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AIETEUR Doctors implicated

February 16, 2020

in grandpa's death were part of investigation

NEWS

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- court overturns decision of Medical Council

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Guyana has strong case to renegotiate - Chatham House Exxon’s deal Associate Fellow

Decked in colours of the rainbow and gyrating to pulsating music, children from schools across Guyana came out in their numbers to participate in the 2020 Children's Mashramani Parade in the capital city.

Hilton, another hotel will sit on 20-acre plot at Ogle GPL strikes US$50M-plus deal for 46-Mw power plant

Confidentiality provisions in Guyana's Local Content Policy undermine transparency...

Show Govt. not acting in

country's best interest APNU+AFC manifesto has no room for improving oil deals - Ramson Jnr.

- no new plans for industry

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

Hilton, another hotel will sit on 20-acre plot at Ogle - investors have experience in building Hyatt, Marriott

By Leonard Gildarie

Arrow points to the direction where the plot of land for the AC Marriott hotel is located

T

he National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) has announced that two hotels including, Hilton, will sit on a 20-acre plot at Ogle, East Coast Demerara.

According to the state company yesterday, the project will be developed by Caribbean Marketing Enterprise Inc. which was incorporated on 24th April, 2017, and has, as one of its principals, Mike Elliott, a US investor who has experience in construction of Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Choice and Hyatt-branded hotels. Some details were contained in a sod turning invitation to the media yesterday by NICIL. It was announced on Wednesday that another major hotel, Hilton, is coming to Guyana.

The announcement was made by NICIL's CEO, Colvin Heath-London, on Wednesday during what he described as a momentous occasion for Guyana…the sod-turning for a US$75M, 150-room hotel at Ogle, on what once used to be sugar lands.

NICIL and the investors are promising hundreds of jobs and other spin-offs.

There were questions about the principal of Trinuyana Investments Inc., the developer of the AC Marriott-branded hotel here, but NICIL assured that John Aboud, said to be a Syrian, who is based in Trinidad, comes with significant experience in real estate.

In fact, he and his team manage over two million square feet of real estate including malls and hotels in Trinidad. They are building an AC Marriott Hotel, too, in Trinidad. With respect to this other project, said to include the world-renowned Hiltonbrand, NICIL said that CMEI, registered under the Companies Act of Guyana 1991, (Chapter 89:01), has an office at 199 Thomas Street, Kitty, Georgetown.

NICIL gave some details: “The company is owned by a group of businessmen/investors who possess vast experience and expertise in the fields of financial management, engineering and

US investor, Mike Elliott construction capabilities.

Over the years, they have successfully led their own companies and served on numerous boards as consultants in varied fields internationally.”

The group is linked to the investors who have security space at the Wales Estate for a cold storage project.

In fact, CMEI has secured 20 acres at Ogle, on which two hotels will be built. The invitation did not immediately name one of the hotels as the Hilton.

“The project will include the construction of two branded hotels uniquely positioned in a complex driven by solar power, therein consistent with Guyana's “green economy” vision.

CMEI will construct the hotels in the 120-130 room range with world class

amenities inclusive of a miniature golf course, clubhouse, entertainment centre, swimming pool, solar farm and green space allocation.” It was disclosed that a solar farm will be built on 7.5 acres of the Ogle property with a club house/entertainment centre and mini-golf course to take

up another five.

The two hotels will be on the remaining acres.

The plot is said to be not far from where the AC Marriott site is.

On Wednesday, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, will deliver the keynote address. Guyana is facing an unusual, though not

unexpected problem…it is running out of hotel rooms fast. In fact, the governmentowned Marriott Hotel at Kingston does not have enough rooms.

Its 197 rooms are filled to capacity, a number of them on contracts- a far cry from struggling in 2015 when it (continued on page 10)

Kaieteur News

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Sunday February 16, 2020

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

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

EDITORIAL

Kaieteur News, ex-Senator Black and the oil contract rip-off

Editor’s Note; If your sent letter was not published and you felt its contents were valid and devoid of libel or personal attacks, please contact us by phone or email.

Quintuple Tragedy: Guyana Oil Deals, Rusal, Bauxite Workers, Bauxite Union and Government

Dear Editor, Company of Guyana Inc. The Bauxite workers (BCGI). The workers are have been and are being also being underserved by treated in a crude and crass the Guyana Bauxite and manner by the global General Workers Union aluminum giant Rusal. The ( G B G W U ) a n d t h e Rusal corporation is the 90% Government of Guyana.

We were pleased to publish a letter received from retired owner of the Bauxite Workers have resorted to Virginia State Senator, Richard H. Black, late last week. We thank the ex-senator for his interest in developments in Guyana in general, and in the ExxonMobil oil contract terms and provisions, as those injure and insult Guyana (our position) specifically.

Though we find some aspects of Mr. Black’s letter condescending, we do owe him, the Guyanese public, and the rest of the watching and disturbed world, the courtesy of a little more that goes beyond our brief publisher’s note, which was attached below his letter published on Thursday last.

From the contents and thrusts of Mr. Black’s communication, it seems that he was particularly perturbed by our sharp and unalterable insistence that 10% (and not 2% ever) be the baseline going forward, would be the thing that respectful partners agree to between themselves, and which honourable negotiators find it within themselves to agree to and deliver.

From our perspective, everybody wins and emerges looking noble and principled. Guyana wins some due financial benefits, while ExxonMobil wins more than the regard and applause of Guyanese, it earns that rare commodity to which a price cannot be easily placed: it earns lasting goodwill. It is why we say this to the honourable, Mr. Black, in ringing words and tones: 10% today! 10% tomorrow! And then some more later!

As we persist with this, we do recognize and appreciate that the world of ferocious and cutthroat competitive capitalism, with its unrelenting pressures and drives for increasing corporate profits do not work this way, in this magnanimous manner. But even as we understand and appreciate this, we say to Mr. Black, and before the whole wide world that we, at this paper, and on behalf of all of the poor, struggling citizens of this country, are fighting for our birthright, our fair share from what belongs to us, for what has been entrusted to us, through the bounties from above.

Please understand that, in our eyes and deepest of hearts, this is more than about money only, it is also about the prudent management of a sacred trust, and as Mr. Black should know full well, as the onetime state senator from Virginia that he was, sacred trusts are inviolate. On this we are unequivocal and unambiguous; we are also unmoving in our determination to do way better than 2%, to be in a better place than the one in which this contract has placed us.

Further, we were taken aback by Mr. Black’s written position that “The proposal to demand a flat 10% royalty would be a disaster for Guyana. I am sure that Exxon would be delighted to take back the 50% working interest, with all of its associated costs, and just leave Guyana with a paltry 10% royalty.”

We are perplexed that Mr. Black, after all those decades of having “negotiated many exploration joint ventures” would believe and reposition our position and call for a 10% royalty contingencies, such as environmental spills, legal fees, to EXCLUDE the “50% working interest.” We are not that naïve, and we do believe that Mr. Black is not that naïve and taxes, among other severely agitating elements.

Clearly, something is wrong with all of this, and as we either, to think that we are so obtuse, as to plead, demand, and insist upon what he did term as “a flat 10% royalty” and that maintain the high road of temperateness and civility, we still would be the total (the total in its absolute financial extent and must call this contract for what it really is at the core, notwithstanding the grand benefits that Mr. Black went to reward) of our visions and interests.

