Kaieteur News

K

T&T Prime Minister Friday Edition NEWS shows Guyana renegotiation is possible, in changed situations AIETEUR

August 28, 2020 -Vol. 22 No. 33

Online: www.kaieteurnews.com

Guyana’s largest selling daily & New York’s most popular weekly

Price $80

- Gets more than crumbs for Trinidad’s oil assets

Online readership yesterday, 146,066

Exxon’s threat to take investment elsewhere shows how worried it is - Guyana has no reason to be afraid - Dr. Mangal

No alternative to renegotiation Mingo at CID yesterday

GECOM IT technician arrested as probe continues - Mingo remains in custody

Exxon says it is amenable to a review but not the renegotiation of its contract.

It says that renegotiation would compromise the principle of sanctity of contracts, which is critical for investment planning.

Renegotiation of contracts is not unusual, illegal, improper or unreasonable. It happens all the time. The central purpose of a review is to pronounce on what can be improved.

Renegotiation, thus, is the natural progression, which flows from any genuine review of agreements.

The Government of

Guyana cannot be all things to all people.

The new government has not shown any sign that it is intimidated

by Exxon or obligated to the Americans because of its support for electoral d e m o c r a c y. Tr i n i d a d i a n P r i m e M i n i s t e r, K e i t h Rowley rightfully said last year: “There’s a role for the government in ensuring that the people… while being participants in this very lucrative business, get more than crumbs that fall off the table.”

The government should not be unsettled by the threat of investment flight or the

loss of commodity markets.

ExxonMobil has greater reason to remain than to leave. Guyana is a rich vein of fortune for Exxon and its partners.

Guyanese has had enough of these red herrings that leave us hungry and hurting.We repeat that it is time to renegotiate the Exxon contract.

It must give Guyanese something better on which to hang their hopes.

As such, we proclaim that there is no alternative to renegotiation. Guyanese are entitled to a fairer share of their wealth. Renegotiation must follow any review.

Phase 2 of Eccles Ex T&T Energy Minister, dump-site building local content expert, without HDPE liner among six on local - Minister unaware of changes content advisory panel to contract document Bandits stick-up Former SOCU’s head man in shower, submitted certificate cart off $1.8M signed by dead man

Alleged Ponzi EPA head dropped from schemers remanded Payara review, after slapped with sent on leave multiple charges P.17

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 03

T&T Prime Minister shows Guyana - Gets more renegotiation is possible, for than crumbs Trinidad’s in changed situations oil assets

P

rime Minister of Trinidad and To b a g o , K e i t h Rowley, has never been shy about demanding that country’s fair share of its patrimony.

Under his stewardship, the island nation has renegotiated several agreements with oil companies to increase the country’s revenue share.

That country’s experiences serve as fair examples for Guyana, as it sets out to garner value from a lopsided agreement with oil major, ExxonMobil.

When Rowley came to Guyana in 2018, he gave this country valuable advice about renegotiation of contracts. Asked by this newspaper about Trinidad’s take on renegotiation, in the presence of former President David Granger, Rowley had stated: “We have respected the sanctity of contracts while not accepting that contracts are set in stone.”

He had stressed that as engagements between parties, contracts must be approached with goodwill, and that while contracts are supposed to encourage participation, they are also supposed to take into consideration, the fact that the market will change over time.

“Contracts reflect time, place and circumstances,” the Prime Minister had said.

At the time, Trinidad was at the negotiating table. But that isn’t the only time the country would renegotiate contracts.

In the following year, he went on to add more meat to his words by telling oil companies that the government has a role in ensuring that the people get “more than crumbs that fall off the table.”

The administration had found that there was a need to discuss better terms and conditions with Atlantic LNG, a liquefied natural gas

company the National Gas Company of Trinidad & Tobago is a shareholder in.

It had noted the need for improved revenue for Trinidad and Tobago from LNG sales.

During an address to the T&T House, Energy Minister Franklin Khan had rubbished criticisms from the opposition that renegotiation would scare away investors, explaining that those criticisms were uninformed and that the Rowley administration had worked assiduously to maintain fruitful relationships with international players.

He had said that it was necessary to build a platform of mutual respect, “and an ability to sit in the same room as equals with these sophisticated multinational companies”.

In explaining the need for renegotiation last year, T&T Rowley said, “There’s a role for the government in ensuring that the people of

T&T Prime Minister, Keith Rowley Trinidad and Tobago, while being participants in this very lucrative business, get more than crumbs that fall off the table.”

Contrary to the criticisms of the political opposition, Prime Minister Rowley had expressed his pleasure at the fact that those in the industry were willing not to treat

contracts “as cast in stone”, and Minister Khan had said that both Shell and BP had committed to substantial investment in the T&T industry.

Rowley had explained that it was necessary to up the government’s share, as the agreement had no longer provided a sufficient gain of value, compared to what other gas producing nations were receiving.

Following that renegotiation, T&T went on to renegotiate three more agreements with Atlantic LNG, a joint venture its National Gas Company is a shareholder in. These renegotiations meant that T&T would be on the receiving end of more than US$1B in revenue over the next few years.

In the case of Guyana, local and international commentators, as well as local newspapers have noted many provisions in the contract with ExxonMobil

and its partners, Hess and Nexxen, which are lopsided and unfair. Global Witness found that the deal is so unfair that Guyana will lose US$55B over its lifetime.

Some aspects of the agreement were even noted to be illegal by some commentators. Both major parties have been urged to renegotiate the agreement, but both have resisted those calls.

The situation here has changed, as the people are becoming more aware of the value of their patrimony and the need to secure that value for themselves.

Claims that renegotiation would scare away investors have not held weight, as Guyana’s oil has been proven to be among the cheapest to produce in the world.

With oil companies d e s c r i b i n g G u y a n a ’s patrimony as the jewels in their crowns, ExxonMobil and its partners are not going anywhere.

GECOM IT technician arrested as probe continues - Mingo remains in custody

By Shikema Dey As the probe into the protracted March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections continues, investigators have moved to arrest Enrique Livan, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) IT Technician who was fingered

in the USB flash drive scandal surrounding tabulations back on March 4.

Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum confirmed to Kaieteur News that Livan was taken into police custody early Thursday morning.

His arrest comes days after controversial District

Enrique Livan, GECOM IT Technician (r) has been arrested also. (NCN image)

Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, found himself in police custody some five months after his disappearance on March 15.

Three GECOM staffers, including Carolyn Duncan, an assistant, were also arrested and are still in police custody.

Livan was at the centre of allegations during the derailed tabulations of the District Four count at the GECOM Media Centre in the Ashmin’s Building on High Street on the night of March 4.

As was previously reported, Livan was accused of being in cohorts with the Returning Officer after he removed two integral pieces of technology needed for tabulations- a USB flash drive and laptop.

That evening, when tabulations were halted, two GECOM staffers were

tasked with continuing the process.

Later on after the staffers complained of feeling unwell, Livan abruptly halted tabulations again and retired to a room with the laptop and USB flash drive, causing party agents and observers to become concerned and the police were called in.

On the very next day, Mingo made his first fraudulent pair of declarations for District Four that were later struck down by the court.

It should be noted that

Livan was also given a promotion during the National Recount.

GECOM had promoted the IT Technician to the status of supervisor of a Counting Station for Region 10, a move that did not bode well with a number of party agents, political parties and observers who expressed no confidence in Livan to carry out his duties in a transparent manner.

Mingo asks High Court for his release By way of a writ of habeas corpus, Mingo, who (Continued on page 21)

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Friday August 28, 2020

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur News Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Tel:624-6456 Editor: Sharmain Grainger Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

EDITORIAL

Show us the money It is all about the money, and that is what three captions on our Monday’s Front Page emphasized. We are serious about the money, and we will continue to blow that trumpet and beat that drum until we get Exxon to come to its senses and give us more. Because there is this unerring truth that must be faced: the totality of our non-replaceable proven and unproven oil reserves is about money, as in how much money we can get from these rich holdings. We must maximize oil revenues and minimize related oil cost at every opportunity, to get the best from what comes to us.

First, we insisted that the government focus on the big money, the real money from our oil (“When will we get some sense?”).

The government of today must cease concentrating on those areas that are about chickenfeed cash issues (elections hijinks accounted for using taxpayers’ dollars), while the grand prizes in our oil sweepstakes evade us and leave us poorer and angrier. Among those grand prizes are getting a better deal by pressuring Exxon relentlessly to renegotiate the more controversial and highly unsatisfactory components of that impoverishing oil contract. That is what must occupy the leaders in our current government, it must become what drives them night and day.

Money talks, and regarding that all Guyanese are listening most keenly, constantly.

The second caption from Monday’ edition spoke more to the language that we understand “Exxon has to comply with fines imposed by EPA - Vice Pres Jagdeo. We want to hear more of this kind of talk, and we will push this government to deliver more of it.

Whether the money has to do with less legal and auditing costs, the position must be the lesser, the better, with costs close to zero best of all.

And third, there was the Vice President again with this warning, “Jail time for people who keep oil money a secret -What happened with Exxon signing bonus should never happen again - Jagdeo.”

To get to the heart of that specific piece of oil associated detail, our interest is for transparency at every turn, absolutely no secrecy on these things and, as always, working tirelessly towards a fairer deal.

The more money Guyana gets from its oil assets, the more it can do to deliver on visions, the more it is that can be shared with citizens, whose expectations are sky high.

When there is transparency of the clearest kind, then citizens know what is received and when; and the onus is all on government to do its part by handling the money honestly and delivering on its many promises.

On every count that there could be regarding our oil money, we agree completely, and watch for the government to do more, press more, and get more. We will support it when it does the right thing by our oil. We commit to calling it out and holding its feet to the fire when it goes in any other direction.

For us to get the best from our oil, all hands must be on deck and involved. We cannot afford a large part of Guyana looking over its shoulder at what went on during the elections. We must work together, so that everyone could be better.

When we put our heads together, we stand a better chance of pushing Exxon to the table and to give us something more acceptable and more meaningful for all Guyanese. The money must come, whether in fines levied, terms revised, or concessions finalized.

We must get down and get to it. With strength and singlemindedness of purpose, by not allowing ourselves to be sidetracked or settling for the usual peanuts and chickenfeed.

There are riches to be harvested from our oil wealth.

We simply have to have the will to stay the course and run through walls to get our way, for what we want. Exxon will not yield without a fight or resort to cunning us.

But if it must be forced to do so, then so be it. All Guyana must be ready. This is war, which can be waged by any number of means. Let us gird tightly our belly bands.

Support PPP delaying Payara oil well; must insist on renegotiation of Exxon contracts DEAR EDITOR, Regarding calls for the renegotiation of the Exxon contracts, it was good to finally hear from Exxon on the matter. I would like to extend a warm Guyanese welcome to Mr. Routledge coming from the oil kingdom of Qatar.

Exxon is a most cherished partner, and we want them to be a part of our development, not our underdevelopment.

We all dreamed of the day Guyana will find oil and we would all be rich, but it seems this will turn into a long national nightmare, as the “oil curse,” “oil corruption” and “Dutch disease” seems to have all started early.

The Exxon boss explained that Exxon was drawn to Guyana because “the resources that we find here in Guyana are competitive on a global basis.

They are good quality resources…Not one but a number of resources.” Exxon also closed off some operations in Europe to focus on Guyana which has larger reserves and is a more lucrative country in the Exxon portfolio. In many countries, a typical well may have 10 million barrels, in Guyana it runs into billions of barrels in that Stabroek Block.

Darshanand Khusial of the Oil and Gas Network (OGGN) explains that Guyana has lots of good sweet crude, and the costs of production of a barrel

of oil in Guyana is very low compared to other Exxon fields. In Guyana, life is good for Exxon. To make it sweet and nice for Exxon capitalizing on our divisions, Guyana is always in political gridlock, with the new Opposition PNC vowing to engage in a strategy of “resistance” against the PPP elected in free and fair elections.

Additionally, we are totally unprepared for oil, lack everything regarding the managing and monitoring of the industry, and in our gross “wisdom” we have put the man who quit as MP to go study oil to be in charge of sports and put the computer man in charge of oil. What a country! And our own oil expert, Dr. Jan Mangal, wanting to come back and help us has not been rehired as yet.

The Exxon boss revealed that the Guyana government has “emphasized they are reviewing the contract but they are not seeking to negotiate the contract.” So the PPP has some explaining to do.

The masses are not asses.

Routledge said that “sanctity of contract” is important. I agree about sanctity but understand that Guyana paying the taxes of Exxon is not a “sanctified” action, nor are oil spills and flaring, local content goals not met, or lack of detailed cost expenses not

being provided, according to our laws. (Imagine Exxon jeering us why we are suing for small oil spills they have made). We probably can also argue that the PNC Coalition was “mad” (and had no capacity to contract) and there was no parliamentary review when they signed a contract like that. How could normal people sign a contract like that? The Guyanese people should never forgive the PNC for this great iniquity against the nation.

Exxon is giddy about Guyana so Mr. Routledge’s talk about taking their business elsewhere is pure bluff. Mr. Jagdeo is reported to say that “if that’s a threat, it will not work.”

So, let’s see who has more testicular fortitude, Mr. Routledge or Mr. Jagdeo and the PPP? My bet is on our “Champion of the Earth” and national hero.

Nation, regardless of whether the contract is renegotiated or not, the political and business elite would wallow in the good life, and the working poor – farmers, sugar workers, bauxite workers, sales people, security guards, domestics, taxi drivers, etc. will continue to live hand-to-mouth and paycheck to paycheck. Is that what we want?

Now is the time for the “Guardians of Oil Brigade” to step up and let Exxon know

that the Guyanese nation does not think the contract is fair, as Mr. Routledge claims. So, I call on Jonas, Shuman, Lam, Shaz, Defrance, Ramkarran, Nigel Hinds, Phyllis, Asha, Critic, and those who don’t want Guyana to remain a “shole” country to step up at such a time as this. Even the disgruntled PNC supporters, angry about the PNC sellout of oil, can join this cause.

What if we put together a team with all those lawyers who fought the PNC rigging to examine the oil contract?

Imagine Devendra Kissoon, Datadin, and Anil together fighting for Guyana’s oil and its poor, destitute, huddled masses longing for that good life? Imagine the churches, unions, teachers, nurses, UG students, market vendors, government workers, and NGOs joining this movement.

If not you, who? If not now, when? KN is doing its job “standing in the gap” for the nation.

The rest of us need to do our share too. Please sign that petition from the Oil and Gas Network folks calling for a renegotiation of the Exxon contract.

(OGGN www.oggn.org; petition found at https://www.change.org/ Guyana_oil_contracts_need_renegotiation).

Exxon must know!

Sincerely, Dr. Jerry Jailall

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY...

DEAR EDITOR, Now that the new government is in place, with an efficient Attorney General, it is widely believed that the Constitutional Reform Commission will begin to do real work. Those who have been clamouring for Constitutional Reforms will get the opportunity to put their proposals and have them seriously considered. So far, almost all the calls for Constitutional Reforms have been woefully short of specifics.

