyes the father said, “We setting up the antenna so I let him do the turning…We had the pole up in the air and so we gotta take off the slippers to walk in the sand so we could stick

down the antenna. He holding the bottom of the pole and I got it on me shoulder. We walking and all I start feel is some volt running through me body and so I push he off, but still he hold on to me trying to pull me off.” Pryce said that the last thing he remembered before unconsciousness was his son’s body falling beside him.

Based on reports, the 45year- old was hospitalized at the Suddie Public Hospital, but later recovered. While Pryce may have recovered from his physical injury, it is

likely that the emotional wounds of losing his only son, may be opened for a long time. He told Kaieteur News yesterday, “I took some time to regain consciousness…

My son was still lifeless…

Even on the hospital bed I asked how my son was…

After all this year, when I now getting the full vibe and enjoyment of my son, he gone...No more son.”

In explaining the family’s motive for moving, the mother, La Cruz said, “All I ever wanted was a comfortable life for my son. I use to live in

Region One, then for the past two years in Georgetown.

This move was the one time the family would’ve been together under one roof.”

La Cruz said that Junior Pryce was her last child, and she was especially fond of him. She also noted that a proper education and a brighter future was all she wanted for her son.

“What hurt is that he wasn’t a sick child; he was a strong and healthy child… He brought first in class and he was always a pleasant and obedient child.”

Dem boys seh ...

Engineers bleeding de Treasury Is Easter again and people mekking all kind of joke. Dem boys remember de time when de people mek joke bout de money—de currency. De joke was, it was so light because it don’t have value.

Now people don’t mek joke bout de currency. Is serious business. De number of people who trying to get it is something that people can’t imagine. People talking bout de contract Donald sign just weeks before de elections, when he know Guyana had oil.

Dem boys seh people does usually do such a thing when something in it fuh dem.

That is why some of dem boys want to know how much Donald get.

Is de same thing wid de sugar plant that is now a white elephant. De Chinese give nearly US$200 million. If people do an audit dem would find that not US$50 million spend pun that factory. Wha happen to de rest. And that is US dollars.

De same thing wid de airport. Things happen deh and people calling some money but people who know de wuk seh nutten like de money dem calling ain’t spend. Somebody collect and people watching Patto.

Now dem have anodda source of money.

If de government got a contract it does tender.

Contractors does bid but some of dem know de engineer. That is wheh de runnings deh.

De engineer gun put up an estimate like if he buying nail and zinc from Russia while de others does charge like if dem buying from Gafoors.

De smart ones gun call de engineer and find out he estimate and dem would submit a bid close to that. That is de person who gun get de contract fuh a $50 Million job that really cost $20 million. De difference does buss up between de contractor, de engineer and whoever else involve in de racket.

Wha hurting Guyana is that these people don’t pay no tax pun de thiefing money.

One contractor seh he don’t pay nobody suh he can’t get contract. He seh people talking but he know that he gun spoil de whole coucou party. He seh some people from Jagdeo time still controlling de corruption in de tender process and Soulja Bai like it just so.

Some of de Ministers collecting too but dem ain’t mekking de mistake wha Jagdeo and he people mek. Dem holding on. If dem building anything is in somebody name.

Talk half and watch how Guyana losing money.

The home in which the family recently moved into.

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

The Easter Season is upon us and Kaieteur News joins the Christian community to wish the nation a Happy Easter. Even as persons endeavour to fly kites in observance of this occasion, we pray that the entire nation will continue to embrace our motto: One People, One Nation and One Destiny. Below are some best wishes for the observance of EASTER 2019.

PRESIDENT DAVID GRANGER Easter is the single most sacred festival in the Christian calendar. It commemorates Jesus’s miraculous resurrection – the most important event in Christianity – which lies at the core of the Jesus’s ministry and mission on earth.

Betrayal, trial, crucifixion and resurrection are the mystery of mankind’s salvation.

Most Christians believe that Jesus came to atone for the sins of the world and reconcile man to God. The Gospel of Luke [19: 10] announces Jesus’s mission: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Most Christians accept that Jesus’s crucifixion was a preordained sacrifice for the redemption of mankind and that his resurrection was a confirmation of the fulfilment of that mission. The Gospel of St John [17:4] recounts Jesus’s prayer to God: “I have glorified thee on earth. I have finished the work which thou

gavest me to do.”

Easter celebrates the triumph of life over death, good over evil and hope over despair. The values of this festival ¯ life and hope ¯ are shared by the adherents of Guyana’s main religions. It is no surprise, therefore, that Easter, while quintessentially a Christian commemoration, is observed by all and celebrated as a national festival.

The Easter celebration has become a manifestation of social cohesion. It is a time when the barriers of class and ethnicity are broken and replaced by the bonds of goodwill. The Easter holiday ¯ the longest weekend in our country’s calendar ¯ brings Guyanese together, at home and in the diaspora, in funfilled family reunions, kiteflying, picnics, regattas, rodeos and other outdoor activities.

The Easter celebration reminds us of this country’s geographic and demographic diversity. The Rodeo takes place in the Rupununi

savannahs of the south, populated mainly by indigenous people.

The Regatta is held at Bartica which located at the confluence of the great Essequibo, Mazaruni and Cuyuni rivers. Kite-flying across our country, is an ancient practice brought here

by Chinese immigrants. Easter celebrates our diversity.

The Easter celebration radiates happiness and hope everywhere.

Guyanese celebrating Easter this year can look towards the future with confidence. Peace and prosperity await us all.

The Easter celebration allows us to promote greater unity. We must use this sacred festival to reconcile ourselves not only to God but to one another by fostering a spirit of respect.

May the message of Easter become a source of strength for everyone as we work together to ensure a better future for all!

A happy Easter to all Guyanese!

PEOPLE’S NATIONAL CONGRESS/REFORM The Peoples’ National Congress Reform extends Easter Greetings to all Guyanese and more especially to members of our Christian Community, both here and around the world, on the celebration of one of the most important events in the Christian Calendar.

This festival, which commemorates the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, contains both in its symbolic significance, and its secular relevance, important and powerful messages.

For the members of the Christian Community, the Easter story represents the fulfilment of God’s prophecy that mankind would be offered the hope of eternal life through the sacrificial death of His son, Jesus Christ and His subsequent Resurrection from the dead. It is this faith, which has kept the worldwide Christian Church alive and enabled its followers to significantly contribute

towards making the earth a better place for all mankind.

The Easter season in Guyana is best known for widespread kite flying that is seen by many as a representation of the theme of the Resurrection. Whatever may have been its origins, kite flying attracts widespread participation of Guyanese, from all walks of life, regardless of religion, ethnicity or culture.

It, therefore, offers another opportunity for Guyanese to share common experiences and work towards a more socially cohesive society.

This Easter as our kites of many colours soar to the heavens, let us be inspired; let us celebrate our multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. Let us be proud of this rich mosaic that is Guyana. Our diversity is an asset, not a liability.

Happy Easter to All!

GUYANA AGRICULTURAL AND GENERAL WORKERS UNION The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) extends Easter Greetings to all Guyanese and more especially to members of our Christian Community, both here and around the world, on the occasion of the celebration of one of the most important events in the Christian Calendar. This festival, which commemorates the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, contains, both in its symbolic significance and its secular relevance, important and powerful messages.

For the members of the Christian Community, the Easter story represents the

fulfilment of God’s Prophecy that mankind would be offered the hope of eternal life through the sacrificial death of His son, Jesus Christ and His subsequent Resurrection from the dead.

It is this faith which has kept the worldwide Christian Church alive and enabled its followers to significantly contribute towards making the earth a better place for all mankind.

The Easter season in Guyana is best known for the widespread kite-flying activity that is seen by many as a representation of the theme of the Resurrection.

Whatever may have been its

origins, kite-flying attracts widespread participation of Guyanese, from all walks of life, regardless of religion, ethnicity or culture. It, therefore, offers another opportunity for Guyanese to share common experiences and understand each other better.

Let us hope that the symbolism of our kites soaring skyward inspire all Guyanese to embrace the abiding message of hope for the resurgence of the conditions needed for the future development and prosperity of this our Dear Land of Guyana.

A happy Easter to all!

PEOPLE’S PROGRESSIVE PARTY Easter is one of our nation’s most anticipated holidays in which Guyanese from all backgrounds participate in the traditional kite-flying and other family-related activities that have become synonymous with the occasion.

It is foremost a very sacred time for Christians across the world marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter also provides many pertinent lessons for all humanity through its teachings of tolerance, humility, love and respect for others while offering an abundance of hope that one will rise despite being confronted with insurmountable challenges.

It is that hope that gives meaningful purpose to all mankind for both personal and societal advancement. On this auspicious occasion, the People’s Progressive Party

(PPP) takes this opportunity to extend Easter Greetings to all Guyanese especially our brothers and sisters within the Christian community both here and in the Diaspora.

At this time, our Party urges reflection on the significance of this sacred occasion given its pertinent messages and the importance it can play in helping to realize universal peace and brotherhood among all.

Easter, like many of our national holidays, transcends religious boundaries and Guyanese in communities across our country will flock and interact at various vantage points epitomizing the true spirit of the occasion in serving to bring people t o g e t h e r. O u r P a r t y a l s o t a k e s t h i s occasion to remind of the need for safety while flying kites.

Once again Happy Easter to all!

ETHNIC RELATIONS COMMISSION The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) extends best wishes for the Easter holidays to all Guyanese, more in particular, our Christian brothers and sisters both here and overseas.

It is a time when Guyanese truly come together irrespective of religious belief to participate in kite-flying and other related activities across the country. This exemplifies the true spirit of not just Easter, but that of our national holidays which continue to foster togetherness of our people in this multi-faceted society.

This is important to all of us and our country. The ERC therefore urges that it

continues to be built upon so that the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood be strengthened through love, tolerance and mutual respect.

Easter signifies the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his death on the cross of Calvary. This offers a universal message for mankind that there is always hope for a new beginning in the face of adversity bringing comfort and motivation that there is a path to continuity even in what may be seen as the end. This is pertinent in all spheres of life, kindling courage and optimism while in despair.

As our kites soar and buzz high in the skies during this

time, let it become to symbolize our collective and sustained efforts in rising to the challenges as we endeavor together to remove the barriers of hate and prejudice so that peace, harmony and unity will grow and be infused in the hearts and minds of us all.

The ERC also urges that the true significance and the messages of Easter not be lost and that the teachings of Jesus Christ be that guiding hand in our efforts to promote harmony and good relations across our dear land among our Guyanese brothers and sisters.

Once again, best wishes for the Easter holidays.

INDIAN ACTION COMMITTEE The Indian Action Committee (IAC) in recognition that many Guyanese, including a number of persons of IndoGuyanese origin, are adherents of Christianity, in which a Jewish Carpenter named Yehshua (Jesus), is believed by his followers to be the son of God. The IAC also recognizes that the followers of Yehshua believes that he was crucified by the Romans acting under the advice of the Jewish religious leaders of that time; and that after his brutal execution managed to regain life and proceed out of his tomb and sometime later made himself visible to his disciples.

The IAC further recognizes that Islam includes Jesus as one of the holy prophets preceding the Prophet Muhammad SWT; but Muslims do not acknowledge that Jesus was the son of God nor that he was crucified.

The IAC understands that Buddhists claim that Jesus was a monk who spent his ‘missing years’ between the ages of 13 and 29 in the Himalayas as a student of sages and that he visited many places in the Indian subcontinent and even Tibet.

The IAC is of the opinion that the teachings of Yehshua are universally held to be good and thus encompasses all of the great religions of the world including Sanatan Dharma.

The IAC acknowledges that festivities will occur on Easter Monday which is characterized by flying of kites and enormous consumption of alcoholic

beverages and so, the organization calls upon all revellers to raise their kites in open areas devoid of electrical wires and have regard for the practice of no drinking and driving.

The IAC calls upon all Guyanese to follow the teachings of Yehshua who preached peace on earth, forgiveness and goodwill towards mankind, which are necessary goals for the development of a unified Guyana.

The IAC takes this opportunity to wish Christians of all denominations a solemn Good Friday and a Happy Easter.

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

Trinidadians build their offshore platforms instead of procuring established foreign suppliers ...Guyana, other producers must also make local content a major priority – Industry Analyst

By Kiana Wilburg Ensuring high levels of local participation in the oil sector is not something that happens overnight. But with the right investment by oil companies and the will of the government to put locals first, remarkable outcomes can be achieved for emerging oil producers like Guyana in the long run, says International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA).

To prove its case, IPIECA said one only has to look at Trinidad and Tobago. There, IPIECA said that local content is a major priority of the Trinidad and Tobago Government, which aims to ‘maximize the level of participation of its national people, enterprises, technology and capital through the development and increasing use of locally-owned businesses … and human capabilities in the conduct of all activities connected with the energy sector’.

Committed to achieving this, IPIECA said that Trinidad made the crucial decision to have its locals build offshore platforms that were needed.

IPIECA said, “BP Trinidad & Tobago (BPTT) is that country’s leading oil and gas producer and a significant profit centre for BP globally. As part of BPTT’s expansion, the company needed a series of `new offshore platforms: Cannonball, Mango and Cashima.

Rather, procuring the design and construction of these facilities from established suppliers in Louisiana, the company took a ‘strategic approach’ to this investment decision.”

The Association continued, “BPTT considered the design and construction of these platforms to be valuable opportunities for building competitive local engineering and fabrication capacities. This was a challenging decision in the initial instance, because the local fabrication of the first platform Continued on page 15

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

ANOTHER OIL FIND BUT…

Guyana needs to know what’s in it for them - GTUC The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) is taking aim at the current debate over the oil and gas sector.

Wi t h p r o d u c t i o n t o s t a r t within months on the offshore Liza 1 area, the union body made it clear that there is still little understanding of emerging sector that will impact Guyana.

The GTUC said it has taken note of the announcement on Thursday 18th April by Exxon Mobil of another find, marking the 13th on the Stabroek Block.

“This find will add to the already expected more than five billion barrels to be produced, yet Guyanese workers have no clear understanding or guideline how they are expected to foremost benefit from these resources that belong to them.

Outside of announcements as to profit sharing between government and the oil companies and sweeping statements the revenue would be directed towards improving social services citizens/workers have nothing concrete to hold on to,” the body said in a statement yesterday.

Guyana is expected to collected a two percent royalty and split the profits in half.

However, there have been burning questions about that 50/ 50 split.

Guyana would only receive its part after ExxonMobil and its partners take out their expenses.

There have been questions over the expenses as filed by E x x o n M o b i l a n d G u y a n a ’s capacity to verify it.

According to GTUC, it is on record calling for the government-prepared Local Content Policy to be reviewed by stakeholders with the aim of having the policy become more inclusive and finally put into law.

“In our 5th March publicly announced 19-point proposal, outlining a menu of measures to forge the constitutional political system of inclusionary democracy, we called for this.

Letters of our desire were dispatched to President David Granger and Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo.

“To date neither Government nor Opposition has made any move to activate this crucial and important aspect of our development that would assure local labour and businesses they stand to gain and be protected.”

GTUC was of the opinion that politicians see the next General and Regional Elections as the mother of all elections, primarily because oil and gas are expected to flow come 2020.

“The workers of this country have various political

GTUC’s Lincoln Lewis association, a basic right that must be respected, but what they are wary of is that the enjoyment of said right could present a climate where they could be excluded/from/discriminated a g a i n s t s e l l i n g t h e i r l a b o u r, actively participating and benefitting from the sector.”

The union body said that already, there are allegations of discriminatory practices in preference of one group over the other by local contractors involved in the sector.

“Similar charges are made about the public and private sectors. To take the allegations lightly in a racially fractured and

polarised society is to prepare to see the intensifying of tension and clashes amongst groups.

This country needs Equal Opportunity Laws as a matter of principle and urgency.”

GTUC said that people are already staking claims that they stand a chance to benefit.

“Where expectations are not met disgruntlement and its attendant fallouts will follow.

Now is the time for a national plan, the facilitating of diverse views on how Guyanese can benefit and must be allowed to participate. GTUC reiterates concern that citizens are being made to feel the national focus is singularly on elections and nothing can happen until after.”

GTUC also said that in the meantime, the sabre rattling between the superpowers– United States of America and R u s s i a - o v e r Ve n e z u e l a i s escalating. “ W h e r e Ve n e z u e l a h a s already signaled nonp a r t i c i p a t i o n i n G u y a n a ’s approach to the International Court of Justice to seek peaceful resolution to the border controversy and has been in alliance with Russia to funnel its oil sales, thus evading U.S’ sanctions, we cannot sit easy.

Particularly so since U.S now has direct and vested interest in the

exploiting of our oil and gas resources.

What is currently evolving in Venezuela, unless we have our defence and protective mechanism in place, can have deleterious impact in Guyana and amongst Guyanese.”

The union body said that there is evidence that the world is replete with evidence where superpowers have sow seeds of discord, undermined governments and invaded countries in the name of democracy to commandeer their oil and gas resources.

“Guyanese must be good stewards of history not only in recording and recounting but also putting systems in place to avoid similar pitfalls. We have to stand as one in the face of our finds and external happenings and not allow ourselves to be the pawn of any in their quest for dominance and proving their might.”

GTUC reiterated the importance of the nation achieving a unity of purpose and commitment through the establishing of an inclusionary Local Content and attendant laws.

“This nation, as a matter of u rg e n c y, must proceed judiciously in addressing matters that are bound to impact our sovereignty, peace and stability, be they internal and/or external.”

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

Body scanners to help tackle smuggling in prisons Full body and baggage scanners will be introduced to the New Amsterdam Prisons as part of efforts to tackle smuggling of contraband into the state reform facilities.

The machines are set to cost US$1.8M and will be purchased under the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP), to strengthen the Guyana Prison Service Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Services.

Kaieteur News understands that two scanners will be installed at the New Amsterdam Prison before the end of the year.

The government, through the Public Security Ministry, will be procuring additional scanners for the other prisons in the country to block illegal items from entering the prisons.

Contraband entering the prisons has been a growing

issue for over a decade. Last year, a search team recovered a camouflage hat and a pair of camouflage short pants from the area. They also found a parcel containing 1002 grams of marijuana, a large quantity of tobacco leaves, four cell phones without SIM cards, one charger, one earpiece and 33 packets of Bristol cigarettes.

Soon after that, ranks manning the eastern towers

of the Lusignan prison, heard “crashing sounds” emanating from the bushes and shortly after they observed a male clad in a ‘hoodie’.

The ranks then fired a “warning shot” into the thick vegetation. They recovered a bag containing 140 packets of cigarettes, four cellular phones, 11 lighters, one power pack, one earpiece, a phone charger, 15 packets of small size zip lock bags and 1794 grams of cannabis.

Police was also later called in to investigate the discovery of a knife and cutlass that were seen outside the north eastern fence of the holding bay at the Lusignan Prison.

According to reports, they were seen in the possession of a prisoner who was disarmed by another prisoner.

The items were then thrown out of the holding bay and the matter was reported to prison authorities.

A few months prior to these discoveries, a probe was launched at the New Amsterdam Prison, after (Continued on page 15)

Some of the smuggled items that were found in the prisons

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

GNBA warns radio, TV stations on call-in programmes The Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) has issued letters to operators reminding them of the need to exercise responsibilities, especially during call-in programmes.

“The GNBA is cognizant of the fact that Article 146 of Guyana’s Constitution guarantees Guyanese freedom of expression, which includes freedom of speech and the freedom to receive information, ideas and opinions. However, the GNBA continues to encourage broadcasters to exercise their freedom and rights with responsibility,” a statement said Thursday.

“The GNBA does not intend to act outside of the Broadcasting Act and other related subsidiary legislation.

Therefore, the Authority holds broadcasters to a higher standard than a person calling in to the studio, during a call in programme.”

According to GNBA, broadcasters are held accountable for the broadcast of content and any violation of the broadcasting legislation.

“GNBA states categorically that letters recently issued to broadcasters by the authority have no political undertone or objective as seems to be the perception of the Parliamentary Opposition. The Authority wishes to state unequivocally that it functions as an impartial body and executes its mandate in a lawful and professional manner.”

The GNBA said it also wishes to clarify that notices

Trinidadians build...

From page 12 (Cannonball) would incur a US$10M cost premium (on a total project cost of US$54M) relative to international fabrication; and it was necessary to enhance local skill levels in engineering, design and fabrication to support local participation.”

The transparency body added, “BPTT facilitated local fabrication by supporting the creation of two Joint Ventures (JVs). One was for engineering and construction management with Fluor Corporation (USA) and Summit.

The second was for fabrication with Trinidad Offshore Fabricators Co. Ltd. (TOFCO), a JV of Chet Morrison Contractors (USA) and Weldfab Limited.”

IPIECA said that both JVs provided the means to develop local capacities through technical training and mentoring.

Since the beginning of the Cannonball project in 2002, IPIECA emphasized that the benefits of the strategic approach for BPTT have been significant. IPIECA highlighted that there was the development of competitive local suppliers. In this regard, the Association noted that TOFCO and the Summit JV won the subsequent contracts to construct the Mango and Cashima platforms

through a competitive tendering process. TOFCO has also secured further platform construction contracts with BHP Billiton and EOG Resources.

The Association noted that there were cost savings too. It said, “BPTT realized more than US$11 million savings on the construction of the two subsequent platforms through reduced design, engineering and procurement costs and shorter fabrication times. The company could achieve additional savings on future facilities required under longterm production infrastructure requirements.”

With respect to BPTT staff capacity development, the Association noted that a local BPTT staff member managed the project internally. It said that this helped develop the company’s internal capacities in project and supply chain management.

As for local economic development benefits, the Association said that local fabrication activities encouraged the development of nearby SMEs, increased local employment in a previously deprived area of Trinidad and paved the way for wider export opportunities in oil and gas fabrication.

Body scanners to...

From page 14 picturesofseveralhighprofilecriminals surfaced on Facebook.

Most of these inmates were on remand for murder. In the photos, theprisonerswereseenflauntingexpensivealcoholandwereseensmoking what is suspected to be marijuana. It was reported that the contrabands were transported on a garbagecollectiontractorcontracted by the prison.

With the numerous attempts to smuggle contrabands into the prison, ranks at the Lusignan Prison recently conducted a three-hour search at the venue where they found three cell phones, two cell

phones batteries, a pocket knife, four pair scissors, two hack saw blades, 13 improvised weapons and two mirrors.

They also found 24 lighters, 27 phone chargers, four ear pieces, two pack needles, four phone casings, four zip lock bags with marijuana, one memory card, three SIM cards, cigarettes and a quantity of wires and razor blades.

Subsequently, a search was conducted at the New Amsterdam Prison where ranks discovered six cellphones,292gramsofmarijuana, 12 phone chargers, cigarettes, eight improvised weapons/ jookah and three SIM cards.

issued to broadcasters for breaches to the Broadcasting Act are not intended in the first instance to lead to the closure of broadcasting stations.

“Notably, the Authority’s statutory mandate is to regulate,

supervise and develop the sector.

Thus, it is important to emphasize that broadcasters have been improving based on the consistent actions of the Authority. “ GNBA said that

broadcasters who have been issued frequencies and licences to broadcast and have not utilized the frequencies in the past six months and have no intentions to utilize the frequencies in the next three

months, will be up for review.

“The Authority intends to maintain harmonious relations with broadcasters and urges broadcasters to function within the ambits of the law,” the GNBA statement said.

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

ExxonMobil contracts fourth drillship As ExxonMobil continues exploration drilling activities offshore Guyana and installation operations in preparation for first oil in less than a year, it has contracted the drillship, Noble Don Taylor.

This is according to a fleet status report from Noble Corporation which was published on April 18, 2019, and comes as the US oil giant announced its 13th oil find on Thursday.

The Noble Don Taylor is currently in the Gulf of Mexico working for Talos Energy. It will be joining two of its sister vessels – the Noble Bob Douglas and the Noble Tom Madden – which are in the Stabroek Block along with the Stena Carron, bringing the drill fleet in Guyana to four.

The Stena Carron

drillship is currently at the Longtail-1 discovery completing a Well test and, upon completion, will move to drill the Hammerhead-3 Well. The Hammerhead-3 drill site, which is located approximately 88 nautical miles off Guyana’s coast, will cover an area of one square kilometre.

After making Exxon’s 13th discovery at Yellowtail-1, the Noble Tom Madden will begin drilling the Hammerhead2 Well. The Noble Bob Douglas drillship is in the process of completing development drilling operations at Liza Phase 1.

ExxonMobil had previously said that there is potential for at least five floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels on the Stabroek Block producing more than 750,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025.

(DPI)

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Fight over cabbage leads to teen's death

The body covered with a yellow sheet The teen's inconsolable grandmother

A

teenager is now dead after intervening in a fight between his father and some Amerindian men. The killing occurred at the Timehri docks on Friday.

The father was apparently unloading cabbage when he was confronted by the individuals and a scuffle ensued. The young man identified as 17-year-old David Toney, of Alliance Road, Timehri, East Bank Demerara worked at the docks loading and offloading vehicles.

David Toney resided with his grandmother. He reportedly lefthome to go to his place of work, when the incident occurred.

He was discovered with a stab wound to his left side chest.

The body which was covered in a yellow sheet was on the ground, a few feet away from the Demerara River.

His father received a stab to the abdomen and his back, while his stepmother was stabbed to the shoulder and the hip.

The body was removed by undertakers. Rigor mortis had already set. The grandmother of the deceased was wailing uncontrollably as residents tried to console her.

The perpetrators are known and could be easily identified.

Police are investigating the matter.

Pepper Street female drug dealer jailed

A

Pepper Street woman who was part of a drug running gang has been nabbed and jailed. The w o m a n , Va l e n c i a Carmichael, 37 of Pepper Street, Heathburn, East Bank Berbice, appeared on Thursday before Magistrate Peter Hugh in the New Amsterdam Magistrate's Court.

She was charged with Possession of Narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.

She appeared in court and pleaded guilty.

Carmichael was sentenced to three years in jail and fined $424,000.

According to Prosecutor,

Chief Inspector Bernard Brown, the police acting on information early on Thursday morning conducted a search of the woman's premises. During the search, in her presence, the cops found a quantity of leaves, seeds and stem of what was suspected to be the marijuana plant in a barrel in her bedroom.

The items were retrieved and the woman was told of the offence, arrested and taken into custody. The items were tested and weighed and found to be 848 grams of cannabis sativa.