We would regret what we are taking as a momentary lapse some pains to point out to us and all Guyana.

This contract is exemplary for its gouging character, in on the part of the good former senator, if this was deliberately that it rips us off and, to use language with which Mr. Black intended to belittle.

Because if it is so, then it amounts only to further insult to should be most familiar: it make us-all Guyanese look like schmucks and dumb country hicks and patsies setup and made increasing injury.

As we asserted in our publisher’s note, our research of pansies of, through one deplorable extravagance and contracts across the oil globe has failed to reveal any other advantage after another in favour of Exxon’s interests.

We here at this paper do not take kindly to any of this, and contract that comes anywhere near in comparison to that of Guyana’s in the scale of its lopsidedness, its completely as we must, quietly register our dismay and disappointment in unfavourable terms and conditions relative to what Guyana the verbiage settled upon by Mr. Black, where he deemed us to gets, and the burdens that it must bear for any future potential have “misunderstood” which is a polite way of saying that we

blocking the Berbice River to prevent the shipping of bauxite ore extracted by Rusal. This action has not only affected the shipping of bauxite, but also the logging industry, which is the second largest economic sector in

Region 10, causing further decline in the business ecosystem.

The abandonment of the Guyanese employees to the vagaries of Rusal by the Government of Guyana on (Continued on page 7)

lack the requisite understanding in this big, sophisticated world in which Exxon reigns like a colossus.

On the contrary, we understand the economics of dry wells and sunk costs, as well as we understand cost recovery, as the same applies anywhere and under any conditions. What we do not understand, and we find utterly objectionable, is this subtle insistence that we understand the contract with its 2% and other hidden overhangs that came to light, and that we accept it. That we cannot and will not do. It must be renegotiated.

We thank former senator Black for his efforts at attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable. Our parting words to him are these: most times, the indefensible cannot be defended. Nor the irrational rationalized. We say that the existing Exxon contract is characterized, in many aspects, with both, that is, the indefensible and the irrational. The struggle continues.

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

Modernising waste management Dear Editor, Georgetown, once the Garden City of the Caribbean, with luscious trees, the greenest foliage and clean, pleasant environment, has unfortunately become described as - ‘The Garbage City.’ Heaps of refuse, clogged and contaminated drains and trenches and overflowing bins can be seen in the city. There is no doubt that we as citizens, are failing to protect our environment.

Steven Chu, former United States Secretary of Energy and Nobel-prize winner, claimed that - ‘the climate is changing and the proper political debate should be how to deal with these risks.’ Apart from political campaigning and preparation for 2020 elections, it should be the government and the City Council’s significant duty to ensure that the capital’s affairs are still being managed, especially with the problem of waste disposal. Aside from our differences in opinion and choices, we as citizens should focus on beautifying and enhancing our environment so that there can be a guarantee of the next generation surviving. What is the reason for our country being labelled as ‘The Garbage City’?

Georgetown disposes waste legally and illegally – dumping and burning. Most of the legal dumping is done by sanitary service companies, which take the garbage to the Haags Bosch Landfill at Eccles. The site covers an area of 50 hectares with a waste fill area of 26

hectares and an estimated lifetime of 25 years. The facility opened in 2011 and receives approximately 110,000 tonnes of waste annually.

Land, water and air pollution are primarily caused by reckless and illegal dumping. The chemicals and non-biodegradable materials in waste, both domestic and industrial contaminate ground water and soil. The value of property diminishes if it is littered by illegal dumping. Lands or places that have been turned into unlawful dumpsites can serve as magnets for criminal activities and homes for the destitute as well as diseases.

The dirt and smell can also make such areas unappealing, which affects tourism, especially if the dumping is done in forests or beside the roads. This illegal dumping penetrates the water chain.

Yearly, large sums of taxpayers’ money are

committed towards cleaning the mess brought about by illegal disposal.

Municipalities spend lots of money fixing natural areas and infrastructure affected by illegal dumping only for this to be repeated almost as a cycle, by irresponsible elements and ‘junkies.’

Although dumping and burning may be the quickest method of waste disposal, it is also very harmful to the environment and poses potentially grave health risks.

Smoke pollutes the air we breathe. Ash pollutes our soil, ground water, lakes, rivers and streams, and residents living in Eccles can experience the raining of thick, messy airborne particles (ash). Burning anything in the outdoors can cause wildfires.

Similarly, setting a flame to materials, such as rubbish, plastic and painted/ treated wood is harmful to the environment because these materials release toxic

chemicals into the air.

Polluted air can be inhaled by humans and animals, and deposited in the soil, valuable cultivated sites, plants and other public assets.

In Trinidad and Tobago, the National Integrated Waste Management Policy (NISWMP) of 2014 manages the country’s waste in accordance with a hierarchy that minimises landfilling, reduction of toxicity and

volume of waste, through reuse, recycling and sourceseparated organic waste management (IDB’s report).

AlsoTrinidad’s Solid Waste Management Company (SWMCOL) has initiated a Recycling Depot, which allows eco-conscious citizens the opportunity to dispose their recyclable items such as water bottles, glass bottles or milk cartons.

The Sustainable

Barbados Recycling Centre (SBRC) is integral to waste management in Barbados.

Approximately 1,000 tonnes of waste are dropped off daily.

However, through recovery of recyclable materials, 70% of this waste is diverted from the landfill. Diverted waste is recycled to be compost, such as coconut husks that are used to create mulches; tree clippings and wood used to (Continued on page 7)

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

GECOM and International Guyana’s Post Oil GDP Growth observers must address attempts Rate and its Implications remains the same in 2021, w e l l b e a s i g n i f i c a n t Dear Editor, of alleged voter suppression While Guyana might Guyana’s 2021 GDP growth increase in imports and Dear Editor I wish to bring to the attention of the Guyanese electorate and GECOM that there appears to be a series of calculated efforts to deny certain Guyanese opportunities to vote on March 2, 2020.

This allegation should be a major cause of concern for GECOM, International Election Observers and voters.

In the history of Guyanese election campaigns, I have never seen this level of fake news, misinformation, sponsored and unsponsored social media pages and online news media platforms, platforms ultimately aimed at suppressing the votes of groups of Guyanese who they perceive as supporters and members of their principal opponent(s). Some of these pages and online news platforms are secretly working as political agents spreading propaganda to discredit their perceived opponents, while others are openly working to do same.

What do they all have in common? Voter suppression!

Voter suppression, put simply, refers to attempts by political parties, agents and various types of institutions to deny persons and certain categories of persons, opportunities to vote. Voter suppression also attempts to reduce the number of voters who might vote against a candidate or proposition.

This happens in many forms, which include attempts by political agents and even employees of public and private agencies to physically intimidate and/or attack voters, reduce opportunities to vote i.e. make it harder for certain people to vote and hacking voter databases and voting systems.

In the lead up to the 2015 elections in the USA, Donald Trump and the Republican Party engaged Republican Governors and Senators to institute legislative amendments, which made it more difficult for African Americans and other minority groups to vote.

Similar efforts were recorded

and reported in several months before the mid-term elections in the USA. One of the companies hired by the Campaign Team of Donald Trump was Mercury Public Affairs, the same company hired by the PPP, to engage in crafting and disseminating fake news and messages via sponsored and unsponsored online media outlets and social media pages. What did all these efforts have in common? Voter suppression!