So, I am proposing a concrete issue that needs to be considered, that in relation to Capital Punishment. It is a contentious matter, the debate has raged here before.

It is not an issue restricted to Guyana but one that has been vigourously contested abroad. Therefore, much information and statistics are available to help authorities to come to some conclusion and provide enough information for serious debates.

I believe that the time has come in Guyana when Capital Punishment should be

abolished.

I appreciate the fact that for the families of victims this is a sore issue. The deep feelings are understandable when the hurt of losing a loved one by such deliberate actions of another person occurs. For some, the immediate response is to ‘do them back’.

Many people feel that a murderer has given up his/her own right to life when such a crime is committed. They feel that the death penalty would deter and reduce the incidence of murder.

However, when looked at from a wider angle and from a less emotional circumstance, I think that one of the important tasks we have, as a nation, is to further humanize our own society. While it is true that many factors need to come together to accomplish that task, I am convinced that removing the death penalty is an important step on that road.

Furthermore, the evidence internationally has shown conclusively that Capital Punishment does not slowdown or stops murders

from occurring. This is an important fact that is often not given the consideration it deserves, it is sometimes even ignored.

Extensive research has been done in many countries of the world, in Europe and North America. Much work on the issue was also done by the UN as well. All of those studies have concluded that the Death Penalty is not a deterrent for capital crimes.

Indeed, in many cases, it has been observed that countries and states in Europe and the US where the death penalty was abolished, the murder rate was lower than those countries/states which retained it. This is no exception; it is almost the norm. At a minimum, abolition does not lead to increase in murders.

There is also a moral argument that should be considered. If we conclude that taking another person’s life is wrong, then by extension, we can say that the State taking lives of people cannot, therefore, be right.

With the best will in the world, mistakes would be

made and innocent people would be executed. This is not a seldom occurrence. We have seen the frequency with which innocent persons were executed in various parts of the world. The US which is a very open society, shows this with an alarming regularity.

The situation is pervasive enough for some politicians and political commentators to conclude that there is more than an element of racism in this since the majority of those who have been innocently executed and incarceration were African Americans and other minorities, for example, Latinos.

A lot of this is the result of poverty. Because the families of those accused of murder are often unable to afford the best lawyers and get the best representation, the accused are very often poorly represented in court.

That leads to them being found guilty, when in fact, many were innocent. Even now, many innocent people are in jail and on death row.

This leads me to the other (Continued on page 5)

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 5

Kaieteur News

Scholarships for Public Service...

DEAR EDITOR, It is interesting to note that the Ministry of Public Service has rushed to offer scholarships to the University of Guyana in respect of some eighteen subjects, presumably with the intention of filling identified needs over various periodicities.

Presumably also, there has been a conclusion on the number of offers available to the respective programmes, following the conduct of an appropriate needs analysis.

Actually, the intervention serves to remind of the situation in Trinidad and Tobago, where UWI, St. Augustine Campus, long ago forged a close partnership with the private sector there, in order to agree to what extent the University could

deliver programmes that would satisfy the human resources needs across industries and service providers.

It is in this context that one wonders whether any comparable discussion has taken place between the Ministry, University of Guyana and our Private Sector Commission; as well of course with entities related to Oil and Gas? Obviously, there must be some assurance of absorbability after graduation – of both current and future students.

What is disappointing however, is that there appears not to be any substantive internal investigation into the Human Resources Management needs across the Public Service, throughout which there is

only the constipated position of Personnel Officer (at various levels). Nowhere else in the Public and Private Sector in the Caribbean could be found a vacancy for a Personnel Officer.

Be assured in the meantime that the static programme in Public Management at the University of Guyana would not suffice.

Human Resources Management literature points to a much more dynamic appreciation of the value of the ‘human beings’, which we manage and the conscious effort, which we must make to raise the bar of their performance in the interest of organisational productivity as a whole. It must forge a relationship of equality. The practice actually works.

But hopefully a strategic plan for Human Resources Development in the Public Service would be forthcoming. Apart from reference to the 2016 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service, there appears to be an urgent need in the new social and economic dispensation, for a convention of appropriately qualified partners (local and overseas) to brainstorm and create a national human resources development plan for a realistically identified future, and of which relevant induction programmes must be components.

More than that, from all a p p e a r a n c e s / pronouncements, there may be need to dispense with the ‘fat cat’ syndrome, which (Continued on page 6)

...ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY From page 4 general point that should be seriously considered and lead us to abolish Capital Punishment.

That is the social composition of those who have been executed.

Almost 100% came from the poor and the working poor. These are persons who face unbelievable difficult circumstances and challenges every day. These are persons who live almost literally in a pressure cooker. Those circumstances are responsible for crimes and the creation of criminals.

On the other hand, other types of crimes that continuously kill people daily and silently get away with it scot free.

These are the corrupt bureaucrats, or some corrupt business people who make millions and billions of dollars

by all kinds of crimes. Such actions help to perpetuate poverty, deprive children of proper foods, leads to malnutrition and retard intellectual development.

In almost all these cases, these people walk free.

According to the Mighty Sparrow, these criminals are ‘high in society’ and are the ‘good citizens’ of the world.

In this regard, another dangerous trend has arisen in politics generally. Many politicians like to create the impression that they are tough. We all see the American television and we see how Democrats and Republicans are vying to create the impression of their ‘toughness’. Tough on Crime, Tough on Russia, Tough on China, Tough on Cuba, Tough on Iran, Tough on Venezuela, etc. the talk of being tough has become a big

seller for many politicians.

This is not confined to the US. Globalisation is not just about economics, but also about ideas. Because the US has the biggest economy and an unbelievable powerful mass media, their ideas, good and bad, are widely disseminated through the world and have great influence.

Many of the political tactics used in the US are often adopted outside. So, we will hear the same talk of being tough repeated from the north to the south. And using the Death Penalty is one of the easiest ways to project the image of ‘toughness’.

Therefore, to portray such an image, some persons could face the gallows, some could be innocent. In my view, if one such person is wrongly murdered, because that’s

what it is, then we should stop this practice throughout the world. One innocent person being sent to his/her death is far too much.

My own position should be clear by now. I stand for those forms of punishment that would discourage crimes and deter capital crimes in particular. However, we must be humane, we must demonstrate to our people humaneness. Setting the correct example is important in moulding a free and democratic country.

We must oppose the Death Penalty completely!

This is for the sake of our nation as a whole.

Donald Ramotar Former President

MR. ALISTAIR ROUTLEDGE: GUYANA NEEDS A FAIR CONTRACT DEAL Dear Mr. Alistair Routledge: I watched the video of your press conference Wednesday night. I must commend you. You are a cool dude. You are so practised; you must have done this a hundred times around the world before you came to this new “frontier p r o v i n c e ” called Guyana.

Alistair, (with Editor’s permission) permit me to make these points: (1) “Sanctity of Contracts” is a nice phrase in Contract Law, but as a practical matter what does it really mean? If one of the signers can be proven to be compromised or worse, duped, is it not reasonable for both parties to sit down and review this contract?

Lack of consideration - 2% royalty for Guyana? Suriname is getting 6.25% royalty in the same PSA-type contract.

Seventy-five of every 100 barrels go for Cost Recovery. In Suriname, it is 60 barrels. In Guyana, profit sharing is on 25 barrels out of every 100. In Suriname, it is profit sharing on 40 barrels.

(2) Alistair, in Guyana, we understand basic Math.

We k n o w t h a t f o r t h e foreseeable future years, (with no ring-fencing of costs), Guyana would be getting no more than 14.5

barrels out of every 100 (net is like 13). This is not a fair contract. Waving this “sanctity of contract” flag before our faces is probably intended to humiliate, not appease or placate us.

(3) To say nothing of 60 vs 600 oil blocks (violation of our State Law); to say nothing of GoG issuing receipts to ExxonMobil for taxes paid, when none in fact will be paid.

Alistair, please tell your Board of Directors, this Contract contains: (a) two items that are flat-out illegal; (b) 2% royalty is a violation of the norms or standards around the world. (c) Contract is frontloaded to favour the Oil Company - 75/100 barrels; Suriname’s 60/100 is much fairer.

Guyana is not threatening confrontation or litigation. It asks only for fairness and a little bit of respect. And, please don’t label us a “frontier province”. We are deeply offended by that label.

My commendations to that reporter (sorry I didn’t get her name) for being persistent about letting Mr. Routledge know this thing is more about Guyana getting a fair share of revenues - and less about an engineering review of Payara.

Mike Persaud

PAGE 6

Black Republican speakers sticking it to the Democrats DEAR EDITOR, The Democrats are in for a topsy-turvy ride at the upcoming November elections, now less than a hundred days away. It will be a case of so near, and yet so far away from the seat of ascendancy. I think that the party’s leaders and strategists have only themselves to blame.

The Democrats have the numbers, but they lack the will. They lack the will, from Nancy Pelosi to Chuck Schumer to Joe Biden to Kamala Harris to speak out and call things, as they are, as they should see them.

Instead, they look the other way and pretend not to see what there is to be seen; the evidence of their malingering and paralysis is there, the maledictions mount. They coddle (as seen by their political opponents) arson and anarchy and looting and violence and rapid deterioration of safety, never comforting to begin with, in the vulnerable, crimeplagued, heavily minority populated inner cities. Those inner cities have been reduced to one war zone after another, with criminals ruling the

streets and neighbourhoods, and leaders all but abandoning their obligations.

I used to live in some of those inner cities when things were very bad; and as I was readying to move uptown, they started to turn around.

Today, most of them are back to the bad old days and most regrettably under the banner of the BLM protests, which started out as angry and justified in the heart, but peaceful in objectives. Shed the spotlight. Keep up the pressure. Bring about reform.

But now the bottom has fallen out in New York City, Chicago, and Portland, among others.

Most of the masses having an unfettered field day rampaging and wreaking mayhem are not going to come out and vote come November. And all the while, the self-destructive actions of those mobs are what play out before eyes and in the heads and the hard, unpardoning conclusions of White voters.

Even the liberals, as noted by the New York Times, are cringing, as their neighbourhoods are invaded and settled by the homeless and riotous.

It is those same White

voters that still constitute a significant majority of voting America. They will vote in their numbers and they are getting all the fuel and fodder (not irrationally so or unjustifiably so) from the Republican National Convention currently in full swing. In what I consider a masterstroke, a commonsense one, the Republican Party hit the right notes with the right people at the right time before the right audiences. It is a fail proof strategy, when Black speakers are recruited to blast away at what is going on in minority America with out of control lawlessness, and the great harms inflicted upon those communities, while Democrats at the helm stand by idly. They do so because they fear incensing Black voters and impinging on their prospects in November.

Though I hear that Mr. Biden is way ahead in the polls, I believe that it is misleading, as it did with Hilary Clinton in 2016; and Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.

Meanwhile, as criminals pretending at protesters wreak havoc in the streets, the (Continued on page 23)

...Scholarships for Public From page 5 could only be addressed by a very expert Job Evaluation exercise, preferably conducted by a selectee from invited competing Caricom experts.

Such a c o m p r e h e n s i v e undertaking might well involve some informed restructuring of agencies and jobs across the service.

For example, it has always been a source of

Friday August 28, 2020

Kaieteur News

wonderment to the undersigned how an eminently specialist agency like the Guyana Public Hospital Corporation could be so illogically treated as Public Service, and its highly qualified medical employees be valued in Grades comparable to other ‘Technical & Craft Skilled’ as shown in the National Estimates.

It has always been

inexplicable that all the Administrations have failed to recognise that the GPHC is the only Corporation included in the Annual Estimates approved by the National Assembly.

The opportunity should now be seized to restore it to its legal corporate status, with a proactive Board of Directors operating a more resourceful budget -aimed at well-paid specialists saving more lives, particularly in these pandemic times.

It would prove to be a substantial incentive to performance of individuals a n d t e a m s , t o w a r d s the health retrieval of patients and families.

In the meantime, will someone please attend to changing the job title ‘Typist/ Clerk’. There is no such instrument available.

E.B. John C o n s u l t a n t , Organisational Development and Human Resources Management

UG should have hosted conference on indentureship DEAR EDITOR, I thank KN for fair and balanced coverage of events and of exposing injustices. I write to bring to public attention a perceived unfairness in the failure of University of Guyana to host a conference on indentureship.

An international conference on indentureship was held in Trinidad on the occasion of the centenary of the end of indenture (1920). A similar conference was held in March 2017 to commemorate the end of recruitment of indentured labourers (a practice carried out by arkaityas or betrayers of their people, many of whom were kidnapped and brought to rescue sugar and other plantations around the globe).

A group of Guyanese had planned and organized a similar conference in Guyana in March 1917 and Planned one for May 2020 and approached the Vice Chancellor’s office of the University of Guyana to be a co-sponsor and or co-host and or assist with the expenses and or provide space for staging the event.

It was turned down.

The APNU+AFC government was also approached for funding in 2017, and it approved an insignificant amount of funds that could not even cover cost for renting an auditorium. The Ramotar led government also rejected a request for funding for a conference on and to be a co-host to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Indian arrival in 2013. It gave a mindset of how shabbily Indians are treated in the country.

Our group rejected the

small grant approved by the coalition’s Ministry of Culture in March 2017. Conferences on slavery and annual celebrations relating to emancipation received 50 times that amount. It was an insult to accept the grant. The government did, however, cosponsor a celebration in Leonora that was attended by thousands in mid March 2017. We organized several other events in Georgetown, West Berbice, Corentyne and Essequibo without government’s assistance. The Dharmic Sabha also hosted a cultural programme and banquet on the historic occasion of the hundredth anniversary of end of indenture.

To mark the anniversary of the end of indenture, an academic conference and cultural programmes were planned this year for Georgetown, Port Mourant, and Anna Regina for last May but have to be rescheduled because of the Corona Pandemic.

The Chancellor’s office of UG was approached last year and again earlier this year as a co-host. Since its founding in 1963, UG never hosted a conference on indentureship though it hosted several on slavery and other issues. It would have been ideal to host one on Indian indentureship and on other ethnic communities like the Amerindians, Portuguese, and Chinese. There was no response from UG on an indentureship conference.

Last year, a university in Portugal hosted a conference on Portuguese indentureship at which I presented a paper on the Portuguese experience in Guyana. As our only university, UG should have

planned and organized similar conferences on our varied people rather than focus almost exclusively on any single group. The university hosted similar programmes for anniversary on slavery and on diaspora.

As an academic institution, the management at UG must demonstrate balance and accommodate all groups, intellectuals, and requests with relative equity. Since it is demonstrating bias, the management and the UG Council should do the honourable thing. The government needs to do a rest at UG and put in place an independent board reflective of the composition of the society.

The government was more helpful (though in words) than UG on an indentureship conference.

When approached last year, it unofficially committed funds for the commemoration. The election impasse and Corona led to the postponement of the planned event to mark this important historic milestone.