She was charged and appeared in court and pleaded guilty to the charge.

Sandvoort man jailed, fined for possession of firearm

S

tephen Levi, 38, a f a r m e r o f Sandvoort Village West Canje , Berbice was on Monday sentenced to one year in jailed and fined $50,000 by Magistrate Peter Hugh when he appeared before him in the New Amsterdam Magistrate's Court. The charge was for possession of firearm without a licence.

A pistol was found at his

home.

According to the Prosecution 8th April the police acting on information went to the home of Levi and conducted a search. During the search a pistol was found concealed in a section of his well fence yard.

He could not produce a licence for the firearm and was arrested and charged.

In court he pleaded guilty and was jailed and fined.

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

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President is back from Cuba, doctors' caution against heavy workload

A narrow escape!

T

President David Granger meets with the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo while staying in Cuba

A

fter a successful c y c l e o f r a d i o t h e r a p y, President David Granger got back to Guyana late yesterday.

Kaieteur News understands that his treatment was executed without complication or hiccup. The team of doctors treating him expects the president to return to normalcy.

However, the doctors have cautioned that, at this time, the President should not take on a heavy workload, and that care must be taken when pursuing excessive public engagements.

He has been placed on a schedule of medication, and is expected to return to Cuba at a later date, for further treatment.

A release from the Ambassador of Guyana to the Republic of Cuba, Halim Majeed, states that President Granger has expressed much gratitude to Cuban

President, Miguel DiazCanel, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Raul Castro, First VicePresident of Cuba, Salvador Valdes Mesa, Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Cuban Ambassador in Guyana, Narciso Reinaldo Socorro, the Medical Team at CIMEQ (Centro de Investigaciones Medico Quirugicas), the CARICOM Caucus in Cuba, and others who've extended wishes for his full recovery.

The President had kept busy in Cuba. He reportedly visited the Cuban National Zoological Park, the National Botanic Garden of the University of Havana, and Escuela Taller de la Habana in Old Havana (a public vocational institute).

He also met with the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, and the Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, who congratulated him on his physical wellbeing and recovery.

he driver of this Toyota 212 is counting his lucky stars after he ended up underneath a tractor travelling in the opposite direction along the Number 57 Public Road, Friday night.

Kaieteur News was told by an eyewitness that the car was heading west when it overtook another vehicle and ended up underneath the tractor travelling east. No-one was seriously injured.

Kaieteur News

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Sunday April 21, 2019

GPHC helps abandoned woman celebrate her th 50 birthday

By Sharmain Grainger

R

eaching the age of 50, for many people, is usually a milestone worth celebrating in fine style.

However, a cake and the company of her sister, Kim, would have been all that was needed to suffice for an enjoyable day for Sharmin Lewis.

Lewis, who is both

mentally and physically challenged, turned 50 last week Wednesday.

What is interesting to note is that she did not spend the day at home among family members and friends, rather, she spent it with staffers of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC] where she has been lodging since 2017.

This publication had reported that the woman was

dropped off by a relative who claimed she was unwell. At the time she was suffering from anaemia, urinary tract infection and haematoma [a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues] to the head.

A sister, Kim Lewis, had claimed that the woman had suffered the head injury due to a fall, down a flight of stairs. Kim had claimed too that her sister resided with her at Lot 44 Fort Ordnance Housing Scheme, East Canje, Berbice. Before being

Ms Marcia Fredericks lighting the birthday cake for the abandoned Sharmin Lewis [second from left] on Wednesday in the company of, Shivonna, who is also abandoned at the GPHC, and another GPHC staffer. transferred to the GPHC, the woman was a patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital.

There were suspicions that the woman was abused.

But even after being treated and a period of recuperation and being discharged, no family member, including Kim, seemed willing to accept the light-hearted Sharmin back into their home. Moreover, the woman has remained at the public hospital even as Medical Social Workers at the hospital continue their quest to find a new home for her.

Medical Social Worker, Marcia Fredericks, simply could not allow Sharmin to spend her 50 th birthday without some fanfare.

Moreover, she went ahead and planned a birthday party complete with a pretty pink and white cake, drinks and even birthday hats. It was an opportune undertaking, Fredericks noted, as it occurred even as the hospital was hosting a ceremony to celebrate its 20th year as a Corporation.

H o w e v e r, t h e o n l y person who attended the party as Sharmin's special invitee was a fellow lodger, Shivonna, at the GPHC. The woman, in her early 20s, was reportedly left at the hospital's Accident and Emergency Unit by a brother two weeks before Christmas last year. “Based on the information we would have gathered, she was abandoned...because she was not brought in to see a doctor,” Fredericks

explained. According to Fredericks, while the young woman was not found to be ailing, she does have a speech impediment and is visually impaired. “Because it was the Christmas season when she came, we didn't just want to leave her, so we brought her up into the ward so that she could be around other people...so she is just lodging until we can find a place for her too, because it seems no family member is coming for her,” said Fredericks.

Both women are lodging in the hospital's Female Medical Ward.

According to Fredericks, she would have been happy if a family member could have found it in his/her heart to at least take Sharmin home for her birthday. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, Sharmin, who is barely able to speak clearly, mumbled 'Kim'.

“I understand somebody came today [Wednesday] to see her [Sharmin], but just like how they came, why can't they come and take her home?” questioned Ms. Fredericks.

With tears in her eyes, Fredericks spoke of being hurt to see the ladies completely abandoned by their own family members due to no fault of their own.

“This is taking a lot out of me; I am not normally a person who cries, but sometimes I just feel burnt out. I don't want to force the family to take them home if they don't want to, because I (continued on page 53)

Kaieteur News

Vanie Persaud

Sunday April 21, 2019

Meet the charming Miss Vanie Persaud. This Georgetown beauty enjoys road trips, watching sports and interacting with people. Her favourite quote is, “Surround yourself with people who talk about visions and ideas not people.�

PAGE 21

Kaieteur News

PAGE 22

Sunday April 21, 2019

No-Nonsense Regional Executive Officer,

Pauline Lucas,

By Sharmain Grainger

F

rom as far back as biblical days, it was quite a phenomenon to behold when a woman attempted to, and succeeded in infiltrating a male-dominated role. Such developments still draw much attention today. So it came as no surprise that when a woman was appointed to the position of Regional Executive Officer [REO] of the Region Four Regional Democratic Council [RDC] back in 2015, all eyes would have been on her.

That woman is Ms. Pauline Lucas, who has been making some notable waves in Region Four because of her no-nonsense management approach. In fact, what she made no bones about disclosing recently is that she has been, and will continue, managing the region's money in much the way she does her own.

What many contractors who were awarded contracts in the region recently learnt is that Lucas doesn't like to waste a single cent. She moreover warned the contractors, after awarding several millions in contracts, that she will be settling for neither substandard or delays in the completion of the various projects.

“I have heard from time to time that persons say 'Miss Lucas is not a contractor how would she know what to look for?'…but I have had the experience building my own home, and I would not spend my money on something I cannot supervise, or see my money go down the drain, so I have a passion to always know what's going on, even if it means reading or calling in my engineer or calling up

is a 'Special Person'

friends to explain certain things to me,” Lucas, who is deemed a freak for details, explained.

UNMATCHED ZEAL The REO position became available to Lucas at a time when she was exploring her career options, but when she took the reins of the Region Four RDC, it was with unmatched zeal and vigour and a vision to make it a model region.

Lucas's success in Region Four has been so overwhelming that it has been spilling over to other regions through her willingness to lend support to her colleagues where it is needed.

But what many people do not know is that Lucas has been benefiting, not only from the support of committed staffers, but she has been most dependent on the Supreme Being, whom

“

I don't care who I am working with; I don't care which administration I am working with, I give my best, because I see myself as a public servant, and I am expected to give my best.

Indeed she is well on her way to making her vision a reality.

Lucas has not only ensured that her Region has in place a functioning unit dedicated to procurement, to ensure that spending is done in the right and legal manner, but she has also authorized the introduction of a publication which is intended to chronicle all of the achievements of the Region while under her watch. These achievements are already many, and from the look of things, many more will shortly be added.

Lucas just last year end completed a three-year contract as REO, and, it can be deduced that because of successful management of the Region, she was given the privilege of signing another, which will see her at the helm of the Region for another three years.

”

she seeks for guidance and wisdom on a daily basis. This tactic has allowed her to always be on top of her game even when situations seem to be at their very worse.

“I live by two biblical scriptures Philippians 4:13 [I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength] and Ecclesiastes 9:10 [Whatsoever your hands find to do, do it with thy might for there is no work nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest,” said Lucas, who formerly fellowshipped at the Newtown Assemblies of God Church, but currently worships at the church's branch at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, an area in which she now resides.

“I don't care who I am working with; I don't care which administration I am working with, I give my best,

At a recent contract signing ceremony

because I see myself as a public servant, and I am expected to give my best,” Lucas confided as she added, “you cannot operate and do your best without that connection with God. Everything that I would have achieved, I owe it unto God.” FORMATIVE YEARS She was born Pauline Allison Lucas to parents Leyland and Gweneth Lucas at the Georgetown Public Hospital on October 19, 1966. She was the fifth of eight children her parents' raised.

A large part of Lucas' young existence was at D'Urban Street Lodge, but she also recalled living at Hadfield Street and in Kitty too, all locations in the capital city of Georgetown.

She remembers attending Lodge Government School, then the New Mentor Foundation Primary School, where she wrote Common Entrance, which allowed her to be placed at North Ruimveldt Multilateral Secondary, where she completed two years of secondary school.

She spent another three years completing her secondary education over at Central High where she wrote the Caribbean Examinations Council examination.

“I loved Maths, a whole

The no-nonsense Pauline Lucas lot,” said Lucas, as she recalled how as a young girl she'd imagined herself becoming a mathematician.

In fact, she recalled too that even before her teenage years she'd also become very curious about electrical things and couldn't seem to shake this feeling, even after being encouraged by her mother to pursue nursing when she graduated from secondary school.

THINGS ELECTRICAL She had an unwavering desire at this point to delve into electrical engineering.

By this time her father had passed away and her mother was the sole breadwinner of the home, and was willing to let her daughter pursue her heart's desire. Before long the blossoming Pauline Lucas was enrolled as an apprentice in the then Guyana Electricity Corporation [GEC] training school at Sophia.

“I was the only female among 20 apprentices,” Lucas recounted, as she added, “I loved what I did…I

was what they called a 'Tom Boy' back then.”

She was learning all there was to know about becoming an electrical technician, right down to learning to climb the poles.

“Everything the boys in class did, I did too… throughout that four years of the training programme you had to be in various departments, including the lines department,” Lucas shared, as she painted a picture of herself in overalls, safety shoes and helmet. She remembers being attached to the Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara Power Station at one time. In addition to this, Lucas was also trained to become a mechanic and auto electrician, all of which she developed a knack for at training school.

During her training she was also placed in the Instrumentation Unit of the GEC, a department which was tasked with testing all equipment used at the various power stations across the country. Lucas (continued on page 51) Having fun with some colleagues

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

PAGE 23

Some government big boys talking the KN bossman name

D

em boy had a fly on a wall. Is so 'dem' hear about a 'soo-soo' between some of the big boys in government.

The topic was about the 'bossman' from the Waterfalls newspaper.

The government boys saying how the 'bossman' like he tun PPP. Well dem boys gat news for dem government big boys who talking the bossman name. In their book, it is either you are for or you are against me.

Their stunted intellectual development would not allow them to see things in any other colour other than black of white.

This is what has this country in such a mess. It is either you are their friend or their enemy. You cannot be their friend if you are prepared to see their faults and their flaws. Once you see what they are doing is wrong and you speak out against it, you are their enemies. Well, the bossman prefer to be an enemy of the devil than be his friend.

The bossman was never no PPP. His newspaper was never no PPP. Kaieteur News never stood on anybody's side. Neither has it opted to sit on the fence. It has been brave and bold enough to stand on the side of righteousness. And the big man above knows this better than anyone else.

Kaieteur News has always stood on the side of the truth. It has never and will never compromise that standard. It owes it to the people to inform them truthfully and to the best of its abilities. To do otherwise would be a public disservice.

It is not bothered by those who want to attach labels to it because of the principled stance it has taken. It does not mind if dem big boys are annoyed. Its job is to ensure that the public is informed of

the truth and that is what it is doing.

Kaieteur News is an independent newspaper.

This is what we have stood for and what we will continue to stand for. Those who want to make this newspaper their mouthpiece or are too stupid to understand that can waffle in their ignorance.

Kaieteur News must not be misunderstood. It has never taken a PPP, AFC or APNU line. This newspaper has exposed wrongdoing and skullduggery under the PPPC and it has continued to so under APNU and the AFC. And is not dem boys only who saying so.

The same people who talking the bossman name behind closed doors should listen to what their Prime Minister has to say.

Kaieteur News recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. It has been standing on the side of the truth, exposing wrongdoing for 25 years. During all of this period, it has never been a party newspaper.

The Prime Minister was decent enough to send a message of congratulations on the Silver Jubilee of the newspaper.

In a letter congratulating this newspaper, the Prime Minister stated that Kaieteur News has “contributed immensely to media freedom in Guyana and has promoted our democratic image by its own bold and fearless journalism”.

He said that it has “exposed the pervasive c o r r u p t i o n a n d authoritarianism that led to a change of government in 2015”. He highlighted that the newspaper “survived acts of terror, one of which claimed the lives of five pressmen, economic sabotage in denial of state advertisement, and

victimization” because Glenn Lall stood up against the “powerful and the mighty.”

He noted that in the past 25 years, Guyana has seen a huge advance in the bolstering of an “open, free and plural media landscape.”

To this end, he said, Lall's efforts to attain this objective cannot be undervalued or overlooked.

It is not dem boys who

seh that. It is the Prime Minister who belongs to the same government of those who are talking the bossman name behind closed doors.

The bossman has made it clear that Kaieteur News condemned the excesses of the PPPC and it will condemn the excesses of the APNU+AFC coalition and any other future government.

Kaieteur News will retain an independent line.

In fact, in order to maintain this line, the bossman has made a personal decision that he will never vote again.

Not only because he is disappointed that instead of change what Guyana got was an exchange, but because he prefers not to even take a side when it comes to his democratic right to do so. As such, he cannot be accused of being pro-any party. He

will be pro-truth, pro-justice, pro-decency, proactive, professional, prorighteousness.

Kaieteur News will continue to play its watchdog role. And to those who do not like it, they can continue to talk the bossman name behind closed doors.

Whatever they say will come right back to him.

Kaieteur News

PAGE 24

Sunday April 21, 2019

Migrant Caravans: Are they in the Caribbean's future?

By Sir Ronald Sanders

I

magine the scene if people with little hope of a better life in Caribbean countries could walk to the United States.

Undoubtedly, many would do so, joining the tens of thousands in the present socalled Caravan from three countries in Central America – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Television, cinema and other media have for decades painted a portrait of the United States as a land of plenty, where fairness, justice and the rule of law prevail, and where the poor,

however uneducated and unskilled, have a better chance to improve their lives than they have in their native lands.

If that portrayal was ever true, it certainly is not so now. And, to be clear, the unwelcomeness of unskilled and uneducated immigrants did not start with the present US administration of President Donald Trump.

The famous legend at the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore”, has long

been abandoned.

Recall the turning back of shiploads of Haitians risking their lives in perilous journeys across the sea to US shores in the 1980s. It was President Jimmy Carter's Democratic administration in 1980 that introduced detention camps for Haitians – a tool that Republican President Ronald Reagan embraced fully when he came to office in 1981.

President Bill Clinton also maintained the system, trying at one point to convince other Caribbean countries to absorb thousands of the Haitians detainees held in the US.

After 9/11, the detention regime expanded under President George W Bush, and it continued until it has reached the present point of political controversy in the US. The controversy is not over the desire to curb immigration; it is over how it is done. All parties in the US want the issue tackled. That includes the former administration of President Barack Obama, which also detained immigrants and deported illegal ones and those that committed crimes.

The point should be made that the US has no policy to stop immigration.

The country has one of the most liberal legal immigration schemes in the world, through which skilled and trained persons from every continent have gained access to the US. But, it wishes to stop illegal and uncontrolled immigration, mostly by unskilled people who would increase unemployment, enlarge impoverished areas and add to the national welfare bill. In this overall desire, the US is no different from any other country.

The Caribbean region has experienced – and

resisted - migration from countries such as Guyana, Jamaica, Dominica and St Vincent to others like Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda which, at one point, were more economically prosperous.

Haitians have also migrated illegally to the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, where the reception of them was no better than in the US. And, if Haitians could walk to the US, as can the people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, they would be amongst the huddled masses on the US southern border.

What causes this migration from the three Central American countries and Haiti? Some of the factors are now normal.

They include high unemployment, limited economic opportunities, inadequate education and training, high crime, poverty, corruption, violence and downright bad governance.

But, now, there is a new factor, one that will become a more important determinant in the future – Climate Change.

Thirteen independent Caribbean Community

Sir Ronald Sanders (CARICOM) countries are differentiated from the three Central American countries and Haiti by three things: a continuing commitment to democracy and the rule of law, including freedom of expression; investment in education and training up to the tertiary level; and lower levels of poverty and crime.

These elements allow for continuing investment, both local and foreign, in their economies; keeping poverty levels relatively low; maintaining a steady level of employment; and political stability.

If these CARICOM countries depart from their democratic values, including the rule of law and political freedoms, the effect on good governance will choke-out investment and collapse their economies, driving up unemployment and poverty.

In turn, economic refugees will emerge, and they too will find their way to the borders of richer nearby (continued on page 49)

Sunday April 21, 2019

PAGE 25

Kaieteur News

---Hinds’ Sight by Dr. David Hinds---

The Police should leave Mr. Jagdeo alone In 2010, a group of Buxtonions invited the then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, to Buxton and afforded him a lavish welcome. This was after President Jagdeo had described Buxtonions in very unflattering terms and his government had presided over the criminalization of the village, as they sought to combat the politico-criminal project that was embedded there. The visit was met with divided opinion in the village and some of the scars are still felt to this day.

I publicly opposed the visit on the grounds that Mr. Jagdeo should not be welcomed among African Guyanese who felt the heavy boots of his authoritarian regime, and in the process, were systematically marginalized. I expressed dismay that my fellow villagers would issue the invitation. Mr. Jagdeo took offence to my stance and launched an attack on me, including the veiled and not so veiled charge that I was being a racist. He claimed that as President of Guyana, he was free to visit any community. Some prominent Buxtonions agreed with him and chastised me.

A year later, during the 2011 election campaign, the PPP turned up for a meeting in Buxton and they were promptly expelled by Buxtonions. I had nothing to do with what was a spontaneous act by frustrated villagers, but I supported my fellow villagers and defended them against PPP charges that they were hooligans I recounted those two incidents to remind Guyana that Mr. Jagdeo and the PPP are strong defenders of the right of the president and the government to visit any community, regardless of how that community feels about them. So, I was more than a little surprised when a few weeks ago, Mr. Jagdeo urged his supporters to chase and harass the president and his ministers when they visit their communities. His justification is that the government was

illegal.

The PPP government was mean to me personally. I was denied employment; I was blacklisted at the airport. I was denied access to the State Media. And I think if they return to power, they would resume those actions. There is something about the PPP’s politics that thrives on revenge. It is for that reason that I cannot support that party’s return to power. But I will defend Mr. Jagdeo’s right to engage in sharp political polemics.

Although his rhetoric at Babu Jaan was extreme, I do not think Mr. Jagdeo has committed any crime. Yes, his rhetoric could possibly lead to attacks on government officials, but I can list many statements by government ministers that could have led to attacks on opponents.

Most African Guyanese have a combination of disdain and fear for Jagdeo and the PPP. So, I am sure that they rejoiced when the news broke that Mr. Jagdeo was being questioned by the police about his instructions to his supporters. I understand the need for revenge, but I cannot support the police action against the opposition leader.

I have said on several occasions that this government has the best human rights record of all our post-colonial governments.

This is the first government that has not presided over a police state. Going after Jagdeo for his statements at Babu Jaan will sully that record; it will play into the hands of those who are pushing the narrative that the government is dictatorial. So, I call on the police to leave Mr. Jagdeo alone.

Does this government have the appetite to do what it takes to curb corruption?

I think there is, among some sections of the APNU+AFC, an appetite for curbing corruption. I really do think there is sincerity on this issue. But that appetite is impeded by a lack of political will. I agree with Mr. Ralph Ramkarran that because the thing has become endemic, it

consumes all facets of the society, including the very agencies that are being relied on to curb it. So, the appetite also clashes with the enormity of the problem.

Partisan considerations keep getting in the way of doing what is necessary to effectively tackle this difficult problem. Because corruption has such deep roots in the society, curbing it requires a comprehensive approach.

This would mean that some party members and supporters would get fingered in the process. But the political culture does not allow for this—party comrades who are loyal to the party are often protected.

The other barrier is the linkage of official wrongdoing to ethnicity and ethnic empowerment—ethnic imperatives get in the way.

The PPP, while in government, encouraged corruption among its constituency, and the current government is under pressure to do likewise, in the name of levelling the ethnic playfield.

And this is where the problem gets very sticky, because the parties don’t want to be perceived as standing in the way of “ethnic empowerment”. There is a tendency to see the corruption of one’s party or ethnic group as less horrifying than that of the opposite party and group.

Third, governments of all parties have not shown the political and intellectual capacity needed to solve the underlying causes of c o r r u p t i o n — p o v e r t y, unequal social and ethnic distribution of wealth, weak government institutions, inadequate compensation for government and state employees among others.

There is a kind of intellectual and political laziness that passes for governance which has in turn failed to grasp the complexity of a country like Guyana. We come from a complex history which requires more nimbleness and creativity from leaders.

Finally, governments by their very nature are seldom

The Baccoo Speaks Hardly does a year go by without an Easter incident and this year will be no different. A kite would cut loose and a child will try retrieve it.

The problem is that there are always obstacles. In this case the obstacle would be a car.

Unfortunate indeed. ** There are always robberies, some brutal, whenever foreign artistes

visit. This time around a plethora of foreign artistes are coming. The criminals want to

be part of the action so they will be busy. Many of them will not be fortunate, because the society anticipates them. ** The waterways are busy this time of the year.

There is the Bartica Regatta. The races would be fast and furious, but outside of the races would be those who would venture into the water.

One such entry would have fatal consequences.

agents of fundamental change. Those have to be imposed on them. This is where our Civil Society organizations come in. And I don’t think most of them are interested in corruption as a core problem. We have too many single-issue organizations which do not see the linkage between their immediate causes and

something as egregious as corruption. It is a very sad failing.

More of Dr. Hinds’ writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ GuyanaCaribbean Politics and on his w e b s i t e www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.news.

Dr David Hinds Send comments dhinds6106@aol.com

to

PAGE 26

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

THE MYSTERIOUS ‘BUTCHER OF BARTICA’

By Michael Jordan If, by some good fortune,

you were to pass through Bartica, you would be left with pleasant memories of

strikingly beautiful women, boats moored on a still, mistshrouded river, hospitable

people hanging out at nightspots, and good-natured porkknockers quick to offer total strangers a drink or two.

So, you would surely never associate this community, the proverbial gateway to the community, with a shocking unsolved double-murder.

It’s been a little more than 36 years since an unknown killer, whom we shall call the ‘Butcher of Bartica’, slaughtered two innocents in a Second Avenue backyard and badly maimed a third.

Let me take you back to February 1983, to the home of Lucille Ingram.

At the time, Ingram was a pretty, 25-year-old widow. Her husband, Oliver, had died suddenly after being bitten by a snake in the family’s backyard. The superstitious might suggest that the way Oliver died was a sign of things to come.

With her husband dead, it was left to the young widow to take care of her three children; Andy Ingram, aged five, Henry Ingram, nine, and Lucille’s only daughter, 12year-old Lynette.

Fortunately, Mrs. Ingram reared a few cows and chickens, and this brought in enough income to sustain the family.

On Wednesday, February 23, 1983, the young mother decided to purchase a few things for her children to celebrate the Mash holiday.

After instructing them to check on the cows and poultry, Lucille Ingram left her home at around five o’clock that afternoon. She promised to return with treats for them.

Ingram returned about 30 minutes later and on entering her yard, immediately sensed that something was wrong.

For one thing, the children did not greet her at the gate, as was their habit. After calling

and getting no answer, Mrs. Ingram went over to her next door neighbour, since the children would sometimes play under a dunks tree in the backyard. But the children were not there, so Mrs. Ingram returned home.

The front door was unlocked, and when the young mother entered, she almost stumbled over something on the floor. Lying just by the doorway was her 12-year-old daughter. The child lay motionless in a pool of blood. Someone had slashed her throat.

Miraculously, she was still alive.

Lucille Ingram screamed.

Her cries brought neighbours racing over to her home.

While some tended to the injured child, others began searching for the woman’s two sons. They eventually found them in the family’s backyard.

Nine-year-old Henry lay in a clump of bushes, his intestines protruding from a gaping wound. Five–year-old Sandy lay a few feet away.

Someone had chopped him on the head. Both boys were dead.

While the bodies of the two murdered boys were taken to the Bartica Hospital mortuary, their wounded sister was air-dashed to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Miraculously, she survived. It was she who would provide detectives with the few vague clues of the killer’s identity.

According to the girl’s story, after her mother left, a man, who was armed with a cutlass, entered the house.

The intruder was reportedly masked and his head was ‘tied up.’ She said that the man began to chop her. It is unclear

whether he attacked the other two children first. According to Mrs. Ingram, nothing was stolen. She also says that no one had any motive for wanting to harm the family.

“I had no enemies…me and everybody alright.”

After some investigation, detectives arrested a young man from One Mile. It is unclear why he was arrested.

Some Barticians said that the man worked with the power company and was prone to acting strangely.

According to Bartica lore, the man had several wigs and knives in his possession when he was arrested.

Whether this was so, detectives were unable to link him to the murders and he was eventually released.

Lucille Ingram says she eventually gave up hope of the killer ever being caught.

But memories of her murdered children continued to haunt her. She became afraid to stay in her house and eventually moved to Georgetown. Her daughter moved to Berbice.

Three and a half decades after that fateful day, the family members are left with memories of a shadowy figure that entered their lives, slaughtered their loved ones…and vanished.

If you have any information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown offices. Our numbers are 22-58458, 2258465, 22-58473 and 2258491. You need not disclose your identity. You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: kamarangnight@gmail.com.