More specifically, discouraging minority groups from voting for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in particular who represented the greatest threat to Donald Trump. Some of the measures employed to deny and discourage voting included, the relocation of polling stations making it more difficult for voters to reach them, passing voter suppression legislation that made it more difficult for minority groups to meet voter requirements and prove their eligibility and attempts to delegitimise eligible votes cast by claiming the persons who voted should not have because they were ineligible in the first place.

I can bet you that the vast majority of Americans regret voting for Donald Trump, given the global ridicule and domestic problems his residency has caused.

Will we in Guyana end up in the same dangerous situation?

Sincerely Andrew Small

indeed turn out to be the fastest-growing economy in the world in 2020 with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 86% (IMF), one might note that there are other predictions, such as the 30%

by IHS Markit and of course the IDB’s projection that Gross National Income (as against GDP), will grow by 39% in 2020. One might further note that a focus on 2020 only, is particularly shortsighted.

To t h i n k a b o u t e v e n 2021, it would help to recall t h a t a c o u n t r y ’s G D P increases one-for-one with the annual amount spent by consumers, investors and government on all goods and services, and with its exports (the amount spent by foreigners on locally produced goods and services); but it decreases one-for-one with our imports.

It’s also useful to note that the government’s debt service payments are accounted for in the same way as imports in the calculation of GDP. While this might seem to be all straightforward, the relationships between and among the things we add up to get GDP, are what determine what GDP eventually ends up being.

Finally, the growth rate of GDP is simply the year-on-year change in GDP, expressed in percentage terms.

What all this means is that Guyana’s GDP growth rate will be significantly lower than the 2020 growth rate.

To m a k e t h e p o i n t dramatically, to the extent that the value of oil exports

rate could even be zero if all the other elements in the GDP accounting identity, each individually or as an aggregate, remained the same as well. And if oil production remains the same but oil prices were to decrease on average for the year 2021, then the GDP growth rate could even be negative, if again all the other elements of the GDP accounting identity remained the same, each individually or as an aggregate.

What is likely to be the case in 2021? The IMF predicts that GDP growth will average 28% in 2020-2024 but this average includes the 86% projected for 2020.

We ought to consider that exports from Guyana’s nonoil sector may not make up for zero-growth in the oil sector if that were to happen because of oil price stagnation.

Even without the help of the so-called Dutch Disease, but perhaps with the help of policy decisions, the bauxite and sugar sectors have been compromised, with effects that could last into 2021. We cannot expect rice and timber exports to increase rapidly.

While gold e x p o r t s could very well increase, gold, being a commodity itself, is perhaps not the best indicator of the performance of the non-oil sector.

We c a n a l s o e x p e c t investment and consumer expenditures to rise, boosting GDP; but depending on our ‘import coefficient’, there could

this would mitigate the effect of the expenditure increases on GDP and its growth.

F u r t h e r, t h e increased investment will largely come from FDI, and will therefore, imply a further deterioration of the current account of the balance of payments. Any Minister of Finance will, therefore, want to look to the item he or she has control o v e r, i.e., government expenditures, to ensure that the decline in the growth rate of GDP from its 2020 level will not be politically and e c o n o m i c a l l y unacceptable.

That Minister of Finance will not only have oil revenues that are available from the Natural Resource Fund, but also will have a rather enhanced ability to borrow (from abroad), should the need arise.

The general point is that we must not be swept away by the talk about the Guyana economy being potentially the fastest growing one in 2020.

Moreover, we really ought to think, and think seriously, that whatever our GDP and GDP growth might be, we can be sure that our natural capital is being used up, on many fronts, to give us that GDP and GDP growth.

Thomas B. Singh Director University of Guyana GREEN Institute & Senior Lecturer Department of Economics University of Guyana

Do not sell your birthright for money!

Guyanese please, do not give up your birthright for a few dollars.

In the book of Genesis 25:30-34, Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of food.

Some years later, his descendants lost their right to live.

It happened when David was in Edom, and Joab, the commander of the army had gone up to bury the slain, after

he had killed every male in Edom. (Kings 11:15) Believe it or not the children and grandchildren are affected by the actions of the fathers. If those that are fathers uphold fraud and racism, their descendants will become pawns of the same spirits.

The spiritual leaders of the nation are not speaking much on it, but the youths of

Guyana born during the last 23 years, will be troubled by the strong desire to steal from others . This is because this practice was encouraged by those who held the highest offices in the Nation.

It will take many years and much hard work for the practice of receiving bribes by police men, and public officials to be stamped out.

That spirit of dishonesty has cemented itself in the culture of the people. When we vote into office those who are recognised dishonest individuals, we will be doing damage to the nation that it may never recover from.

My deceased porkknocker grandfather, Randolph Wade, used to say, “You can’t invite snakes into your camp and not expect to be bitten by one.”

Apostle Adrian Wade

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

What does it mean to give up US$55 Billion?

Dear Editor, Global Witness has revealed that Guyana stands to lose at least US$55 billion from the current 7.9 billion barrels in the Stabroek Block.

The major political parties have not indicated that they will renegotiate the atrocious Stabroek oil contract. But the Guyanese people have other choices. Leaders of both the Change Guyana Party and Liberty & Justice Party have stated their parties will seek to renegotiate the oil contracts.

Global Witness has made public all the details of how the US$55 billion number was computed. The government has tried to control the

narrative by touting a report from Rystad.

Rystad estimates that Guyana’s take from the oil project is 60%. But how can Guyana get 60% share of revenue when profit sharing is split evenly? This shows the government lacks understanding of basic math and the ability to employ reasoning.

What does it mean to give up US$55 billion? It is about US$70,000 for each of the 780,000 people living in Guyana. For a family of four: that is a loss of US$280,000.

Given the average Guyanese earns US$4,000 a year, it would take such a family with a sole breadwinner about 70 years to make that money. If a

labourer starts working in his teenage years, that would mean he would need to work into his eighties cutting cane and milking cows full-time.

How do you tell that labourer that it is NOT worth fighting for US$55 billion?

What about the more than 30% of poor Guyanese that live on US$2 a day. The average life expectancy of a Guyanese is 66 years. A poor Guyanese would need US$48,000 to survive during his/her life span. Splitting US$55 billion among the poor (30% of the population) would mean US$235,000 for each person. That is almost 5 times what they live on today.

Imagine if a financial

analyst says to an electorate: “Hi Voter, would you like to increase your lifetime’s net worth by 5-times? Voter says, “Sure, what do I do?” And the analyst says: “All you need to do is vote for renegotiation.”

Sounds too simple to be true but it is true.

Guyana needs leaders who understand the meaning of sovereignty, the value of their oil resource – and the importance of hiring a team of knowledgeable personnel to negotiate with the oil giants like ExxonMobil. Not leaders who are worried about controlling the narrative of the great oil debate being played out daily in the independent press. Here are

few points to consider with regard to the Stabroek Oil Contract: - What good deal? The 2% royalty and 12.5% profit share works out to much less than 14.5% of barrels recovered after accounting for expenses such as shipping and marketing. Not to mention, the contract says ‘produced and sold’ NOT produced for the profit sharing. This is a bad deal.