I hope the new government, unlike its approach in the past, would be supportive and that UG would be more accommodative when a new date is possible. By the way, White universities in the so called imperialist countries, that Guyanese like to put down, have been far more accommodating and supportive on non-White people (Guyanese in particular). So much for blaming the White man for all of our problems! Whites tend to treat us with greater respect and dignity than our own.

Yours truly, Dr. Vishnu Bisram

For a Professional, Neutral, Politically Impartial, and Efficient Public Service in Guyana...

DEAR EDITOR, It is wise and commendable that the New PPP/C Government has reestablished the Public Service Ministry, and has declared, through the new Minister of the Public Service, Hon. Sonia Parag, that this Ministry would be developed into a Professional, Neutral, Politically Impartial, and Efficient Public Service.

In this regard, it would be useful for the Minister and the senior staff to review the report and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service with a view to adopt and implement

the recommendation of report. This report was submitted to President David Granger in May 2016 by Professor Harold Lutchman, Chair of the three - member Commission with Mr. Samuel J. Goolsarran, and the late Ms. Sandra Jones as Commissioners. The report was also circulated to Members of the National Assembly for debate and consideration. There was no debate following disagreement between the Government and Opposition on referring the report to a selected Committee of the National Assembly.

The Recommendations include: 1. The enactment of a Public Service Law with related Regulations and a code of conduct to create and develop a professional and politically neutral Public Service with high integrity for effective public management and administration.

2. The Public Service Commission (PSC) be constituted always with suitably qualified persons of high integrity to be fair and impartial in the execution of their duty in line with the Constitutional prescription (Continued on page 23)

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 07

Kaieteur News

U-turn by drunken bus driver sends motorcyclist to hospital One of the public roads in Lethem

Guyana, EU to share experiences in natural resources management - market access, Sovereign Wealth Fund high on agenda

I

A motorcyclist is currently in hospital nursing a fractured leg after he collided with a minibus driven by a drunken driver on Wednesday last along the Lethem Public Road, Region Nine. The serious accident took place at around 18:00hrs.

According to police, the motorcyclist, Kellon Arthur, 27, of Tabatinga, Lethem was riding along the road when the minibus, which parked behind a truck suddenly drove into his path causing the collision.

Investigators detailed that the bus driver attempted to make a U-turn without waiting

to see if the road was clear or not.

As a result, Arthur could not halt his motorcycle soon enough and crashed into the front of the bus. The impact flung Arthur some distance away causing him to sustain injuries.

He was picked up by the minibus driver and rushed to the Lethem Regional Hospital where he was admitted.

Ranks, however, arrested the man and took him to do a breathalyzer test. It was found that he was above the prescribed limit of alcohol.

n an effort to strengthen strategic partnerships and build alliances, the European Union Ambassador, Fernando Ponz Cantó, recently paid a courtesy call on Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat.

The meeting which served as an introduction to Minister Bharrat’s recent appointment, discussed several areas of cooperation which included but were not limited to EU-FLEGT expertise for Guyana’s forest products to gain access to EU markets and possible best practices for Guyana’s Sovereign Wealth Fund.

“Further, in the area of climate change, Ambassador Cantó commended Guyana for maintaining their support to the Paris Agreement which

Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat along with His Excellency Fernando Ponz Cantó. plays an important role in mitigating the global effects of climate change,” according to a statement issued yesterday by the Natural Resources Ministry.

In moving forward, Minister

Bharrat and Ambassador expressed a commitment to work closely together in the field of technical training, capacity building and shared experiences in Natural Resources Management.

Kaieteur News

PAGE 08

Friday August 28, 2020

Future financial support for municipalities hinges Gov’t on accountability - Local Minister

F

Water Street being fumigated Wednesday night

Fumigation of city continues

In light of the novel Coronavirus disease2019 (COVID-19), the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) continues to fumigate and sanitize the city in order to safeguard the citizens.

According to the City Mayor, Ubraj Narine, Water Street was fumigated Wednesday night and either Kitty or Robb Street was fumigated last night. This exercise commenced in March 2020, and it is aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.

For the past few nights, Stabroek Square, Bourda Market and other areas around

Georgetown were fumigated.

Recently, M&CC closed all of its Maternal and Child Welfare Clinics after a worker tested positive for COVID-19…a few vendors in the Stabroek Market have also tested positive for the virus.

The initiative to clean and fumigate the city is led by Director of the Solid Waste Dept., Walter Narine, in collaboration with the Guyana Fire Service.

They had previously cleaned the markets using water that contained ten percent bleach and ten percent Jeyes Fluid.

uture financial support for municipalities hinges on the ability of each council to account for their expenditure of the sum dispersed.

This is according to Local Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall.

During a recent interview on Kaieteur Radio’s ‘Room 592’, hosted by Dr. Yog Mahadeo and Senior Journalist, Leonard Gildarie, Minister Dharamlall highlighted the need for more accountability of the expenditure of millions of dollars in subvention dispersed to the various councils by Central Government, annually.

As the Local Government Minister noted that the municipalities must account for any subvention/tranche that they receive.

“I intend to work closely with the Georgetown and other councils to ensure that the taxes they collect are well spent and managed properly.

We are looking to ensure that the same goes for the subvention that they receive each year; that is well spent and accounted for. In the past, all subventions, these councils received, they kept but I intend to ensure that

every tranche they receive now is because they have accounted for the previous tranche.”

Dharamlall’s comments on the need for transparency on the spending by municipalities follow similar statements by City Mayor’s, Ubraj Narine, on the issue.

Narine told the press recently that the Georgetown Council has been working to improve the level of transparency and accountability on expenditure.

“In 2019,” the Mayor added, “I told the people when I took office that under my watch, this council will be working towards, transparency and accountability. We did not divert in any way from trying to do so. We want when money is spent at City Hall people must get value for their money.”

As such, Narine said that he has been working with the council members to bring this into fruition. He noted too that under his tenure, the $300M subvention from Central Government was well spent.

“We have all our records from 2019. When I took over in January, we met with the Permanent Secretary of

Local Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall Ministry of Communities … it was actually outlined to me how I must spend this money as Mayor. The garbage trucks were bought, three tractors, the administration building which is under construction, and other areas including the $75 M which was spent in the constituencies. All of which was done when I first took office and all the monies were accounted for,” he explained.

Narine also reminded that he inherited a council which was over $6B in debt.

“We had a lot of matters to work out. We had contracts that were given out to clean the cemetery, some of the documents I could not find.

We were told that verbal contracts for millions of (Continued on page 22)

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 09

Priya’s problems Priya Manickchand has returned to the Ministry of Education. Her previous stint there was conspicuous for its underachievement. The Minister of Education is best remembered for two incidents, one of which had nothing to do with education but the consequences of which turned out to be a political education for her handlers.

Her infamous ‘feral blast’ at the home of the American Ambassador was a monumental faux pas, except for those who are immune to being shamed. After that astonishing outburst, the Americans had little sympathy for the PPP/C. As such, when the PPP/C made aspersions about the elections and the conduct of the Chief Elections Officer, this gained no traction with either in Young Street or in Washington.

The PPP/C paid a severe price for Manickchand’s tactless, undiplomatic, inappropriate and uncouth outburst. It had to hire a special lobbyist to undo the damage caused by her intemperate remarks. The experience served as a bitter political education for the PPP/C’s failure to master the art of diplomatic criticism.

They learnt the hard way about the risks of reproving a representative of a foreign state. Manickchand is fortunate to have been given a political reprieve after that outburst.

The second thing for which the Minister will be remembered was her decision to abandon the Automatic Promotion Policy which became known as the “no child left behind” policy.

To be fair to her, she inherited

this policy from her predecessor and from educators who were never conceptually clear about what such a policy entailed.

This highly unpopular policy ended up hurting the Donald Ramotar administration. The only fault which could be laid at the feet of the Minister is that it took her too long to scrap the policy.

The Minister has now reassumed her former position and with it the opportunity to make amends for the lack of effective educational policies during her previous tenure.

Education effectively was on auto-pilot during that stint.

She will be hard-pressed to point to any significant achievements in the Education Ministry during her previous tenure.

She did make a feeble attempt in her Budget address in 2014 to identify some achievements. But these were cumulative over a period of more than 20 years and could hardly be credited to her stewardship. The results of examinations in which more than half of the country’s students grossly underperformed represented an indictment of the PPP/C’s education policy, including her stint. It also proves that spending larger chunks of the c o u n t r y ’s B u d g e t o n education – during 2013, it was around 15.9% of the Budget – does not translate into educational success.

In her Budget speech of 2014, she piggybacked on the individual achievements of the country’s academic high-flyers.

But those achievements clearly were not reflective of the overall performance of the country’s

children. It would be much more accurate to say that the high-flyers did exceptionally well not because of the country’s education policy but in spite of it.

G u y a n a ’s e d u c a t i o n system is in a mess, perhaps in a worse state than when she left it in 2014. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of classes and the previous administration’s policy of scrapping the one laptop per family initiative will affect the ability of the Ministry to offer on-line classes to all students during the pandemic.

Despite being on the job for almost 3 weeks, the new Minister of Education is yet to find a way around this dilemma. She appears still to be searching to find a firm footing among the multitude of problems which affect the educational sector.

She continues to trumpet t h e P P P / C ’s f l a g s h i p educational initiative - the $10,000 cash grant. This is an inequitable policy which benefits both the rich and the poor when the Ministry should have been specifically targeting only poor students. The assistance to poor parents would be more substantial if there is a means test. But the PPP/C cash grant policy was believed to have been introduced to woo votes rather than impact on poor households.

The Minister will be judged on her ability to move beyond her trademark hyperbole. This may prove challenging for someone who does not have a spectacular record of policymaking - a task made much more difficult by the

Dem boys seh...

De Exxon deal wuss dan a Ponzi scheme A man was passing by the Vigilance Police Station yesterday when he see a protest. He jump off he bicycle, pick up a piece of cardboard and start to shout! “Free Mingo now, Free Mingo now!”

One of the protestors turn to he and seh: “Yuh gat de wrong protest. This is the Free Yuri protest.”

De man tun and ask: “Wheh de free puri deh?”

Dat is Guyana fuh yuh. People joining protest and nah know wha dem protesting about.Dem boys had a good laugh though. De protest tek place in front de police station and de police nah arrest nobody fuh being part of a gathering of more than 10 persons.

Is this de same police wha gon enforce de social restrictions?

Dem boys seh de protest yesterday was in

support of dem people wha get charge fuh an alleged Ponzi scheme. Dem boys nah know de facts about de case, so dem boys can’t comment.

But wha dem boys know is dat de Exxon contract wuss dan a Ponzi scheme. Dem boys seh with a Ponzi scheme, at least some people does get back dem money. And some does even mek a good dollar.But when Exxon done with we, we gon leff in we bare shorts. Dem nah giving much, but dem tekkin a great deal.

Dat is why dem boys seh we gat fuh keep up de pressure fuh de renegotiation of de kantract. Dem boys nah asking fuh much.

Dem boys gon settle fuh a 10% royalty, ring fencing and better local content regulations.

Talk half and wait fuh see who gon protest in support of Exxon.

retention of fossilized thinking within the Ministry.

If the Minister is serious about improving education, new skills, new thinking and a new vision needs to be introduced within the

Ministry. And this may be her hardest task ever because this will entail shelving political appointments, something that the PPP/C may find problematic.

(The views expressed in

this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Kaieteur News

PAGE 10

Friday August 28, 2020

THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN

PNC and AFC are going to kill innocent, poor people next week

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he PNC and AFC are going to file an election petition next week. In a forthcoming column, I will examine the asininity behind that writ since the PNC will have to produce at the trial, the thing that they have hidden since March 4 – the statements of poll (SOPs) which showed it lost the election. Even their partner in crime, the AFC told the media last week, that

it never saw the SOPs. In announcing the petition, Joe Harmon is urging PNC (not AFC since AFC no longer has any supporters) to turn out in large numbers to show solidarity. I refer to my column of Thursday, April 16, 2020 captioned, “The election conspirators are going to make thousands die from COVID.” Here is what I wrote three

months ago: “All the warnings for Guyana are dire. The latest are from Dr. Fawcett Jeffrey, Director of Medical Services at the Georgetown Hospital. He said that the hospital can be overwhelmed with an influx of victims. He looked at the availability of beds and ventilators. I saw clips of APNU+AFC supporters in their dozens chanting support for the APNU+AFC

and they were all without masks and actually within touching distance of each other. The police did not disperse them. Is it possible that some of those persons became victims? They were b ro u g h t t o c o u r t b y APNU+AFC activists.”

From which economic classes those protestors are coming from? They will not be even from the upper working class ladders or

even from the lower middle tiers. These will be working class citizens coming from low income areas of Georgetown and from poor households in the PNC’s rural constituencies. They will gather in large numbers ignoring social distance r e q u i r e m e n t s . A l a rg e number of them will not be donning facial protection and they will be talking loudly in the faces of fellow protestors.

I saw small children taken by their mothers to listen to President David Granger outside State House after the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled against APNU+AFC. Granger didn’t wear a mask. In addressing them, Granger didn’t utter one word about caution. I saw mothers with their little children outside the courts in April during the election court battle. Many of them did not have face gear. Do you think PNC leaders do not know that per capita, Guyana has one of the highest COVID-19 afflictions in the entire world? Per capita, we may be number 3, 4 or 5.

Against that horribly frightening statistics, how any leader in a country vastly under-resourced to deal with a deluge of COVID-19 cases can exhort his supporters to defy COVID-19 restrictions and turn out in massive numbers?

This is criminal irresponsibility. But let’s turn our attention to the class position of the man who is asking PNC supporters to flock to the courts next week.

Harmon was chief of intelligence in the army and after retirement went to study law. Prior to going into government, he headed a law firm situated four blocks from where I was born on Hadfield Street, Wortmanville.

It is named IBIS Law Chambers, in Werk-en-Rust, one block away from where Walter Rodney met his death.

Directly outside of IBIS Law Chambers on Hadfield

Frederick Kissoon Street, on the parapet, sits the monument in honour of Rodney. Just before, I move on, a slight digression.

Harmon was military intelligence chief at the time Rodney was assassinated. Is it possible to say that he had no working knowledge of the plot; just asking?

When in June 2015 when the APNU+AFC Cabinet gave itself a massive salary increase, here is what Harmon told the press in justification. He said that in IBIS Chambers, he pays his junior lawyers, half a million a month; therefore, it was natural for Cabinet members who leave private employment, to be adequately compensated. I am not dealing with the salary increase here. I am referring to the class position of Harmon. If his juniors earned half a million a month, then Harmon is not a working class politician but comes from the upper middle class tier.

It is this kind of gentleman that is asking poor, PNC supporters to risk their lives to turn out outside the court in tropical conditions that will be unbearable. How can any sane mind support these PNC leaders? Is this the kind of recklessness society should turn a blind eye to? But guess what?