Sunday April 21, 2019

PAGE 27

Kaieteur News

==THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN==

Charrandass and the Mueller Report: IS GUYANA A SHITHOLE COUNTRY? A year before the noconfidence vote (NCV) on December 21, 2018, Charran and I were guests at the birthday party of a mutual friend on David Street, Kitty.

Charran told me he would like to see a no-confidence motion (NCM) in parliament so he could vote for it, because he thought the APNU+AFC government was absolutely no good.

In that conversation, I remember distinctly as we talked about the NCM, we moved away from other guests and were alone. If there is anything I could remember about that conversation, two things stood out in my mind.

He asked me not to disclose what he told me. Secondly, he indicated the only reason why we would not vote for the NCM is the fear of his life.

Months after I revealed it over a fish and plantain chips dinner at Nicky’s Fish Shop on Drury Lane, Campbellville, to David Hinds. I trusted David to keep it a secret.

From the time Charran told me that, I have had countless discussions on politics with Charran. He is one of my good friends. Let me set the record straight here. Charrandass Persaud is one of the most pleasant and likeable friends our family has ever had.

Coming on to the December 21 NCV, Charran

told me Guyana would be surprised at what would happen on that day. In simple language, I knew what Charran was going to do.

The night before the NCV, I told a personal friend over dinner at Arawak Steak House how the vote would go. I told him the ruling coalition would lose. That person is a prominent politician with the AFC. But I insisted that he not repeat what I told him.

I respect him and David Hinds immensely for the moral commitment to me that they embraced with deep integrity by not revealing what I confided in them. Such people are what Guyana needs to administer its affairs.

Unless I am shown evidence that Charrandass Persaud took money to vote for the NCM, I will continue to see him as a very close friend.

At this point, I believe Charran showed moral and nationalist courage in supporting the NCM. In all my studies in philosophy, I know humans are capable of superlative and phenomenal courage. Humans can be guided by love of principles over commitment to friends, party and government.

The Mueller Report into President Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians

is relevant to Guyana. All Guyanese, young and those getting on in age, and those that can be considered old, should read the redacted, published version.

It is replete with people who refused the president’s requests to lie for him, to issue statements denying things he told them and to follow instructions that were legally and morally offensive to life.

Some chose to resign. Others allowed themselves to be fired.

What the Charrandass debate has done to the young people of this country is irreparable harm. We have one of the youngest populations on Planet Earth and the way certain types of rhetoric and certain types of sick language were used in furthering the power-drunk instincts of Guyana’s politicians, young people were left with the graphic impression that Guyanese do not have integrity, and there are people in this country that do not have the courage to defy power and fear and vote for their conscience.

As I type this column, there are ministers in the ruling party of the UK who are telling their Prime Minister that they cannot vote for many of her Brexit proposals in Parliament.

They know they will have

to resign or be fired. Many have put their beliefs in front of their obligations to their Prime Minister.

The vicious attacks on Charran and the way the Charran-bashers behaved, what has emerged is fear on the part of many decisionmakers to show courage, principles and morality, and stand up for what they believe is good for humanity.

After the poison that was poured all over Guyana by those who knew the NCV has

dented their power pursuits, young people may not want to face such a war of nastiness hurled at them.

In my opinion, the people who stood to lose power through the NCV had done enough damage to the fabric of this nation that moral courage will soon disappear from this land.

Those who are young and living in Guyana and want to follow a career in politics must follow the examples of the British Ministers and the top

Frederick Kissoon aides of President Trump who chose conscience over power. Civilization will not have survived if humans didn’t show such conscience.

PAGE 28

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

The APNU+AFC Govt. has restored Guyana’s credibility and people’s pride The things that this coalition government has done in the last 3 years amount to a lot more than the PPP did in 20 years of debauchery and theft. Every indicator, every foreign organization’s opinion and report shows Guyana making progress, instituting policies and real programmes to make its citizens comfortable, able to provide for home, body and soul … and wealthier.

To suggest that this government has “outlived its usefulness” is ludicrous and

bizarre. The AFC is issuing a challenge to the writer of the letter printed in one of the nation’s dailies to support his nonsensical claims. We challenge him to make a case, leaving out the tired, old and baseless accusations that appeal to ethnic sympathies.

While we wait for what won’t come, let’s take a glance at Guyana’s scorecard as at April 2019:· Nightlife has come back to life because the street corner shootings have been minimized. Every bar is still

open at 11.00 filled with unafraid patrons.

The frequent street corner shootings made people scared to leave their homes, or answer their doors after dark. The authorities did nothing. They did not even look for the men with illegal guns ruthlessly killing people who just annoyed them.

Nowadays, the criminals aren’t so bold because the police catch them and quickly remove them from society · No ‘black clothes’ policemen are terrorizing

citizens. Most people have heard the boasts of the leader of the black-clothed cops (now deceased) who made it a habit of saying he was not taking orders from the Commissioner of Police. · Today Guyana has NO Political prisoners, no one locked up like Mark Benschop because he dared to defy anyone’s orders to protest injustices. Under the law, every Guyanese is free to express his/her opinions that do not threaten anyone. · These days the couriers and kingpins behind the once lucrative drug business in Guyana are being closed down. It took a lot of negotiation and a long crawl for this government to free Guyana from the bad reputation we had as a drug transshipment point with unguarded borders and large swathes of forests to build unlicensed airstrips and make drug drops. · Foreign governments were advising their nationals not to come to Guyana because the dangers posed by the police and the numerous operators in the drug trade were too many.

That has not happened to Guyana in a while. · The Customs and AntiNarcotics Unit (CANU) was toothless before 2015 with less than 50 employees, and that is counting the drivers, secretaries and janitors.

Imagine how few trained agents were available to combat the many drug-related crimes and the inflow of uncustomed goods. CANU is coming back now, making

busts while recruiting new talent. · When he was President, Jagdeo famously refused point blank a no-stringsattached offer from the British government to reform the Guyana Police Force. He also turned down the United States’ request to open an office for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) here, an agency that has some presence in most democratically-run countries around the world.

Now we come to that sore subject of GuySuCo, the PPP’s campaign flag. We heard the Presidential candidate promising to reopen all the sugar estates that were closed in 2017 as this Government tried to clean up the industry’s operations, make it leaner and mould it into a profitable business.

Between 2015 and 2017, this Government poured over one Billion taxpayer dollars per month into GuySuCo to keep it breathing, and keep the jobs of thousands of people.

Much of that money went to pay wages and salaries, and GAWU’s dues, none towards improving the efficiency of the corporation.

The PPP received European Union grants but did not spend them to mechanize planting or harvesting, or on new equipment for the factories to reduce the high cost of making sugar. The PPP should tell the nation what happened to those funds!

Now the party’s presidential candidate promises to re-open the

estates and provide 50,000 jobs. Well, perhaps his plan is to take more than a billion dollars every month from our oil revenue and pour it into the black hole that is GuySuCo. The fact is, the quality jobs that are becoming available in the oil sector will surpass 50,000 in less than one year.

This government has spent many millions to re-train about 10,000 of the displaced sugar workers, teaching them other skills, and encouraging them to go into business for themselves. Many were rehired when a few estates/ factories were re-opened to prepare for possible sale to investors.

And while we talk of investors, look to Jet Blue, American Airlines and other international air carriers that have added Guyana to their routes/markets.

And, thousands of Guyanese living in the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, the Caribbean, Germany and other countries around the world are coming back home to live and lend their skills to the country of their birth, or their parents’ birth. Foreigners are pouring in, and if we don’t look sharp, they will qualify themselves for the available jobs before we manage to get past the PPP’s lies and political posturing.

It is time for every Guyanese to stand above the PPP’s petty politics and grab your God-given future.

The AFC takes this opportunity to wish us all the peace and serenity of Easter.

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

My column

This season forces reflections Today is a special day in the Christian calendar. On Friday they commemorated the crucifixion of the Christ, the man after whom the religion was founded more than two thousand years ago.

In fact, this is perhaps one of the most holy days in the world.

In Guyana people associate the day with the closure of liquor shops, at least between six in the morning and six in the evening.

When I lived at Bartica I would come out on the streets later in the day to see hordes of men lining up outside the liquor shops, just waiting for the doors to open. Then there would be a mad rush to the bar. I often wondered at these people.

I would say to myself that if they loved alcohol so much then just before Good Friday they could stock up. Years later I realized that these were people who may barely be able to buy a few shots and therefore could not buy any substantial quantity.

And in any case if they had attempted to stock up they would have drunk all before Good Friday.

This year was no different, but there were some people who thought that the closure of the liquor shops was only confined to Good Friday. I checked the laws and that is the case for every

public holiday. However, enforcement is not the order of the day.

There were kites in the air almost as soon as Ash Wednesday passed. Boys would get out the pointers and the exercise leaves to make what we called caddy ol’ punch. There were also the slightly more sophisticated kites.

Bartica being a very breezy community helped. I would go to bed and hear the singing kites. There were specialized kite makers who would be in demand. These days, things have changed.

Of course, for some time now there have been the plastic kites that are so much cheaper.

They represent the Chinese invasion.

From my vantage point, I did not see a kite in the skies until yesterday. I even suggested that kite-flying was dying in Guyana. Glenn Lall thinks otherwise. He even suggested that I now live in the city so I should not speak for what could be happen in rural Guyana.

I remember being in a home where my stepfather was a church addict. Good Friday was the day when I knew what hunger really was.

There was rice porridge in the morning, nothing solid at midday because we had to go to church. The Good Friday midday service lasted three hours. It was torture for me. I

swore that when I grew up I would not subject my children to that.

Cross buns and cheese are still the order of the day.

This year I got twenty-eight.

By Saturday morning there were only six left. My grandson feasted.

As usual the day was very quiet. The streets were almost empty during the day but there was some madness in the evening. The Brickdam Cathedral was locked up early in the morning, a sign of the changing times.

There was a time when churches were never closed; they were there to provide sanctuary for all at any time of day and night. I saw iron grills across the door and people waiting outside.

Today the Christian churches would come alive.

Yesterday, the devout set about changing the altar cloth transforming the church into a sea of white.

In Berbice, there would be the traditional crowds on 63 Beach tomorrow. But for today there would be the various choirs singing to the power of the Lord.

Amazingly, the people who abstained from certain things during the Lenten season would go back to the old habits. I have known people who stopped smoking or drinking or eating certain things during Lent.

When I worked at the

Chronicle there was this fellow who drank like a fish during the year. He stopped cold turkey during Lent.

As soon as Good Friday ended he would be back to drinking. I asked him if he could stop for forty days why can’t he stop for good. His reply was that he couldn’t answer that question.

It was the same with smokers. If one could stop for forty days then one could quit. Most never do. People forego meat and some forego fish. They made me happy because the price of fish would plummet and I would feast.

The marketplace was a joy. Vegetables abounded. I enjoy metem on Good Friday but I must say that the

younger generation is hooked on rice. I made a huge pot. Two of my grandchildren came over.

The plantain, cassava, and eddo chocked them. But I made some converts. They know that there is more than rice.

When all is said and done, we are a religious people, at least most of us. But somewhere along the way we have left our children out of the loop.

These are the children who for the greater part exhibit the kind of disrespect that was once unheard of.

These are the children who make life miserable for people; the children who do not respect the sanctity of life.

And for the record, Good

Adam Harris Friday is powerful even in secular North America. The stores were closed, and by stores I mean the major ones.

Walmart, a giant, closed its doors. Jewish stores were closed too, because of the Passover.

In Canada, Square One, the third largest supermarket in Canada was closed. So for those who think that Good Friday was only in Guyana, it is not.

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

Working to achieve the good life for all President David Granger has repeatedly underscored

his vision for national development. The President

has made it clear that the coalition administration views

development as the improvement of the standard of living of all Guyanese.

Moreover, His Excellency has expressed the conviction that it is the duty of government to ensure that every citizen be given equal opportunities to pursue a happy, productive and meaningful life.

That being the case, it is evident that government must necessarily invest more resources in some communities compared with others, because, in the past, under the previous regime, the residents of some areas were neglected and virtually forgotten. Therefore, going forward, if equity of opportunity is to be achieved, government must carefully plan how resources are to be most efficiently utilised.

It is no secret that the most neglected citizens of Guyana during the 23 years of the PPP administration were hinterland residents.

In His Excellency’s address at the National Toshaos’ Council meeting at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, Georgetown, on August 28, 2015, President Granger noted that, “The former [PPP] administration’s hostile attitudes and divisive policies impaired social cohesion, undermined our sense of solidarity and impoverished a large section of the population, alienating the hinterland regions and gradually creating ‘two countries’ instead of cementing our people into one nation.”

It is public knowledge that the previous regime, deliberately and systematically sought to drive wedges between and among groups of Guyanese. This policy of division by the PPP was part of a strategy that offered favours to its favourites but inflicted unbearable burdens to others.

If there remains any shadow of a doubt that the actions of that administration were intentional, one needs only to observe the current disruptive behaviour of Bharrat Jagdeo, Leader of the Opposition and pay attention to his poisonous rhetoric to confirm that he — and by extension his party — continues to pursue that destructive agenda.

One major consequence of the PPP’s agenda of division was the creation of a

syndrome of dependency in neglected communities. The motive for doing that was evidently to create and maintain a situation where hinterland-based Guyanese were forced to be quiet in the face of massive injustice because they were made totally dependent on handouts from the PPP government and were therefore also forced to cooperate with the despotic regime.

The APNU+AFC coalition is determined to reverse the damage, repair our broken nation, and foster an atmosphere of community partnerships, social cohesion, and national unity. After all, it is only in such a context that all Guyanese can have equal access to the rich resources of our country to which we are all entitled.

In the words of President Granger, “All Guyanese are entitled to a ‘good life’ in the country of their birth. The foundation for such a life rests securely on ten pillars — a sound education, satisfactory employment, economic opportunity, individual equality, political empowerment, a sustainable environment, good governance, national unity, public security, and social protection.”

It is with those objectives in mind that President David Granger proposed a five-year, ten-point Plan of Action for Hinterland Development. The Plan is intended to raise the standard of life of hinterlandbased Guyanese, thereby closing the gap between conditions on the coast and those in Guyana’s interior.

The ten components of the plan are: 1. Hinterland Education Support Programme 2. Hinterland Poverty Reduction Programme 3.

Hinterland Infrastructure Extension Programme 4. Hinterland Energy Development Programme 5. Hinterland Employment and Youth Service 6. Hinterland Happy Household Programme 7. Hinterland and Indigenous Peoples Land Commission 8. Hinterland Language, Cultural and Sports Commission 9. Hinterland Tourism Development Service 10. Hinterland Public Service Provision Scheme

The President has said that his administration is committed to the democratic course towards the realisation of inclusionary democracy, equitable development, equal opportunities for all, environmental sustainability, economic self-sufficiency, preservation of cultural identity, elimination of extreme poverty, rapid economic convergence, end to exploitation, and educational opportunities for everyone among other goals.

It must be noted, that even though those goals are worthy objectives in their own right, they are also steps along the road to the ultimate ideal of a good life for all to which the administration remains committed.

As government continues to work towards the goal of equality for all, the administration encourages all Guyanese to continue to bear in mind that we are all our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.

As a people, we should work towards fostering a culture of caring about the wellbeing of our fellow citizens. We should endeavour to develop in our own minds, a mentality of unity, and an attitude of national oneness. Division and enmity have not worked in anyone’s interest; it is time to adopt a different attitude.

This coalition government remains committed to building bridges among all communities and groups in order to enhance mutual understanding and improve the well-being of all our citizens.

The APNU+AFC coalition in government will continue to work towards promoting inclusionary democracy in local or village communities and also at the regional and national levels to ensure that all voices are heard.

In the words of President Granger; “The APNU+AFC coalition is a visionary combination of political and social forces that will ensure that a real government of national unity emerges, not a bogus civic alliance; that our multi-ethnic, Multicultural society provides a place for all citizens to prosper; that our peopleregardless of their gender, geographic location, class, creed or ethnic origin- enjoy a good life; that an environment which is free from the ravages of poverty and discrimination and from the scourge of criminal violence, epidemic disease and ignorance is created and that information and communications technology is extended to all corners of our great country.”

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Heel Pains: Is it a spur or something else?

By Dr Zulfikar Bux Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine We are often told that the cause of our heel pain is a spur. It turns out that spurs do not cause heel pain as much as we think. One of the most common causes of heel pain is a problem called “plantar fasciitis.”

Plantar fasciitis is the term doctors use when a part of the foot called the plantar fascia gets irritated or swollen.

The plantar fascia is a tough band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the toes. It is usually inflamed when we get heel spurs and is most often the reason for our heel pain.

Today we will shed some light on plantar fasciitis, which may be the most likely cause if you ever develop heel pains.

WHATARE SYMPTOMS OF PLANTAR FASCIITIS? Pain and swelling are the main symptoms of plantar fasciitis. Pain may be worse in the morning or when you put pressure on your heel and it can make walking painful. It may be dull or sharp, depending on the time of day and what you’re doing. It can become very excruciating and even run up the ankle.

WHAT CAUSES PLANTAR FASCIITIS? As you age, the plantar fascia becomes less like a rubber band and more like a rope that doesn’t stretch as well. The fat pad on your heel becomes thinner and can’t absorb as much shock. The extra shock can damage the plantar fascia and may cause it to swell, bruise, or tear.

Most people also have pain

to some degree. Repeated impact on the heel, like from running, walking, or standing, also can cause plantar fasciitis. Patients can develop spurs in a similar way and this can irritate the plantar fascia causing pains to the heel.

HOW IS PLANTAR FASCIITIS DIAGNOSED? Your doctor can often diagnose you by examining you and talking to you. He or

she will want to know about your pain, when it occurs, and how long you’ve had it. Your doctor may order tests to make sure the pain is not caused by another problem.

These tests could include an X-ray or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

HOW IS PLANTAR FASCIITIS TREATED? In most cases, your doctor will start with basic treatments that can be done at home. These may vary depending on the cause of your pain. · If you walk or run a lot, you may need to cut back.

Ask your doctor how much exercise you should do. · If you have high arches, talk to your doctor about using shoe inserts called orthotics. These help to support your arches. You will need to be fitted for them. · If you are overweight or obese, losing weight can help reduce pressure on your heels. · If your job involves standing for long periods of

time, place some type of padding on the floor where you stand. · You also may try orthotics to provide extra cushion to your heels.

Stretching exercises for your feet and legs are important. There are various stretching exercises for your foot and legs that you can find on you tube. Just type in “plantar fasciitis stretches” and helpful videos should appear. · Strengthening exercises are important as well. You can strengthen your leg muscles by standing on the ball of your foot at the edge of a step and rising up onto your toes as high as possible. Relax between toe raises and let your heel fall a little lower than the edge of the step. You can strengthen your foot muscles by grabbing a towel with your toes as if you are going to pick it up with your foot. Repeat these exercises several times a day. · Anti-inflammatory

Dr Zulfikar Bux medicines such as naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac, can help reduce swelling and pain.

Talk to your doctor before you start a new medicine. Most cases of plantar fasciitis go away over time.

For best results, try to be consistent in your treatment approaches. If these do not work, your doctor may suggest other options, such as: · Physiotherapy. · Splints on your foot at night. · Tape on your foot. · Steroid injections into the plantar fascia.

In rare cases, you may need surgery. Talk to your doctor about the benefits and risks of these treatments.

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

SUNDAY GUYANASADDLED WITH $$$MILLIONS IN PRE-CONTRACT COSTS FOR NEW LICENCE GRANTED DAYS BEFORE ELECTION Thirteen days before the 2015 General and Regional Elections were held, the Donald Ramotar administration granted a Petroleum Licence to ExxonMobil and other oil majors to operate on the Kaieteur Block offshore Guyana. But the contract that was signed leaves Guyana saddled with $31.4M in precontract costs.

The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) does not give any details on how this sum was arrived at. It only states, “The sum of US$150,000 (is) in respect of all costs incurred by Contractor prior to the Effective Date.”

According to Ratio’s website: https:// www.ratiopetroleum.com/en/ projects/guyana/, Exxon holds a 35 percent interest in the Kaieteur Block, which totals approximately 13,535 sq. kms. It is also the lead operator.

Holding 25 percent of the rights is Ratio Guyana limited which was renamed Cataleya Energy Limited. It should be noted that Ratio Guyana Limited represents a joint venture partnership between ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and Cataleya.

Cataleya on its own, holds 25% of the petroleum rights in the Block while Hess holds 15%.

The Kaieteur Block is particularly significant since it is adjacent to the Stabroek Block, where the Liza discovery was made by ExxonMobil in 2015. Liza was the first oil discovery in Guyana and 11 additional discoveries have since been made in the block area.

To date, the total proven reserves in the block amount to more than five billion barrels of oil.

Speaking with Kaieteur News briefly las t n i g h t , Esso’s Head of Public and Government Aff a i r s , Deedra Moe, confirmed that an environmental baseline survey is being pursued on the Kaieteur Block to get a sense of the current conditions. She said that this has to be done before planning for future drilling.

Further, Moe said that this survey is in keeping with the fact that the company has work commitments on all of its blocks. “And we make sure

The CJIA’s terminal building. At extreme right is the smaller building that CHEC constructed while the rest is the older gutted airport structure. (Mike Charles photo) we’re fulfilling those commitments,” added the official.

GIVEAWAYS The Kaieteur Block operators were also able to capture very favourable terms in its contract that it signed with the Ramotar administration.

Exxon and its partners enjoy the right to use as much production as may be needed in its Petroleum Operations in the contract area and also for transportation and terminal systems. All quantities of any discovered oil so used or lost shall be excluded from any calculations of entitlement.

The Contractor also enjoys the right to send abroad, via an export point chosen, all petroleum to which it is entitled to free of any duty, tax, or other financial impost and to receive and retain abroad, all proceeds from the sale of such petroleum.

The Kaieteur Block operators were able to secure in the PSA, provisions that allow it to be free of paying import duties on all equipment and supplies for operations. And these can all be freely exported when the operators are ready without paying any duties.

As it relates to taxation, the Kaieteur Block PSA says that the contractor, its shareholders, members, partners, or affiliated companies are subjected to no tax payments, save and except for income and corporate tax. They are also exempted from the Property

Tax Act. US$150M CJIA PROJECT…RENOVATED AIRPORT TERMINAL CAN BE BUILT FOR US$5M– CONTRACTORS When the Timehri airport project was announced back in late 2011, there was anger after Guyana learnt of it through the Jamaica newspapers.

One year later, that US$150M cost though initially rejected as too high, when compared to airports around the region, was accepted as a done deal.

Guyana then resigned itself to the fact that there was little it could do as the Chinese contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), had started work.

At the very least Guyana was getting something that looked good on paper.

The project itself was highly inflated, promising an entirely new terminal building, eight passenger bridges, energy saving roofs, escalators and elevators.

Today, reality has stepped in.

Six years after the sod was turned in March 2013, by the previous administration of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), there is not a new terminal to house both departure and arrival areas.

Rather, there is a smaller building and it is only accommodating arriving passengers. The old terminal has not been torn down.

Rather, it has been gutted and reused at the departure area.

Already inflated and with little or no explanations from Government where the money went, a number of contractors are now coming out, insisting that the kind of work done at the terminal building cannot be more than US$5M. “A few walls were changed at the old terminal building along with a few zinc sheets. Then you have a building that is only accommodating arrivals. It can be built for not more than US$5M,” a contractor that has built several of the city’s properties insisted.

Another New York-based contractor who has worked on several projects has expressed alarm.

“You have a simple way of checking whether you getting value for money. They would have to calculate per square foot. When you are doing construction, everything is about measurements. There is a constant cost. It is impossible for a terminal and runway to cost US$150M and you get what we have at Timehri.

Somebody has to go to jail. It is impossible that it would be established that the price is inflated and then you learn that it is being modified to be smaller…all at the same price.

“Guyana in simple layman’s terms has been shafted. The Government has to come clean.”

Several other contractors have expressed shock at what is coming out now.

They too are questioning where the money went. There has been deafening silence.

Instead of eight passenger bridges,

government has reduced it to four. The project has gone past four years past its deadline now.

On March 23, 2013, former President under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/ C), Donald Ramotar, joined then Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Li Min, to turn the sod for a brand new terminal building and longer runway at the Timehri airport.

MONDAY OIL CONTRACTS ALLOW OPERATORS TO RECOVERALL COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH INSURANCE Oil operators will be able to recover “all costs” associated with having an insurance policy, thanks to the Production Sharing Agreement (PSAs) signed with the Government of Guyana.

However, a perusal of several contracts in countries such as Chad, Ghana, Chad, China, and even with Trinidad and Tobago, show that operators there are not allowed to do so.

Considering this finding, Kaieteur News made contact with Trinidadian Oil and Gas Consultant, Anthony Paul on the matter. Paul said that making insurance costs recoverable is something that varies from country to country. The Local Content Expert said that countries tend to limit cost recovery to direct costs to the operations and insurance is considered an indirect cost.

“Indirect costs such as insurance are treated

differently, in that, they may be non-recoverable or only partially recoverable. But no, it is not normal for the entire insurance and the premium to be recoverable.”

The PSAs Guyana has with oil operators also allow them to self-insure. This means that the company has given the nation some level of assurance that it will handle the liabilities that come with any possible oil spill. But the Energy Department has since made it pellucid that it would not be accepting this.

In fact, the department has initiated discussions with Central Bank to ensure oil companies comply with the nation’s laws on having a recognized insurance policy.

Making this declaration was Energy Department Head, Dr. Mark Bynoe.

So far, Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was able to get ExxonMobil to guarantee that it will stand the costs of an oil spill should one occur in the Stabroek Block.

This was one of the conditions upon which it received an Environmental Permit for drilling of the Yellow tail-1 well. It is approximately six miles (10 kilometers) west of Exxon’s Tilapia-1 in the Turbot area.

MURDERED WEST COAST BERBICE GRANNY… DAUGHTER CONFESSES TO SLASHING MOM’S THROAT WITH CHOPPER AFTER ROW OVER STOLEN MONEY She was expected to be (Continued on page 41)

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

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Sunday April 21, 2019

COUNTRYMAN

- Stories about life in m and out of Guyana, fro ve a Guyanese perspecti

Savagery, vulnerability and 'Murder Most Foul'

By Dennis Nichols

F

ew of us like to contemplate murder, or are enthused by it. I don't and I am not. But it's almost impossible to ignore it. It's happening almost daily in our country. Amid the savagery and vulnerability, Agatha Christie's 'Murder Most Foul' and Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' come to mind in so many such occurrences that make the news.