Cost Recovery (up 75% of revenues). There is no ring-fencing thus the oil companies can keep the expenses at 75% as long as they desire. Thus, any projections that the expenses will fall and government’s

share will rise is questionable.

Govt. of Guyana produces a tax receipt when no tax is paid. The government issues tax receipts to the oil companies but they have paid none. The oil companies will use this tax receipt to receive a deduction in their home country. This rings of fraud.

Stabilisation clause.

The Government can never update the terms of the contract to correct any of the issues mentioned above.

This is a humiliation of the Guyanese people.

Darshanand Khusial, M.Eng Mike Persaud, MBA Charles Sugrim, CPA

Quintuple Tragedy: Guyana Oil Deals, Rusal, Bauxite Workers, Bauxite...

From page 4 the cusp of the March 2020 General and National Elections would not have occurred if Guyana had obtained a fair deal with the Exxon-led Consortium. A fair deal with Exxon would have allowed the government to provide employment opportunities connected to the umpteen promises and policies to Region 10, especially in infrastructural development, and the many other job creating promises that have not been implemented.

With all the impressive plans and policies APNUAFC has had for Region 10 in their 2015 manifesto and their even more inspiring promises, old and new, now shown in full gloss in their February 2020 Manifesto, amidst the plethora of flags and multiple jingles; a reasonable person would think that job opportu-

nities are aplenty for residents of Region 10, but this is clearly not the case.

RUSAL employees in Guyana are treated like expendables, laid off today for an unknown and indeterminable period, some terminated, salaried workers no longer, families devastated and community business activities declining, with adverse economic and social consequences.

Consider that 85% of voters in Region 10 supported the ruling Coalition in the 2015 General and Regional Elections, THE Coalition PNC is unable to deal condignly with RUSAL, a company that treats its local bauxite workers, their union, the Guyana Revenue Authority and Government officials with utter disrespect and disdain.

It is a sad point in our history, when the bauxite work-

ers from Region 10 and Guyanese as a whole, should be enjoying the bountiful benefits that ought to have accrued to us from the eight billion barrels of oil discovered in our off-shore waters and the billions of United States dollars in signing bonuses that have seeming been waived for the Stabroek, Canje, Orinduik, and Kaieteur Oil blocks, among others, instead of benefiting from the global oil discovery of this century, our bauxite workers have to resort to blocking the Berbice River in order to be given an opportunity to work and put food on the table.

Global Witness has already shown that using a very conservative projection US$55 Billion was forfeited by our Government representatives over a 40-year period or averaging US$1.375 Billion per year, an amount almost

Modernising waste...

From page 5 make wood chips; soils to use as top-soils in gardens; and rocks to be used in land reclamation projects.

Waste to Energy (WTE) is a process of creating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the incineration of a waste source. The waste is combusted, turbined to produce electricity and then air pollution control equipment cleans emissions and toxins into water vapour and cleaned fuel gases. The above mentioned is the policy in Martinique and St. Barthelemy.

The IDB also confirms that some other Caribbean countries such as Barbados and Bahamas are currently looking into it.

Guyana is experiencing increases in waste disposals over the years. Haags Bosch was initially designed for an inflow of 250 tonnes a day; however, it is currently

accepting an average of 400 tonnes per day. With the oil and gas industry on stream, it is expected that this issue will be resolved. Such advancements – WTE and recycling, can produce less waste accumulation and alternatives to illegal and harmful waste disposals. These innovations can be very advantageous to our country.

As residents, we should practice the three R’s: recycle, reduce, reuse. We should spread the word and educate our communities about the importance of conserving our planet.

Recycling is one of the best ways of having a positive impact on the world in which we live. It saves the earth, energy and mitigates global warming and pollution.

It starts in the home; reuse household materials such as water bottles, boxes, tires, scrap irons, fruit and vegetable peelings, instead of

dumping them. For example, tires can be used as flowerpots or an item for storage, or even a swing.

Fruits and vegetable peelings can be used to add nutrients to soil. Instead of filling dumpsites with plastic, reuse them.

Comparatively, there has been an uneven improvement in our exercise of disposal in the urban communities, but there is a far way to go. It is important to note that, it is not only the duty of the government and municipalities, as Guyanese citizens, it is our responsibility to stand together, erase social differences, in order to protect, enhance and develop our environment before it’s too late. We can all join hands to reduce the amount of waste going into our landfill.

Hadiyyah Mohamed (Sixth Form Student – School of the Nations)

equivalent to our 2019 National Budget of GY$300 billion.

Leadership of GBGWU has claimed that the Junior Minister of Social Protection is incompetent, an easy target. The Junior Minister of The Ministry of Social Protection is a member of the PNCled coalition of parties and leader of the National Front Alliance, which is not known for having numerous supporters.

The criticism from the Union is couched in a man-

ner so as not to express disquiet with the Senior Minister of Social Protection and the leadership of the PNC-led coalition.

In Guyana’s racialised partisan politics, our unions are forced into the divisive structure of the major parties; the union’s priorities are mostly compromised, as it is not the workers’ interest that takes precedence, but instead the determining point of the Unions’ representation and conduct is the political party that the workers support, not

the workers.

Thus, we have unions that are acquiescent and toothless, like an animal that growls with much sound and fury while little demands are made to their political overlords that will effectively represent and benefit the workers.

Blaming the Junior Minister of Social Protection is like blaming the Prime Minister; none of these individuals sits at the decision-making table of the PNC-led coalition.

Nigel Hinds

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

Guyana has strong case to renegotiation Exxon’s deal – Chatham House Associate Fellow

Chatham House Associate Fellow, Dr. Valerie Marcel

By Kiana Wilburg When the Government of Guyana engaged in negotiations with ExxonMobil in 2016 for the Stabroek Block licence, it had a lot of power in its grasp but perhaps, did not realise it. Since then, Chatham House Associate Fellow, Dr. Valerie Marcel, says Guyana’s power has grown significantly.

In fact, the industry expert says with this kind of power, it gives Guyana a strong case for renegotiation. The Petroleum Governance academic made the foregoing remarks, among others, during a recent interview on Kaieteur Radio’s programme, “Guyana’s Oil and You.” There, she was asked to say if Guyana has a good case for amending the terms of the deal given the impressive discoveries to date.

Dr. Marcel said, “I think there is a strong case for renegotiation because it’s important that the deal is fair and that it’s favourable enough to both parties to endure for a very long time because, you know, the oil project lasts for 25 years. So if it’s too unfair it becomes well, you know, like a political football and it becomes very difficult for the deal to survive.”

Even as she agreed that Guyana does have grounds for renegotiating the deal, Dr. Marcel was quite careful to note that she would not recommend “unilateral renegotiation.” In this regard, the Industry Expert explained, “When we say renegotiation, it’s basically coming back to the table. So every time an oil company comes to the government to say ‘Well you know, you we need an extension for this and this reason’ or ‘We haven’t gotten the permits, we need some more time, we need to alter terms to compensate for this,’ ...that is not called renegotiation but it is renegotiation.”

Dr. Marcel added, “And that’s the opportunity for the government to say ‘Well while you’re here, get comfortable (and) let’s talk about what kind of modifications we would like to see to the contract so that it is mutually beneficial.’ And I think these are long term relationships, you don’t want them to be adversarial...”

At the end of the day, the Chatham House Associate Fellow said there is still scope for being assertive about what sort of minimum requirements the leaders of the day want to see in the agreement.