Here is the tragic part of Guyana’s sociology. Those who do not like those PNC supporters no doubt will cynically say quietly to their families, relatives and friends: “Let them go, who cares if COVID-19 kills them, even their own leaders don’t care.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Friday August 28, 2020

Kaieteur News

PAGE 11

Kaieteur News

PAGE 12

Friday August 28, 2020

Health Minister elected as new Guyana Global Fund Chair

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he Guyana Global Fund – Country Coordinating Mechanism (GF/CCM) reconvened its board on Wednesday after it was dissolved on August 7, 2020.

At the reconstitution of the board, the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony was elected as the Chair of the board.

Simone Sills – Civil Society representation was

elected the Vice Chair.

According to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Anthony brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience, not only in the medical field but in the processes applied by the Global Fund.

While addressing the new members of the board and personnel from the Ministry of Health via Zoom, the CCM Chair expressed

appreciation to those that nominated and officially elected him as Chair of the CCM for the next two years.

The CCM Chair emphasized that he looks forward to working with the board members and other partners in strengthening efforts focused on TB, HIV and Malaria.

Dr. Anthony recognized past partnerships with Civil Society. He further indicated

that he looks forward to strengthening that relationship.

In her remarks, Sills thanked the CSOs for expressing their confidence in her.

She underscored the role Civil Society Organizations play in the prevention of the diseases.

Sills noted that the CSOs are the foot soldiers who ensure that programmes and

New chair, Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony

Vice-Chair, Simone Sills

services meet the most vulnerable.

The Vice Chair welcomed this opportunity and indicated that her commitment to the board will not waiver.

Sills has been working in the CSO arena for a number of years. As the Executive Director of the National Coordinating Coalition ( N C C ) , Under her leadership, the NCC has benefited from grants from the USAID and Global Fund, among others.

The Country Coordinating Mechanism includes representatives of all sectors involved in the response to the diseases: academic institutions, civil society, faith-based organizations, government, multilateral or bilateral agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and people living with the diseases, the private sector and technical agencies.

Importantly, CCMs are national committees that submit funding applications to the Global Fund and oversee grants on behalf of

their countries. They are a key element of the Global Fund partnership.

The Guyana CCM is tasked with coordinating the development of the national request for funding; nominates the Principal Recipient; oversees the implementation of approved grants; approves any reprogramming requests and ensures linkages and consistency between Global Fund grants and other national health and development programmes.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created in 2002 to raise, manage and invest the world’s money to respond to three of the deadliest infectious diseases the world has ever known.

The mission of the Global Fund is to invest the world’s money to defeat these three diseases. As an international organization, the Global Fund mobilizes and invests more than US$4 billion a year to support programmes run by local experts in more than 100 countries.

Ex T&T Energy Minister, local ...

From page 2 Warner – a UK consultant affiliated with ExxonMobil who later removed Paul’s safeguards.

The Trinidadian also notably was hired by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to conduct a rapid analysis of Guyana’s oil industry’s regulatory framework in 2016. In addition to pointing out loopholes to plug and urgent legislative updates to be made, Paul noted the need for a National Upstream Oil and Gas Policy, a document to guide the development of G u y a n a ’s p e t r o l e u m legislation and regulatory framework.

Paul has about four decades of experience in extractive sectors. He has

worked with oil major, BP, and several governments.

Paul formerly served as an advisor of Chatham House, and is a governing board member of the Natural Resource Governance Institute. His most recent work is with the Government of Mozambique as an Advisor.

Duncan is the former Chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC), former Director of Guyana Power & Light (GPL), and current President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUG).

Notably, Duncan’s time at GPL was also controversial.

He was freed in 2018 from a $27M larceny charge linked to misappropriation of the funds.

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

CH&PA reviewing questionable allocations of houselots Ministers of Housing and Water, Collin Croal ® and Susan Rodrigues

EPA head dropped from Payara review, sent on leave

H

T

he Ministry of Housing and Water yesterday announce that it has commenced a review exercise for questionable allocations made, following complains by allottees that they feel duped out of their hard-earned monies for lands they are still to identify.

The issue was brought to attention of the subject Minister, Collin Croal, on Wednesday as he was conducting a series of community meetings in the West Berbice region.

“Initial checks into these recent allocations have revealed that the ownership of these lands by our agency remains in limbo. This is compounded by the fact that these lands have no infrastructure in place and allottees cannot even identify their lots,” the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) announced yesterday.

The ‘allocations’ were announced within the period leading up to the March 2

elections.

That raised suspicions with the transactions, CH&PA said.

“Given the time frame when these allocations were made, the assumption can be made that these allocations were a mere political gimmick. Until such time when the review process is completed in the best interest of our citizens, a decision has been taken to simply put a hold on accepting payments for these allocations.”

The Ministry, which oversees CH&PA, said it nonetheless remains committed to the delivery of serviced lots, with all basic infrastructures in place, inclusive of fair weather access road, water distribution network, electrical network as well as drainage network.

“We therefore want to reassure all applicants that the status of their applications will in no way be affected and they will be processed in due time.”

PAGE 13

e a d o f Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams, confirmed last evening that he has been instructed to proceed on 126 days leave which ultimately removes him from being part of the review team for ExxonMobil’s Payara Field Development Plan (FDP).

Dr. Adam’s noted that his letter from the Permanent

Secretary of Office of the President, Abena Moore, states that he must proceed on leave immediately. He added that no reason was given. The official said that while the letter states he has to proceed on 126 days leave, the records show 77.

“So this is a mistake,” Dr. Adam’s stated.

Kaieteur News understands Sharifah (Continued on page 22) On leave: Dr. Vincent Adams

Kaieteur News

PAGE 14

Friday August 28, 2020

Exxon’s threat to take Bandits stick-up man in investment elsewhere shower, cart off $1.8M shows how worried it is - Guyana has no reason to be afraid - Dr. Mangal Upon noting the recent comments of ExxonMobil Guyana’s President, Alistair Routledge, to the effect that the company would take its money elsewhere if it does not get its way with the Payara Field Development Plan (FDP); Petroleum Consultant, Dr. Jan Mangal believes this just exposes how worried that company is.

During a recent interview with Kaieteur News, the former Presidential Advisor stated that even if ExxonMobil wants to take its investment elsewhere, Guyana has nothing to fear.

In fact, he said that this sort of posturing is expected.

Dr. Mangal said: “If ExxonMobil were ever vulnerable to a single country, and a single block, it is now. Guyana has immense leverage over ExxonMobil since it needs Guyana much more than Guyana needs Exxon. With Exxon’s current portfolio, Exxon does not have a future without Guyana.”

The anti-corruption advocate added: “This could be a ploy between the PPP/C and Exxon where they want to make it look like the government is squeezing Exxon but then nothing really changes. Another scenario is that ExxonMobil is genuinely worried and they are coming out with this kind of threat and that is fine.

This is ok. Guyana should not be scared, since ExxonMobil is supposed to jump up and down and say, “We are going elsewhere”.”

But even if this happens, Dr. Mangal said Guyana has two oil projects already streamlined, with one already producing oil since last year Christmas.

Further to this, the international consultant posited that having a third oil project under a lopsided Production Sharing Agreement is not in the nation’s interest.

The anti-corruption advocate stressed: “The third project Payara should only be approved if we get a fair, new production sharing contract for the whole Stabroek Block. Guyana should think long term about this. Remember it was only a couple years ago we did not have oil, so if we need to wait a couple more years for a better deal, then fine, Guyana can wait.”

Further to this, Dr. Mangal said Guyana can focus on getting prepared for the sector and “cleaning house.”

He posited that time is always on the country’s side.

In fact, Dr. Mangal said that the country can only benefit in these deals if it take time to do things properly.

In this regard, he said that Guyanese should pay attention to what happened when the last government

Former Presidential Advisor, Dr. Jan Mangal rushed into a very bad deal.

“So I completely disagree with those who say Guyana does not have leverage. That is what Exxon would like Guyana and Guyanese to believe, but it is false.”

It seems that the approval by the government for the FDP is being held up over concern for key environmental issues.

The first matter relates to flaring. ExxonMobil wants to keep the loopholes it got in its Liza One and Two permits which allowed for flaring while the other matter pertains to the dumping of toxic water in the ocean from the company’s operations.

G u y a n a ’ s Environmental Protection Agency has been opposed to allowing the multi-national to have its way on these critical issues. Since these matters have been exposed in the media, ExxonMobil declared that it could take its investments elsewhere.

Three men yesterday entered the shop of a businessman, held him at gunpoint while he was taking a shower and carted off $1,800,000 in cash.

The robbery tool place at around 06:30hrs at Kanawaruk, Black Water Landing, Region Eight.Bhim Singh, 56, was taking a bath in his bathroom when a man opened the door and pointed a revolver at his face.

Singh attempted to scream but the bandit shoved the revolver in his mouth.

According to the businessman’s son, two others, also armed with guns, entered the building as well. They entered the shop area where the cash was stored.

Meanwhile, in a bid to free himself, a scuffle ensued between Singh and the bandit who held the gun in his mouth.

The businessman somehow managed to overpower the bandit and bit him. Both gun and the bandit fell to the ground and Singh ran to the front of his shop. He started shouting for help. Neighbours came to his assistance and surrounded the building but by this time, the bandits had already located the cash and jumped a back fence making good their escape.

The matter was later reported to ranks at the Mahdia Police Station, who visited the scene later that day but there was no signs of the suspects in the area.

The businessman’s son said that this is not the first his dad was robbed by armed bandits.

He claimed that gunmen had barged into their home in Georgetown.

Bhim Singh in front of his shop at Kanawaruk Black Water Landing, Region Eight They were beaten and robbed of cash as well.Kaieteur News had also received information that the gunmen who robbed the businessman yesterday are well known in the area.

It was detailed that they would enter Kanawaruk on CG motorbikes frequently.

It is believed that they would visit the location to stalk miners and shop owners before choosing a victim to rob.

Man throws ganja bag over fence, runs away from cop A man, on Wednesday last, threw his shopping bag with suspected cannabis over a fence and ran away after he noticed a policeman following him.

Police said that the man had stepped out of a motorcar which was traced by the rank from the Patentia West Bank Demerara

The package of suspected marijuana

(WBD) Public Road to Vive La Force.

The policeman told his superiors that at around 12:30hrs, while travelling in his car, he observed some strange movements and decided to follow a white Toyota Premio motorcar.

The car stopped at Vive La Force, dropped off a man with a bulky shopping bag and then sped off again.

He decided to follow the man on foot through a track. The individual soon realized that he was being trailed by an officer and threw the shopping bag over a nearby fence before sprinting towards the sea dam area and escaping.

The policeman called for backup and scaled the fence to retrieve the shopping bag and discovered that it contained three neatly wrapped package of suspected marijuana.

Ranks from the Anti-Crime Patrol arrived shortly after but were unable to

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 15

Manoj Narayan appointed as Govt, Persaud t Commissioner on GECOM -oGanga serve on Public Service Commission

Ganga Persaud sworn as a PSC Commissioner

P

resident Irfaan Ali yesterday administered the Oath of Office to Manoj Narayan, who will serve as a Government-nominated Commissioner to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

Former Local Government Minister, Ganga Persaud, was also sworn in to serve as a member of

the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall and Chairwoman of GECOM, Justice (ret’d), Claudette Singh, were also present when Narayan, an attorney-at-law, took the oath of office.

He will replace Robeson Benn

Attorney- at- Law, Manoj Narayan, being sworn as a GECOM Commissioner

on the Commission. Benn resigned following his appointment as the Minister of Home Affairs.

On the other hand, Persaud replaces Geeta Chandan-Edmond, who resigned earlier in the year following her nomination to the Opposition’s list of candidates for the General and Regional Elections.

In his remarks, at the swearing in, President Ali said these appointments are critical in the governance architecture of Guyana.

The Head of State said Narayan is a young lawyer who has already spent a lot of time dealing with electoral matters.

Alluding to his inauguration

address, the President said he has spoken about the urgent need to have a comprehensive understanding of what took place over the last five months at the Elections Commission.

“With the appointment of Mr. Manoj on the Commission, I am sure it will help you, the (Continued on page 22)

PAGE 16

Kaieteur News

August July 07, 2020

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 17

Kaieteur News

Alleged Ponzi schemers remanded after slapped with multiple charges Some of the protesters in front of court yesterday

Y

Remanded: Yuri Garcia- Dominguez and his wife Ateeka Ishmael, being escorted from court

uri GarciaDominguez and his wife, Ateeka Ishmael, who are said to be a part of a multibillion Ponzi scheme, were yesterday slapped with 19 fraud charges before two separate magistrates.

The duo was granted a total sum of $7.8M bail by one of the magistrates but remanded by the other.

Garcia-Dominguez and his wife were arraigned before Magistrate Marissa Mittleholzer in the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court, with their attorneys, Dexter Todd and Glenn Hanoman.

When the matter was called, 13 fraud charges

were read to the couple.

The charges alleged that between May and July 2020, the couple obtained a total sum of $24.7M from the 13 victims under false pretense. Magistrate Mittleholzer granted the defendants bail in the sum of $3.9M each and the matter was adjourned to September 18, 2020.

After those charges were read, the defendants then made a virtual appearance before Magistrate Alisha George of the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Courts.

Magistrate George read six fraud charges to the duo- those charges allege that they obtained over $1M from the victims under false pretense.

However, Magistrate George remanded the defendants to prison and the matter was adjourned to September 21, 2020.

While the matter was going on in court, over 100 protesters were gathered in front of the court with placards.

The placards stated: ‘Release Yuri’, ‘Grant Yuri and Ateeka license’, ‘Not a Ponzi scheme, we stand with Yuri and Ateeka’.

The protesters were also chanting “Free Yuri” and “Grant Yuri bail”.

During an interview with reporters in the court compound, attorney-atlaw Todd said: “We have advocated that these matters are private in

nature, all the complaints that were made forms part of a contract…what the State has done is to impose themselves as a third party to a private contract and they are forcibly allowing the course of a criminal nature which is not to be.”

The other lawyer, Hanoman, had this to say: “The Government is instrumental in closing the accounts of the company, so in effect, they prevented the money from coming back but encourage people to make report about not being paid.”

The Government recently announced a multi-sectoral investigation against (Continued on page 19)

Kaieteur News

PAGE 18

Friday August 28, 2020

Phase 2 at Eccles dump-site building without HDPE liner -Minister unaware of changes to contract

The Haags Bosch Landfill Site at Eccles

By Shikema Dey orrying reports have emerged that cell sites at the Haags Bosch Industrial Landfill site at Eccles, East Bank Demerara, are being constructed without HDPE liners and could pose a serious health risk to nearby environs and the country’s water system.

Sources came to Kaieteur News expressing grave concern that this was being done and when contacted, the Local Government and Regional Development

W

Minister, Nigel Dharamlall, was unaware that such a change was being made to the design.

For reference, the HPDE liners or “Landfiller Linings” are physical barrier systems intended to prevent the escape of water and gases out of the body of the landfilled waste. The Landfill Liner is placed at the bottom and sides of modern landfills and are continuously welded to provide a watertight seal.