There is growing concern that as civilization progresses, humanity as a whole seems to be regressing

in its propensity for violence and evil, and its response to it. Critics say we are becoming numb to senseless acts of violence.

There are simply too many and too frequent – at the movie theatres, on the TV screen, on the internet, and in real life on the streets and in our homes. Then of course, access to guns and other lethal weapons is ridiculously easy in many countries.

E v e r y d a y, a n d everywhere, I sense the silent cry of 'what's happening in Guyana?' Its echo reverberates across the globe, and you can substitute

almost any other country for ours. But I live here, and barring some inexplicable event, I will die here.

So in the interim, it makes sense for me to at least try and understand why my country is so blighted by crime, and why so many young men and women become both the perpetrators and victims of such unspeakable acts.

Maybe I/we can start with the images and words that saturate young minds, and the laxity which accommodates them.

For example, there is a great deal of debate concerning the effect that violent movies, TV shows, and video games have on children. I am no expert, but I tend to side with those who say it is a much more deleterious than entertaining one. To those two references,

add the disturbing images and lyrics of some music videos. How anyone can say that some of these have no real negative effects on children and young people is beyond me.

I know there are those 'experts' who feel that children under the normal authority and mentorship of responsible adults do not grow up to be delinquents, murderers and career criminals.

But that is true only to a degree; in fact I would think that is so only to the extent that our children and youth do actually have parents and parent figures who give a damn about what they watch or are exposed to, and who lead by example. Many don't, and if you live in Guyana or even in the mighty USA for example, you know just what I mean.

To s u p p o r t t h e i r conclusion, experts often cite the difference between the United States and countries like Japan, where children are exposed to similar movie and videogame violence.

The US reportedly has the highest homicide rate in the world; in Japan it's close to zero. They say it's because of the country's severe restrictions on firearms.

True, but as far as I understand, parents and parental skills also play a much greater role generally in the lives of Japanese children than they do in America.

A few practical examples should suffice. To cement early bonding, according to an internet source, Japanese parents usually take their babies everywhere they go, using the traditional body sling.

They teach their children from a very young age to be independent and self-reliant, and often allow kids to work out conflict situations for themselves.

They teach them good manners and “sustained” discipline (shitsuke) by doing daily activities with them such as preparing food and having conversations while doing so. Children are expected to learn good behaviour by imitating how their parents act, rather than through correction or criticism.

Okay, Guyana isn't Japan, but neither is it America. Don't we have a choice as parents and caregivers to guide our charges with the kind of nurturing discipline as Japanese parents do, or are we now so Americanized and Westernized that the oriental model seems unnecessary or unreachable?

Our politicians, parents, teachers, medical personnel and social institutions need to join forces and take a fresh look at this vital aspect of domestic and national life in order to effectively tackle crime.

In doing so, our movers, shakers and policy makers have much to deal with, and they will have to show a level of courage and commitment previously unheard of in this country – martyr-like determination and pit bull tenacity. They have to overcome the

Dennis Nichols perception of ignorance and apathy that some people in Guyana and in the region, have of them. They can't be like the guy (in the joke) who, when asked to define ignorance and apathy, replied 'I don't know, and I don't care'.

Seriously though, can't our police force, judicial system, social and medical services cooperate to analyze and explore the reasons for the crime upsurge we have experienced since the turn of the century? And after so doing can't they devise commonsense strategies to stem the crime tide, at least in part? Of course they will have to tell us what part we the common citizens can play in this exercise. Some of us know already, but we need official sanction.

Maybe they need to sit down and have more extensive dialogue with some of the more astute 'road men and women' in our midst. Maybe import some S c o t l a n d Ya r d - t y p e detectives and RCMP officers.

We hold membership in INTERPOL too, don't we?

Maybe bring back capital punishment, although that is one I wouldn't necessarily agree with. But if one of the victims was a close relative of mine, who knows? The ante has been upped. The e f f o r t m u s t b e commensurate.

It isn't politically correct nowadays to label someone a victim. The word, it is said, connotes the kind of weakness and helplessness that is anathema to modern, independent humans.

In many of the cases we read about these days, I can think of no more fitting word. In terroristic parlance, they are soft targets – frail obstacles in the way of the apparently heart-hardened, in acts of unimaginable viciousness.

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

The police, the touts, economic genocide and Freddie Kissoon THE POLICE AND THE TOUTS There isn't any doubt the Commissioner of Police is intent on creating a positive image for the Force and its servicemen and women as he delivered a message of intolerance for those under his charge taking bribe.

The Commissioner further advised that those in the service entered fully aware of their remuneration package and if discontented with same should leave. This is easier said than done, and though rouge cops are not uncharacteristic in any Force, efforts must be looked at to minimise temptation by making the remuneration package attractive.

You cannot treat people like animals and expect the best of them. The police are performing under dire constrains, and with little incentive for placing their lives on the line to serve and protect us. They need to be better treated. And it is not for the want of their association making representation on their behalf, but that of an employer being receptive to exploring new ways and thinking of doing things.

Some of the areas that can be considered to incentivise the job are: across the board housing programme; life and medical insurance; education assistance for children; providing basic facilities at the station such as drinking w a t e r, t o i l e t r i e s a n d stationery; and return the yearly bonus.

It remains an error on the government's part to remove that bonus which has become a condition of service. It represented something to look forward to and create a project around.

Benefits complement salary, serving not only as disincentive to engage in inappropriate conduct, but also incentive to retain and attract better skills.

As the police themselves are struggling to eke out a living and provide for their families they are now tasked with targeting another vulnerable group, the touts.

Touts provide a needed and valued service for the c o m m u t e r s a n d transportation service.

Theirs is a service that grew out of the need to assist or direct commuters in boarding and the providers -

having to meet their financial obligations needing commuters. This service is in a competitive environment, and where the touts are meeting the needs of both, at a fee, is testimony to ingenuity.

A new form of earning a non-criminal living should not be snuffed out, but recognised for what it is meant to be, and harnessed in a manner to bring repute to those providing a service persons have come to rely on. Some of these touts will fetch the commuter's luggage for distance in order to board the bus or car. Let us encourage those engaged in the trade to band themselves into a cohesive group and help them to improve the quality of service, including physical appearance, respecting personal space, language usage, etc.

ECONOMIC GENOCIDE AND FREDDIE KISSOON There was a letter last week in Kaieteur News, “That 'economic genocide' notion,� which undoubtedly set out to create public mischief in the hope that the writer could further divide the nation along ethnic lines.

My unwavering position that the Bharrat Jagdeo government conceptualised, developed and implemented a programme of economic marginalisation against the African community, which I called economic genocide, is a matter of public record.

The naming of this programme is consistent with the United Nations' (UN) definition of this type of crime, and has been supported by evidence.

Instructively, the Jagdeo administration never refuted these charges.

I n s t e a d , t h e administration sought to further inflict the dastardly programme on the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and its arms, the Women's Affairs Committee and Critchlow Labour College (CLC), by withdrawing yearly grants/subventions given since in the 1960s by the Forbes Burnham government. This was continued under the Desmond Hoyte, Cheddi and Janet Jagan governments.

Undoubtedly, the withdrawal affected students

seeking a second chance at education, and who were primarily drawn from the inner cities and depressed committees, but it did not close the CLC's door or silence the GTUC. Further, it was during the Jagdeo presidency that the UN Human Rights Council sent Gay McDougall, expert on Minority Issues, to conduct an inquiry into

allegations of discriminatory practices. In her report, she alluded to evidence substantiating the charges, after which the Jagdeo administration cussed her out.

Those who know my years of trade union activism know when it comes to taking principled position on citizens/workers' rights and freedoms, my voice was

never still or could be bought. There was never silence on issues affect the working class, irrespective of race or other differences.

Public record will show the reaction to my outspokenness on matters affecting sugar workers, who are generally considered supporters of the PPP, that party's leadership instigated the silencing of me from

speaking at rallies held to highlight these workers' concerns.

They had no problem with me holding the coalition government to account for its handling of GuySuCo and treating sugar workers and their unions with respect, but took umbrage to holding them to account for their treatment of said workers, their unions (continued on page 49)

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Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

g .. n i t s. s re ure e t t In rea (Dromaius novaehollandiae) C

The Emu

T

h e E m u (Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the second-largest living bird by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius.

The bird is sufficiently common for it to be rated as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Emus are soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds with long necks and legs, and can reach up to 1.9 metres (6.2 ft) in height. Emus weigh between 18 and 60 kg (40 and 132 lb), with an average of 31.5 and 37 kg (69 and 82 lb) in males and females, respectively. Females are usually slightly larger than males and are substantially wider across the rump.

They can travel great distances, and when necessary can sprint at 50 km/h (31 mph); they forage for a variety of plants and insects, but have been known to go for weeks without eating. They drink infrequently, but take in copious amounts of water when the opportunity arises.

Breeding takes place in May and June, and fighting among females for a mate is common. Females can mate several times and lay several clutches of eggs in one season. The male does the incubation; during this process he hardly eats or drinks and loses a significant amount of weight.

The eggs hatch after around eight weeks, and the young are nurtured by their fathers. They reach full size after around six months, but can remain as a family unit until the next breeding season. The emu is an important cultural icon of Australia, appearing on the coat of arms and various coins. The bird features prominently in Indigenous Australian mythology.

Although flightless, emus have vestigial wings, the wing chord measuring around 20 cm (8 in), and each wing having a small claw at the tip. Emus flap their wings when running, perhaps as a means of stabilising themselves when moving fast. They have long necks and legs, and can run at speeds of 48 km/h (30 mph) due to their highly specialised pelvic limb musculature. Their feet have only three toes and a

similarly reduced number of bones and associated foot muscles; emus are the only birds with gastrocnemius muscles in the back of the lower legs. The pelvic limb muscles of emus contribute a similar proportion of the total body mass as do the flight muscles of flying birds.

When walking, the emu takes strides of about 100 cm (3.3 ft), but at full gallop, a stride can be as long as 275 cm (9 ft). Its legs are devoid of feathers and underneath its feet are thick, cushioned pads. Like the cassowary, the emu has sharp claws on its toes which are its major defensive attribute, and are used in combat to inflict wounds on opponents by kicking. The toe and claw total 15 cm (6 in) in length.

The bill is quite small, measuring 5.6 to 6.7 cm (2.2 to 2.6 in), and is soft, being adapted for grazing. Emus have good eyesight and hearing, which allows them to detect threats at some distance.

The neck of the emu is pale blue and shows through its sparse feathers. They have grey-brown plumage of shaggy appearance; the shafts and the tips of the feathers are black. Solar radiation is absorbed by the tips, and the inner plumage insulates the skin. This prevents the birds from overheating, allowing them to be active during the heat of the day.

A unique feature of the emu feather is the double rachis emerging from a single shaft. Both of the rachis have the same length, and the texture is variable; the area near the skin is rather furry, but the more distant ends resemble grass. The sexes are similar in appearance, although the male's penis can become visible when he urinates and defecates.

The plumage varies in colour due to environmental factors, giving the bird a natural camouflage. Feathers of emus in more arid areas with red soils have a rufous tint while birds residing in damp conditions are generally darker in hue. The juvenile plumage develops at about three months and is blackish finely barred with brown, with the head and neck being especially dark.

The eyes of an emu are protected by nictitating membranes. These are translucent, secondary eyelids that move

horizontally from the inside edge of the eye to the outside edge. They function as visors to protect the eyes from the dust that is prevalent in windy arid regions.

Emus have a tracheal pouch, which becomes more prominent during the mating season. At more than 30 cm (12 in) in length, it is quite spacious; it has a thin wall, and an opening just eight centimetres (3 in) long.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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K O

BO

Book and Art Review…

The Artistry of Carol Crichton Interviewer: Glenville Ashby, PhD

Sunday April 21, 2019

The Artistry of

Carol Crichton

“ Yo u i m m e r s e yourself, and as you gain confidence at each level, you go deeper. It (art and life) is a journey, and like reading a book, you hope that when you get to the last page you will have discovered 'who did it' and

why.”- Carol Crichton, Artist Glenville Ashby (GA): Tell us about a little about you and your work.

Carol Crichton (CC): I am a Jamaican artist, wife, mother, grandmother. I completed art education at the School Of Visual Arts, New York. In earliest memories I always felt entranced by the art-making process. My work is an exploration of being, of finding echoes in the natural

laws of earth, really, the universe.

GA: Some argue that art is more relevant today than any time before. Do you agree and why?

CC: Art has always been vital. Today, eternal truths are disregarded even more than before.

So the need for art is greater. Maybe art should be more integrated in our daily lives and less rarefied. The artist, Nari Ward, uses nonCarol Crichton's 'Looking for the Perfect Frame' art materials, shopping carts, shoe laces, etc. Perhaps this approach could be a gateway for a greater awareness.

The great thing about being an artist is the way you create keeps you growing.

As the work develops your mind opens. In 1963 I was twenty, in 2019, seventyfive. What a span. Truth and beauty change outwardly but the centre always remains.

GA: What defines an artist?

CC: A curious mind. A quick, original eye. Empathy and the willingness to see through the surface.

GA: Who were some of your biggest influences?

Eugene Hyde is a Jamaican artist that influenced me. In the sixties, Hyde brought new vigour to the Jamaican scene with abstraction but based on the imperatives of Jamaican people. It was a more rooted form of Jamaican expression.

Other influences were Mexican Freda Kahlo, earlier American Pop artists, Warhol, abstractionists Elaine de Kooning and Basquiat. Today, I am moved

by Jenny Saville of Britain and Mark Bradford and Ellen Gallagher of the US. And I must add that I hold a special place for Wolmer's High School in Jamaica where I was taught the bedrock of my practice.

GA: What is distinctive and unique about Caribbean art?

We've been trying to create a 'Jamaican or

Caribbean Art' in the manner we view Caribbean music, food, literature, speech as distinctive. But it has been elusive till now. Many Caribbean artists are making great strides internationally.

They are distilling the flavour and piquancy of our shared experiences in very sophisticated ways and have had their work shown in major museums and galleries. I have to remember Guyana is not an island but part of South American Continent.

GA: Can we easily distinguish between art in one Caribbean island and that of another (island)?

CC: Haiti and Cuba have a distinctive ethos. High on quality and content.

GA: How effective is the artist as a catalyst for social change?

CC: Art in all forms is a great catalyst. Post-colonial West Indies very much needs art to navigate identity and find unity and coherence.

Our music, literature and sports have been vibrant and inspirational.GA: What are some of your favourite and most celebrated pierces?

CC: “Looking for The Perfect Frame," a work that deals with our individual search for identity, and "Roll Call,” that is a tribute to our ancestors.

GA: When is your next exhibit scheduled?

CC: Hopefully a small show at end of this year. My last show was in 2016.

GA: A word of advice for the young artist?

CC: Be true. Work as your heart tells you. You have to walk a fine line between income and your passion. If the two don't always meet find a way to work in the two zones.

Moreover, respect your craft.

F e e d b a c k : glenvilleashby@gmail.com /wcrichton15@hotmail. com

Sunday April 21, 2019

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THE

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Sunday April 21, 2019

STORY WITHIN THE

We may have to import labour

By Leonard Gildarie

I

have tried to shy away from the raging debate over oil. It is not that the issue is not critical. It is a hugely complex one that Guyana is still learning about. In fact, some countries that have been in it for decades are still learning.

Kaieteur News carried a piece on Friday where it was disclosed that a number of African countries are still struggling to understand their benefits from oil and gas.

I know oil and gas will be a g a m e c h a n g e r. T h e landscape in Guyana has already started changing d r a m a t i c a l l y. Q u i e t l y, properties are being acquired or leased. Properties are being renovated as companies in oil-related activities are renting. They want office space and storage yards.

Along the East Bank especially is in high demand.

The Marriott especially would be smiling because of the filled rooms and the events. One of the major areas, we have been advised, that Guyana should invest in, or rather focus on, is education‌on building our capacity. We must demand that our people shadow the oil companies and learn. We would not be the first country where the government has demanded its people learn.

Dubai and a number of other countries, in their internal investment policies, have made it clear. You want to come, be prepared to teach us. The debate in Guyana is now centred on what exactly we are getting.

Being ever the curious person, I like to talk to people that are in the know. I am told and I am sure that Government is aware, that we must revise our contracts or at least in the new arrangements insist education and local employment play a major role. It should not merely be a clause that says you must employ 60 percent local or allow local companies to get business. It has to also involve very clear demands on how much our local companies are benefitting from the services that would be needed. It is a must.

In fact, our deal makers must understand that the negotiations all hinge on what is our take. It is a fact we don't have the negotiating skills to deal with the oil giants like ExxonMobil.

They are masters. They have had decades of experience.

We need to protect ourselves lest we are to be blamed for authoring a dark part of this country's history by overseeing a bad deal. It is a given that any new companies that come here must adhere to that. The direct employment of oil and gas will not be that much.

The spinoffs are where we should be looking.

Rentals, leases, the provisions of services including transportation, food, legal and construction are but a few areas we would want to target.

ExxonMobil just awarded a contract to the Nabis for the construction of its headquarters at Ogle. So we have to be vigilant and keep demanding more.

There is nothing wrong with that. We are in the driver's s e a t . O n T h u r s d a y, Government announced that ExxonMobil has successfully drilled another well. It will take us over the five and a half billion barrels that are estimated to be in the Stabroek Block.

It is the 13th one that has found oil. High quality oil.

Guyana is on a winning streak. We need to cash in our chips. The ball is in our court.

That is why Guyana should take note when one of the country's biggest union bodies, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) on Friday warned that local workers have no clear understanding or guideline how they are expected to foremost benefit from these resources that belong to them.

O u t s i d e o f announcements as to profit sharing between government and the oil companies and sweeping statements the revenue would be directed towards improving social services, citizens/workers have nothing concrete to hold on to, GTUC said.

The union body said that it has made proposals to President David Granger and the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo.

Leonard Gildarie To d a t e , n e i t h e r Government nor Opposition has made any move to activate this crucial and important aspect of the development that would assure local labour and businesses they stand to gain and be protected.

More worrisome for me is what GTUC alleged‌that already, there are allegations of discriminatory practices in preference of one group over the other by local contractors involved in the sector. This, if true, is highly worrying. We are starting off on the wrong foot.

ExxonMobil and other companies who are here to exploit our resources are our partners. We need to have a hand in the decision-making process. It is simple. The oil belongs to us.

There is another worrying factor emerging now. I am being told that the rice-growing areas, especially in Berbice, are not finding workers. One would have thought that with the closures of two estates Skeldon and Rose Hall thousands of workers are available. Not so. Apparently workers have been migrating to other sectors and even out of the country. In fact, I am told, a significant number of sugar workers and their families have US visas and have been utilizing them.

Well, we have been receiving a growing number of complaints about the difficulties in finding workers. Not least so is Kaieteur News.

We have been complaining about unemployment, but what is the scientific basis of this?

We simply do not have the requisite workforce. The fact is even if there is, there is a major problem involving our people and their attitude towards working in an environment that has become not only highly competitive, but on a different plateau.

We have to be prepared to be employed in offices where performance-based work will become the order of the day. Are we ready? If not, we may have to start importing workers.

Sunday April 21, 2019

From page 32 her mother ’s keeper and caregiver, but in a bizarre twist she turned out to be her mother’s killer.

One of the daughters of Rookmin ‘Jocelyn’ Jameer has shockingly confessed to slashing the 71-year-old woman’s throat after they had an argument at their Lot 205 Tempe Village, West Coast Berbice residence.

A police source close to the investigation told Kaieteur News that the woman cracked under intense interrogation and revealed in detail the events leading up to the death of the pensioner.

She reportedly told police that after her mother accused her of stealing money, they argued daily over the issue.

But it was on Friday, when she came home, and the old woman raised the topic again, that the daughter snapped.

The daughter said she picked up a chopper from the kitchen counter and slit her mom’s throat.

Her husband who was also arrested has since been released from police custody.

Prior to her shocking confession, the woman had told relatives that she found her mother with her throat slit after returning from church.

However, sources in the village had relayed that the woman was imbibing with her husband earlier that day. He returned from the USA a few weeks ago.

Police subsequently arrested the woman and her husband Saturday morning after her alibi did not hold up.

Meanwhile, the son of the dead woman, Shaheed Jameer said that he is in utter disbelief after hearing that his sister “actually admit to killing mommy”.

He added that although his mother was allegedly being abused by his sister he did not think she “had the guts to do that”.

“She nah suppose to do that, that is she mother, we so

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Kaieteur News

shocked right now”.

Shaheed had told this publication that his mother had complained to his wife about a week ago that his sister stole cash from her.

TUESDAY MYVIDEOMEGA INTEREST WAS DECLARED TO THE INTEGRITY COMMISSION – MINISTER HUGHES - DENIES PARTICIPATING IN CONTRACT AWARD Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, has categorically denied using her office or participating in the decisionmaking process that led to the award of a contract to her media company, Videomega Productions Ltd. The statement by Hughes, a senior executive of the Alliance For Change (AFC), which forms the smaller faction of the Coalition Government, would come amid a raging debate over public officers and what constitutes a conflict of interest situation.

It was reported recently that Videomega owned by Hughes received $832,200 for producing ads for the oil and gas sector, on behalf of the Department of Energy.

The department, which falls under the Ministry of the Presidency, had insisted that the necessary procurement protocols were followed in awarding the contracts.

Hughes said last week that she had relinquished control in the company since assuming office.

The company itself said that the ministry does not handle the daily operations.

Monday, in her statement, Hughes was at pains to insist that conflict of interest scenario as contemplated by the regulations does not apply to her.

In any case, she had no knowledge that the contract

was even issued.

Below in its entirety is the Minister’s statement: “I would like to invite everyone’s attention to the specific provisions of the Integrity Commission (Amendment of Code of Conduct) Order 2017 particularly the contents of Articles 4 and 5 “Conflict of Interest” and “Use of Official influence.”

The specific contents of the Article 4 provide: No person in public life shall (a) Allow private interest to conflict with his or her public duties or improperly influence his or her conduct in public in the performance of his or her public duties. (b) Allow the pursuit of his or her private interests to interfere with the proper discharge of his or her public duties.

Provided that any such conflict that tends to interfere with the proper discharge of his or her public duties shall be reported to the Integrity Commission for guidance on a resolution as soon as practicable in favour of public duties of the person in public life.

AMENDING PROCUREMENTACT KEY TO MAXIMISING LOCAL PARTICIPATION IN OIL SECTOR - TENDER BOARD HEAD There are several tactics Guyana can employ to ensure local companies get a fair advantage in the tendering process for oil and gas contracts. In fact, Guyana’s procurement laws contain one of these tools called a ‘margin of tenderer reference’.

The law states, “The procuring entity may grant a margin of tenderer reference not exceeding 10 percent to tenders submitted by domestic contractors or for the benefit of tenders for

domestically produced goods, provided that such preference is specified in the tender documents.”

“If the lowest evaluated tender was submitted by a foreign tenderer, the evaluating committee will apply the margin of preference to the prices submitted by all foreign tenderers, for evaluation purpose. If, after applying the margin of preference, the lowest evaluated tender was submitted by a domestic tenderer, such tenderer shall be awarded the contract.”

But considering the massive scale of Guyana’s oil wealth to come, Head of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), Berkley Wickham, says that perhaps it is time for amendments to be made to this provision, among others, since they date back to 2003.

During an exclusive interview with this newspaper, Wickham said, “There needs to be a national discussion on whether the 10 percent is good enough. We are in the process of modernizing the current Procurement Act. We had a consultancy to do that and we have reviewed the recommendations together with the Public Procurement Commission and those revisions are now with the Attorney General’s Chambers for

drafting.”

The Tender Board Head added, “And I would think thereafter, there will be a public process for stakeholder engagements to look at what was recommended for amendment. So there will be ample opportunity at that stage for the people to have a say on what they think should be included to promote more local participation for the oil sector.”

Wi c k h a m also emphasized that amendments to the Act are crucial to ensuring local businesses benefit the most from the sector.

“This is very important.

If we are talking development and the good life, then this is a necessary step. I would think, and I am not a politician, but it is only fair for the people of Guyana to benefit as much as possible from the gains of the oil and gas sector. So this is a crucial step to propelling local businesses, and particularly women-owned businesses.”

STRATEGY MODIFICATIONS There are several tools emerging, which oil producers like Guyana can use to maximize the participation of local firms in the oil and gas sector. One of the most effective ways is through the modification of the procurement strategy that

governs the sector. This is according to the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA).

Headquartered in London, IPIECA develops shares and promotes good practice and knowledge to help the oil and gas industry of countries improve environmental and social performance.

According to IPIECA, there are several modifications a country can make to ensure local businesses are given a fair advantage. It outlined one option to be Reservation or ‘set aside’ provisions which mandate that only qualified local firms are allowed to bid for certain contracts. IPIECA also said that the procurement strategy can be improved by providing local companies with additional information, reducing the size and complexity of the scope, or simplifying procedures or processes to make it more likely for them to participate in the procurement process.

Further to this, the Association said that modifications can be made to the Bid Evaluation Process to help businesses have more participation. In this regard, it said that the General Preferencing provision can be used. This allows for a local bidder to be (Continued on page 42)

PAGE 42

From page 41 selected when it is relatively close to other competitors on quality and price.

EXXON INSTALLS FIRST SUBSEA TREE FOR LIZA PHASE 1 DEVELOPMENT ExxonMobil has successfully installed the first subsea tree for the Liza Phase One Development Project.

In a missive to the media, the company noted that a subsea tree monitors and controls the production of a subsea well. Fixed to the wellhead of a completed well, it can also manage fluids or gas injected into a well.

The oil major said that the tree arrived in Guyana’s waters on the Chouest CInstaller in February. It said that installation and testing began on April 11 and lasted for four days.

The American multinational said that it was lowered into the water from the back deck of the multipurpose installation vessel via a crane, set in 1700 metres of water onto the first completed well, latched, and locked into place using a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV). The valves were then pressure tested.

The next tree is expected to be installed in May, the company noted.

Further to this, ExxonMobil said that the Liza Phase One development includes a subsea production system and a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel designed to have the capacity to process up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day from four subsea drill centres consisting of 17 wells, including eight producers, six water injectors, and three gas injectors. Production startup

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

is scheduled for early 2020.