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

GPL strikes US$50M-plus deal for 46-Mw power plant With aging generators and a growing demand, the stateowned Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) has reportedly picked Wartsila to build a massive power plant at Garden-of-Eden (GoE), East Bank Demerara.

According to officials close to the deal, an agreement was clinched about a week or two ago for a 46-megawatts, dual-fire power plant at the GoE location.

GPL has not formally announced the deal.

It will cost in excess of US$50M, Kaieteur News has been told.

The engines will be capable of using natural gas, from Guyana’s offshore oil wells- as well as heavy fuel oil (HFO).

Currently, at that location, there is an installed capacity of over 22 megawatts (Mw) with the engines more than two decades old. There is enough space for additional plants.

There are also additional transmission lines to take additional power to the substations.

GPL would be hoping to not only improve its reserves, but dependability.

It barely has enough reserves from spare engines at the moment and is skating on thin ice.

There have been cases in

The current PPDI-managed power plant at Garden-of-Eden, E.B.D. the past where a number of engines were down at once, forcing GPL to cut power in scheduled outages.

Wartsila is the Finnish company which managed generators for GPL for about two decades before Government decided to handle it themselves.

The staffers from Wartsila were rehired with the new state company, Power

Producers and Distributors Inc. (PPDI) currently managing four power plants – at GoE (22 MW), Kingston Number One (22mw), Kingston Number Two (36.3 MW) and Vreed-en-Hoop (26.4mw).

PPDI, according to its 2018 report, is responsible for a total electrical output of 106.7 megawatts of installed power generation

Dem boys seh...

People start ‘bad eye’ Guyana De whole world talking about Guyana and its oil. Dem talking so much it look like if dem want to ‘bad eye’ de country. De few cents dat de country gon get deh pon everybody mind. Is like if dem want Guyana to remain poor all its days.

And while de world talking, dem politicians fighting to get dem hand pon it.

And is not because dem want help de people.

Nuff of dem want full dem pocket. And is not like dem didn’t full dem pocket before. Dis time, dem want money to mek up dem bed.

Things got dem so bad dat some of dem talking stupidness. Dem boys hear a big man talk how Irfaat was de Minister of Health and he deliver nuff house lots.

If Irfaat was de Minister of Health, de coronavirus woulda come to Guyana a long time.

Then Soulja Bai got some people who talking bout giving de people money. Dem call it cash transfer. People don’t want to wuk already. Some of dem enjoying de barrel dat does come from farrin. When dem know dem can sit down and get money is wuss yet.

Every day people opening de newspapers and dem seeing advertisement fuh all kind of skills. Masons can’t even get labourers. Dat is why dem politicians mekking joke when dem seh dem gon create 50,000 jobs.

Dem boys want to know who gon tek de jobs. Guyana don’t even have 50,000 donkeys.

And things looking nice. Some place was dark like midnight when de moon ain’t shining bright. Streetlights gone up all over de place.

De East Bank highway look like it so bright dat if a man drop a coin, he don’t have to search.

Businesses going up too. Dem boys see a man coming to build a big hotel, like if Guyana don’t have enough. He got to be catering fuh farriners, because more airlines coming. Guyana don’t have enough people to use all dem plane, so it got to be farriners coming by de droves. Dat is why dem boys worried people start to bad eye de country.

Talk half and watch how things can change so fast.

Since learning that it has a significant quantity of gas in offshore field being developed by ExxonMobil and its partners, the Coalition Government has been moving to build a power plant.

It advertised for expressions of interest (EoI)

with indications that 27 of these came back in 2018.

There were at least five Chinese companies among the 27 expressions.

GPL had invited expressions for firms to build, own and operate 50 MWs capacity natural gas power

plant. There are interests from Colombia and Venezuela.

Companies in Qatar, Dubai, Trinidad and Tobago, United States and the United Kingdom, also made EoI submissions.

The scope of work for the project comprised all activities necessary to develop, finance, insure, install new plant and equipment, test, commission, own, operate and maintain the power generation facility.

The project also entails the construction of associated substations, fuel storage facility and other related facilities for complete operation, generation and transmission of electricity to the national grid.

Guyana had toyed with building a 165-Mw hydro project at Amaila Falls, Region 8, but this was shelved after the Coalition, in Opposition then, shot it down.

Kaieteur News was told that Wartsila has been engaging local contractors and will be handling the civil works themselves.

In the past, GPL had managed the Vreed-en-Hoop power plant construction, but it had been delayed by months. So too, was the Anna Regina power station.

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Kaieteur News

Woman, who doused husband with hot oil, released on station bail after turning self in After dousing her husband with hot oil and being on the run for weeks, Sandy Thomas on Thursday turned herself over to authorities at the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam (NA) in the company of her Attorney Mursaline Bacchus.

However, this publication was reliably informed that the woman was never taken into custody but was rather placed on $50,000 station bail based on instructions given the same day by the Officerin-Charge of Crime in Regions 5 and 6, Mr. Emerson Baird.

This was revealed to Kaieteur News by a senior police officer in the Division.

“She never made it to the lockups because the Crime Chief (Baird) sent her on bail and a man nearly lost his life”, the officer said frankly.

Sandy Thomas When this publication tried contacting Baird via the WhatsApp messaging service, he replied and said, “I am in a meeting”.

Devon Thomas, 38, of Garrison Road, NA, Berbice,

who is a lecturer at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute, was admitted with serious burns about his body at the New Amsterdam Hospital after his wife splashed hot oil on him.

The incident reportedly stemmed from a series of arguments after the victim found out that his wife was having an extra-marital affair with his best friend. Faced with the damning details of his wife’s infidelity, Devon Thomas decided that he no longer wanted her and asked her to move out. He also opted to file for divorce but this angered her and she retaliated by physically harming him.

When this publication made contact with the man, he explained that he was recovering slowly but “thank God” for still being alive throughout the harrowing ordeal.

Sunday February 16, 2020

Guyana to conduct its own surveys of oil blocks The Department of Energy is almost done with the procurement process for a consultant to help it study Guyana’s oil blocks.

This was revealed by Energy Director, Dr. Mark Bynoe, during a press conference held last Monday by the Department of Energy.

He told reporters that the 2D and 3D seismic surveys to be executed are necessary before the country heads to its next licensing round for oil blocks.

“Otherwise, we’re licensing blindly.”

Seismic surveys entail generating sound waves that are transmitted into the earth and recording the energy that is returned from changes in rock

layers. The difference between the two types is that 3D imaging provides information continuously through the subsurface within the bounds of the survey, whereas 2D seismic reveals only strips of information.

Oil companies conduct their own seismic surveys, but Government would be able to build its own data once the procurement of a consultant is successful.

Dr. Bynoe explained that the surveys would allow the Department to ascertain the prospectivity of the blocks and the shapes they should have.

Having valuable data on the blocks will allow the Department of Energy to put the blocks on auction at higher stakes.

Guyana’s neighbour, Suriname, has up to recently announced that it intends to farm down parts of blocks after it took the time to study a large nearshore acreage.

Also in consideration for Guyana, before the licensing round, is the possibility that different fiscal terms may be

Energy Director, Dr. Mark Bynoe offered depending on the allocation zone of the block.

Government has differentiated three allocation zones: onshore, shallow continental shelf (nearshore), and deep or ultra deep.