This lining is integral in the construction of landfills as they secure the environment

and protect the water system from being contaminated with the harmful materials that come from waste. These protective liners also prevent the movement of leachate (toxic liquid from landfills) along with the escape of poisonous dissolved by-products, which would otherwise infiltrate the environment.

Such a key component, was however, excluded from the initial design of a new landfill site labeled “Block 2” at Eccles.

Kaieteur News understands that the previous administration had approved the

previous design where the liner was excluded and forged ahead with construction.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), however, got wind of this and instructed that the project be halted and the contractors were sent back to the drawing board to include the protective liner.

But by that time, it was too late.

With the construction of the new cell, the protective liner was included in the designs.

However, the contractor, Kaieteur News (Continued on page 22)

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

Protestors burn tyres, picket at Belladrum for the release of Mingo

PAGE 19

Body of miner in boat mishap found

Burnt tyres across the West Berbice public road with police officers at the scene yesterday.

Several residents of Belladrum, Paradise, West Coast Berbice yesterday afternoon converged to protest the release of Region Four’s Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.

Mingo is currently under arrest at the CID Headquarters in Georgetown over allegations of electoral fraud.

The residents chanted “free Mingo” and burnt tyres across the road.

The protestors told reporters that they went out in solidarity and to show support to Mingo and his family and are calling for his release.

Mingo was arrested at his home in Abary, Region Five, earlier in the week and was taken to the CID Headquarters, Georgetown for questioning.

Other staff members who worked with him at GECOM have also been arrested.

Old age pension payments to commence Tuesday The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security yesterday announced that payment of old age pension will begin on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at post offices countrywide.

“The Ministry is cognizant that in previous months, payment would commence approximately one week before the actual month’s disbursement. The early payment system was implemented to ensure that pension and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) disbursement schedule did not overlap, thus preventing overcrowding at the post offices,” a statement from the Ministry said.

However, pension and NIS payments would not coincide for September month, but early pension payment would resume for October, it was assured.

“As customary, the alphabetical system, using surnames/last names, will be employed for senior citizens to receive their payment during the first five payment days of the month at Post Offices in Regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10.”

Senior citizens will be paid as follows: • Surnames/last names beginning with the letters A to D on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 • Surnames/last names beginning with the letters E t o K o n We d n e s d a y, September 2, 2020 • Surnames/last names beginning with the letters L to P on Thursday, September 3, 2020 • Surnames/last names beginning with the letters Q to T on Friday, September 4, 2020 • Surnames/last names

beginning with the letters U to Z on Monday, September 7, 2020 will be the fifth payment day.

The ministry explained that the alphabetical system will only be used during the first five payment days.

Senior citizens will be allowed to cash his/her coupon/s on any day after the f i f t h p a y m e n t d a y. ”In keeping with the guidelines provided by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), post offices continue to enforce physical distancing between individuals accessing their services.

This measure limits the number of individuals who can enter any post office at any given time. Persons visiting the offices are asked to wear protective masks and sanitize their hands before entry.”

Alleged Ponzi schemers remanded...

From page 17 Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael, who are officials of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. The investigation was launched after authorities said they received a number of complaints against the company.

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, recently disclosed that the company has little or no assets in Guyana.

According to a letter from the AG to one of the defendant’s lawyers, as a result of multiple complaints received and reports to the Guyana Police Force (GPF),

a team of State agencies has been assembled to inquire into the operations of Accelerated.

Reports revealed that over 17,000 Guyanese were in limbo, after investing over US$20M. A number of the persons reportedly sold their properties or gave their life savings to the company.

Authorities said that they found little evidence of money leaving Guyana via the normal channels for overseas.

Accelerated told investors it was actively involved in the foreign

exchange trading and promised as much as 40 percent returns every few weeks.

However, authorities, including the Guyana Securities Council, the Bank of Guyana and the Financial Intelligence Unit had warned about the operations.

In fact, Accelerated had had been operating for about two years but only applied for a broker’s licence a few weeks ago.There are details emerging that pastors and other religious leaders were actively involved in recruiting clients or new “investors” for Accelerated.

One of the many dangerous falls in the Mazaruni River Police, on Wednesday last, found the body of the miner who disappeared after an aluminum boat sunk Tuesday at Gatie Falls, Semang Creek, Mazaruni River in Region Seven.

The remains, identified to be that of Clement Morgan, 63, of West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, was discovered at around 20:40hrs, floating in the creek.

It was already in a decomposing state and bore some superficial lacerations on his torso

and back.Morgan was one of two passengers on board a boat powered by a 40-HP outboard engine, which had capsized in the falls at around 20:30hrs Tuesday.

According to reports, the engine went dead as the captain, Marvin Andrews, 49, was navigating his way through the rapids causing the fatal incident.

Marvin and the other passenger had managed to swim to safety but Morgan went under and disappeared.

PAGE 20

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 21

Elections petition to be filed Monday T

he A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition will file its elections petition of the March 2nd General and Regional Elections on Monday, August 31, at the Supreme Court.

Joseph Harmon, whom the coalition has named the presumptive Leader of the Opposition, announced this in a Facebook post yesterday. He urged the faithful followers of the party to lend their support.

Following that announcement, an APNU+AFC press statement revealed that Harmon has written to several international and local organisations about what he considers electoral fraud related to the recently concluded elections.

In this letter, Harmon reportedly outlined that “based on the vast amount of evidence”, the APNU+AFC Coalition “believes, and intends to prove, that the

elections held on March 2 lacked credibility and legitimacy”.

The coalition stated that Harmon attached to the letter a dossier of all the “thousands of cases of fraud, voter impersonation, irregularities, abnormalities and discrepancies which were uncovered.”

On the basis of these submissions, Harmon contended that the current administration was sworn in on the basis of fraudulent results and that it is, therefore, an illegitimate government.

Kaieteur News, in providing extensive coverage of the protracted and painstaking electoral process, had noted only one instance of proven electoral fraud. This is the fraud produced by Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, during his tabulation of the Region Four votes.

He is in police custody after his arrest earlier this week. International

observers and independent small parties have sufficiently also proven the extent of this fraud.

Mingo’s actions had proven that there was sufficient knowledge very early on that the then APNU+AFC government had lost its bid for reelection, as the manipulation included the artificial inflation of the vote count in favour of the Coalition.

During the national recount, it became evident that the APNU+AFC campaign had e m b a r k e d o n a misinformation campaign of smoke and mirrors, in an attempt to convince the public and the international community that the elections it lost were fraudulent.

To this day, the coalition has not sufficiently proven its claims of electoral fraud.

These matters are expected to be ventilated in the possible elections petition.

In addition to his claims of fraud, Harmon is said to have told the international

- Harmon community that the PPP/C is on a campaign of “state terror, intimidation and political persecution” against the coalition and its supporters.He alleged that pressure or direction is being placed on the (Continued on page 22)

Presumptive Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon

PAGE 22

Friday August 28, 2020

Kaieteur News

...Manoj Narayan appointed as Govt

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From page 15 Chairperson and the Commission, to advance the work as you seek not only to address the many issues before you in relation to the concluded elections but more importantly, in the strengthening of the electoral system, as we work towards having an electoral system in which the people of our country can have confidence; and one in which the international community can be comfortable that Guyana has strong democratic institutions that will always act in the best interest of democracy and the people of our country. I

know that the task ahead is not easy for any one of you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ali noted Persaud’s appointment comes at a very critical time.

The President said the PSC’s work must continue as there are a number of issues that have to be dealt with, including concerns of promotion and advancement in the Public Service.

“As a result, it was critical [for] us to move urgently in filling this vacancy so as to have the work of the PSC proceed and flow in a smooth manner. Mr. Persaud is no stranger to the Public Service.

He has experience as a public

servant…he has served on the Commission before and he is a former Minister and Permanent Secretary. I have no doubt that he will execute his mandate in a manner that is befitting of the office and that he will be an asset to the Commission. I would like to see greater inclusiveness. I would like to see strengthening of our governance architecture, of our institutions, all aimed at ensuring that people are treated fairly,” he said.

Ali was sworn in as President on August 2 after a five-month standoff with the incumbent coalition, which claimed it won.

...EPA head dropped from Payara From page 13 Razack, a Director of the EPA, would be taking Dr. Adams’ position. Ms. Razack is in charge of permits and authorizations.

This news agency understands that she has never worked in the oil industry, but would most likely be representing the EPA during the review process for Payara’s FDP. Since his appointment in October 2018, Dr.

Adams has been a staunch advocate for the protection of Guyana’s environment.

In fact, he had pushed for Guyana to get unlimited liability coverage for ExxonMobil against all oil spills. And just recently, he had threatened to take ExxonMobil to court for refusing to pay a paltry fine of US$1,000 for spilling hydraulic fluid in the Stabroek Block.

...Elections petition to be filed

From page 11 Guyana Police Force, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution and other State agencies to target and persecute members of the opposition.

To add to that, Harmon is reported to have shared with them the fixed date applications and affidavits filed in the Court by former Director of Sport, Christopher Jones and his wife, Christine Jones WANTED against certain officers of Experience Roti/Puri cook, the police force and the Sweet Meat maker, cashier. Attorney General, for alApply at Hack's Halaal with l e g e d i n f r i n g e m e n t s o f their constitutional rights, written Application.

as steps were taken to retrieve State assets from Jones.

Harmon is said to have written to the Secretaries General of the United Nations, Commonwealth, Amnesty International, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the Presidents of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Inter Parliamentary Union and Parlamericas, the Chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and a number of

other international organizations.

He also is said to have written to several foreign countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and to the Prime Ministers and Leaders of the Opposition of all CARICOM countries and the European Union.

It is also said that the correspondences were sent to all of Guyana’s diplomatic missions, Guyana’s country representatives of the United Nations and Inter-American Development Bank and a series of local organisations.

...Phase 2 at Eccles dumpsite being

Driver (Canter and pickup).

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water system and people get sick. Who would get blamed?” the source lamented. Even more worrying is the fact that major water well is located nearby the landfill site.

K a i e t e u r N e w s made contact with Minister Nigel Dharmlall who stated that he

was not aware that the contractor was instructed to leave out such an important part of the design.

While he noted that he is aware that the first cell was built without the liner, he assured that his office will be looking into the matter.

...Future financial support for

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wasn’t the Mayor then, neither was the current Town Clerk in the position,” he reiterated.

“We want the public to know that City Hall is moving in the direction of accounting

for the spending,” the Mayor said.

As such, the Mayor said that he is adamant about having a special financial audit of the entire Council for year 2019.

Friday August 28, 2020

Essequibo Residents welcome investment in Asphalt Plant and Aggregate Depot for Job Creation and Infrastructural Improvement Dear Editor, I am a citizen of Guyana and reside on the Essequibo Coast, a region that depends predominantly on agriculture for its economic activities and livelihood.

The second main source of income for residents is the construction industry which brings about tremendous infrastructural improvement for civil society across Region 2.

The advent of the current private investment in the construction of an asphalt plant and construction aggregate depot at Vilvorden on the Essequibo Coast has now created employment for several skilled and unskilled workers in the construction of this f a c i l i t y. A l s o , I w a s informed that some residents in the nearby communities will be given permanent employment, a welcome development for this part of our country.

I see this new asphalt production and construction aggregate depot as a facility

that will serve to repair, build and upgrade our main roads in villages that are in a deplorable state. This facility will now provide road construction materials (asphalt) at a lower cost and of high quality since it will not be subject to transportation from Georgetown as is currently being done where loss of temperature affects the paving and compaction process.

Apart for the added benefit of residents being able to purchase construction aggregates from this facility, I was also informed that this asphalt production facility has the most modern and environmentally friendly equipment.

For such a positive investment in Region No. 2, it is my humble opinion that this new facility will benefit all of us here in Region 2. I want to sincerely commend the investor and the administration for supporting such a project.

Regards, Puresh Ragubance, Resident of Essequibo Coast

Black Republican speakers sticking...

From page 6 Republicans reap political hay with former NFL superstar, Hershel Walker; Senator Tim Scott (r-SC); Kim Klacik, a contender for the available Congressional seat of the late great Elijah Cummings; and Vernon Jones, an Assemblyman from Georgia. They have several things in common: they are young, they are Black, they are Republican, they are intelligent and articulate, and they are compelling. I think Joe Biden and the Democrats are in trouble.

They are because I hear sharp shades of when Nixon postured about ‘law and order” and some other Republican leader preaching about ‘war on drugs.’ I hear of bedrock American values, and about those elements that touch to the core the bulk of the majority that votes.

PAGE 23

Kaieteur News

Many Americans recoil from the mere thought of another four years in the White House with a suspected unhinged leader there.

As an immigrant and a minority, I shudder at the prospect. But I must face this unalterable reality: Democrats do themselves no favour when they shrink from fulfilling leadership responsibilities, when they pander and yield to what is besieging city after city in America, and when they have all but thrown up their hands in surrendering to mobs.

Those poll numbers favouring Mr. Biden will not hold, but collapse, as much damage has been done. I wish it were not so, but I was never enamoured by him in the first place. Hence, four more years look unbeatable right now.

Sincerely, GHK Lall

Appoint Persaud where he is skilled DEAR EDITOR, In reference to your letters (KN Aug 18, 19) on Robert Persaud’s appointment, he is appointed in the wrong field.

Like so many other appointments, including Ministers and other appointments, personnel are misplaced in areas where they lack skill set and expertise.

They would be more effective in other areas. Persaud has skills and specialization in other areas like agriculture and public relations where he would be more helpful to the government.

There is public objection of and opprobrium directed at Persaud as a political appointee and moreso as

Foreign Secretary, a position yet to be defined. I read a letter writer trying to explain the role of such a position but can’t quite understand why it is needed since others in the Ministry can perform the same tasks.

Persaud has no background in a foreign affairs position for which he is politically appointed. He was never trained or schooled in diplomacy, foreign relations, or international relations. He admits he is not a graduate from UG or any other undergraduate institution or holder of a Bachelor’s degree and that he never received training in the field. Thus, he

cannot be an asset to the Line Minister (Foreign Affairs) or the government in that area.

It raises questions of the kind of appointments being made by the PPP/C that are similar to those made by the APNU+AFC. Is it a redo of what Granger did?

The PPP/C had objected to the position of Foreign Secretary when it was created to accommodate Carl Greenidge. If the PPP/C feels it really needs a Foreign Secretary, why not appoint someone who has competence and is skilled in the field? Appoint a consultant or expert in the area! In this way, the government will avoid

criticism about that kind of political appointment.

Persaud’s appointment raises a stench across the board.

Rescind that appointment!

Persaud has not been seen in public or heard from since the announcement of the appointment.

In fact, we have not heard from him since May 2015 when he made a public announcement making himself available to serve the PNC. If Persaud has to be accommodated, why not assign him in a role where he has some training and expertise.