WEDNESDAY MORE EXPLOSIVE REVELATIONS… HOUSING MINISTER’S HUSBAND USED CH&PA STAFFERS TO WITNESS PRIVATE CONTRACT - ONE OF THEM IS HIS NEPHEW Hours after Minister of Housing, Valerie AdamsYearwood released a statement challenging claims of a conflict of interest with her husband at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), there are shocking details emerging that raise even more questions.

The Minister came under public scrutiny two weeks ago after Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, reported that contracts were issued to the Minister’s husband, Godfrey Yearwood, by CH&PA – the agency over which she presides.

After days of public pressure, Minister AdamsYearwood denied any input, claiming that she does not preside over the bidding and awarding process at CH&PA. The Minister and Godfrey Yearwood married in August 2017 and a few months later, he was awarded contracts to build a number of turn-key homes for CH&PA. However, the minister claimed, in her statement on Monday, that she learnt of the awards only after he told her.

Further, when a 2017 press release from Government surfaced, stating that the Minister “presided” over the awarding of contracts – contrary to the claim by the Minister that she does not – she claimed Monday that her

presence at the event was purely ceremonial.

But it isn’t just the Minister who is related to Godfrey Yearwood.

This publication saw documents that suggest that staffers at CH&PA were very familiar with the Minister’s husband.

In fact one of them, Troy Marks, the Clerk of Works at CH&PA, is said to be a nephew of the Minister’s husband.

HARBOUR BRIDGE TESTINGAUTOMATED TOLL COLLECTION SYSTEM Despite plans to build a new crossing for the Demerara River, management of the current bridge is not standing still.

The Bridge management is currently testing an automated toll system which will allow vehicles that traverse the Demerara Harbour Bridge to buy credit, instead of paying cash at the four toll booths.

The idea is improve efficiency, in terms of traffic management, and accountability.

Tuesday, General Manager, Rawlston Adams, and two of the senior staffers Traffic Coordinator, Hazellu Richardson and Andre Crowder, Electrical Engineer, all spoke about the pilot project.

The 40-year-old harbour bridge is the main link between the city and West Demerara. It connects via ferry to Region Seven and Essequibo Coast, Region Two. However, the efficiency of the bridge has been severely challenged in recent years as more and more vehicles are placed on the country’s

One of the Demerara Harbour Bridge vehicles being tested. Also in photo are GM, Rawlston Adams (r) and Electrical Engineer, Andre Crowder.

roads. This has led to congestion at especially peak hours.

A few years ago, vehicles would purchase tickets from the eastern end and traverse to the west side where someone would collect them.

However, to speed up the lines, the western end collection system was removed from the equation.

Then at peak hours, the bridge would be made oneway.

According to Adams, the bridge has collaborated with a local tech company, Smartware Solutions, which has done work before with the bridge, for the automated toll system.

Currently, 10 of the bridge vehicles are equipped with Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips which are automatically picked up by equipment at one of the toll booth.

The signals cause a ticket to be printed.

These are similar systems that are used on bridges and other facilities worldwide, Adams explained.

The bridge will benefit significantly as it has several credit facilities with ministries, state agencies and companies.

“As it regards to Government revenue, we must account for every dollar we collect by issuing a receipt.”

The GM disclosed that the current system causes delays as when a government vehicle that has credit facilities come to the toll booth. The worker has to manually prepare a receipt.

This takes time and slows the traffic, Adams said.

The idea is to slowly

introduce the government ministries and state agencies and then the general public.

GUNMENKILLMONEY CHANGER OUTSIDE MALL-ESCAPE ON BIKE WITH CASH AND FIREARM Police have launched an intense manhunt for two gunmen who escaped with cash and a firearm after killing moneychanger Prince William Alleyne outside Ashmin’s Mall. The killing occurred around 10:40 hrs Tuesday.

Alleyne, 57, of Lot 88 Grove Public Road, East Bank Demerara, was shot in the head during a scuffle with the robbers.

The father of two collapsed on the eastern parapet in High Street, while the killers escaped on a CG motorcycle that they had parked further up High Street.

Eyewitnesses said that the gunmen’s heads were covered and that they sported heavy beards.

They appeared to have been familiar with their victim’s routine, since persons close to Alleyne said that he would habitually park his car in High Street, in the vicinity of the Ashmin’s Mall, before heading the America Street to ply his trade. Ranks from Brickdam, Alberttown and CID Headquarters, Eve Leary are said to be looking for two known men in connection with the crime.

Police said that Alleyne left his home around 10:00 hrs in his car, PMM 9512, taking his licensed pistol and an undisclosed sum of cash.

He secured and parked his car on the eastern parapet outside Ashmin’s Mall in

High Street.

Two men immediately confronted him. A scuffle ensued, during which the men shot Alleyne in the head and snatched his bag containing his money and firearm.

Eyewitnesses recalled hearing a gunshot and then seeing two young men, whose heads were covered and who sported beards, sprinting south up High Street.

They then clambered onto a CG motorcycle. According to eyewitnesses, the men appeared to be nervous and “had to crank the bike about three times” before they got it started.

THURSDAY SUBSTANDARD US$150M AIRPORT WARRANTS FULL-FLEDGED PROBE - OPPOSITION LEADER There must be a thorough investigation into the renovation done on the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo, made this assertion Wednesday, during a press conference.

Eight years after the signing of the contract, China Harbour Engineering Corporation Limited (CHEC) is preparing to hand over the renovated airport. But there are questions about the quality of work done by the contractor.

The project has been marred by one problem after another. The largest ongoing infrastructural undertaken by the government, it has spanned three (Continued on page 43)

Sunday April 21, 2019

From page 42 administrations thus far. It was inexplicably modified by the Coalition Government starting in 2015, with Guyana getting a considerably smaller airport, though still obligated for a US$150M bill.

Jagdeo had said that the Airport is a “rehab project”, and that it is not a new, state-of-the-art airport, as was initially promised. He said that he believes the cause of this is collusion, involving government officials.

He had sought to dispel the notion that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is to blame for the variation of the project. A number of local contractors had expressed shock at some of the prices that the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, in late 2011, agreed to in its contract with China Harbour.

“They argued that it was a corrupt PPP contract. Now, they have decided to pay more when we are getting less,” said the Opposition Leader.

The project initially promised a brand new terminal building, with it being a two-storey structure, with glass roof and highlights. It also was meant to be accompanied by eight passenger bridges. Jagdeo said that, as it is, there will be a runway, a part of the apron, a rehabilitated terminal building instead of a “spanking” new one, and only four bridges.

WOMAN ACCUSED OF MURDERING MOTHER FAINTS TWICE IN COURT - MAGISTRATE ORDERS PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION The Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court was in total chaos Wednesday when 41-year-old murder accused Kamela Jameer, a mother of two, appeared before Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh, to answer to the charge of murder, committed on her 71-year-old mother Rookmin Jameer at their Lot 305 Tempe Village, West Coast Berbice residence.

Before the charge could be read,

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the woman fainted in the courtroom, putting a halt to the proceedings for a few minutes. Magistrate Singh recessed for 10 minutes and instructed that the woman be taken to the briefing room to be revived.

When she returned for the second time, she was crying uncontrollably and the Magistrate stated that he would only accept the swearing of evidence by the CID rank, but would not read the charge, in light of the condition she was in.

Jameer fainted a second time and the Magistrate instructed ranks to take her to the hospital for medical attention. A psychiatric evaluation was also ordered.

She is currently under guard at the Fort Wellington Hospital and is set to appear again in court today.

The woman’s brother Shaheed Jameer and other relatives were present at court in support. The brother told Kaieteur News that despite what his sister allegedly did to his mother “is still my sister and I forgive she”. He asked that the accused be counselled, since it is his belief that she has struggled mentally since her children were taken away from her.

Shaheed Jameer explained that sometime ago, during the woman’s previous marriage, she lost her home to a fire and shortly after, her marriage fell apart and “dem children go and live with their father”. Those troubling events, he opined, contributed to the mental state she is in presently, but stressed that there is no excuse for her actions.

COPS QUESTION JAGDEO OVER HIS BABU JAAN COMMENTS Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo was Wednesday questioned by ranks of the Criminal Investigations Department, (CID) over statements he made during his address at a rally held in commemoration of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP)’s founding leader Cheddi Jagan at Babu Jaan, Corentyne, last month.

Kaieteur News understands that the police paid Jagdeo a visit at his

Church Street office where they put to him several allegations in the presence of his attorneys Anil Nandlall, Sanjeev Datadin and Priya Manickchand.

Jagdeo has been accused of inciting his party supporters with the comments, he made in regards to the government during his address at Babu Jaan on March 10th last.

During his speech, the opposition leader had, in reference to the government, urged his supporters to “chase them out.”

Jagdeo had emphasised that the government has been illegal following the contentious noconfidence vote passed in the National Assembly on December 21.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Guyana Police Force denied being ordered by anyone to arrest and charge the Opposition Leader over his alleged inciting racial hostility during a speech at Babu Jaan.

The force said it had taken note of a press statement by the PPP in which the party alleged that the police have been instructed by Congress Place and the Office of the President to arrest, detain, and charge Opposition Leader and General Secretary.

“The Guyana Police Force wishes to clearly refute such statement and to inform all and sundry that the Ministry of the Presidency, the People’s National Congress – Reform or A Partnership for National Unity have not given any such instruction or advice.”

Additionally, the Force insisted that it remains a professional organization and any action previously or currently being taken, is wholly pursuant to legal advice obtained and or to engage in investigations.

TEIXEIRA,ANAMAYAH RESIGN AS PPP MPS Two of three dual citizens from the People’s Progressive Party, Gail Teixeira and Adrian Anamayah, have resigned as Members of Parliament.

This announcement was made

by Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, during a press conference Wednesday. Jagdeo said that the third parliamentarian aligned with the PPP, who has dual citizenship, Odinga Lumumba, has not yet resigned, but is expected to do so.

Jagdeo said that Teixeira, who was the Opposition’s Chief Whip, has served 24 years in Parliament, and that her resignation, in spite of the work she has put in, displays her respect for the rule of law. He said that though she has resigned, she is on the list for the upcoming election cycle and will be part of the government, should the party win the election.

On the other hand, the Opposition Leader said that the coalition government displayed duplicitous behaviour by its handling of the vote of Charrandass Persaud in support of the No Confidence motion, on December 21, 2018.

FRIDAY QUESTIONABLE ENGINEERS’ESTIMATES COSTING GUYANA BILLION$ In recent years, there has been increasing scrutiny of the billions of dollars being spent by consecutive governments on construction projects and for paying for services from suppliers.

The tender process, until now, has been largely shrouded in secrecy.

Despite tougher laws and the establishing of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), there is growing evidence that contractors, Government engineers and others in the ministries and agencies are still finding ways to beat the system.

Recently, the spotlight was brought sharply down on the role of the in-house engineers at the various ministries, regional administrations and state agencies.

They play a crucial role. One of them is the preparations of what is known as Engineer’s Estimates.

Using market prices, the

engineers would work to prepare estimates of what a project should cost.

It would include cost of steel, cement, labour, transportation, nails and roofing materials.

The use of excavators, among other things, would also be factored in the cost.

The idea for the Engineer’s Estimate is for the ministry or state agency to have a realistic cost that would be used as guide for budgeting purposes.

However, in recent years, it has been found that the Engineer’s Estimates are way above what is being submitted by contractors.

It has raised serious questions about the competence of the engineers and brought into the equation the strong possibilities of collusion with contractors.

Over the weekend, one major contractor, Peter Lewis, who insisted that his company is being sidelined, made some damning claims.

He said that engineers are the crooks in the country’s procurement system.

In fact, the process starts with them and ends with them.

On Tuesday, there were at least two glaring cases in which the engineers seem far removed from reality or that it could be concluded that something else was happening.

One tender was for the completion of a building for the Upper Corentyne Industrial Training Centre.

The Engineer’s Estimate for the work was $12,042,800.

There were 12 bids. All came in under the Engineer’s Estimate. The lowest was at $7.2M. There was another one where the Engineer’s Estimate was higher than the 14 bidders.

The job was for the rehabilitation of the Science Lab of the St Mary’s Secondary School. The Engineer’s Estimate was $13,312,000.

Contractors have been taking note of the opening of the tenders which are covered and published by Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, another newspaper. “How do you (Continued on page 44)

PAGE 44

From page 43 have an in-house engineer who is helping to put together the tender documents, so that contractors can bid, have an estimate that is higher than what people are bidding?

These are the same engineers that maybe have to evaluate the tenders and even monitor the works? “President David Granger needs to look into this. The question to ask is, if we really need engineers and their estimates?” one contractor who is familiar with the process asked.

Another contractor, Managing Partner of Associated Construction Services, over the weekend called on President David Granger to intervene and to launch an inquiry.

There are several layers to the fraud that is occurring with the public bidding.

He explained that from his investigations, engineers at ministries would collaborate with particular contractors in a kickback scheme.

OVER 25 AFRICAN STATES FAILTO REAP FULL BENEFITS FROM OILAND OTHER NATURALRESOURCES – GUYANA, OTHER EMERGING PRODUCERS SHOULD TAKE NOTE – NRGI Guyana and other emerging oil producers are being urged to pay rapt attention to a recent

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

analysis that was conducted by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI).

That analysis revealed that 26 of 28 sub-Saharan African countries failed to reap the benefits from their natural resources. The NRGI report attributes this failure to an “implementation gap” between the laws that govern the extractive industries and the practices in reality.

S p e c i f i c a l l y, S i l a s O l a n ’ g , A f r i c a ’s C o Director for the Natural Resource Governance Institute, said that if countries in sub-Saharan Africa closed the ‘implementation gap’ and fully implemented their own laws, they could generate greater income from natural resources.

“They could also better combat the negative human and environmental impacts of extraction,” said Olan’g.

The NRGI Co-Director said that Africa is abundant in natural resources and is home to 30 percent of the world’s oil, gas and mineral reserves. He said that more than half of the exports of many countries in subSaharan Africa come from natural resources and as much as 90 percent in the most oil-dependent countries.

He also noted that

mineral reserves represent a large share of Government revenues across the region and have the potential to become

even more important in countries with recent discoveries, such as oil and g a s i n Ta n z a n i a a n d Uganda, and large reserves

of strategic minerals such as cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The official stated, however, that the biggest

implementation challenges faced by resource-rich societies in sub-Saharan Africa are fulfilling the legal requirements to transfer revenues collected from oil, gas and mining to local authorities, and publicly disclosing information on social and environmental impacts. Olan’g said that half of the 28 countries studied do not disclose environmental and social impact assessments, even though this is a legal requirement in many countries.

“Trust in Government and companies erode when legal reform is not followed and citizens are left in the dark.

Closing the ‘implementation gap’ is in everyone’s interests because ultimately, it enables countries to reap the benefits that their mineral wealth should offer,” said Olan’g.

The official continued, “…Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind other parts of the world in governing stateowned mining and oil companies and natural resource funds, which manage billions of dollars of resource revenues in countries like Angola, Gabon and Nigeria.

“Governments tend not to respect rules for managing assets held in natural resource funds and for disclosing conflicts of interest, particularly where corruption is poorly controlled—a reality in most of the countries surveyed.”

Kaieteur News

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Slingerz goes big for th 18 Anniversary with

TOUCH DOWN T

his Easter Monday, come celebrate with Slingerz Family at the West Vibes Sport bar, as the # 1 sound in Guyana turns 18. For this year's big anniversary, Slingerz Family will be bringing seven world class DJs. From Anigua: Kanabis Sound, from Jamaica: Bill Cosby and Bobby Kush, Skinny Hype and Patinum 2019 Badda dan Champion,

Team Hardball Magnum, Top Striker, Stereosonic and of course the anniversary sound Slingerz Family from Guyana.

There will be crazy giveaways all night, and a special treat for the ladies too. Everyone will be free up to 8:00pm, $1000 admission after. This event is brought to you by Stag Beer and Two Brothers Pure Ice.

BEENIEMAN RAVI B

RAVI B

The Garage proudly presents...

Battle of the Bands for Easter Monday

for Unity Fest at GIFTLAND parking lot on Easter Monday

O

n Easter Monday, April 22 nd , NURSE to BURST fast food restaurant and Giftland will be hosting an Easter Unity Fest at the Giftland parking lot.

Easter Unity Fest stars Jamaica King of the dancehall, the hit-maker, the movie star king, Beenieman, with all his big music and vibes. Also billed to perform are Trinidad Chutney hitmaker Ravi B, Shakti Strings, Slingerz Family, DJ Magnum, and more.

Tickets $2.500 VIP $10.000 on sale at the Giftland Mall, the Strip, NURSE to BURST, Light Street, Rosignol Butchery, White Castle Fish Shop and Vicky's fish shop.

Buy three NURSE to BURST $800 meal and get one FREE ticket, at our Light Street location, while stocks last.

Brought to you also by Corona Beer, CR tell us CALL centre, Church's Chicken and Toucan Industries.

T

he Garage Bar and Grill is proud to present for the third time, the “Battle of the Bands” on Easter Monday at its Aubrey Barker Road, South Ruimveldt location.

Clashing will be Buster one man band out of the USA, the Stitchie Vibes Machine and the Supa Ray One Man Band.

Admission will be $1000. See you there.

GOT Season 8 Ep. 2 for viewing at 704 on Sunday

The Second Episode of Game of Thrones Season 8, dubbed “The Rightful Queen”, is all set for viewing at the exquisite 704 Sports Bar this Sunday at 9 PM. There will be a lineup of unique Game of Thrones cocktails such as, “Winter is Coming,” “Ours is the Fury”, “Fire and blood”, and “The Red Woman” for you to indulge in. Show up in your Game of Thrones Costume and you can get a free drink too. See you there.

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Migrant Caravans: Are they in the Caribbean's future?

From page 24 countries such as the US and Canada. Fortunately, there is no sign of such a departure in CARICOM states, where people participation in political life remains organised, vibrant and accepted.

H o w e v e r, c l i m a t e change could well prove to be the common factor that could create refugees for CARICOM countries and Central America in the future.

The Global Climate Change conferences in France and Poland talked much but delivered little.

The worst aspect of both these conferences was the acceptance that Climate Change, with its attendant global warming and sealevel rise, is a fact of life now and in the future.

The pledging of money to build resilience and mitigate disasters is, of itself, a glaring admission that, instead of stopping climate

The police, the touts, economic genocide...

From page 35 and GuySuCo during their stewardship.

Further, if standing in defence and protection of the sovereignty of this nation against those who threaten same, be they internal or external, gives me the label of being a bully, I embrace it.

As a citizen, if I cannot stand in defence of the rights of Guyanese workers and demand respect for the Constitution and Laws of Guyana, then I won't be worthy to be born in Cuffy's land.

And to Freddie Kissoon, a man I still consider a comrade, he got it wrong on two counts. The nineteenpoint proposal submitted by the GTUC to the Government and Opposition on 5th March 2019, which was made public, to realise the political system of inclusionary democracy, did include matters specific to the trade union. In fact, it

ranked topmost on the list.

It is not role of the Labour Department to arbitrate; its role is to conciliate.

Conciliation is the effort to bring the parties closer to finding resolution to their grievances. The GTUC's proposal called for the establishment of an Industrial Court, which will expedite and make decisions on grievances, whether workers are represented by a trade union or not.

I remain steadfast in my conviction that Guyana cannot afford an open border policy. We are a small nation in population size, with social services that are stretched thin, high unemployment, a fragile developing housing infrastructure, inadequate health services, and new resources to be exploited. In this scenario it is imperative we ensure managed migration and the welfare of Guyanese placed foremost.

change, the abuser countries are delaying the total extinction that it will wreak by giving abused countries money here and there to manage increasingly fatal destruction.

Rising temperatures, more extreme weather events, and increasingly unpredictable patterns — like rain not falling when it should or pouring when it shouldn't — have disrupted agricultural cycles, severely affecting farming communities.

This is evident in Central America, and the World Bank reported last year that climate change could create 1.4 million refugees, as people flee their homes in Mexico and Central America and migrate during the next three decades.

In the Caribbean, in

2017, all the residents of Barbuda became the first climate refugees – people who had to abandon their island which was decimated

by Hurricane Irma.

Hundreds of Dominicans also had to seek refuge in Barbados and Antigua.

As global warming increases to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, coastal areas of Caribbean countries will gradually be severely eroded, adversely affecting tourism and marine industries, including fisheries.

The first impact will be unemployment and increased poverty.

The affected people will have no option but migration, and, to survive, they too will join the caravan of refugees – however they

can.

That is why, Caribbean governments and all stakeholders in Caribbean islands and countries with low-lying coastal areas, such as Guyana and Belize, must rail in every global forum against the clear and present danger of Climate Change.

(The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organisation of American States.

He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own) Responses and previous c o m m e n t a r i e s : www.sirronaldsanders

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Sunday April 21, 2019

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No-Nonsense Regional Executive Officer,

Pauline Lucas, is a 'Special Person'

From page 22 graduated from Training School in 1987 and was employed by GEC. She remained with the organization until 1990.

It was while there she conceived and gave birth to her only child, a daughter, whom she named Kendika.

“She is a gift to me from God,” said a smiling Lucas of her daughter.

What is also notable about this powerhouse of a woman, is that her training experience at GEC was not nearly enough, so she enrolled at the Government Technical Institute to fulfill her long time passion of becoming an electrical engineer.

EMBRACING CHANGE T h e r e w e re s o m e challenges for her along the way being a woman attempting to infiltrate a man's world, so much so, that she eventually decided to change career paths. Since she already had a liking for Maths, Lucas decided to divert her attention to Economics. She was able to successfully complete the degree programme offered at the University of Guyana from which she graduated in 1995.

Since she had made up her mind to change careers path, Lucas left GEC and started sending out applications, 13 to be exact, to various organisations. She remembers telling herself that the first organization to respond to her would be the one she would endeavour to be a part of.

Lucas recalled receiving a call from the Ministry of Finance inviting her for an interview, and she vividly remembers having to undergo two interviews - one with former Finance Minister [Former President and current Opposition Leader], Bharrat Jagdeo, and another with then Head of the Budget Department [current Minister of Finance], Winston Jordan.

She was employed as a Planner, but was promoted on two more occasions to Planner 1 and Planner 2. She was ready to resign and take advantage of an alluring job offer shortly before another promotion was about to be offered to her [Senior Planner]. This she became aware of when she sought a recommendation from her Supervisor at the time, Dr. Ashni Singh [who was also a

Minister of Finance] Before leaving Finance, Lucas recalled learning a great deal from other superiors within the entity, including Ms. Laureen Baird and Sonya Roopnauth. She also benefited from numerous training programmes, both locally and overseas, that helped to improved her capabilities.

In fact she was able to master her work so well that she was faced with remarks at times that “they trained you well” when confronted with officials including REOs during meetings she was subjected to attend in order to query regional spending. But little did Lucas know that she was being prepared for even greater work.

DESTINY BECKONS Destiny was leading the way. After resigning from Finance, Lucas went on to take up an appointment at the local office of the European Union as a Programme Officer, responsible for projects, and, according to her, “I think that kind of sealed it off for me. I learnt so much and I believe that too would have helped to make me the person I am today.” Her stay there lasted for just about nine years.

After leaving the EU, Lucas remained at home for a while, before accepting a short consultancy task at the not-for-profit Habitat for Humanity. But following that consultancy, she was asked to stay on as an Associate Director in charge of resource mobilization and projects.

Lucas resigned from that post at the end of 2015 in order to take on what could very well be deemed the career of a lifetime – becoming the REO of Region Four.

She remembers how it all went down as if it were yesterday. According to Lucas, although being at Habitat was akin to being a part of a family, she did have the desire to expand her horizons given her years of working experience and knowledge that she gained over the years. Moreover, when she opened a newspaper one day and saw a Ministry of Communities advertisement inviting suitable applicants to apply for the post of REO she quickly thought “why not?”

Soon after applying, a call came inviting her for an interview, and not long after

Posing with some recently awarded contractors that she was being asked to assume duty as the REO of Region Four, which spans Mahaica to Industry and Eccles to Moblissa.

Although it took some getting used to and immense efforts to get things to a level which she could be proud of, Lucas is convinced that this could not have been possible without the support of workers at every level within the Region, especially Regional Education Officer, Ms. Tiffany Harvey, and Regional Health Officer, Dr. Quincy Jones.

“A lot of money has been plugged into Region Four. I would have seen numerous schools and health centres built on the East Coast and the East Bank, and lots of roads have been built…I think we are on course to achieving all that I plan to achieve during my time here,” said Lucas.

What makes her ongoing tenure as REO particularly notable, is the fact that Lucas has been ready and willing to lend support to her counterparts in other regions. Not so long ago she led a team of officers from her Region to Region One in the quest to help that region derive solutions to help address the influx of Venezuelan migrants.

“I do believe we can lend our experiences with other regions, I am not saying we are the best, but we do strive for perfection, and we do believe in helping where we can,” said Lucas, as she reiterated her hope of making Region Four the Model Region.

F o r h e r re s o l u t e dedication to improving Region Four, today we at Kaieteur News honour REO Lucas with the title of our 'Special Person'.

With her daughter Kendika

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Sunday April 21, 2019

GPHC helps abandoned...

From page 20 don't want them to go home and then they are abused,” said Fredericks.

She added, “Many people don't understand love starts from home; you cannot expect institutions and governments to love them. That is a problem we as Guyanese have; our values, our family structures are not there...everybody is just so self-centred.”

“Everybody may be touched by somebody with special needs and we have to look out for them. They don't have a voice to talk for themselves, if they were able to take care of themselves they would not have been here.

They didn't ask to be here, they didn't ask to come into the world,” said a compassionate Fredericks.

The GPHC, which offers free medical services to the public, has over the years been faced with the situation of persons being abandoned at the institution. In order to curb the dilemma, which has been dubbed detrimental to the abandoned individuals since they are exposed to infections, the hospital has been threatening to name and shame family members in hopes that the abandonment situation will be brought to a swift end.

Kaieteur News

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Sunday April 21, 2019

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Sunday April 21, 2019

“As we forgive…”

Part VII: The Umuvumu Tree Project (and Gacaca Courts) Rwanda: an umuvumu-solid democracy born of Gacaca (Photo: The New Times)

T

he Umuvumu tree h a s m a n y meanings for Rwandans, all of them special. It functions as shade and shelter; stands as an object of toil and reward; and is the source of many products, including beautiful cloth derivatives that fulfill an array of needs.