“Those are not decisions the Department of Energy can make in isolation,” Dr. Bynoe said.

The Department of Energy will take advice from other governmental institutions, like the Finance Ministry and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Hilton, another hotel...

From page 3 was first commissioned and there was no oil.

Other local hotels have reported brisk business too, all thanks to the oil production that has started.

Currently, ExxonMobil, which together with its partners have developed the first oil field in Guyana, is building a headquarters right at Ogle.

That area, with a regional airport close by, is becoming hot property now with other development planned for the area.

Opposition members have said that they are paying close attention to any deals struck now as elections are two weeks away and in any case, the lands are sugar lands.

In fact, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, had questioned whether the investors have gotten the greenlight from Marriott International for their name to be used.

Aboud assured Wednesday that he has a letter of intent.

The Ogle area is in high demand because of a planned project to land a highway that will connect the East Bank of Demerara to the East Coast there.

Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

APNU+AFC manifesto has no room for improving oil deals - no new plans for industry

From left: APNU+AFC Party Leader, David Granger; AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan and AFC Chairman, Raphael Trotman A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC’)s manifesto has proffered no intention to renegotiate the oil contracts granted to companies for blocks offshore Guyana, despite the fact that every single one of the 19 discoveries made has strengthened the country’s negotiating position and cemented the status of the Guyana-Suriname basin as a world class exploration hotspot.

Released on Friday last, the manifesto only refers to contracts in a line about the new production sharing agreement (PSA) model, which is being developed against years of criticism, especially leveled against the notoriously lopsided Stabroek Block PSA. The party document states that the new model will be institutionalised. This is known.

Energy Director, Dr. Mark Bynoe had already said that the Department he leads will

not go to a licensing round for new blocks with the old PSA template. However, the governing coalition has never signaled an intention to bring current contracts into conformity with the new template.

The coalition’s substantive opponent, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has indicated however, that it would renegotiate all oil contracts except the Stabroek PSA, if it wins the March general election.

Just about all the smaller parties contesting the general election have also indicated their intention to seek renegotiation for oil contracts.

Set to be Guyana’s most lucrative industry for years to come, the oil and gas sector has been at the centre of public discourse since ExxonMobil made the first discovery in the Liza field in the Stabroek Block in 2015.

Sure enough, the fiscal terms of the contracts handed to companies that wish to explore and develop

Guyana’s coveted blocks have been discussed copiously. Because the contract model they are based on is outdated, the contracts do not reflect modern developments in the industry, nor do they consider Guyana’s increasing value as an exploration hotspot. For instance, the contracts generally carry a royalty of one percent.

The Orinduik Block PSA, operated by Tullow, has been identified by some as the worst contract of them all, even though it carries a meager one percent royalty, Guyana will have to pay that royalty back to the oil companies with its share of production.

The Stabroek Block PSA, operated by ExxonMobil, carries a two percent royalty, and even that has been heavily criticised as lopsided and unfair. The criticisms are leveled not just against the royalty, but against a vast series of provisions well documented by this

newspaper over the years.

Kaieteur News has taken an official stance against the categorically unfair fiscal terms of the Stabroek Block PSA, and has called for a 10 percent royalty as a starting point towards a fair share for Guyana.

NO NEW PLANS The manifesto proffers no new plans for the oil industry.

The brief list of intentions for oil and gas, and the wider extractive industries, has already been effectively implemented. The party is yet to set out its detailed plan to get as much value from the sector – let alone – to manage the revenues which will flow

in.

The manifesto states, in terms of fiscal governance, that the coalition would implement the Natural Resources Fund Act fully, implement the recommendations of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) made in its 2017 report, implement measures within the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to monitor the sector, and amend the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act. For local content, the manifesto states that the policy will be enshrined in legislation, with emphasis

placed on local workforce development, supplier development and knowledge and technology transfer.

For environmental protection, the manifesto reannounces work on the developing oil spill contingency plan and the development of Guyana’s oil spill response capacity.

All of these propositions are already in play, and are the minimum requirements for the management of the sector.

The party promises reliable and affordable electricity from associated gas from the Liza-1 project, and a gas terminal, which would seek to create opportunities for employment. A similar promise has been made by the opposition.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

Doctors implicated in grandpa’s death were part of investigation There is a new twist in the story involving the death of an Enterprise man back in February 2014, at a private city hospital.

The Medical Council of Guyana, chaired by Dr. Shoba Gobin in 2015, took a decision

to sanction Dr. Surendra Persaud, a surgeon that once worked right at her Woodlands Hospital for his alleged role in the death of Edward Subryan, 74.

The problem is, she was one of the doctors who

looked at the patient before he died.

Dr. Persaud successfully challenged the decision of the Medical Council on the grounds that Dr. Gobin had participated in the treatment of Subryan at Woodlands

- court overturns decision of Medical Council Hospital while he was a patient there.

In June 2015, almost a year and half after the death of Subryan, Justice Ian Chang agreed that there was a clear conflict of interest in Dr. Gobin sitting on the Council as Chair and overseeing a matter that occurred at her hospital.

Both Dr. Gobin and Dr. Sheik Amir were named by Dr. Persaud in his court action to overturn the sanctions by the Medical Council.

Dr. Amir was another doctor who Dr. Persaud said was part of a medical team that treated the patient.

Dr. Gobin is said to be the Resident Anesthetist at the Woodlands Hospital.

As a result, the Medical Council’s decision to sanction Dr. Persaud was set aside by the court.

The case involving Subryan has brought the spotlight sharply down on the operations of private hospitals in Guyana.

Subryan’s case has raised startling questions about the independency of the Medical Council and whether doctors were recusing themselves in cases where there would be a conflict of interest, like in this case.

The Medical Council has sweeping powers and can halt the practise of doctors by taking away licences.

The man’s family said that they have been running back and forth to the Council since 2014 to get justice.

They were being told that the Council was handling the matter. It was only last week that the Council formally expressed condolences to the family of Subryan— more than five years later.

The Medical Council, in a statement, did not explain why it did not manage to resolve the matter between June 2015 and now.

It was only in December that another hearing started, the Council announced.

Family members said they were never informed and believed deeply that the matter is being covered up.

The grandfather died on February 1, 2014 at the Woodlands Hospital with the family filing a complaint with Council shortly after about the quality of service offered by the doctors and the hospital.

Dead: Edward Subryan

Former Chair of the Medical Council: Dr. Shoba Gobin

Dr. Surendra Persaud

Chairman of the Medical Council of Guyana, Dr. Navindranauth Rambaran

The then Chair of the Council, Dr. Vivienne Mitchell, in a scathing report blasted the hospital and two doctors, Dr. Persaud and Dr. Kumar, and ordered that they settle out-of-court with the family.

The Council recommended that the two doctors also face appropriate disciplinary action and said that they did not even meet the standards of being doctors.

According to the Council last week, which is chaired by Dr. Navindranauth Rambaran, the effect of the High Court’s ruling is that the decision on June 1, 2015 has been nullified as well as all prior opinions related to and/or which informed that decision.

“As a consequence, Mr. Subryan’s case has been remitted to the Disciplinary Committee for hearing de novo (a new hearing).”

The Council said that the re-hearing of Subryan’s case commenced on December 11, 2019, just over two months ago.

The Council said it will not be speaking on the matter.