Yours truly, Haresh Kumar

...For a Professional, Neutral, Politically Impartial, and Efficient Public Service in From page 6 that they exercise independent judgment and not be influenced by political and other external considerations and influences.

3. The Constitution and other Laws should be appropriately amended to empower the Public Service Commission to appoint, on open internal and external completion and merit, Permanent Secretaries and Regional Executive Officers., and all other appointments to established Public Service positions.

Correspondingly, the Public Service Ministry and the staff of the entire Public Service should be constituted with professional personnel with high integrity to rebuild trust and confidence in the Public Service.

4. Contract employment of low level and general staff in the Public Service should end. However, contract employment in the Public Service should be restricted to high level, professional, scarce skills not available in the Public Service, and for project work.

5. There should be higher retirement age of 60 and 65 for public servants with corresponding higher public service and NIS pensions.

6. There should be a highlevel representative Committee to identify, on the basis of merit, candidates to be awarded fellowships and scholarships.

7. The Public Service compensation system should be reviewed and redesigned within an attractive and appropriate graded salary structure with the involvement of the recognised Trade Union.

8. A Salary and Remuneration Commission be established to make

recommendations to the National Assembly on remuneration for high level political and public service offices including the President, Vice-Presidents, Prime Minister, Ministers, Leader of the Opposition, Members of the National Assembly, Permanent Secretaries, Regional Executive Officers, and Regional Chairpersons.

9. Role and Function of the Public Service The COI stated that a review of the earlier inquiries and studies into the Public Service and many who testified before this Commission, advocated for the Public Service to be impartial, neutral, professional, non-partisan, non-political, serving the public interest in keeping with the rule of law – the Constitution and other laws of the land, International Treaties and Conventions within the frame work of Constitutional fundamental rights. These principles are in line with Article 38G of the Constitution states that: “(1) The Integrity of the public service is guaranteed.

No public officer shall be required to execute or condone irregular acts on the basis of higher orders.

(2) The freedom of every public officer to perform his or her duties and fulfill his or her responsibilities is protected.

(3) No public officer shall be subject of sanctions of any kind without due process.

(4) In the discharge of his or her duties, a public officer shall execute the lawful policies of the government.”

10. The Permanent Secretary and Professional Relations with Ministers The COI emphasized that the public administration

system, in line with the Constitution, Article 115 and other laws, mandate that where any Minister has the responsibility for any department of government, shall exercise general direction and control over that department and, subject to such direction and control, every department of government shall be under the supervision of a Permanent Secretary. This direction and control is of a general and policy nature.

While the Minister is primarily concerned with the determination of policy, the Permanent Secretary and the technical and other staff under the Permanent Secretary are required to faithfully implement the policy decisions of the Government of the day in an impartial and professional manner.

The COI reminded that the Permanent Secretary assists the Minister in the formulation of policies, prepares papers for Cabinet, and is also the Accounting Officer who manages and is accountable for the funds voted by National Assembly for the ministerial departments, and is answerable to the Public Accounts Committee of National Assembly for public expenditure.

These duties and responsibilities have not changed since the PSC Circular No 46 of 1966, embodying an extract from a speech from then Prime Minister, L.F.S. Burnham which stated in part with reference to the Permanent Secretary’s responsibility as the Accounting Officer: “…

A Minister should never therefore give instructions for expenditure to be incurred on any project without prior consultation with his Permanent Secretary

to ascertain that appropriate funds are available…”

Similarly, in a letter dated 5 May 1989 to Permanent Secretaries, President Desmond Hoyte stated that under the Constitution, Permanent Secretaries had the responsibility to manage their Ministries, to advise their Ministers, to help the Ministers in the formulation of policies, and the effective management of the resources of personnel, finance, stores, plant, machinery, equipment, vehicles and buildings.

The letter further stated that, “…No Minister has authority to direct a Permanent Secretary to ignore the law or to breach regulations and directives governing the administration of finances, the use of Government property, etc. Indeed, no Minister has the power to direct a Permanent Secretary to commit any other act that is unlawful or otherwise irregular…”

Bertrand Collins Public Administration College: The function of this entity should be sub-summed and absorbed into the Public Service Ministry Training Division.

There is no need for a duplicated function, which is the remit of the Public Service Training Division.

The above recommendations are essential for good governance and public management and public administration of the Public Service, fair employment practices, and developing a professional Public Service to serve the national community fairly without political and racial/ ethnic discrimination; a Public Service, which can make Guyana proud.

With thanks, Joshua Singh

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EPA lacks equipment to measure noise nuisance

Environmental Officer of the EPA: Jasmin Adams The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently not equipped to measure noise nuisance.

This state of affairs was brought to the fore after residents of D’Aguiar Park and Houston Gardens, East Bank Demerara (EBD) complained of being affected by noise coming from the John Fernandes Container Terminal at Mandela Avenue, Georgetown.

For more than three years now, residents from these communities said that they have been bombarding the EPA with countless emails, complaining about the unbearable noise and dust pollution from operations at the container terminal.

However, over the years the government agency, reportedly, never gave the

The response email sent to an affected resident by the Environmental Officer of the EPA, Jasmin Adams

residents a definite response to address their concerns but instead merely acknowledged receipt of their emails.

In January of this year, a reputable resident of D’Aguiar Park decided that he will solely represent his neighbours by pressing the EPA to investigate and solve their concerns.

After nearly seven months of persistence by the man, the agency finally conducted a complaint investigation into the concerns but could not solve the issue.

This, this publication was

told, is because it lacks the necessary equipment to do so.

In an email sent to the resident on August 25 by the EPA Environmental Officer, Jasmin Adams, it was noted that the agency did carry out some investigations on July 31, 2020.

It was further stated in the email that, “due to the lack of equipment at the agency, the noise assessment could not be conducted at the time of the investigation.”

According to the EPA official, the “agency has taken strides to procure the

said equipment and shall conduct a follow-up investigation once achieved”.

The residents of the community found this response “very disappointing”.

They responded in a subsequent email to EPA, venting their frustration.

The residents told the agency that after waiting so long for a solution, it is very disturbing that they are now forced to endure the unbearable noise nuisance until EPA is fully equipped.

One man told Kaieteur

news that he endures sleepless nights because of the constant banging sounds of empty containers at the terminal.

“Those people work 24/7, whole night and people cannot sleep, how are we supposed endure that until EPA get its act together?” he asked.

Another resident said that as a result of loud noises and the operation of heavy duty machine, the tiles on his walls would vibrate.

“The walls and everything would vibrate man and all day you are disturbed by banging

sounds of metals.”

Yet another frustrated resident highlighted that many times police were called in during late hours of the night to stop operations at the terminal.

However, said the resident, the head at the container terminal would ignore the lawmen and continue operations throughout the entire night.

The resident also told Kaieteur News that his children are forced to live on allergy medications to combat the effects of the dusty conditions.

47 new cases as COVID-19 death toll rises to 32 Guyana yesterday recorded its latest COVID-19 death, bringing the total death toll to 32.

The deceased is a 52-yearold male, Alfred Humphrey, who was a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

A GHPC source informed this newspaper that the man was admitted to the hospital since August 20 and died on August 26.

Additionally, 47 new COVID-19 cases were recorded yesterday August 27. This brings the total number of cases to 1,140…

482 of which are active.

The new cases were from Regions Three, Four, Seven, and Nine.

Region Three has one new case; Region Four- 10; Region Seven- two new cases, and Region Nine- 34 new cases.

According to the Ministry of Health’s daily update, 10 persons are currently in the COVID-19 ICU; 102 persons are in institutional isolation; 380 persons in home isolation and 119 persons in institutional quarantine.

Minister Frank Anthony and others touring the Guyana Centre for Disease Control…the former Ocean View Hotel.

Of all the confirmed COVID-19 cases; 563 are male and 577 are female.

Also, Region One has a total of 158 confirmed cases; Region Two -12 cases; Region Three- 61 cases; Region Four -388 cases; Region Five- four cases,Region Six-14 cases’ Region Seven- 206 cases; Region Eight- 15 cases; Region Nine-207 cases, and Region Ten -75 cases.

There have been a total of 7,654 tests conducted nationally… 6,514 of which produced negative results.

Minister of Health, Frank Anthony, recently stated that the surge in cases is because

of asymptomatic persons are carrying the virus and because of increased testing.

The Minister is still urging persons to take COVID-19 tests and disband the ongoing rumours about contaminated test kits.

August has seen the largest spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths since the first case was recorded in March earlier this year.

Yesterday, the Minister of Health, Dr. Anthony, along with a team, inspected the Guyana Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Corp at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.

August 27th COVID-19 dashboard

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Paul Pogba: Manchester United midfielder tests positive for coronavirus

Pogba and his France team-mate Tanguy dombele have both been diagnosed with the virus @Getty Images

Friday August 28, 2020 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Travel of any kind might be virtually impossible today, Aries. Airports could be jammed, flights delayed, and planes plagued with mechanical problems.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Someone close to you might be uncharacteristically silent today. Something is bothering them terribly, and they don't seem to want to talk about it.

TAURUS(Apr.20–May20) This isn't a good day to invest in anything. Don't spend much time working on speculative projects, Taurus, and don't put your money into anything but gold, land, or blue-chip stocks and bonds.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) Financial worries might come up today, Scorpio.

You may check your bank balance and find that you have little money. This might come as a shock, because you thought there was plenty there.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) A love partner could be gloomy today. This might be the kind of day when no matter how many times you draw your mate's attention to the doughnut, he or she still sees only the hole.

SAGIT(Nov.22–Dec.21) Today you might be so gloomy that you don't even want to get up. It might not be a good idea to stay home, however. Try to find some tasks to distract you.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) You tend to be curious, and you're always trying to learn more about your many interests. But today you could be eager to research a subject but be unable to find any information about it.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) The need to attend to business or networking obligations disguised as parties could get to you today. You may have been forced to attend too many of these recently, and now there are even more coming up.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) our home could be empty today. Other household members may be away and you could find it depressing.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) Any work today could require a higher level of concentration than you can muster. You might lapse into daydreams, think about personal matters, and feel guilty because you aren't doing what you're supposed to be doing.

AQUARIUS(Jan.20–Feb.18) Today your creative impulses could seem blocked, Aquarius. You might be trying to reach your own or someone else's deadline.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) A friend who planned to stop by tonight might not show up. You may worry since this person isn't one to blow you off. Don't imagine accidents or disasters.

BBCsport - Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has tested positive for coronavirus, says France manager Didier Deschamps.

The 27-year-old will have to self-isolate for 14 days. He will miss France’s Nations League game in Sweden on Saturday, 5 September and the home game against Croatia three days later.

However, Pogba could be eligible for selection for United’s Premier League opener against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on 19 September. His club said: “Everybody at United wishes Paul a speedy recovery ahead of the new season.”

Pogba will be replaced in the France squad by 17-yearold Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga. “I’ve completed, at the very last minute, a change in the list,” Deschamps said on Thursday (yesterday).

“Paul Pogba, who was previously on the list, unfortunately for him he carried out a test yesterday which was returned as positive this morning.”

Belgian GP: Lewis...

From page 26 to do.” The Ferrari driver added: “We know it is does not change things overnight and it is only a very small contribution, but hopefully everyone who tunes in and sees it gets the point and takes a little bit of that for the next steps he is facing in life.

“Because one thing is to take action in public but more importantly is how everyone is acting and confronting it once the cameras are off. That is true for us and it is true for everyone else.”

Hamilton sees Verstappen as a threat Hamilton has won four of the first six races this season and has opened a 37-point championship lead over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with the Briton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas a further six points adrift.

Hamilton said he saw Verstappen as a genuine threat in the championship.

“If you take away Max’s DNF (retirement) in race one away, we would be very close in points,” he said. “They have had very strong results.

Maybe in qualifying we do have the edge. But in races we are a lot closer.

“We are not even halfway through the season. I absolutely keep my eye on them. They are absolutely still a title runner and we need to stay on our toes.”

Mel Jones: Need to be ‘more strategically...

From page 29 teams have been created in the past three years, with women and girls representing 32% of all participation for the first time. The Australia team had also previously been named the country’s most loved sports team.

However, the introduction to the report emphasised the challenges ahead: “The highs of the past year were quickly

followed by significant lows as the impact of the Covid19 pandemic spread globally.

This once-in-a-century event is being felt throughout our game...with all sports impacted to varying degree, we call on our peers to join Australian Cricket in publicly sharing their commitment to create better opportunities for women and girls in sport.

Now is not the time to revert to ways of old.”

...Fabulous fielding From page 27 effort, leaping athletically to hold and release a Bravo loft before he hit the rope, but Green wasn’t quite close enough to take the release.

Bravo did however clear the ropes in that over as Naveen served him a juicy full toss, and Seifert went after the first ball of Tahir’s last over and hit it miles. With the pressure now off, the over went for 11, and Seifert sealed the win with two crunching fours.

He and Bravo had again

finished what the bowlers had started, and the Knight Riders machine rolled on. It’s instructive, and worrying for the other five franchises, that once again Sunil Narine’s absence was hardly mentioned.

Scores: Trinbago Knight Riders 115/3 (Seifert 39*, Webster 27, DM Bravo 26*, Simmons 19; Tahir 2/25, Green 1/15) beat Guyana Amazon Warriors 112/7 (Paul 28*, Taylor 26, Hetmyer 26; Pierre 3/18, Pollard 1/15, DJ Bravo 1/23, Raza 1/30) by 7 wickets.

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Cornwall and Nabi overpower Patriots CPL - Mohammad Nabi’s career-best figures, the thirdbest in Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) history, led a spin demolition of the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots. He was well supported by Rakheem Cornwall and Zahir Khan, and Cornwall followed up with a brief but brilliant assault that took any remaining tension out of the chase for the St Lucia Zouks.

After Zouks’ captain Daren Sammy put them in, the Patriots had yet to score when Nabi dismissed both Chris Lynn and Nick Kelly.

Lynn continued his run of being dismissed by spinners, pushing a simple catch back to the bowler, and Kelly edged to the safe hands of Rakheem Cornwall at slip.

Nabi soon made it four.

Denesh Ramdin sought to follow a Hero Maximum over long-on with one over square leg but top-edged to Najibullah Zadran, and next ball Patriots leading scorer of Hero CPL 2020, Evin Lewis, spooned a sweep to Roston Chase at square leg to leave the Patriots 11/4 off just 3 overs and Nabi on a hat-trick.

Chase’s introduction with the ball was not a surprise, and he went for just three off his first over. Jahmar Hamilton just about survived the hat-trick ball, but he and

Ben Dunk managed no further boundaries as the Patriots reached the Powerplay at 22/4.

Another tight over came and went, this time from Zahir Khan. Dunk finally broke the drought as Chase overpitched, sending the offspinner high over the sightscreen. Oddly, after eight overs the Patriots had hit two Hero Maximums but no fours.

That block-block-slog approach brought Hamilton’s downfall, as he prodded at a Zahir googly and edged behind. Cornwall closed out the first half of the innings well, and at drinks the Patriots were 43/5 with a lot resting on Dunk once more.