In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, with all its deep, ugly, bleeding wounds, this same Umuvumu tree came to represent the resumption of profound significances. This ranged from providing shelter for numbed communities to the convening of an outdoor court system to the finding of solutions to bring healing to the pains and anguish of a people.

It also came to exemplify the struggles of a nation willing to come to grips with its horrors and evils head-on and in the most humane ways possible.

This was the Rwandan search for justice on the one side, and that intricate balance of reconciling and healing on the next.

Justice is a noble and majestic word. According to Professor of Sociology, Howard Zeller, as referenced by author Catherine Larsen, justice systems can be of three forms: “revenge, retribution, restorative.”

Whether Mosaic or Sharia, (or other), and from a commonsense perspective, revenge only breeds more revenge in a potentially endless cycle of violence.

Within its own apparatus and operation, retribution focuses more on extracting punishment; that is the objective and cold reality.

Meanwhile, a system that highlights a restorative justice thinking and approach emphasizes victim-offender dialogue; the two-way street of shared opportunities for reaching,

baring, learning, understanding; and, last, forgiving and reconciling.

Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu, chose a very meaningful title for a book of his: No Future without Forgiveness. That says it all, and is applicable anywhere in the world, especially ruptured, angry, hurting nations that are vastly unsettled in this time of Easter, of sacrifice, and of redemption.

Given the Rwandan experience, and given the promise of Easter, it is now both opportunity and time to introduce the Gacaca Courts.

The Gacaca Court arrangement (formula, practice, or what have you) is guided and heavily influenced by community.

Community means honoured elders of both genders functioning as sages, mediators, and arbitrators bringing together survivor and perpetrator.

There is much listening and probing for truth, while carefully working along the slow, hard road towards solutions. Solutions do not mean free passes for the guilty. Rather, it is that balance of what constitutes a fair and reasonable penalty, after all facts and circumstances are subject to much sifting and weighing; what could be mitigating and capable of contributing to a redemptive peace.

A Gacaca Court is never about the purely punitive.

The priority and long-term objective are always the healing that ushers forth from forgiving and reconciling. In many ways, and at many layers, it is about justice tempered with mercy.

Thus, an ancient practice and the associated wisdoms are brought to bear on the modern barbarity and tragedy that was Rwanda in 100 days of hell and horror in (continued on page 60)

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New plans released for May 26 Independence Celebrations - 5000 students to showcase at event According to Co-ordinator, Mr. Andrew Tyndall, this forum will create an avenue for development of young local talent.

From left to right in photo is PR Co-ordinator, Michelle Braithwaite, Co-ordinator Andrew Tyndall, Minister of Social Cohesion, Honourable Dr. George Norton, Culture Director, Tomika Boatswain and Ministry of Education’s PR Co-ordinator, Mondale Smith At a brief ceremony hosted Thursday in the Ministry of Youth Sports & Culture Boardroom, the Independence Planning Committee unveiled the new plans for the commemoration of the nation’s 53rd Independence Anniversary.

The Independence anniversary celebration is to be hosted at D’Urban Park.

In addressing media rep-

resentatives, Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton noted that sitting at the helm of the Ministry; they have been trying our best to improve on all that they do.

He said as was done with Mashramani 2019, they are working to make this year’s Independence even better and more meaningful.

To this end, they have a number of very intriguing ac-

tivities planned. These include The Guyana Film Festival which comes as a collaborative effort between the Ministry and Cime Guyana (local film industry).

This will allow the public to get better acquainted with local productions, to foster appreciation at a local level.

That aside, there will also be an Evening of National Songs, Poetry and Stories.

Tyndall explained that amongst plans is the staging of their Annual Independence Art and Craft Market, and also a series of Independence

Concerts which they hope to host in Regions One, Four and Six. These concerts will be headlined and will feature (Contiued on page 62)

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Champayne Village - a peaceful little settlement where laughter abounds despite life’s challenges

By Alex Wayne The fresh crisp country breeze rushing in through the bus window soon had me dozing. I mused dreamily about the way the greenery on both sides of the road rushed by. But try as I might I could not sleep because of the intense heat that seemed to leave a sort of suffocating humidity in the atmosphere.

Vapours seemed to be rising from the street ahead and dogs were sheltering under trees, panting heavily, their tongues hanging out.

They seemed to be wishing desperately for evening to come.

Cattle and horses alike sought refuge under mango and coconut trees, while sheep strained forward, lapping up water from the almost dried up drains by the roadside.

In some areas young girls huddled under umbrellas, as they took home grocery items for their mothers, some of whom were seen sharing the news with neighbours from their house windows.

I was headed to the quaint little village of Champayne located in the fertile backlands of Mahaicony, almost 40 miles away from Georgetown.

To access this location one is expected to take a short drop car from the Calcutta/Burma Road location, and travel about two miles to get to the destination. This village is predominantly occupied by residents of East Indian origin.

I found a kind driver popularly known as ‘Lexman’ who warned that the ride to Champayne was not going to be as comfortable as I would have expected. For the start it was smooth sailing. I was admiring the sandy dunes of the Calcutta Backdam, when the vehicle suddenly landed into a large pothole on the Burma Road.

Scrambling to save my camera I braced myself as the vehicle began to shake quite alarmingly as it landed into one pothole to another. I breathed a sigh of relief when the car rolled into Champayne village, and trust me, this village was quite breathtaking.

Made up of not more than twenty houses, I marveled and felt enthralled at the quaint little country styled houses, with lush green kitchen gardens.

At some homes, families still lounged in hammocks eating fruits or just relaxing.

This village certainly has a refreshing yesteryear aura about it. From the adorable

Farmers create makeshift water pumps to get water to their rice fields.

Village elder and source person ‘Uncle Sonny’ getting ready to sun dry eschallot seeds for cultivating. little cottage houses, with colourful flower plants in the yards, to spotless ‘bottom houses’ still being daubed with mud and cow dung.

Drains and trenches were well maintained and I soon learned that this was all made possible by self-help efforts of the residents.

As I walked through the village with a Calcutta, Mahaicony resident called ‘Baby’ I was just taken back by the warm hospitality extended by the people. All around there were cheerful waves and words of welcome from the people.

I felt just as if we had met before, or as if we were longtime pals; the way they were treating me. The curious at heart politely enquired about my visit after sighting my camera and note pad.

What surprised me was that they readily settled down to talk about the humble existence of villagers, their livelihood, and simple things.

In some areas of the small village, housewives dusting flour on their skirts paused from frying bush fish to enquire if we were lost or looking for someone in particular.

Since it was noontime, in front of some homes husbands sat eating from the traditional enamel plates, with large glasses of homemade drink or jut water. It appeared as though everyone was eating with their fingers.

Of course this certainly had me wondering, and on enquiring I was told the food usually tastes better when

eaten that way, with lots of fresh bird pepper. I just felt at home in this little village…

Champayne is caught somewhere between the great expanses of land that make up the Calcutta Backdam, and vast rice fields that lie at the front and at the back of the village.

It seemed as though this village was an island surround by rice lands which stretched from Calcutta on the north, Burma at South, and even extended to Catherine Village in the East.

A LITTLE HISTORY ON THE VILLAGE There was actually one resident who could shed

some light on the history of the village, He was 77-yearold Jagdeo Persaud a/ka ‘Uncle Sonny’. He has been living in the village for over fifty years.

“I lived in this village almost all my life and what you see today, is nothing compared to what it was in the good old days. When I was a young boy this village was just a scatter of about eight very small houses.

“A few of them were very small huts built from mud and covered with zinc, others were houses but they were very small. Everyone used to plant gardens and a few of them attempted to farm.

“The soil here was very rich and fertile; it was the perfect soil for vegetables and rice farming. Villagers dug drains to avoid flooding and as the years went by more people, lured by the soil, came to live.

“Soon there were many rice fields here. In time the village developed and more people came to live here, many of them rice farmers.

Champayne became the village where lots of vegetables rice was produced.

Chandreka Persaud who has eight CXC subjects, says he is forced to work on their farm lands, since there is no scope for academic employment.

At one time we had serious drainage problems for many years, and lost a lot when our crops were flooded out. But we are thankful that the drainage is better today.

We have a good drainage canal, and the trenches in the backlands have been cleared so all is well with us.

“We don’t have shops or nightclubs in here; we travel to Mahaicony and other areas for groceries and house supplies. And we are not party people, so we ain’t missing out on anything. :We are content to remain in our homes and watch television or listen to music, or just lie in the shade under the trees when we have completed our work for the day.”

Uncle Sonny said that what is now the quaint little village used to be sprawling pastures, dense bush and stubborn foliage in times past.

Like many other countryside villages, he said, Champagne was discovered by curious farmers who found out that the land was rich for farming. They began to target the land, firstly for small-scale rice cultivation, which eventually evolved into the very extensive rice fields that are now present.

He said that persons soon began purchasing plots of land in the area, and gradually the village evolved into what it is today.

He said that, as far as he knows, the village was named by one of the very early settlers who had many plots of land there and felt that his surname was most suited for the intended village.

As some villagers stated, the small settlement may come alive occasionally if there is a wedding, and this will normally see several days of pulsating music, dancing, and ‘brown rum non-stop’ for revelers.

The scenery of this village was very breathtaking and it had me wondering if outsiders actually knew that this pristine and so very adorable

location really existed.

This village would certainly be a treat for the nature-minded and those that deserve tranquility. Its lush pastures and great expanses of land allowed for cool afternoon treks to admire the beauties of Mother Nature, while its natural trenches and waterways are ideal for a midday splash or a nice cool off country style, just before the sun begins to fade.

LIVELIHOODAFFECTED In years gone by the farmers of Champayne Village would supply outside villages with fresh vegetables. It was always a welcoming sight to housewives who will wait by the roadside to see the farmers arriving on bicycles, or donkey drawn carts to peddle their healthy looking bora, ochroes, boulangers, peppers, callaloo, and ground provisions.

Eschallot and celery was always a hot number for housewives, and the farmers always ensured they had an unending supply.

But today the cultivation of rice has taken over. Most of the farm lands have been converted into rice fields.

On my visit farmers in unison lamented the effects of the prolonged dry spell.

They said that it has put great strain on them to get water to the crops, especially their rice fields.

Rice farmers were very emotional as they explained how the dry season and an invasion of paddy bugs have dashed their hopes of a splendid harvest. Ramphal Persaud was particularly sad since he depends on his rice cultivation to feed his family of seven.

“Bai, me nah know wha happen. Me give up already.

This dry spell is wan thing fuh deal wid, but like is moh ole house pon house now because paddy bug ah kill out de rice plants.

“Some ah we try fuh get thing to spray dem wid, but what about de farmers who can’t afford it? Me get seven Continued on page 65

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Trial continues in ‘Frying Good tyre care delays replacement Pan’ shooting death and prevents accidents

STANDARDS IN FOCUS

The care and use of tyres should be of paramount concern to drivers and vehicle owners so as to prolonged usage and ensure safety. Generally, the cost of tyres care is negligible when compared to repair or replacement costs. The level of maintenance and the manner in which tyres are used on vehicles demonstrate care or a lack of it.

For many years, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has been monitoring new and used tyres under its Product Compliance programme to ensure that they meet the requirements of national standards.

Monitoring is done by Inspectors at ports of entry and at bonds and warehouses. It involves the examination of the commodity to ensure compliance with labeling and quality requirements. However, monitoring by the Bureau is not enough to ensure safe tyres are used on our roadways. Frequent examination and care by users go a far way to guarantee that their tyres take them a far way, safely.

As drivers, simple actions like checking your tyre pressure to make sure that the wheels are properly inflated can make a real difference on how long your tyres last. Under or over-inflated tyres don’t wear evenly and won’t last as long.

For example, a tyre that is constantly 20% underinflated can last 20% less in use. That means, a new tyre that could last approximately 95,000km would be worn out by 75,000 km. In addition, since the front and rare axles and the right and left side of vehicles wear down tyres differently, rotating your tyres regularly between the different positions will ensure they wear evenly and last longer.

A visit to the experts is not necessary to determine the ideal requirements for optimal performance of your tyres. Usually tyres are adequately labelled with the information needed to guide users as to their size, pressure and load requirements, which must be complied with to ensure safety and to avoid the loss of lives due to road accidents. The following are some tips which will help in the care and use of tyres: TYRE PRESSURE a. Check the air pressure of each tyre at least fortnightly. Incorrect tyre pressure can lead to the inside of the tyre being damaged,

resulting in tyre problems or even a blowout. b. Tyres must be inflated to specified pressures. The pressure inside warm tyres is naturally higher and must be reduced, and on cooling, can fall below the minimum tyre pressure. (Driving, especially at high speeds, causes heat build-up in tyres). c. Incorrect tyre pressure causes premature and uneven tyre wear. Under-inflated tyres have a higher rolling resistance, which means higher fuel consumption.

TYRE DAMAGE a. If a tyre is visibly damaged (that is, it has a fracture or a cut that exposes the carcass) or has an unusual wear pattern, the tyre must be taken off and examined as quickly as possible by a tyre specialist. b. Driving over curb-stones or over potholed roads may cause internal damage to tyres, leading to failure at high speeds. c. Check tyres regularly for damage as, sharp stones, nails etc. can penetrate the tyre tread. These need to be removed. Check also if there are bulges or cuts on the sidewall. d. For virtually all vehicles, rotating the tyres from one axle to the other is permitted.

In certain cases, changing them crosswise/ diagonally can also be advantageous. This does not apply to directional tyres. It is also advisable to have the alignment checked at 10,000 km intervals. e. Harsh acceleration, braking with locked wheels and fast steering movements shorten the service life of tyres.

TYRE REPAIR a. Tread damage or cuts that extend to the breaker, belt or beyond must be repaired by the hot vulcanization process. Repairs using cold temporary repair measures, such as plugging, are used as emergency means to take you home and should be rectified immediately without any delay.

Proper care and use will extend the life of tyres and reduce the incidence of accidents due to tyre damage or “blowout”, so drivers are urged to monitor and properly use their tyres to ensure safety on the road.

For further information, kindly contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0065, 219-0066 or 219-0069 or visit the website: www.gnbsgy.org.

The murder trial of Suresh Sakawat, called ‘Vishal’ 31; a labourer of Clifton, Port Mourant, Corentyne, Berbice, is ongoing in the Berbice High Court before Justice Jo Ann Barlow and a mixed jury.

Sakawat is accused of, on 2nd June 2015 at Expectation, Port Mourant Back Dam, while armed with a gun, shooting and killing Sasenarine Baljit, 40, called “Frying Pan” of Clifton Settlement, Port Mourant, Corentyne, Berbice.

The state’s case is being presented by Attorney at law, Mandel Moore. Attorneys at Law Ryan Crawford and Chandra Sohan are appearing for Sakawat.

Baljit’s bullet-riddled body, was found some three days after the incident in a trench in the backlands of Tain Settlement, Corentyne.

The body reportedly bore several shotgun injuries to the back.

Sakawat was reportedly held some days after the incident at his brother in law’s residence. Baljit was reportedly shot by Sakawat at a camp at Port Mourant back dam.

When the matter continued on Wednesday, Government Pathologist Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan took the witness stand. He testified that he performed an autopsy on Baljit‘s body on January 6, at the Port Mourant Hospital.

The body which was in an advanced state of decomposition was identified by the man’s sister. It had gunshot wounds to the back.

He gave the cause of death as (A) shock and haemorrhage (B) Gunshot

Murder accused: Suresh Sakawat called ‘Vishal’ injuries.

Under cross examination by defence Council Chandra Sohan, Dr. Brijmohan stated that due to the decomposed state of the body he could not say if Baljit could not have died from drowning.

The dead man’s sister, Dharmenia Beharry, testified that she got a call on June 5 and went to the Whim Police Station where she made a report. She then went to the

back dam and then to the Port Mourant Hospital where the body was taken.

On June 6 she identified the body for the Post Mortem Examination.

Also testifying was detective Constable De Souza who told the court that he is stationed at the Blairmont Police Station.

During the time of the incident he was stationed at the Whim Police Station. He assisted in the investigation.

He was severely grilled by defence council Sohan.

The state had earlier called two witnesses. Ramesh Busjit, the brother in law of the accused, told the court that the accused was at his home when he was arrested by the police.

The accused would usually stay by him. He recalled that the accused was not well and was receiving treatment.

Parsram Suraj told the court that he was the one who took the police to search the ranch when they noticed the body floating in the trench.

PAGE 60

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

“As we forgive…”

Part VII: The Umuvumu Tree Project (and Gacaca Courts) FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION, W E D D I N G S , ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 SERVICES

FOR SALE

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Boat for sale- 1 Steel hull cargo boat 50’x13’x6' with GM671 marine engine- 165 HP.Contact#603-1445

Visa Application: U.S.A, Canada & UK; Graphics design, advertisement, Wedding arch rentals. Tel: 626-7040; 265-4535.

ICONIC MARKETING & PRINTING –TEL: 6006887: We create A/works, logos, business cards, posters, etc, placements of ads included.

I N S TA L L AT I O N S , REPAIRS AND PARTS FOR AC, FRIDGE, WASHING MACHINE, STOVE ETC. CALL NICK 627-3206, 6301600 Seegobin construction from rough to finish. Specialize in house construction, swimming pools, fences and concrete textures. Tel# 6939327 HOUSE PLAN TO DRAW UP OR ESTIMATES? GIVE US A CALL 216-0671, 6928464, 622-0267

LEARN TO DRIVE N. Outar Driving School, Learn to Drive the right way @ Cuffy Square. Affordable package. Call: 644-5166/6912561 LAND FOR SALE Herstelling $5.5M, Eccles $7M, Farm$4.5M, Parfaite Harmony transferrable $3M,$3.5M, Tuschen $1.5M, $3.5M.Call 666-2326.

Foundation & Column completed, Land size 40x80, structure 30x24 Price $6.5M.Diamond Scheme contact Ganesh#669-9539/ 693-5096.

Parfaite Harmonie $1.4M, Schoonard $3.5M, Dairy $1.8M, Farm $3.2M.Tel#6560701/651-1959.

Loo creek 35 Acres from Road $35M, Saxaealli 25 Acres, River Friendship $30M, Support River Front $30M.Shawn#2312199/618-7483.

Land for sale in canal 1 Polder.3 Rods wide.Price $10,000,000 Negotiable.Contact 661-6000.

VEHICLE FOR SALE Allion, primo, spacio, allex, noah, RZ pitbull bus, mazda axela, bluebird, 192 fielder wagon. 650-7501

CAR RENTAL DOLLY’S CAR RENTALCALL:225-7126/ 2263 6 9 3 DOLLYSAUTORENTAL @YAHOO.COM/ WWW.D OLLYSAUTORENTAL.COM PROGRESSIVE CAR RENTAL: CARS FROM $4000 & UP, SUV’S PER DAY- CALL:643-5122/ 6 5 6 - 0 0 8 7 , ,EMAIL:PRO_AUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM TO LET Business space to rent. No restaurant. Serious enquiries only. 233 South Road 225-0198/615-0317.

Three bedroom concrete bottom flat in South Ruimveldt Gardens. $80,000 per month. Call 624-6673

One Toyota Camry.Price $400,000 Negotiable.Please Call 661-6000.

One Honda Wave Motor Cycle.Only 1668 Miles.Price: $225,000 Negotiable.Please Call 661-6000.

PROPERTY FOR SALE House for sale, Eccles Housing Scheme. 7 bedrooms, 3 toilets and bathrooms enclosed. $28.5M. Call 6420391/ 001447587233657. yashardabhola4@gmail.com 1 Flat concrete property at Diamond 19th Street.12M neg. Contact#680-2952/6632063.

South; Aubrey Barker 100x100.$35M, John street Cambellville $40M, Thomas street Cummingsburg 27M.Contact#231-2199, 6187483.

Top flat two bedroom Apartment with toilet and bath, overhead tank and p a r k i n g available.Price:$45,000.Phone#6128380.

4 bedroom newly built house 5th Avenue Diamond EBD. Fully grilled, hot & cold water system $180,000 per month. #696-3915 One apartment for rent. At Mon Repos First street E.C.D Tel: 220-7330, 602-4105 Vacant land for rent 58ft x 122 ft, Georgetown #661-2828 WANTED

From page 55 1994 that shook a nation; that shook humanity and the world it inhabits.

At the core, there is some recognition by the Gacaca Court system of what Solzhenitsyn wrote, that there is good and evil in all without exception, and that it is a very fine line separating the two.

Finally, out of the dark ash of blood and bodies rises the bright light of that which is divine and eternal. It starts with the willingness to sacrifice, to forgive and to give a chance to start over. Forgiveness can be uplifting but depleting, too. At its most complete, forgiveness incorporates and projects the suffering of the sufferer. And this comes to sparkling light in a kaleidoscope of unforgettable Rwandans, who found ways to reconcile with their former tormentors, while healing themselves.

There they were: a mag-

Wanted experienced hire car driver at Ramada Princess Hotel. Contact 616-5419, 2657075 Wanted Land to Buy:Herstelling, Eccles, Farm, VACANCY Province, Parfaite Harmonie, Tuschen, Uitvlugt and other Industrial Sales places.Call 666-2326.

Representative, 5 Subject CXC Age 25+ Experience in Wanted Security Sales, must own vehicle, email Guard.Apply immediately, r e s u m e : Herdmanston Lodge, 65 Peter vacancy@josarltd.com Rose Street.

Female kitchen assistant for Cleaners to work in interior location. Job entails Georgetown.Call:227-1717. assisting cooks and cleaning.

Truck Driver to drive Garbage Call 618-2020. truck in Linden.Contact 444Vacancy exists for certified 6248. accountant.

Bring in We buy Land in Parfaite application to Agri Parts Harmonie, Uitvlugt, Eccles, Machinery and Services.

Providence, Herstelling, General domestic. 3 Days work.

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nificent patchwork of survivors, maimed in so many gruesome ways, still finding the courage powered by an abiding spirituality, to face murderers and torturers and to bring peace to both. On the part of the surviving victims, there was reaching for the unknown; on the part of the killers, there was leaning towards the hand extended in undeserved mercy. It is the intersection of what Catherine Larsen terms simply but majestically, a glorious transfiguration moment that, in each case, made possible the transformative through reconciliatory.

Meet a handful of them, articulating repentance or forgiveness, and all experiencing mending and growing. There was the murderer Innocent; a man with a most improper name, and by the measurement of his grotesque misdeeds, in name only. Devota, a survivor; scarred and mutilated, but bravely visiting prisons and extending mercy to those who didn't when it was needed the most. Then, there was Claude, consumed with dreams of revenge, and actually pursuing them, only to find the bliss of a godly peace in time, and lasting healing.

Next, there were the young Hutus - Emmanuel, Sylveste, and Helena - who made the supreme sacrifice to save the lives of targeted fellow students, Tutsis all.

Among their desperate last words were, “We are all Rwandans.” This is loving one another as I have loved you; this is about manifesting the greatest love through lay-

ing down one's own life for that of friends, and this is what no earthly power can break. (cf. Jn 13:34; Jn 15:13; Romans 8: 38-39).

As Bishop Tutu's book title reminds, there is, “No Future without Forgiveness.”

It cuts both ways.

In this time and season of Easter, the exhortation and challenge to all is that each must be a determined, committed, and unswerving bridgebuilder. The harrowing agony and great sacrifice of Jesus sets a perfect example of what is required of all divided nations at the individual and collective levels. In the words of author Larsen, and as captured from the lips of very young and very seriously wounded survivors of the Nyange school terror, “We must find a way to speak truthfully… a way to listen to each other… a way to forgive.

The call is for troubled peoples the world over to do all those things, and “to break the chain of fear” the chain of hate, and the endlessly encircling links of politics and race and memory; and, also, that which has festered and felled.

That was Rwanda in 1997 trying and struggling, but working to forgive, overcome, and heal. All citizens, every Christian, must recognize the hard challenges and sacrifices that are demanded, if their society is to have any hope of getting somewhere.

Whose hand is raised in welcome and embrace?

Whose voice is raised in support? We just cannot go on like this.

LINDEN TOWN WEEK KICKS OFF The much anticipated Linden Town Week of activities kicked off this weekend, with the ‘Teen Ambassadors” pageant at the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground, Saturday night.

Six students drawn from Secondary Schools across Linden vied for the title of ‘Teen Ambassador,” and preceded today’s official opening. An official of the Linden Town Week Secretariat said that the decision was taken to host the event, after no proposal was forthcoming.

“We decided to do it, and so we involved the schools, and used some of the funds garnered from payments on activities to sponsor the girls.”

The Linden Town Week Pageant has over the years been one of the most anticipated events during the week of activities.

However this is the first time that all the delegates would be students from Secondary Schools.

‘King of Dancehall’, Beenie Man, is expected to stir things up some more, performing at the MSC Ground, immediately after the official opening ceremony slated for the Linden Georgetown bus park, tonight.

Dubbed ‘Dancehall vs Soca’, the show will also feature popular Deejays and the ‘Stitchie One-Man Band’.

Meanwhile dancehall artiste, Shenseea, and ‘Munga Honourable’, will be performing at the International Night Concert, slated for Tuesday at the said venue.

Gospel Fest, spelling and art competition, comedy night, karaoke competition finals, restaurant day, and the Rasville Dance Hall queen competition, and ‘flyovers’ also add to the week’s excitement. Other eagerly anticipated signature events, include the Big Bold and Beautiful pageant, the “All White” and “All Black” parties, L & L boat cruise, Gordon Moseley’s Big Man concept party, and Winston “Zar’ Ceasar’s “Green Scene” grown folks party.(Enid Joaquin)

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

CONSUMER CONCERNS

SCOTIA BANK SALE TO RFHL REVISITED

By PAT DIAL On April 2, last, the CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC) based in Paramaribo, Suriname issued a release on the sale of the Scotia Bank branches in the various Caribbean territories to the Trinidad-based Republic Financial Holdings Ltd (RFHL).

RFHL has branches throughout the Caribbean and its Republic Branch is the largest bank in the country.

The sale was announced last year November and the territories affected were Guyana, St Maarten, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The total sale price was US$123 million.

Last December, the CCC issued a preliminary release to the effect that it was taking cognizance of the sale. Now they have issued a fuller release: Acting under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas the CCC “reminds national competition authorities and member states of Article 175.