According to the initial report of Dr. Mitchell, after perusing available records, in January 2014, Subryan, from Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, was rushed to the private hospital after feeling unwell. There was no internal bleeding and nothing serious.

Doctors ordered a

colonoscopy. During the examination, which involved sending a camera via the rectum, the man’s colon was perforated.

The investigation by Dr. Mitchell blazed the doctors for not providing proper postcolonoscopy care. The repair of Subryan’s colon appeared not to have been done properly and he developed sepsis.

The family claimed they asked questions and were given different answers at different times.

He died subsequently.

According to the post mortem report, Subryan’s chest cavity was filled with pus, a clear sign of sepsis.

Dr. Mitchell determined that the two doctors did not do proper post-colonoscopy checks and there were other records that should have been checked in keeping with standard medical procedures.

Several families are now coming forward, claiming malpractice at a number of private hospitals.

Not only are patients allegedly being sent for tests, which they may not require, but there are claims of unnecessary operations.

There are even accusations that two private hospitals are forcing mothers to undergo caesarian operations (c-sections) in a money-making racket. One csection can cost $300,000 on average.

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

Police still investigating ‘Scarface’, accomplice wanted for East Coast supermarket robbery Jude Bentley’s accident It has been exactly two weeks since Former Army Chief of Staff and Ret’d Rear Admiral Gary Best was involved in an accident that claimed the life of cyclist Jude Bentley. However, police are still putting together pieces of the puzzle that may lead to charges being instituted against Mr. Best.

Best was behind the wheel of the black Toyota Land Cruiser that struck and killed Bentley, who was at the time riding a bicycle on the Rupert Craig Highway during the early hours of Saturday February 8 last. The accident occurred in the vicinity of the Russian Embassy turn.

A breathalyzer test revealed that the former Chief of Staff was above the legal limit for alcohol.

Best was taken into police custody the evening of the accident but was later rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he was admitted to the cardiac ward for ‘suspected complications’.

Commander of Region 4 ‘A’ Division, Assistant Commissioner, Edgar Thomas, disclosed to the media that a file will be prepared and sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions seeking advice on the way forward while Best was hospitalised.

But yesterday, when contacted again, Commander Thomas explained that the file is still not done as police are still ‘investigating’ the accident. Best has since been released on $100,000 station bail.

Family members of the dead cyclist are outraged at the slow pace in which the investigations are moving.

Bentley’s wife, Fonah McWatt, told Kaieteur News that the family is still waiting to see the police institute charges.

“I wanna know why this man wasn’t passed through the court after causing death by dangerous driving...if it was anybody else, that person would already be charged for the offense so what is the hold up. The family is in turmoil and feels frustrated with the course of justice at this time,” she said.

According to the grieving woman, Bentley’s Biker Team, ‘592 Bikers’ has started a

- File not yet sent to DPP’s office

Dead: Jude Bentley

A hunt has been launched for a man known as ‘Scarface’ and an accomplice in connection with an armed robbery on a Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara (ECD) supermarket Thursday last.

The robbery occurred at around 18:30 hours while shoppers were still inside of the business place.

According to a police report, ‘Scarface’ and his accomplice, calmly walked into Monica’s Supermarket located at Lot

290 Block ‘12 Non Pareil, ECD. One man had a gun.

From CCTV footage seen

by Kaieteur News, the men parked their motorcycle outside of the store and entered wearing racing helmets.

In the footage, a shopper could be seen with her young son when the men walked in and one of the suspects immediately pulled out a gun.

While the gunman stood guard, his accomplice headed

straight to the cashier’s table.

The men removed an undisclosed number of GTT and Digicel Phone cards, along with Landline cards and the money earned that day.

Both suspects then exited and escaped on a black and red XR motorcycle, which had no number plate.

Police sources said that the individual known as ‘Scarface’ is a suspect in several robberies.

Gary Best

Screenshots from the CCTV footage showing the two suspects entering the supermarket and one of them raiding the cash register.

Parts of the mangled cycle at the scene of the accident. movement calling on ‘Justice for Jude’.

From police reports, Best explained that he was proceeding east along the southern lane of Clive Lloyd Drive when the cyclist suddenly appeared in front of him. He reportedly told police that he applied brakes and the front right side of his vehicle struck Bentley, who fell onto the roadway and sustained injuries.

Best had claimed that Bentley had no reflectors or protective gear on his bike at the time, citing this as the reason why he did not see him on the road.

However, family members disputed these claims after the broken reflector parts were found scattered along

the accident scene.

Further, dash cam footage seen by Kaieteur News showed the now dead cyclist on the public road outfitted with his reflectors and other protective gear a few minutes before the accident.

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

Nandlall claims millions wasted on staff, building for “white elephant” Law Reform Commission Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall has continued to bemoan the nonfunctioning Law Reform

Commission (LRC) of which he claims millions of dollars has been spent since 2016 to pay staff and rent a building.

Labeling it a “white elephant”, Nandlall said yesterday that in January 2016, the National Assembly

enacted the Law Reform Act piloted by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams.

According to Nandlall, although in every budget, millions of dollars has been allocated to fund the Commission, as of January 2020, it has not “done a single work”, or does not have a Commissioner. He disclosed that in the Committee of Supply during the National Budget Debate in 2018, Williams disclosed that the Commission is staffed with 10 persons; namely a Legal Officer, who earns a monthly salary of $700,000, three Typists who each earn $130,000, two Legal Clerks who are being paid $150,000, a driver who is paid $120,000 and a cleaner $75,000.

Nandlall said that assuming that these staff were hired from June 2016 to December 2019, the total salaries paid to them would have been $76,755,000. Apart from this, Nandlall claims that the Law Reform Commission is located at Lot 59 Robb Street, Bourda, Georgetown, in a building that is being rented at $850,000 monthly; making its total rent for the period $36,550,000.

“So, [Attorney General]

Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall

Attorney General Basil Williams

Basil Williams [spent] $113,305,000 [in salaries and rent] on this single initiative, which has not produced a single piece of law reform in five (5) years. The wastage continues…,” Nandlall emphasized.

The LRC is a statutory body mandated by the Law Reform Act of 2016.

According to the law, the LRC shall consist of three to seven members including a Chairperson, who is appointed by the President, following consultation with the Minister of Legal Affairs.

The appointment of the

members is vital to the function of the Commission, which is mandated to review, simplify, modify and systematically develop the law.

As part of the tenancy agreement, the government has to pay its own electricity while the landlord pays the water. Additionally, the agreement stipulates a security deposit of $1.7M, which will be refunded upon termination of the tenancy contract. Government also agreed to pay the first two months of the tenancy before occupying the building.

Nandlall says that the two upper flats of this building are being rented at $850,000 monthly to house the Law Reform Commission.

Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

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Money in whose pockets?

W

hen it comes to the oil agreement which Guyana signed, the more that is said, the least is known. The more answers that are provided, the more questions arise.

There are quite a few persons who have been belabouring, and quite rightly so, the approval which was granted for Guyana to issue a petroleum production licence and the renewal of a prospecting licence to Exxon and her partners. My main concern is not so much the issuance of the licences, as to the terms on which they were granted.

It now seems safe to assume that Cabinet received a memorandum which addressed the urgency of issuing the licences. What is not clear is whether Cabinet actually approved of the terms of the signing of the contract with Exxon.