Dunk hit Zahir straight for a third Hero Maximum, but should have been stumped in the same over.

After 13 overs, Dunk had 32 of the Patriots’ 59/5, and the pressure on him finally told as Cornwall’s extra bounce saw the Australian splice a pull to deep midwicket.

Even a Mark Deyal full toss didn’t result in the match’s first four. After 15 overs the Patriots were 66/6, and it got worse as Nabi returned to complete his fivefor - remarkably, the first of his 10 year and 264 game T20 career - as Tanvir scooped a

sweep to Zahir at short fineleg.

Kesrick Williams came on for the 18th, off which captain Rayad Emrit took for 14 including, at long last, a four.

Emrit fell next over, Deyal taking a running catch at long-on, but Kuggeleijn dropped short off his last ball and Alzarri Joseph sent him into the stands. Imran Khan sacrificed himself to get Joseph on strike, and the Antiguan responded with a second Hero Maximum. 37 off the last 3 overs, all bowled by seam, only delayed the inevitable.

The Patriots surprisingly started with seamer Tanvir, who Cornwall hammered for two fours and two towering Hero Maximums. Emrit gave Jon-Russ Jaggesar an aggressive field, but Jaggesar’s first ball was poor and Fletcher cut it easily for four. Cornwall smashed Imran clean over the roof, and while he was bowled two balls later, the fact that he alone hit more fours and almost as many boundaries than the entire Patriots team told the story.

After a brief shower, the Zouks resumed needing just 81 at well under 5 an over, which made Deyal’s hoick first ball all the stranger. Emrit took a good catch to leave Imran on a hat-trick, which the ever-

Mohammad Nabi celebrates his five-wicket haul. Getty Images calm Chase denied him comfortably.

With Cornwall having taken the pressure off, the Zouks found strike rotation easy, and that relaxed feel gave Fletcher confidence to smash Jaggesar into the top of the Carib stand to end the Powerplay at 47/2. The opener’s dismissal was a surprise when it came with a pull straight to midwicket, giving Imran a third wicket.

Najibullah reverse-swept two fours and good running meant Imran’s last over went

for seven. Emrit brought himself on, but Chase and Najibullah took him four a boundary apiece, and the Zouks cruised to 79/3 at halfway.

A desperate Emrit turned to Dunk’s part-time off-spin so part-time Dunk bowled in his sunhat - which Najibullah smashed for four as the over went for eight. Najibullah dished out further punishment in Dunk’s next over, lifting him for a Hero Maximum over long-off, but Dunk got a small measure of

joy as the Afghan top-edged to deep midwicket.

It was Dunk’s first Hero CPL wicket, just the third of his T20 career, but it was scant consolation as the Zouks sealed victory with 32 balls to spare without even needing Nabi to bat.

Scores: St Lucia Zouks 111/4 (Najibullah 33, Chase 27*, Cornwall 26; Imran 3/23, Dunk 1/29) beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 110/9 (Dunk 33, Joseph 21*, Emrit 16; Nabi 5/15, Cornwall 1/14, Zahir 1/ 18) by 6 wickets.

Fabulous fielding inspires five-star TKR CPL - The Trinbago Knight Riders continued their dominance of Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2020, bowling and fielding superbly to blow away the Guyana Amazon Warriors top order and completing what could have been a tricky chase on a slow pitch with time to spare.

Sikandar Raza opened the bowling and turned his first ball sharply but his sixth went straight on to bowl Brandon King, and Khary Pierre deceived Chandrapaul Hemraj and Nicholas Pooran to leave the Amazon Warriors 12/3. Pollard sensed blood, putting himself under the helmet practically on the batter’s toes.

Ross Taylor was positive, pulling Raza hard for four.

Pollard almost pulled off a blinder at silly-point, just failing to hold as Taylor lunged forward off Pierre. But Taylor found Raza easier, cutting for four, slogsweeping in trademark fashion for six, and paddlesweeping for another four to take the Amazon Warriors to 39/3 off the Powerplay.

Fawad Ahmed troubled Hetmyer with his googly, but unlike many others Hetmyer was able to find singles.

Shimron Hetmyer made 26 © Randy Brooks - CPL T20 / Getty Pollard brought himself on, but even someone with his experience couldn’t have

expected what happened next.

Taylor took only a few

strides before turning around, but keeper Tim Seifert was out of the blocks like a sprinter, got to the ball while taking off one glove, and in mid-air threw down one stump with Taylor still scrambling. It was a spectacular piece of work, and left the Amazon Warriors 44/4 after 8 overs.

Fawad and Pollard hustled towards the drinks break. Seifert dropped Sherfane Rutherford on 1, but with the Amazon Warriors 51/ 4 at halfway Pollard was the happier captain. Fawad used the googly well to keep the 11th over quiet, and in the 12th on came yesterday’s history-maker, DJ Bravo, who also only went for singles.

When Pierre returned, Rutherford launched into a slog-sweep, but then came more fielding magic. Tion Webster took the catch as it came over his shoulder, released the ball millimetres from the rope, and stopped his momentum in time to run back into the field of play and recatch the ball. It was a masterpiece.

Colin Munro dropped a sitter to gift Hetmyer a Hero Maximum and deny Pierre a fourth wicket. But the reprieve didn’t last long - Hetmyer

smashed DJ Bravo straight to cover to leave the Amazon Warriors 77/6 off 16. The lower order energised the innings Keemo Paul punished Fawad for over pitching by launching him over the sightscreen, and Romario Shepherd sent a Bravo length ball out of the ground.

A back spasm had forced Ali Khan out of the game early, but Pollard filled in well at the death to pick up his first wicket of Hero CPL 2020, Seifert diving to hold a steepling Shepherd top edge.

Paul responded with a flat-bat six, but Bravo was as good as ever in the 20th, conceding just five and sending his team into the innings break strong favourites.

Amazon Warriors started well through Hemraj and Captain Chris Green. But Lendl Simmons smashed Imran Tahir over midwicket for six, and Webster cut Hemraj for four then lofted a straight Hero Maximum.

Green was forced to go to Naveen-ul-Haq, who spoiled an otherwise good over by gifting Simmons a four down the leg-side, and at 32/0 off five overs, the Knight Riders were comfortable.

Tahir did his best to

change that. First a googly ripped past Simmons’ slog, next ball a big leg-break did the same to Munro, and though Darren Bravo denied Tahir the hat-trick the Knight Riders needed to reset.

Green and Paul were accurate, but Webster ended a run of 26 boundary-less balls by spanking a Hero Maximum. As a bonus he drove Shepherd for four, and at halfway the Knight Riders were well-set at 51/2.

Captain Green ended Webster ’s charge, with Hetmyer taking a smart low catch. Seifert was lucky not to be bowled at least once by Paul, but found a gap at square leg to close the 12th over with a four.

Naveen returned and went for just four, and with two overs of Tahir looming Green invited the Knight Riders to attack Shepherd. Seifert and Bravo took the bait, and the over went for 13 to leave the Knight Riders needing 35 off 36 balls.

Green opted to only use one of Tahir’s overs, and it went for just two. A Paul over went boundary-less, and off Naveen Hetmyer very nearly outdid Webster’s earlier (Continued on page 25)

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Bartoletta, Miller-Uibo and Crouser top Drake fields

US long jumper Tianna Bartoletta (Getty Images) World Athletics Reigning Olympic champions Tianna Bartoletta, Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Ryan Crouser will be among the headliners at the Drake Blue Oval Showcase presented by Mediacom, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting, in Des Moines, USA, tomorrow, Saturday.

Bartoletta, whose prodigious collection of accolades includes a pair of Olympic 4x100m relay gold medals and three world long jump titles indoors and out, will contest both the long jump and 100m.

Bahamian star Miller-Uibo

will headline the 200m field, an event in which she’s the 2020 world leader with 21.98.

Miller-Uibo has also captured the last three Diamond League titles over the distance, last year’s with a 21.74 lifetime best which elevated her to equal-11th on the all-time list.

Crouser, who improved his lifetime best to 22.91m earlier this season, will take on a strong field which includes Nick Ponzio, who is second on this year’s world list with 21.72m, and Payton Otterdahl, the 2019 NCAA champion and collegiate record holder at 21.81m.

Others expected to compete include world and Olympic silver medallist Sandi Morris, who has topped 4.81m this year. Lynna Irby, the Monaco 400m winner earlier this month and world leader at 50.50, will return to action in the 200m. She was victorious over the half lap in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, on 19 August.

Dawn Harper-Nelson, the 2008 Olympic champion, who will compete for the first time since September 2018 when she began her maternity leave. Devon Allen, a 2016 Olympian, will contest the 110m hurdles.

Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba rejected for Ivory Coast Federation polls BBCsport - Didier Drogba has been told he is not eligible to stand in upcoming elections to be the next president of the Ivory Coast Football Federation (FIF). Along with three others, Drogba submitted papers to stand in the polls earlier this month.

The FIF’s Electoral Commission ruled that the former Chelsea striker did not fulfil its long list of eligibility criteria. His bid was rejected as two of the names he had submitted as his sponsors were ruled not to have the necessary authority to do so.

Officials from the Ivorian club Africa Sport and a body representing referees, AMAF-CI, had also backed the federation’s current first vice-president Sory Diabate.

Different officials from the same organisations had also signed Drogba’s papers, with

the FIF’s commission ruling they were not authorised to do so.

In the case of Africa Sports, a sporting club in Ivory Coast, the head of its football section had given his approval to Drogba while the chairman of the whole club had backed Diabate. It meant that Drogba only had the backing of two top-flight Ivorian clubs and not the three that FIF statutes demand.

The rejection will come as a bitter blow to football fans in Ivory Coast, thousands of whom had come out to support him earlier this month when he submitted his bid to stand. Drogba played more than 100 times for the Elephants including at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, and as well as Chelsea he played for French giants Marseille, Chinese club

Didier Drogba Shanghai Shenhua and Galatasaray in Turkey.

An application for Paul Koffi Kouadio was also rejected, leaving Diabate and Yacine Idriss Diallo, a former FIF third vice-president, as the remaining candidates.

Drogba and Kouadio both now have five days to appeal against the decision.

Naomi Osaka decides to PLAY in her Western & Southern Open semi-final today MailOnline - Naomi Osaka has opted to play in her Western & Southern Open semi-final in New York today, after originally withdrawing in protest against racial injustice in the US. Athletes and leagues across the United States have taken a stand in the past few days after black man Jacob Blake was shot seven times by police officer Rusten Sheskey, in front of his own children.

All play at the US Open warm-up event was suspended on Thursday as the ATP, WTA and ITF stood in unison, and world No 10 Osaka has decided that in support of the movement and as a result of today’s (yesterday) suspension, she will play in her last-four encounter against Elise Mertens tomorrow.

In a statement provided to The Guardian, Osaka said: ‘As you know, I pulled out of the tournament yesterday in support of racial injustice and continued police violence. I was (and am) ready and prepared to concede the match to my opponent.

‘However, after my

Naomi Osaka

announcement and lengthy consultation with the WTA and USTA, I have agreed at their request to play on Friday (today).

‘They offered to postpone all matches until Friday (today) and in my mind that brings more attention to the movement.

I want to thank the WTA and the Tournament for their support.’

In explaining her decision to originally withdraw, Osaka wrote: ‘However, before I am an athlete, I am a black woman.

And as a black woman I feel

as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis.

‘However, after my announcement and lengthy consultation with the WTA and USTA, I have agreed at their request to play on Friday (today). ‘They offered to postpone all matches until Friday (today) and in my mind that brings more attention to the movement. I want to thank the WTA and the Tournament for their support.’

Kipyegon targeting world 1000m record in Brussels WorldAthletics - Reigning Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon has set her sights on the world 1000m record at the Memorial Van Damme, a Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels on 4 September.

Kipyegon, who came up 0.17 shy of Svetlana Masterkova’s 2:28.98 record at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco earlier this month, will give it another try in the same stadium and meeting where the record was set in 1996. Kipyegon’s 2:29:15 performance in Monaco elevated the 26-year-old Kenyan to No2 all-time over the distance.

Organisers also announced that Brigid Kosgei, the world record-holder in the marathon, has joined the field in the women’s one-hour run, a bid on the 18.517km world record in that event, which includes double world champion Sifan Hassan. Kosgei, who smashed the marathon world record with a stunning 2:14:04 run in Chicago last year, will be making her track debut.

Slight injuries by key local athletes have forced some changes to the programme.

Nagging achilles tendon pain has sidelined Olympic heptathlon champion Nafi Thiam, cancelling her triathlon duel with world champion Katerina Johnson-Thompson of Great Britain. Johnson-Thompson will still compete in the 100m hurdles and the high jump.

Injury woes have also struck the Borlee brothers, thus cancelling the mixed 4x400m relay. That made room on the programme for the women’s 1000m. Meanwhile, the removal of the triathlon shot put has made room for

Faith Kipyegon wins the 1500m at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels (Giancarlo Colombo) the women’s 100m to give rising Belgian star Rani Rosius an opportunity in the spotlight.

The 20-year-old improved her career best to 11.39 at the national championships recently to move up to No2 on the Belgian all-time list.

Olympic champion Thiago Braz of Brazil has joined the men’s pole vault field, taking on world record holder Mondo Duplantis and local star Ben Broeders. Local restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic have forced the meeting behind closed doors but will be broadcast live across several platforms.

Details will be announced shortly.

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Mel Jones: Need to be ‘more Kevin O’Brien smashes own car windscreen while hitting strategically smart’ about scheduling women’s domestic competitions six in Leinster victory

Mel Jones has joined the Cricket Australia board ©Getty Images Kevin O’Brien smashed his own windscreen while hitting a six Cricket Ireland.

ESPNcricinfo - Kevin O’Brien left himself a hefty bill for repairs in a hard-hitting onslaught for Leinster Lightning against North West Warriors in Dublin, after smashing his own car windscreen while hitting a six.

In a match reduced to 12 overs a side due to rain interruptions, O’Brien’s bruising innings of 82 from 37 balls was more than enough to secure a 24-run DLS win.

However, it later transpired that one of his eight sixes had

sailed into the car park at Pembroke Cricket Club, and wrecked the rear window of his Toyota.

It had been a typically belligerent onslaught from the 36-year-old O’Brien, whose greatest claim to fame was the 50-ball hundred against England at the 2011 World Cup in Bengaluru, but who was also at the crease at the Ageas Bowl last month while Ireland once again chased down 329 to beat England.

For Leinster, O’Brien

struck his second ball for six and didn’t let up, despite the risk of his momentum being interrupted by a mid-innings rain break. Leinster finished with 124 for 4 from 12 overs, leaving the visiting Warriors a near-impossible task of chasing down the massive target in dull, damp conditions.

They lost wickets early in the response, and apart from William Porterfield’s 50 from 30 balls, never looked like coming close.