“The Commission also informs that it shall approach those national competition authorities and sector regulators. . . for the conduct of preliminary examinations of proposed transactions between the enterprises”.

The enterprises referred to are of course Scotia Bank and RFHL. In its release, the CCC further went on to point out that in accordance with Article 175(2)(a) of the Revised Treaty of

Chaguaramas (RTC) “it would continue to monitor these developments in the banking and insurance sectors and that any impact to the CARICOM Community by the proposed transaction would be assessed in accordance with the provisions of the RTC. It went on to state that it has now “completed a preliminary assessment and that such assessment indicates that the proposed transaction or parts thereof would possibly have anticompetitive effects in at least three member states of the Community”.

Important for consumers, the CCC emphatically declared that “in furtherance of its commitment to fair and transparent processes for both the business community and consumers, it will continue to monitor the activity in the Community and will inform as appropriate in further progress of this matter in affected member states”.

The sale has had several ramifications among the two most important— its effect on

the employees of Scotia Bank and its effect on the consumers and business, and particularly the banking sector.

The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Mr Gaston Browne, was the first CARICOM leader to react. He declared: “In the case of Antigua and Barbuda, we are not giving Scotia Bank any vesting order. They are not going to get it. We are firm on that. However, in the unlikely event they were successful in selling this Antiguan branch to Republic Bank, they will have to pay the severance . . .

“The staff will be given the right to exercise options of taking severance and continue to work, take the severance and leave, or if they wish to commute their service.”

Guyana is one of the three states identified by CCC as being adversely affected. The Guyana Consumers Association had expressed its disquiet in this column at the time the sale was first announced.

If Republic Bank were to take over the local Scotia Branch, Republic Bank would control over 60% of the banking business in Guyana.

With such control over the banking sector, the other smaller banks would be at a disadvantage and none of the locally owned smaller banks would wish to have such a scenario.

The consumers could very well suffer the effects of monopolistic control. For one, credit they could accession would be controlled and some consumers may find themselves in difficulty because of denial of loans.

The interest rates, both at saving and lending levels, would be against consumer interest.

At the present time, from a consumer’s perspective it is bad enough - savings interest is 2% to 3% while lending is 12% to 15%.

With monopolistic control, it may be even less favourable to the consumer.

With regard to the workforce, Scotia, so far, has said that the present staff would be absorbed into the Republic Bank and would enjoy the same conditions

and facilities as they do at present. The formula put forward by the Antigua Prime Minister would seem to be the fairer option.

It is expected that the Competition Commission, the Bank of Guyana and the Ministry of Finance would now be involved more positively and engage the

issue publicly.

To consumer people, if Scotia sells its Guyana branch, it should be sold to one of the smaller locally owned banks or a consortium of such banks. In every case, it must be ensured that a substantial proportion of the shares be sold to the Guyanese public.

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

One injured, three arrested in Nigg shooting spree Three persons, among them Tameshwar Khemraj, aka ‘Rambo’, is currently in police custody while another is nursing a gunshot wound to the foot after a brawl that led to a shootout between several per-

sons armed with unlicensed firearms. Divisional Commander Paul Langevine has confirmed that the incident took place at Nigg Village, Corentyne, Berbice in the vicinity of a drinking spot Thursday night.

A police source disclosed that 10 spent shells and two bullets were recovered while a Toyota 192 bearing license plate number PKK 1260 belonging to Khemraj was impounded at Albion Police Station.

Khemraj has been before the courts before on robbery charges. The source indicated that the spent shells and warheads appear to be new and “it seems like they are being supplied with these firearms.”

According to reports, Khemraj and several others were imbibing at a shop at Nigg Village around 1:30 am when an argument erupted between the owner of the drinking spot and the men. The owner was reportedly struck by one of the men with a bottle during the row,

prompting the man to leave the shop and allegedly uplifting his unlicensed firearm from his home a short distance away. When he returned, the men were already in the Toyota 192 to leave the premises but while in the car, they noticed the owner with his firearm and the man sitting in the front passenger seat whipped out an unlicensed firearm from the car and pointed it towards the businessman, resulting in the businessman opening fire.

Several shots were fired back

and forth, resulting in the man who was sitting with the gun in the front seat being shot.

After the shooting ceased, the injured man was rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital and while he was being treated the doctor informed the police that a man was admitted with a gunshot wound. The three men were subsequently arrested the same day. However, this publication understands that the injured man has since been discharged from the hospital. Investigations are ongoing.

New plans released for May...

From page 57 rich local Guyanese talent.

The main attraction which is the Independence Flag Concert will be held at the Georgetown Stabroek Market Square on May 24. The Art and Craft event will be staged on Main Street, Georgetown, while the Film Festival will be done in the Art Gallery of the Castellany House. As is customary, there will also be the most anticipated final event the annual Independence Flag Raising Ceremony, which will

take the form of a youth rally.

This year the public will not see the customary showcases of the military organisation at the Independence Festivities.

As a matter of fact, Tyndalll informed that the military will be used to train some 5,000 students from schools across Guyana to showcase at the event. The students will present in a massive Katak Presentation (martial arts display), and also in the traditional ‘Mass Games Dance Display’ that was a significant fea-

ture several years ago. This will include participation by the Path Finder Clubs, School Cadets, and such related groups.

On Thursday Minister Norton noted that his Ministry has a very capable planning team and he is sure that the team will be able to deliver on an Independence celebration that will set the tone for all future celebrations.

He urged the media to play an important part in every aspect of the May 2019 Independence Celebrations.

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Kaieteur News

Int’l airlines body protests CJIA fees increases Months before the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) increased a number of fees, to cater for the US$150M renovations, airlines had complained to their association.

In late January, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) wrote management of the airport raising questions about the fees implementation and whether there were adequate consultations.

IATA is the trade association of the world’s biggest airlines, consisting ofa almost 300 members.

IATA’s Annaleen Lord, Area Manager of the Caribbean, on January 29, wrote senior officials of the airport, including Chief Executive Officer, Ramesh Ghir, questioning the process.

The airport, since 2011, has launched a major expansion costing US$150M. While the works has controversially been scaled down, the airport quietly told airlines earlier this year to start charging a higher security fee and a passenger

CJIA’s Chief, Ramesh Ghir service fee.

The accumulated charges- security and passenger fee- added up to over $4,000 on every passenger ticket.

IATA, in its letter to Ghir, disclosed that its members have asked for intervention regarding the planned increase to the security fee and the introduction of a passenger service charge effective April 1, 2019.

“They have requested

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in January wrote CJIA to delay implementation of a $4,000 increase in fees on passengers’ tickets. that we contact CJIAC since no consultation with the airlines occurred in order to allow the airline users to accurately assess and agree to what could be considered

fair and equitable charges at CJIA.” IATA pointed out that according to international guidelines and principles on airport charges, there should

have been consultations, cost-relatedness, nondiscrimination, and transparency in the process.

IATA requested information on the

consultations.

“As such, it would be appreciated if the presentation delivered to the CJIA Board or line Ministry Continued on page 65

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

UG Executives tripled their salaries in five years Questions about how the budgetary allocations of the University of Guyana are spent have been circulating for quite some time. Students have been complaining that while tuition fees continue to rise, the campus is unsafe with little effort to improve campus security.

There have also been complaints that facilities available to students and staff are not well kept.

Further, the unions of the University of Guyana, the

Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith

Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the Workers’ Union (UGWU), have expressed concerns about spending by the administration of the institution’s funds.

In response to these concerns, the Ministry of Education, in a recent letter to the UG council advised of the unions’ joint request to have the Auditor General’s office conduct a special audit of the University’s finances.

Graphical data jointly released by those two unions

Procurement Officer caught on tape prepping colleague...

From page 3 it, if you give me any document because I carry you, but I ain’t carry you fuh search for duh. Remember, I was looking for this financial document for dis lady and tumble up all the boxes.

Coll: Remember I beat out and you tell me you will lock up and suh.

PO: Yeah, yeah but when I go thru the door I had a bag.

A book, a plastic bag with magazines inside. So I go through the door with duh.

Suh dem feel I pass through with …documents because somebody tamper with it. He (contractor) submit he document just suh.

Remember many times people does submit documents, loose up loose up…Some documents does deh scrawly.

Some document does come like a piece of cloth...suh is not necessary that something tamper with it. People does deh loosing out deh documents and forget this and forget that and staple it back. You understand meh?

Coll: Wha really going on man because yuh done know me ain’t really ting…

PO: …because somebody inform me how come you give (Coll) $20,000?

Coll: When you tell me about that I don’t know nothing about that. Me na tell nobody, because

remember you come, I had the bird, I go downstairs to look after de bird.

PO: …and I didn’t even say how much I give you.

Coll: …and I ask you this hay ($20,000) fuh what and you tell me hold onto to that and whatever. And then you can call me and tell me duh, dat is why I want know what going on.

PO: …I don’t know what is going on. Somebody tell me I deh pun camera. Like somebody try fuh set me up.

But you ain’t gat to fraid nothing. You just got to say what is up. If they ask if you see a plastic bag, say yes.

When me come down, I did had a plastic bag. I went in (the room), I had a magazine or something. Say ah went through it and left it on one of dem box and I left and go in the room.

If dem ask, because is magazines I had. But you did not see when I come down.

Suh somebody trying fuh do some stupidness. It done went to the minister and they want to mek a big, big story.

But Miss Dummett went over.

And she was part of the meeting, but she never come back and say nothing, you know. She is like she is a li’l upstart banna.

Wha he name, Wickham shine me. He call me this morning and say this is wha

going on. Because he vex because dem ain’t call he. Is Miss Dummett, the DFS. Me nah know who from Public Works and ….(Inaudible)..suh dem have dem own discussion.

Coll: After you tell me this morning, I deh studying…I say deh will call me….

PO: But I want to know how the person know I give you $20,000 because me ain’t seh…I just seh look hold on pun dis.

Coll: The only person I see this morning is you…

PO: Hear wha happen…the Chairman (Wickham) is saying he don’t know if he was part of it, if dem man set you up fuh set me up. Dat is what the Chairman is saying…If is you, because he see you and me on the camera. Dem call he late yesterday afternoon, I left late, I left about six of clock. I see the man come over vex right. Normally he say you wukking late. He ain’t say nothing. The man vex.

The man call me phone early this morning and say hey this is what’s up. You understand what ah tell you?

So I want you give you a heads up, you know what I mean? I don’t want nobody mess around the job and stupidness like that. But hear wha happen. They get a lot

of people out deh want get at me. You understand I telling you?

They want get at me because they think I blocking deh shot out dey. Some people who is PPP, some contractors and suh, they talking some stupidness about me and dis and da and me ain’t giving this body contract like if me got power to give anybody any contract and dem stupidness.

You understand what I telling you?

So anyway, you just keep your composure; maintain your story…We went down, and we went down to search for thing, because is whole week you asking me.

Coll: I remember you ask me about it.

PO: Right, right,., because when I search, I did not see the financial report. She keep begging me all the time. You understand me. Me na know who deh behind this thing but this thing we got to be careful…We got be careful especially when you going in and going out deh. Anybody ask you for documents and thing, you got be careful.

Because I think somebody, some set up along the way.

Coll: Lemme kick out hey suh…next thing dem see we.

PO: You lemme know anything.

Coll: Yeah, yeah.

provide a snippet of how the money the administration receives is spent.

The data from the University of Guyana Audited and Unaudited Financial Statements and budget documents (2014-2019) suggests that money is disproportionately allocated to the Executive body.

The “Executive”, according to a joint release from the unions, refers to eight senior administrators of the University.

Emolument costs illustrated on the release show that in 2013, the combined compensatory packages for the executive body amounted to less than $60M. In 2018, that figure stood well over $180M. This represents a tripling of the salary packages of these eight officials in just five years.

But despite such a significant increase, the Vice Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Griffith said, “The Administration welcomes the opportunity to clear the air on the allegations and assertions by the unions and other individuals.”

He had added, “We have long indicated such, both directly to the UG unions and in my recent two memoranda to the university community.”

According to information released by the institution, too, in January 2019, the

Administration told the two unions that the institution was not in a position to pay further salary increases for 2018, having paid a four percent salary increase to academic staff and three percent to non-academic staff, both tax-free, in December 2018.

These increases are modest, compared to the increases made available to the executive body, which stand well over 200 percent.

It was further noted that on February 13, 2019, in an update to the members of the UG community on the industrial climate at Turkeyen and the call by the Unions for a forensic financial audit, the Vice Chancellor said that the Administration is willing to have its financial position examined by any competent and independent Arbiter.

Meanwhile, the Administration said that it is awaiting a response from the unions to its weeks-old request for several documents as part of efforts to be consistent in the pursuit of accountability and transparency.

The documents sought include their Articles of Association, Certificates of Recognition, Statements of Income and Expenditure for recent years, and recent Annual Returns and audited statements.

Puruni Miner who murdered friend sentenced to 12 years imprisonment A miner who murdered his friend in the Puruni Backdam in 2016, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Thursday, and was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment, after he appeared before Judge Sandil Kissoon in the Suddie High Court.

The accused, 30-year-old Devon Duncan, appeared before Justice Kissoon charged with the lesser offence of manslaughter. He killed Clint Peters on August 8, 2018 at Jackass Island, Puruni River.

The court heard that on August 8, 2016, both the accused and the deceased were drinking alcohol at the Rohani Mining Camp, Puruni River. Duncan in a section of his caution statement said, “Me and Clinton, we went drinking high wine all day at our work camp at Selene Rohani mining camp at Puruni River.

While we were drinking the High Wine, Clinton Peters, told me that I must watch myself. I didn’t ask him what he meant by that because I understand that to

mean that he want to do me something bad.”

The accused then went to the mining camp kitchen, returned with a knife and hammer, and dealt one deadly stab wound to the deceased.

Clinton was pronounced dead on arrival at the Bartica Hospital and the accused was subsequently taken into custody.

While deliberating on a suitable penalty, Judge Kissoon noted that the accused’s probation report was favorable. He expressed remorse, and a single stab wound was reflected in the postmortem report as the cause of death.

The Judge also pointed out that a third of the 25 years was deducted on the basis of the accused’s guilty plea. On the basis of his remorse on the other hand, two years were deducted. Three years were also deducted for the time spent behind bars since his arrest.

After careful deliberation, the accused was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

Sunday April 21, 2019

Int’l airlines body protests...

From page 63 in order to receive approval for the increases is shared with IATA and the airlines in order to better understand the cost-relatedness of these increases. This can be done via a webinar and IATA can assist with airline participation.”

The association stressed that while these are passenger fees that do not directly impact airline costs, it does have an impact.

“Please be mindful that proposed increases in fees in Guyana would increase the overall price of a ticket paid by passengers travelling to and from Guyana. As a result, passengers are likely to choose alternative destinations where no equivalent fee is applied or will just be dissuaded to fly altogether.

This can ultimately have a negative overall impact on the Guyana economy,” IATA told the airport management in January.

IATA said that there is a procedure to be followed for the charges to take effect. “ F i n a l l y, o n c e t h e airlines have been satisfactorily informed, in order for these charges to take effect on an airline’s ticket, an airline sponsor will need to file the request to IATA’s TTBS (ticket tax box service). However prior to doing so, several items need to be clarified and agreed to amongst the

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airlines and the airport authority.”

The association noted that it found a number of reasons why it cannot use a letter that it received to effect the changes to the charges that CJIA requires by April 1.

These include that there is no clear indications what is the new Guyana dollar equivalent for the Airport Security Fee. “The present security fee, US$I1, was filed in local currency $2500 and not US dollars. As such in addition to the US $20, CJIA will need to specify the new GYD equivalent.

This information is required so that there is no confusion when pricing systems are configured.”

IATA also wanted explanations on when exemptions would be granted and whether a number of other fees have been renamed.

“This information is required so that there is no confusion when pricing systems are configured.”

According to the airline body, when new or increased fees are proposed, the industry needs to consider two applicability dates- the selling date and the travel date.

This is important, the letter said, to establish since airlines sell their tickets in advance.

“We usually request that

the selling date is a minimum of three months prior to the effective travel date when the fee will apply. This also ensures that the gap in the fee collection between tickets sold prior to the announcement is smaller. For example: CJIA is proposing that the fee is effective April 1. Based on this date, the effective date for both fees should be as follows: For tickets sold from January 1, 2019 for passengers traveling April 1, 2019. This scenario ensures a higher collection rate to CJIA.” IATA, in its letter late January, noted however that the time is already outside the recommended 90 day minimum window which will significantly reduce the collection rate, a loss which CJIA will need to assume as airlines will not collect differences in fee at the check in counter as this can potentially delay flight operations and cause other service issues.

IATA recommended that there be a delay in the implementation.

“In light of the aforementioned, CJIA can potentially consider revising the effective date in order to avoid this situation. Please be assured that IATA is committed to continued collaboration with you and your team in order to achieve, safe, efficient and cost effective operations at the CJIA.”

What happened with Kaieteur...

From page 8 particularly significant since it is adjacent to the Stabroek Block, where the Liza discovery was made by ExxonMobil in 2015. Liza was the first oil discovery in Guyana and 11 additional discoveries have since been made in the block area.

To date, the total proven reserves in the block amount to more than five billion barrels of oil.

Esso’s Head of Public and Government Affairs, Deedra Moe, confirmed that an environmental baseline survey is being pursued on the Kaieteur Block to get a sense of the current conditions. She said that this has to be done before planning for future drilling.

Further to this, Moe said that this survey is in keeping with the fact that the company has work commitments on all of its blocks.

“And we make sure we’re fulfilling those commitments,” added the official.

GIVEAWAYS The Kaieteur Block operators were also able to capture very favourable terms in the contract that it signed with the Ramotar administration.

Exxon and its partners enjoy the right to use as much production as may be needed in

its Petroleum Operations in the contract area and also for transportation and terminal systems. All quantities of any discovered oil so used or lost would be excluded from any calculations of entitlement.

The Contractor also enjoys the right to send abroad, via an export point chosen, all petroleum to which it is entitled to free of any duty, tax, or other financial impost and to receive and retain abroad, all proceeds from the sale of such petroleum.

The Kaieteur Block operators were able to secure in the PSA, provisions which allow it to be free of paying import duties on all equipment and supplies for operations. And these can all be freely exported when the operators are ready without paying any duties.

As it relates to taxation, the Kaieteur Block PSA says that the contractor, its shareholders, members, partners, or affiliated companies are subjected to no tax payments, save and except for income and corporate tax. They are also exempted from the Property Tax Act. While the PSA only allows Guyana to benefit from a one percent royalty, the PSA states that the Minister may remit in whole or in part or defer payment of any royalties payable by the contractor.

Champayne Village

From page 58 mouth to feed…Dem pickney gat to guh to school; we got bills to pay and all dat.

“Dem paddy bugs really attack de rice far more worst dis time. If somebody nah help we, we stand fuh lose everything. I just fed up and frustrated… Me ah try wid de li’l kitchen garden, but even dah dry up tuh wid dis weather.”

In years gone by, poultry farming was also a very vibrant factor. There are now just a few families who rear cattle, sheep, and goats.

Champayne is no longer the village from which housewives could have filled their baskets with large Creole eggs.

PLEASING TO THE EYES Despite their struggles and setbacks of life the residents still manage to have their laughter reflected in their eyes. School was out when I went there. From the yelping of little puppies chasing after the children, to the peals of girlish laughter from teenagers, the glee and contentment of villagers is vividly showcased.

The sight of young boys lounging and chatting in the shades just adds to the rustic life.

The masculine banter of the farmers in the evening as they discuss possible ways of fighting the dry spell and paddy bugs lend an affirmation that the inhabitants of Champayne are strong. They stand poised to survive despite negatives life may throw at them from time to time.

These people are particularly serious about the presentation of their homes as can be seen from the neat little cottage homes in some areas, cleanliness in their yards and their almost spotless clean bottom house kitchens.

In many homes, the mouth watering aroma of stews still bubbling on kerosene stoves and firesides started a rumbling in my stomach, not to mention, the sight of men devouring with relish, stewed pumpkin or calaloo with either shrimp or chicken, either with rice or roti, bakes and in some case homemade bread.

Man’s best friend (the dog) waited nearby with their heads cocked to the right (tails wagging in anticipation) as they waited for their masters to fling them some tidbit.

There was conversation in some homes where people prepared eschallot for planting, or trimmed and washed vegetables for storage and consumption purposes.

CONSTRAINTS The issue of unemployment still seems to plague the village. It was

discovered that there are still quite a few men in the village who have completed their CXC/GCE Examinations and are still unable to find creditable jobs.

Lamenting this issue as well was 18 year-old Chandreka Persaud who has eight subjects at the CXC level but is still without a job.

As a result he is forced to work with his father tending a kitchen garden and working in the rice fields.

“I have five CXC subjects at Grades Two, and three subjects at Grades Three, but since last year I can even find a job. There is no scope for proper employment in this village. It seems as if gaining these subjects is an absolute waste of time. I dream of working in an office, but there are no offices of any sort in this village.

“I have tried at schools outside the village and applied to other places but nothing is happening.

“As a result I have to work here in the rice fields with my father and that is not fair. I want to do something different from what everyone is doing. I want to make a name for myself outside the village.

I admit that the village is not really developing at a fast rate so there are no organisations here in which I can make good use of my skills and knowledge, and it really gets to me sometimes.”

Young girls who have written the CXC Examinations

also are at home (maybe waiting to get married) since their parents are sticking to traditions, and will not send them outside the village to seek desired employment.

Some of the farmers still bemoan the fact that they have to transport their paddy after harvesting great distances for milling because a lavish rice mill which would have been established aback the village was reportedly seized by a commercial bank (for reasons they were not clear on), and was never actually completed.

Vagrants have reportedly stolen valuable machinery and equipment from the structure, leaving not much standing but the shell. A large state-of-the-art rice complex would have greatly offset freight costs for rice farmers at harvest time.

CONCLUSION The village of Champayne was more than I expected. I was particularly taken aback with the humility of its people, and how they existed in quiet contentment, despite whatever life throws at them.

If you are nature minded, and love exploring the mysteries of Mother Earth, then you should certainly visit this village. It’s also the perfect site for ‘bird watching’ with the many attractive species found in its open fields and backlands.

Join us next Sunday when we take our Village Focus to the historic village of Victoria, East Coast Demerara.

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Sunday April 21, 2019

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U.S. based group call for Aubrey Hutson Team BLB’s Andrew resignation due to misconduct ‘Dare Devil’ Wong...

In a release to the media, head of the New York based, Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), Rickford Burke, has called for President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson, to resign from his post after, “recklessly and irresponsibly acting outside the jurisdiction of the AAG”, to hinder local student-athletes’ participation at this year’s Penn Relays in the United States.

The correspondence detailed, “Mr. Aubrey Hutson… last week stated on a NCN newscast that the AAG has not sanctioned any Guyanese students to participate in the Penn

Relays… Mr. Hutson also claimed that the AAG received a request from Penn Relays to sanction three student-teams from Guyana which have registered to participate in the athletic meet from April 25-27. Mr. Hutson also, without producing any evidence, accused the students of fraud and impugned their characters on national television. Worst, he allegedly took steps to obstruct these children from securing their US visas to travel to Philadelphia to participate in the Penn Relays.”

When Kaieteur Sports contacted Hutson, the administrator noted that the AAG is empowered through

IAAF rules to sanction any local athlete’s participation at an international event. And, he also noted that any athlete that participates without permission will be subject to disciplinary action.

However, the case put forward by the CGID, is that the Ministry of Education (MOE) is the sanctioning body since the Penn Relays is a school competition and the MOE had already granted approval to the teams namely, Fort Wellington, New Campbellville and Government Technical Institute.

“Mr. Hutson interjected himself into a government matter, in which he has no standing, and misled the

Sunday April 21, 2019 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) You may be fidgeting, Aries, given your general restlessness. You're anxious to get up and do some sort of song and dance, and yet you insist on waiting for the right time.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) You may not realize the effect of your erratic behavior on other people. They may try to understand your viewpoint, but at times it seems you're talking in riddles.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) Although you may pride yourself on your patience, Taurus, this quality could be hard to come by today. It's possible that you've bent as far as you can and reached the breaking point.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) It may be best if you stay out of the line of fire.

Don't get into others' battles.

By choosing sides, you create enemies. Use your compassion to soothe the situation.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) People could be exploding with rage all around, and you may wonder what the big deal is. If anyone is likely to have a level head through today's chaos, it's you, and this gives you a tremendous advantage in any situation.

SAGIT(Nov.22–Dec.21) Although your general mood is good, this doesn't mean your day will go off without a hitch. When it comes to projects and getting things done, you may be the one to take the lead.

CANCER(June21–July22) The more you try to control others, the harder it will be to get what you want, Cancer.

People with equally strong wills are making it known they won't be bullied by your manipulative behavior.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) You may join hands with a spokesperson who's willing to attest to your honesty and good nature, Leo. This person is happy to step up and toot your horn for you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) Yo u m a y g e t f r u s t r a t e d when people who've taken shortcuts gain on your position. You believe that hard work is necessary to get where you need to go.

CAPRI(Dec.22–Jan.19) Difficult situations may arise in which you feel like you're doomed no matter what you do. Finding a working solution seems impossible due to the egos of the people involved.

AQUARIUS(Jan.20–Feb.18) Be quick to point out when you see an injustice, Aquarius. If someone says something offensive or untrue, don't let it slide. If you do, you're just as much at fault as the person who committed the offense.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Your emotions may be erratic.

You may want everyone to know what you're feeling and act out in an immature manner to get noticed.

Guyanese public.

Government regulation rightly gives the MOE jurisdiction over students participating in international athletics competitions from school institutions within its remit… The AAG only has jurisdiction over athletes from athletic clubs that are registered with the AAG,” the release continued.

When the Director of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Chris Jones, was contacted by Kaieteur Sport, he confirmed that the MOE is the sanctioning body in this situation and revealed that Hutson’s actions had resulted in students from Fort Wellington being denied U.S. travel visas.

“The Directors of the Penn Relays are now in communication with the MOE and the NSC and the matter has been resolved. CGID wishes to thank the Directors of the Penn Relays, Guyana’s Director of Sports, Christopher Jones, as well as officials of the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs for working together to resolve this matter,” the correspondence from CGID concluded.