Manchester City ‘are ready to offer £89.5m plus Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus and Eric Garcia’ in sensational player-plus cash deal to land Barcelona star Lionel Messi MailOnline - Manchester City are prepared to offer Barcelona £89.5million plus Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus and Eric Garcia for Lionel Messi. City is optimistic of reaching a deal with the Catalan giants after Messi announced his desire to leave the club this summer.

Should Messi agree terms with City, he will be reunited with Pep Guardiola following an incredible career at the Nou Camp - scoring an astonishing 634 goals and creating 285 assists in 731 appearances for the Spanish giants.

The two have already been in contact over the phone about moving to the Etihad, even discussing how Messi could settle in England and learn the language after almost 20 years in Spain.

The idea of City signing Messi has long seemed like a dream, but the £89.5m with the addition of Silva, Jesus and Garcia could make the transfer a reality. According to Sport,

The deal will also include City’s players Bernardo Silva (above), Gabriel Jesus and Eric Garcia @Manchester City FC via Getty Umages contact has been made with Barca chiefs to bring to Jesus to the Nou Camp.

Jesus has been a primary target for the Catalans as they look to replace Luis Suarez, but City’s £20.5m price tag has prevented a deal from

materialising. Guardiola is also looking to offload Garcia with his contract set to expire next summer.

With two of Barca’s transfer targets added to the deal, City’s chances of closing a deal have rocketed.

ESPNcricinfo - The women’s game needs to ensure there is clear communication and a smarter approach to scheduling in the future to avoid clashes of domestic competitions such as the WBBL and the Women’s T20 Challenge, according to former Australia player and now CA board director Mel Jones.

CA hopes that the doubling up of two major women’s domestic events which will occur in November is a one-off scenario created by the huge challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, but beyond that there will need to be clear planning both domestically and internationally amid “massive concerns” that the women’s game could be left behind in the resumption of sport.

With the T20 Challenge overlapping with the WBBL it means that India players won’t be able to appear in Australia this year, just six months after they played a starring role at the T20 World Cup, and on the flip side the likes of Alyssa Healy, who has been very outspoken on the topic, will not be able to feature in Indian competition for the second year running following last year’s stand-off between CA and the BCCI. “Who’d have thought maybe five years ago that I’d be pulling my hair out that women’s domestic competitions are clashing and we can’t get players from around the world,” Jones said.

“It’s a great space to be in. In some ways it has been a bit of a rush and everyone is so excited about what they can do that sometimes the communication has been missed a little bit.

“But what it has done is open up a few more doors and say let’s be a little bit more strategically smart about the way we are running our

Alyssa Healy was a part of the Women’s T20 Challenge match in 2018 BCCI

domestic competitions so we can see a free flow of players around the world.”

“From my perspective I’m rapt in the sense the Challenge was still on and giving a pathway for young Indian players to come through because we want to see young Indian players get better and better because it makes world cricket better as well. For this once off it’s not ideal in the sense it clashes with the WBBL and we’d love to see the Indian players here but moving forward we’ll have the clear windows for our players to go there and their players to come here.”

The natural split for the major women’s domestic events would be the WBBL in October-November, the T20 Challenge in April or May and the Hundred in England during their summer months.

CA are committed to staging a full WBBL in October and November this year with the likelihood it will be in a singlestate hub.

“Australia should be very proud of the WBBL as being the preeminent domestic league in the world,” Nick Hockley, the Cricket Australia interim CEO said. “This year is an atypical year with everything going on. The reality is you have the whole IPL infrastructure in Dubai.

Hopefully it’s a one-year anomaly given a lot has been disrupted this year. Going forward, [it would be] fantastic to have the likes of Harmanpreet play in the WBBL.” Top-level international cricket is set to resume with England-West Indies in September followed by Australia-New Zealand a few days later. CA remains hopeful that India will still tour in midJanuary for a one-day series while talks are ongoing with New Zealand Cricket for matches in the space created

by the World Cup postponement.

“There is a massive concern, without a doubt,” Jones said about the impact of the pandemic. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few chats with the ICC in the last week just about that. It’s not to say people don’t have it in the forefront of their minds. The fact they postponed next year’s World Cup was a huge blow to them.

“They’re mindful of that, and they’re trying to figure out ways how we can be a little bit smarter and collectively work together to make things easier. It’s an issue across global sport but I think we’ve got enough cricket brains at the table to make sure we can at least take advantage of as many opportunities as we can the next 12 months.

“The Under-19s is something we’ve been pushing for many years. It will be critical for us, but it might be one that unfortunately for the moment will have to take a bit of a pause to work out where it fits in but also so the nations providing those teams can send teams.”

Jones and Hockley were speaking around the release of Cricket Australia’s third Press For Progress report which documents their aspiration to become Australia’s leading sport for women and girls. On the back of the record-breaking T20 World Cup and the first standalone WBBL, Hockley said the 2019-2020 season was “undoubtedly the greatest year for the women’s elite game in Australia.”

Among key outcomes in the report were that representation on boards reached 32% - the first time it has passed 30% - and more than 1,600 all-girls cricket (Continued on page 25)

PAGE 32

Friday August 28, 2020

Kaieteur News

FIFA President welcomes legends to celebrate football

Living and loving football, but respecting COVID-19 regulations: this was the motto of the match at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, which included former Swiss and Argentinian internationals, together with FIFA Foundation executive chairman Mauricio Macri and FIFA Foundation CEO Youri Djorkaeff.

The event served to celebrate the presence of

Mauricio Macri at the Home of FIFA and to conclude an active period for the FIFA Foundation which on Wednesday included the signature of a memorandum of understanding with UPL to promote sustainable development and education through football.

Infantino honours Benaglio and Lichtsteiner Esteban Cambiasso, Pascal Zuberbühler and

former captains of the Swiss national team Diego Benaglio and Stephan Lichtsteiner, among others, played this match at the Home of FIFA showing their usual passion for the game.

“I was very pleased to be invited,” said Benaglio. “As always, everything is perfectly organised, coming to FIFA and standing on the pitch with all these great players was really fun. It was

an honour for me to be part of this match.”

The FIFA President was particularly pleased to welcome Benaglio and Lichtsteiner, whom he said: “Both can look back on two fantastic careers. They were, and still are rightly role models for many young players.

With their performances, they have made the best promotion for Swiss football abroad. They

are two full-blooded professionals who lived and celebrated football to the full.

We can only take off our hat and thank them for everything they have done and will certainly continue to do for football.”

“I had the privilege of participating in FIFA World Cups,” said former Juventus, Arsenal and Augsburg defender Lichtsteiner. “They were always very well-

organised and we players lacked nothing. It is a great moment for me to be here and to feel so much recognition from the president. It is a special recognition to feel the respect of these great personalities.

It’s also fun to meet players who have also had top careers. The exchange is valuable and for all of us it is great to celebrate football in this way.”

UEFA Women’s Champions League

Renard heads Lyon into final with Wolfsburg

Fridolina Rolfo Two-time UEFA Women’s Champions League winners Wolfsburg will have another shot at European glory after they defeated Barcelona 1-0 in the 2020 semi-finals in San Sebastian on Tuesday.

In the 58th minute, Barça failed to deal with Svenja Huth’s low cross and, after Ewa Pajor’s subsequent attempted bicycle kick was

blocked, Fridolina Rolfo stabbed home from close range.

The first half played out fairly evenly, albeit with Barcelona enjoying more possession while Wolfsburg looked to counter with the speed of Pernille Harder, Pajor and Co. Barça did, however, create the two clearest-cut chances with Asisat Oshoala

and Caroline Graham Hansen both coming close to opening the scoring.

Although Wolfsburg’s opportunities were fewer and far between, Rolfo seized her moment to seal the German champions’ return to the continental decider and deny Barça a chance of reaching a second consecutive final.

In Wednesday’s all-

French showdown, holders Lyon survived a real scare by Paris Saint-Germain. Captain Wendie Renard’s second-half header was enough to see them through to the final and give them a chance of winning a remarkable fifth consecutive continental trophy.

In a match that saw two red cards given in the second

half - both instances were for second yellow cards for PSG’s Grace Geyoro (66') and Lyon’s Nikita Parris (75') there was not much separating the two sides with Lyon attempting ten shots to PSG’s nine.

It was a set-piece that ultimately proved to be the decider, with Renard peeling off to the back post and

heading past the outstretched Christiane Endler. Lyon and Wolfsburg will contest their fourth Champions League final on Sunday, with the former winning the last two, one via penalties and the other after extra time, and Wolfsburg winning their first final meeting in the 2012/13 season.

Kaieteur News

Friday August 28, 2020

PAGE 33

NBA players decide to continue season after boycott over racial injustice

WNBA players agreed Wednesday to strike and no games were played.

Jacob Blake’s name is spelled out on the shirts in the front row.

LeBron James. Reuters/Mark Blinch Reuters National Basketball Association (NBA) players agreed on Thursday (yesterday) not to boycott the rest of the season after forcing the postponement of a slate of playoff games in a protest against racial injustice and police brutality, U.S. media reported.

The police shooting of a Black man in the Wisconsin town of Kenosha has triggered days of violent unrest and riled U.S. professional sports. The NBA postponed all three playoff games that had been scheduled on Wednesday after the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for Game 5 of their series against the Orlando Magic.

The Bucks players said in a statement on Wednesday they were unable to focus on basketball due to the events in Kenosha, which is located about 40 miles (60 km) south

of Milwaukee.

ESPN and the Washington Post reported that NBA players have decided to resume the playoffs after meeting among themselves in the bubble-like campus at Disney World in Florida, where the games are being played due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Post reported that players from the 13 teams still in the playoffs met on We d n e s d a y n i g h t a n d Thursday morning. The NBA Board of Governors held an emergency meeting on Thursday (yesterday).

The league has postponed the three playoff games scheduled for Thursday, ESPN reported.

Since the NBA restarted its pandemic-interrupted season, courts have had the words “Black Lives Matter” painted on them and many players have worn jerseys

with social justice slogans.

NBA referees marched on Thursday around the Disney campus in support of the players, wearing black Tshirts with messages like “Everybody vs. Racism” and “Black Lives Matter.”

Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the Women’s NBA also postponed games on Wednesday, while two-time tennis Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka pulled out of a tournament after reaching the semifinals in support of the protests.

‘CHANGE DOESN’T HAPPEN WITH JUST TALK’ Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, said he planned to reach out to NBA star LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday (yesterday) about the boycott to protest racial injustice.

James, a four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, wrote on Twitter on Thursday (yesterday): “Change doesn’t happen with just talk!! It happens with action and needs to happen NOW!” In an interview with Politico, Kushner suggested that the actions by the players were not productive.

“I think that it’s nice that they’re standing up for the issue, but I’d like to see them start moving into concrete solutions that are productive,” Kushner said.

James, along with other NBA players and coaches, has been critical of Trump in the past.

James called him a “bum” in 2017 after the Republican president rescinded an invitation for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors to visit the White House. James accused Trump in 2018 of trying to use sports to divide

Americans.

Trump in 2018 questioned James’ intelligence.

Former Vice President J o e B i d e n , Tr u m p ’s Democratic challenger in the Nov. 3 presidential election, and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris - the first Black woman on a majorparty ticket - praised the actions of the NBA players.

“This moment demands moral leadership. And these players answered by standing up, speaking out, and using their platform for good,” Biden wrote on Twitter. Harris added: “It takes monumental courage to stand up for what you believe in. NBA and WNBA players, keep standing up and demanding change.”

Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, sounded dismissive toward the NBA players’ protests. “I don’t know that

you’re going to see the administration weigh in on that one way or the other. In my mind, it’s absurd, it’s silly,” he told CNN. Athletes from around the world have united behind anti-racism protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis in May. Kenosha has been rocked by civil unrest and violence since Sunday, when police shot Jacob Blake, 29, in the back seven times at close range in an incident captured on video. Blake was left paralyzed by the shooting and is being treated for his injuries.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on We d n e s d a y i d e n t i f i e d Rusten Sheskey as the white police officer who shot Blake as he opened his car door on Sunday. Blake’s three young children were in the car at the time.

Djokovic given smooth path at U.S. Open, Stephens looms for Serena Novak Djokovic

New York (Reuters) Top seed Novak Djokovic was handed a comfortablelooking draw on Thursday as he bids for a fourth U.S. Open title but Serena Williams could face danger early on as the American prepares for another attempt to win a 24th major singles crown.

Wo r l d n u m b e r o n e Djokovic will play Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at Flushing Meadows which will be held without fans this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The earliest seed he could meet would be a possible third-round clash with number 28 Jan-Lennard Struff who he beat easily at the Western & Southern Open in New York this week.

Dominic Thiem, seeded two in the absence of reigning champion Rafa Nadal, opens against Spaniard Jaume Munar.

Williams, seeded three, plays compatriot Kristie Ahn in round one but a meeting with 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, seeded 26th, is likely in round three. Williams, bidding to win her home slam for a seventh time, is also chasing a recordequalling 24th Grand Slam title having lost her last four major finals, including the past two years in New York.

Serbian Djokovic, who tested positive for COVID19 after an exhibition event he organised in Croatia this year, is seeking an 18th Grand Slam title which would leave him just one

Serena Williams.

Hannah Peters/ Getty Images

behind Nadal and two short of Roger Federer who is out injured.

The highest seed he could face before the quarter-finals is number 16 John Isner in round four.

Djokovic has a perfect record this year, winning all 21 matches he has played.

Last year’s runner-up Daniil Medvedev is seeded third and plays Argentina’s Federico Delbonis in round one.

Fourth seed Stefanos

Tsitsipas is up against Spain’s Albert. RamosVinolas in round one but another young gun, fifth seed Alexander Zverev, has been handed a tough first hurdle with a match-up against bigserving Kevin Anderson who reached the final in 2017 and the Wimbledon final in 2018.

Former champion Andy Murray, given a wildcard as he continues to climb back from two hip surgeries, will face Japan’s Yoshihito

Nishioka in his first Grand Slam singles match since the 2019 Australian Open.

With six of the women’s top 10 skipping the tournament, the Czech R e p u b l i c ’s K a r o l i n a Pliskova is top seed and she begins her quest for her first Grand Slam title against U k r a i n e ’s A n h e l i n a Kalinina.

Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin is seeded second and faces a tricky start against

B e l g i u m ’s Ya n i n a W i c k m a y e r. S e r e n a ’s unseeded sister Venus, playing in her 22nd U.S. Open at the age of 40, takes on 20th seed Karolina Muchova.

Former champion Naomi Osaka, who led a protest against racial injustice this week, plays fellow Japanese Misaki Doi. Wildcard Kim Clijsters, who made a second comeback from retirement this year, plays 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Keemo Paul top scored for the Guyana Amazon Warriors with 28* Š Randy Brooks - CPL T20 / Getty

Khary Pierre (#18) was named player of the match for his 3 for 18.

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Fabulous fielding inspires five-star TKR

Some members of the St Lucia Zouks celebrating the fall of a Patriots wicket.

Cornwall and Nabi overpower Patriots

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