Hutson has indicated to Kaieteur Sport yesterday that the AAG will be hosting a press conference to further address the matter on Tuesday. (Calvin Chapman)

Benjamin ton sinks Better...

From page 70 century from Abdul Ramsammy, MYO piled up 394-7 off their reduced quota of 40 overs. Ramsammy slammed 20 fours and five sixes in scoring 130, while Nigel Deodat clobbered 11 fours and four sixes in scoring 81. Leon Swamy made 46, Marvan Prashad 42 and Zynul Ramsammy 32. A. Singh and N. Persaud took two wickets each.

Queen’s College were bowled out for 94 in 25 overs in reply. N. Persaud made 30 and B. Persaud 18.

Marlon Boele returned amazing figures, finishing with 5-0, while Deodat had 312 and Brian Bowen 2-16.

At Ogle, Tri State overcame Bel Air Rubis. (Zaheer Mohamed)

From page 67 Event Sports Quad

Placing Dave Younge, Romario Smartt, Donovan Washington 125CC 4 Stroke Ronoski Pestano, Earl David, Leroy Cox 125CC Novice Conroy Cox, Tevin Sears, Daniel Nobrega 125CC Professional Andrew Wong, Bobby RAsul, Stephen Vieira 4 Wheel Bush Bike Antonio Jardine, Donovan Washington, Tevin Sears Sports Quad Dave Younge, Antonio Jardine, Donovan Washington 125CC Novice Conroy Cox, David Nobrega, Tevin Sears 125CC Professional Andrew Wong, Bobby Rasul, Stephen Vieira Side by Side Casey De Augrella, Dave Younge Open Race Andrew Wong, Tevin Sears, Stephen Nobrega Sponsors of the events were Guyoil, Mohamed’s Enterprise, Sir’s Service station, KGM Security, Nicholas Mohamed, Red Earth Riders Club, Elegance Jewelry, Pandit Service Station, W. Golden, Atlantic Marine and Dino’s Enterprise.

Action today will commence with the River Swim at 06:00hrs followed by the Power Boat races at Golden Beach from 09:00hrs. Competing would be the likes of Dave Scott (Jaguar), the reigning F1 champion who is expected to be fiercely challenged by Sean Belle piloting Quicksilver; Selwyn Joseph (Girls Dem Shuga), Jose Jardine (Flash), Raul Jardine (Targaryen), Clarence Belle (Quicksilver), Conan Belle (High Rollerz) and Neil Gonsalves who will be representing the Pomeroon. The Jet Skies will also be strutting their stuff today and tomorrow when the powerboat racing will conclude.

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Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

GCA/Tri State USA 50-over U-19 League

Samaroo fifty fails to halt NY Tri State Team

The consistent Saiteja Mukkamallah made 42 yesterday at Ogle yesterday to spur his team to their 4th consecutive win.

Player-of-the-Match Andrew Samroo’s entertaining 65 failed to prevent the touring NY Tri State team from extending their unbeaten streak to four in the GCA’s Tri State USA 50-over U-19 League when they defeated Bel Air Rubis by 54 runs at Ogle ground East Coast Demerara yesterday. NY Tri State, on the back of a 58-run opening stand between the consistent Saiteja Mukkamalla, who topscored with a fluent 42 with five boundaries and Ishaan Bansal who hit two fours in a patient 24, put the Americans on course for 194-9 off 50 overs as Vedant Parwal’s 32 with three fours, and unbeaten 29 from Gautham Ravindran and 20 from skipper Sanjay Stanley all got starts.

Samroo, Ajay Ganda and Daveomad Khemraj captured two wickets each for Bel Air Rubis who were bowled out for 140 from 41.1 overs despite Samroo’s 65 from 85 balls decorated with six fours and a six but only Shivanand Gosaur (19) and Khemraj (11) reached double figures for the East Coast side who were aided by 20 Extras.

Abhayjit Khangura was again impressive with the new ball and finished with 212 from 6.1 overs. He got good

support from Adil Shivakumar (2-38) and Tamesh Persaud 224.

NY Tri State batted first on a slow track and were off to very good start before Bansal was dismissed by Kissoon Rudranauth at 58-1 in the 12th over before Ganda struck twice and when Khangura was run out for one at 90-4, three wickets had tumbled for 14 runs.

Tamesh Persaud (1) fell to Daveomad five runs later before Isaiah Jagernauth (11) and Andre Seepersaud were sent packing by Samroo and Stanley was run out, NY Tri State were in trouble on 1208 in the 34th over.

However, a 61-run stand between Parwal and Ravindran took them to 181 before Ravindran was removed by Daveomad.

When the home team began their chase they lost Mark Sukhar for a duck with just 16 on the board and although were never really in hunt after that, despite Samroo’s innings and although Gosaur and Samroo carried the score to 40, when Gosaur departed and when Daveomad was run out, it was all over bar the shouting.

NY Tri State face-off with DCC in a top of the table clash today from 09:30hrs at DCC.

MSC Management plan for AGM in June...

From page 69 president Avery Trim, it was unanimously decided that an amnesty period be placed for errant members as: “Those Members who have not paid their monthly dues, dating back to 2016 and beyond, will have to pay their dues from then 2016 to present,” to partake in the up-coming AGM. Members are therefore asked to check on the Club’s Notice Board for information or with the Club’s Steward at its location 464 Greenheart Street, Mackenzie, Linden for further information on their current status or call 444-3233.

Sunday April 21, 2019

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Jumbo Jet Triple Crown final leg

East Coast Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition

Inaugural event concludes today Who will soar like a kite All roads lead to the Port Mourant Turf Club in Corentyne, Berbice, today, for the final leg of the Jumbo Jet Thoroughbred Racing Committee (JJTRC) Triple Crown, which at its conclusion will see over $20million in cash and prizes being doled out.

The Triple Crown race promotion provides a bonus of $500,000 for whichever horse can complete three consecutive victories today, Valentina; three-year-old Guyana Bred, will be the only animal in the running for the triple crown bonus.

A rematch between Lucky Star that won the second leg’s feature race, and Vera’s Finally of the Jumbo Jet Racing Stables, will headline the

feature race that will be run over seven and ¾ furlongs and today’s action will see horses from Trinidad & Tobago, USA and Jamaica battling the local animals.

On Thursday, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Triple Crown, Nasrudeen Mohamed Jr., revealed exciting news of the completion of a shoot to start the one-mile race, a project that cost in excess of $500,000, according to his estimates.

He had noted before the project’s completion the importance of it, “The horses will have a level and exact one mile start. The start of the seven & 3/4 furlongs race was usually used for the one-miler before due to the fact the mile

was on the turn and a race shouldn’t start on a turn.”

The feature race today will attract a total prize purse amounting to almost $2million with the winner of that C Class and lower race pocketing $1million.

The winner of the threeyear-old Guyana bred race which Valentina will be looking to complete her triple crown in, will pocket $400,000, the F Class winner; $350,000, H Class; $300,000, I Class; $250,000, J class; $230,000, K Class; $220,000, L Class; $200,000, L Class and lower; $140,000.

Sponsors include Rani Persaud Racing Stable (USA), Banks DIH, Trophy Stall, Kris Jagdeo Racing Stable and Jumbo Jet Auto Sales.

Bartica Easter Regatta – Grass Track Competition

Team BLB’s Andrew ‘Dare Devil’ Wong is unstoppable on an absorbing day of action

Andrew ‘DareDevil’ Wong of the BLB Team receives the 1st place trophy and cash prize in the presence of some of his die hard local supporters.

On a nerve racking but exciting day of intense and accident free battles, witnessed by a colorful Easter crowd, local boy, Team BLB’s Andre ‘Dare Devil’ Wong wowed the crowd in powering his way to three victories in the 125CC Professional Class (2) and the final event of the day, which was an open race.

It was déjà vu for Wong who fell in the first 125CC Pro Race but he came back with a vengeance to topple all and sundry in the other two Pro Races before putting the proverbial icing on the cake with another high class ride to take the featured race, an Open shindig.

Among the riders that had to endure the dexterity and sometimes explosive moves, especially on the runs by Wong were his fellow teammates, Stephen Vieira, Bobby Rasul, Tevin Sears and Stephen Nobrega who had won the first Pro Race when Wong fell.

Excellent performances were also recorded

by Ronoski Pestano who won two of the 125CC 4 Stroke races; Conroy Cox who swept his competition in the 125CC Novice events and the ever present Dave Young who ruled the roost in the Sports Quad races, winning both events.

Following are the full results on the day:

Event Placing 125CC 4 Stroke Ronoski Earl David, Leroy Cox 125CC Novice Conroy Cox, Tevin Sears, David De Nobrega 125CC Professional Stephen Nobrega, Stephen Vieira, Tevin Sears 4 Wheel Bush Bike Donovan Washington, Antonio Jardine Sports Quad Dave Younge, Romario Smartt, Donovan Washington 125CC 4 Stroke Ronoski Pestano, Earl David, Leroy Cox 125CC NoviceConroy Cox, Tevin Sears, Daniel Nobrega 125CC Professional Andrew Wong, Bobby RAsul, Stephen Vieira 4 Wheel Bush Bike Antonio Jardine, Donovan Washington, Tevin Sears (Continued on page 65)

tomorrow night?

With the defending champions Uprising out of contention in this year’s East Coast Zone Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition, the buzz over who will be the new champions is dominating the conversation among fans and the respective team supporters with just over 24 hours to go.

The semi-finals and final is set to highlight the Easter activities on the East Coast with Haslington Market Tarmac anticipated to be besieged with people eager to see a new champion crowned.

The competition which has grown in popularity and participation over the years to become the most eagerly anticipated event in the shorter version of the game, will conclude this evening and the feedback is that the surrounding communities and those further afield are excited to witness the impending showdown between the four remaining teams.

The hot favourites are Paradise A, whose form have rightly installed them as the team to beat, but Victoria Church Yard, a team that is a model of consistency over the years could have the final say in the tournament’s outcome.

Then there is debutant Lilliendaal Hustlers, who after a few uninspiring performances suddenly found form to qualify for the semi-finals with an impressive display.

Melanie B is the other semi-finalist and they too have a legitimate chance to go all the way and should not be underestimated.

Paradise A will have in their line-up the cool, but deadly Quincy Adams, who to many has been the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and he will have in support Tyreek Cummings.

On the other hand, Hustlers will look to players such as Tevin Fowler, Sunil Logan, Stephon Reynolds and Anthony Sancho to lead

- new champion to be crowned their quest for victory.

Victoria Church Yard will no doubt be depending on performance of Rashleigh Morrison to secure their spot in the final, while Melanie B’s chances of advancing rest surely on how well Odell Gulliver and Ryan Seales perform.

However, before the two semi-finals are played there will be action in the Plate Section and former champs Uprising will have a chance to win some consolation if they could capture the winner-take-all $60,000 up for grabs.

They face BV A in the first game, while Belfield Warriors take on Buxton Diamond in the other with the winners to collide in the final.

Semi-final matchups Melanie-B vs Victoria Church Yard Paradise-A vs Liliendaal Hustlers Plate Semi-final matchups BV-A vs Uprising Belfield vs Buxton

Part of the action in this year’s East Coast Zone of the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Competition.

Ansa McAl and Caribbean Airlines Kite Flying Competition

Four airline tickets among over $1M in prizes at stake on Easter Monday A total of $1M dollars in cash and kind are up for grabs in the “Flying High Kite Flying Competition”. The competition which is organised and sponsored by The Ansa McAl Trading Limited and Caribbean Airlines, tomorrow, Easter Monday, will be held at four venues across Guyana. The two companies have teamed up to bring some cash and cheers to patrons who will be out in their numbers to fly their kites for the most

creative Smalta and Caribbean Airlines Branded Kites.

Prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers for the two different brands at the various venues. The venues are the national Park in Georgetown, Bushy Park, Parika, East Bank Essequibo, C3 Park Cotton Tree West Coast Berbice and The No 63 Beach, Corentyne, Berbice.

The first place winners for the most creative Ansa McAl brand will take away

$50,000, each, while the first place winners for the Caribbean Airlines branded kites will fly away with an airline ticket each. Second winners in both categories will get $25,000 with third place winners taking home three cases of Smalta each.

Patrons can enter by showing proof of purchasing one case Smalta each at the various Ansa McAl tents at the various venues or before. (Samuel Whyte)

PAGE 70

Sunday April 21, 2019

Kaieteur News

Pepsi and DDL renew sponsorship of RHTYSC Under-19 and Intermediate Teams

Police travels over 75 miles up-river, brings cheers to Bara Cara children - Sports gear and kites presented to kids

RHTYSC Secretary CEO Hilbert Foster (left) receives the sponsorship.

“Pepsi and the Demerara Distillers Ltd are without doubt, partners of the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club and have assisted us to develop outstanding players at the junior level, who have gone on to represent Berbice, Guyana and even the West Indies. All of us at the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club would forever be grateful to Pepsi and DDL for your investment over the years.

We commit ourselves to continue being role model brand ambassadors for your brand.”

Those were the reassuring words of RHTYSC Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster at the launching ceremony of Pepsi sponsorship of the Club’s Under-19 and Intermediate Teams for 2019.

Pepsi has been sponsoring the two teams since 2004 after coming on as the replacement for the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company. Foster stated that over the years, the two teams have won a total of six Berbice wide championships and are currently the defending champions at the Under-19 and Intermediate levels. The Under-19 team defeated Blairmont Community Centre last year under lights at the Albion Community Centre Ground to win the New York Business Group Under-19 BCB Title, while the Intermediate Team won the

last such tournament sponsored by the Neal & Massy Group when they defeated D’Edward Cricket Team at Albion Community Centre.

The Two teams have also won numerous tournaments organised by the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club and other Clubs. The Pepsi Under-19 has so far reached the 2019 BCB/New York Business Group Tournament Quarterfinals, while the Intermediate team has gained a place in the 2019 BCB/ Shimron Hetmyer 40-Overs Intermediate Tournament.

They would play Albion Community Centre in the final at the Port Mourant Ground shortly.

Over the years, the two teams have played major roles in the development of outstanding players like Askay Homraj, Eon Hooper, Dominique Rikhi, Sylus Tyndall, Clinton Pestano, Junior Sinclair, Shailendra Shameer, Kevlon Anderson, Keith Simpson, Jonathan Rampersaud, Shemaine Campbelle, Erva Giddings, Mahendra Gopilall and Jeremy Sandia.

The production of all rounded players by the Pepsi Under-19 team has also assisted the Club’s First Division Team to dominate cricket in Berbice.

Another successful aspect of the

sponsorship has been the hosting of hundreds of personal developmental programmes by the two teams, with the main objective of promoting the Pepsi brand, to make positive differences in the lives of others especially youths to promote the Say No/Say Yes message and to educate each player on the importance of community service. Mahendra Gopilall, a senior Under-19 player and Asst Secretary/CEO Simon Naidu both expressed gratitude to Pepsi and DDL for their continued confidence in the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club.

Special thanks were expressed to Marketing Executive Larry Wills and Marketing Director Sharda Veeren Chand.

Larry Wills stated that he was very impressed by the very high standard that the Pepsi teams had displayed over the years and most importantly for being good role models, ambassadors of the internationally famous soft drink brand. He wished both teams success on and off the cricket field in 2019.

The Under-19 Team in 2019 would be led by National Player Kevlon Anderson with Junior Sinclair as his deputy, while Kevin Sinclair and Shemaine Campbell are captain and vice captain of the Intermediate Team respectively.

Tapeball and softball action set for Farm today Exciting action is anticipated today at Farm Cricket ground on the East Bank of Demerara as home team Farm CC and Mahabir Cambio stage Tapeball and softball competitions.

The day’s activities will commence at 10:00hrs with teams battling for supremacy in the five-over Tapeball. Following that will be the softball competition which is expected to start at 14:00hrs and culminate under lights.

Cash prizes and trophies will be up for grabs in both tournaments which are expected to feature some of the top teams in the area. Among the players expected to participate are Amir Khan, Rawle Reid, Quazim Yusuf, Patrick Khan and Unnis Yusuf.

Police officers distributing kites to the children at Bara Cara, Canje River.

The Guyana Police Force B Division under the Commander, Assistant Commissioner Paul Langevine and Deputy Commander, Senior Superintendent Phillip Azore and their team of officers continues to extend their benevolence to various parts of the Ancient County. According to the Commander their main aim is to show that the police is not only about fighting crime and, being proactive and involved in community activities. In so doing they are making sure that no one is left out.

During the week some members of B Division Headquarters led by Community Relations Officer, Woman Inspector Grosvenor, travelled over 75 miles up the Canje River to Bara Cara where they distributed some sports gears and over one hundred kites to the students of the Nursery and Primary Schools in the area.

The team brought wishes from

Commander Langevine and his team to the Head teacher of the School Mrs. Benn and the rest of the Community. The effort among others is to show the resident of Bara Cara and other surrounding communities that although they are so far in distance they are still being thought of and are close in heart.

The police assured that they will do everything within the confines of the law to make them comfortable.

Headmistress Benn expressed thanks on behalf of the students and residents in the community to the Commander and ranks of ‘B’ Division for their kind gesture. She expressed hope that she will see the Commander and his high command soon in the community in the near future. The students sang songs for the team after which they were taken on a tour by the community leaders.

Regional Under-15 Super50 Cup – 5th round

Guyana win on D/L by 7 wkts ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Results of the final round of the Regional Under-15 Super50 Cup here yesterday show wins for Guyana, Barbados and Jamaica.

Scores: At Coolidge Cricket Ground: Guyana won by seven wickets (DLS method) TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 180 for two off 43 overs (Justin Jaggesar 73, Andrew Rambaran 33, Kavir

Boodoosingh 29).

GUYANA 204 for three of 30.2 overs (Rampertab Ramnauth 92 not out, Mavindra Dindyal 52).

At Liberta Sports Club: Barbados won by one run.

BARBADOS 196 off 42.4 overs (Achilles Browne 58, Joshua Morris 44; Royce Paul 4-14).

W I N D W A R D ISLANDS 195 off 47.2 overs

(Steven Abraham 44, Luke Wilson 41, Royce Paul 40; Nathan Sealy 3-21, Isaiah Folkes 3-46).

At the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium: Jamaica won by 151 runs.

JAMAICA 250 for two off 39 overs (Adrian Weir 161 not out, Kev’Aundre Virgo 45).

L E E W A R D ISLANDS 109 off 28.2 overs (Nathan Edward 35; Odel Samuels 4-30).

PAGE 71

Sunday April 21, 2019

MSC Management plan for AGM in June with ordinary meeting on Wednesday The current Management Committee of the Mackenzie Sports Club has outlined plans for the staging of its Annual General Meeting and Elections for the Club as it seeks to regain its place as a properly constituted body in Linden.

The Club, which was initially owned by the Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA) was opened as a Members Club in 1956 and has become an institution for sports and recreational activities in the mining town for decades and its facilities are due for rehabilitation soon..

The Management Committee recently put in place a menu of measures which will also see the plans to increase its membership and improve on its image which has been sullied for varying reasons in the past.

As such on Wednesday at

17:00hrs or 5:00pm there will be a briefing to all its members on the plans to have its Annual General Meeting set for June this year.

A f t e r We d n e s d a y ’s planned Ordinary Members Meeting for Members who are financial and for those in arrears, it will be made known that they bring themselves up to date with their dues by the 3rd May. Then there is planned, a Special General Members Meeting on June 16th to finalise plans with the financial Members to attend where it will outline the holding for its Annual General Meeting and elections on June 30th.

Meanwhile, based on the Rules of the MSC it was pointed out that on Tuesday at a Management Committee Meeting chaired by its (Continued on page 68)

Kaieteur News

PAGE 72

Sunday April 21, 2019

Final Police Commissioner B/Day Inter-Division T20 cricket

Sampson brilliance spurs F Division to maiden Title

F

First time Champions F Division show off their hardware after beating defending Champs PG yesterday at Eve Leary.

Division led by a magnificent unbeaten 65 from Quintin Sampson a n d M i c h e a l J o b e ’s pugnacious 11-ball 32 marched to their first title in six-year history of the Commissioner of Police Birth Anniversary InterDivision and Branches T20 cricket Tournament by beating defending

ch amp io n s P r es id en t’s Guards by seven wickets in a pulsating final at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary yesterday.

The tournament, in which 38 matches were played, was organised in honour of Commissioner of Police Leslie James who celebrates his birthday today and the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic, especially among the orange coloured clad screaming F Division fans in the ram packed pavilion and under tents set just over the Western boundary.

The game stated over two hours late due to unforeseen circumstances after Commissioner of Police Leslie James bowled the first ball to PG’s Captain Keston Harcourt which was hit to the long on boundary, the contest began in earnest with skipper Trevor Benn, a member of Guyana’s FristClass squad and the lively Sampson sharing the new on a flat track and hard and parched outfield caused by extreme dry weather over last few weeks and which was again prevalent

yesterday.

While Sampson tested Paul Tyndall with a few short balls he and Harcourt played an array of enterprising shots with Harcourt hitting seven boundaries which included a six in his 65, while Tyndall’s 55 was decorated with four fours as they lead PG, in their fourth final to 135-4 from their 20 overs.

Leon Crawford had 325 from three overs for F Division who galloped to 136 for 3 off 18.4 overs with Sampson leading the fight with his unbeaten 65 with five fours and six sixes, w h i l e J o b e ’s c a m e o included two sixes and a couple fours before Rawle Haynes finished off the contest with an unbeaten 20.

Kareem Naughton had 218 off 4 overs and Harcourt took 1-18 off 4 overs was not enough to give them their third title.

TSU won the inaugural title in 2014 when the T20 format was introduced, while PG (2), TSU (1), FATC (1) and F Division (1) are the other title holders. (Sean Devers)

Benjamin ton sinks Better Hope; Ramsammy century, Boele 5 for propel MYO - ECC, Tri State triumph

Abdul Ramsammy (left) and Marlon Boele GNIC SC, Everest CC, Muslim Youth Organisation and Tri State USA recorded victories when the Georgetown Cricket Association USA Tri State U19 50 overs tournament continued yesterday.

At GNIC SC, the home team beat Better Hope by 184 runs. GNIC batted first and posted 274 all out in 49.2. Garfield Benjamin struck 12 fours and six sixes in a brisk 115, while Dwain Dick made 38, Joel Fortune 27, Jamal Davis 23 and Orlando Jailall 19. B. Jordan bagged 5-49, while R. Singh and C. Mohan had two each.

Better Hope were bowled out for 90 in 20 overs in reply.

Jordan got 27, D. Narine 25 and G. Persaud 15; Dick grabbed 6-30 and Jeremiah Benjamin 2-29.

At GYO, Everest Cricket Club beat Georgetown Cricket Club by 26 runs.

Batting first, Everest CC made 91 all out in 21.3 overs.

Aryan Persaud captured five wickets. GCC were sent packing for 65 in 19.4 overs in reply. Aron Mohabir picked up five wickets.

At MYO, the host thumped Queen’s College by 300 runs. Led by a fine (Continued on page 67)

Kaieteur News

Sunday April 21, 2019

PAGE 73

McKoy claims first gold for Guyana as Committee of Service backs Team For the third consecutive year, the Guyana Committee of Service (GCOS) has backed the Athletics Association of Guyana’s (AAG) Carifta Team that is participating in this year’s games in the Grand Cayman Islands. The GCOS has contributed a significant figure towards the costly trip for the 21-member team and committee member, Leslie Black, indicated in a correspondence to the media that the GCOS will always be on hand support sports in Guyana in any way possible.

Throughout the year, the GCOS hosts various fund raising activities which proceeds go towards projects of the groups. Currently, there is a raffle which has a

grand first place prize of $1million dollars, second prize one Motorbike and third place a flat screen television.

Yesterday, Guyana had a total of 11 athletes in the final of their respective events, those athletes are as follows; Chantoba Bright (U20 Long Jump), Claudrice Mckoy (U20 1500M), Joanna Archer(U20 1500M), Deshana Skeete (U20 200M), Daniel Williams (U20 400M), Cordell Charles (U17 1500M), Matthew Gordon (U20 1500M), Shaquka Tyrell (U17 1500M), Wesley Tyndall (U17 Long Jump), Keliza Smith (U17 400M) and Brianna Charles (U17 100M).

Leslie Black (white shirt) poses with the Carifta Team at the National Gymnasium before their departure.

And according to reports from the Island, McKoy recorded Guyana’s First gold medal, coming out on top of the competition in the U20 girls 1500M race.

U-16 & Juniors Boxing C/Ships on this evening at Gymnasium - Card being used to prepare for C’bean Schoolboys & Junior C/Ships

T

he Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) would start preparations for the Caribbean Schoolboys and Junior tournament when they host the U-16 &Juniors Boxing C/Ships this evening at Gymnasium which scheduled to commence at 18:30hrs in include 14 bouts.

The competition in this year ’s Caribbean Schoolboys & Juniors’ tournament is expected to be fierce since the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico who, along with Cuba, are considered the power houses in Latin America Amateur Boxing, have been invited to match gloves with their other Caribbean counterparts.

Steve Ninvalle This will be the first time the French and Spanish Speaking Caribbean Islands have been invited to match skill with Boxers from the English speaking Caribbean and Guyana which is geographically a part of the South American continent.

President of the GABA, Steve Ninvalle informed that this evening’s championships would be very important for Guyana, the only English speaking Country in South America which is very much a part of the Caribbean through culture among other things.

This evening’s card should be keenly contested since bouts involving pugilists from Pocket Rocket gym from Linden, Essequibo Gym, Rose Hall Jammers from Berbice, F o r g o t t e n Yo u t h F o u n d a t i o n , Yo u n g Achievers and Harpy Eagles will be in action.

The public is being encouraged to come and support the young Boxers.

(Sean Devers)

t r o Sp Bartica Easter Regatta – Grass Track Competition

Andrew Wong powers to victory in the 3rd 125CC Pro Race and comfortably so.

Team BLB’s Andrew ‘Dare Devil’ Wong is unstoppable on an absorbing day of action

The start of the third Pro 125CC Professional Race where the big boys played.

Jumbo Jet Triple Crown final leg

Inaugural event concludes today

From first to third, Lucky Star, Vera’s Finally and Storm Bird crossing the finish line in the feature race of the 2nd leg. (Emmerson Campbelle Photo)

Final Police Commissioner B/Day Inter -Division T20 cricket

Sampson brilliance spurs McKoy claims first gold for Guyana F Division to maiden Title as Committee of Service backs Team

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