Once again, I have to refer to something which a former adviser to the President wrote. He said that when he told the President that the oil contract had been signed, he (the President) seemed surprised. So, even if we assume that Cabinet gave its consent to the renewal of the petroleum prospecting licence and the issuance of a petroleum licence, the issue remains as to whether the President and Cabinet consented to the 2% royalties, 50% share of profit oil, the 75% cap on cost recovery, the lack of ringfencing, the government

paying the oil companies' taxes and the generous tax concessions offered.

And so I am asking again: Did the contract go before the President and Cabinet? This has implications for the contract's legality.

It is now being reported that Exxon actually assisted in drafting the Cabinet memorandum for the renewal of the prospecting licence and the issuance of the production licence. What a thing?

I have said it before: we have a lot of pretenders in government. Some of them are being paid fat salaries, but they lack the ability to do certain things which are expected of persons in their position. Now tell me, why is it that Guyana has to face the ignominy of having a foreign firm draft a Cabinet memorandum, when we are paying persons super salaries to do the same level of work?

I have seen persons in public fawning over government officials. They look up to these persons as if they are Gods. Yet, many of these officials are clueless about their work. Many of them are being put to do work beyond their competence. What the public needs to do is not become stupefied by those who hold power, but to hold them accountable. And if they cannot do the job which they are put there to do, they should be asked to leave.

Guyana has to have

strong institutions and controls in place if it going to prevent the squandering and stealing of its oil wealth. To ensure this, it has to have the best and brightest persons occupying positions in the management and regulation of the oil and gas sector, and the management of the economy. There is also a need for greater transparency to replace the culture of secrecy which exists in government.

This past week, a French Court imposed a fine of US$33M and instated a three-year jail sentence on the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea for embezzling public funds.

Switzerland prosecutors had dropped charges of financial wrongdoing against the same individual, but had decided to auction some of his luxury vehicles. Last year, Brazil had seized some luxury watches from a delegation from Equatorial Guinea who were passing through that country.

As was reported in yesterday's edition of the Kaieteur News, the

International Monetary Fund is calling for greater transparency in that country as the basis for further assistance. The IMF has laid down conditionalities for assisting that country, which registered a 5.9% decline in growth last year. The IMF has called for the adoption of an anti-corruption law covering conflicts of interest and which requires senior public officials to declare their assets.

Despite producing more than 3 times the amount of

oil which Guyana will soon be producing, Equatorial Guinea, which has a small population, still has high levels of poverty - less than half the population having access to clean drinking water.

Guyana has to be wary that it does not go down this route. Already, Global Witness is claiming that the oil agreement has robbed you and me of G$15M each.

Transparency rather than secrecy is needed to ensure that people benefit from oil

revenues. No amount of three-card tricks about cash transfers are going to guarantee that the oil monies end up in the people's rather than the politicians' pockets.

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

Kaieteur News

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Hypocrisy unmasked at the OAS I

By Sir Ronald Sanders

f candidates were to get a prize for making the best case for why they are best suited to be Secretary-General of the OAS, María Fernanda Espinosa would have easily walked away with it when the three contenders for the post appeared before the Permanent Council of the Organization on February 12.

Showing all the competence, knowledge and experience that come from holding high ministerial

offices and the Presidency of the UN General Assembly, Ms. Espinosa handled, with remarkable grace and aptitude, difficult interrogations from the representatives of the U.S. and governments supporting the re-election of the incumbent, Luis Almagro.

The objective of the interrogations from this group of countries, which included Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia, was to try to paint Ms. Espinosa as an ideologue who would act against decisions and declarations of the OAS,

engineered by a majority of 18 delegations, against the Maduro and Ortega governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua and the Presidency of Evo Morales of Bolivia which was ended by a coup d'état, however else it is portrayed.

This group of governments strongly s u p p o r t M r. A l m a g r o because, in the abuse of his office, he has been their most enthusiastic standard bearer against the Maduro and Ortega governments.

So preoccupied is this group of governments with trying to ensure that Mr. Almagro remains in position, that they have, so far, refused to recognize that Ms. Espinosa is not an ideologue and is, in fact, a realist; a pragmatic leader who fully understands that the success of any organisation depends on its capacity to build consensus among all its stakeholders.

Incidentally, the regime in Bolivia is still to hold credible elections to legitimize the government it seized.

Only the deaf, or those who deliberately blocked their ears, would not have

heard her say with passion and commitment that she will “strengthen human rights bodies” and “promote an initiative for the universalization of interAmerican human rights instruments”. If they were listening, they would also have heard her say that, as Secretary-General, she would be more “Secretary” than “General” (a failing of Mr. Almagro's), and that she would carry out the mandate and instructions given to her

by Ministers.

And, it would only be the malicious who would deliberately misrepresent M s . E s p i n o s a ' s undertakings.

Yet, the Brazilian Ambassador, in a later public session treating with the candidate for the post of Assistant Secretary General, and with Ms. Espinosa unable to respond, completely misrepresented her remarks, saying that she had stated she would not be guided by decisions of Ministers and the Permanent Council of the OAS. It took, another woman, Lou-Ann Gilchrist, the Ambassador of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with great diplomatic restraint, to

point out the B r a z i l i a n A m b a s s a d o r ' s misrepresentation.

If those who are so desperate to retain Mr. Almagro as their attack dog, would acknowledge that it is that posture that has led to the polarisation and ineffectiveness of the OAS, they might see in Ms. Espinosa an experienced and capable diplomat who, as she herself has publicly declared, “will not promote personal ideologies or the interest of any group”.

It is precisely because Mr. Almagro has been so ready to be partisan that the OAS is now a fractured and weak organisation, recognised not for its achievements but for its contentious divisions.

It was accepted by most delegates at the February 12 presentations that Mr. Almagro was the worst performer. He should have been the best. The debate was taking place on his ground – inside the headquarters of the OAS – and on his agenda, the role of the Secretary-General which post he has held for nearly 5 years. Yet, he was clearly

Sir Ronald Sanders not in control of his brief; he answered questions badly; and in some cases, did not know answers that should have come to him easily.

Perhaps, this is because he has been a one-item Secretary-General, focussed on events in Venezuela to the near exclusion of everything else.

No one could have derived any pleasure from M r. A l m a g r o ' s p o o r performance. As I have written repeatedly, he is a very bright and able man.

Somehow, he has lost his way, and was hoisted by his own petard. Not least, because he could not give to questioners a valid reason for seeking re-election when, in his first campaign to be elected and for most of his term, he had categorically stated that he would not run again.

The other contender for the OAS stewardship is Hugo de Zela of Peru. On t h e g e n e r a l v i e w, h e achieved second place, after (continued on page 52)

Sunday February 16, 2020

PAGE 25

Kaieteur News

---Hinds’ Sight by Dr. David Hinds---

Embrace of the WPA’s Cash Transfer Policy: A Victory for the WPA and the Guyanese People I welcome the embrace of the Cash Transfer policy by the two major political formations. As readers know, traditional parties by their very nature do not embrace revolutionary policies unless they are pushed to that point.

That is what happened here.

WPA’s advocacy of the idea, in the face of serious pushback by the political elites in both major parties, and our decision to plant it among the people have led to this outcome.

In that regard, the embrace by the major parties is a rejection of the thesis that so-called small parties do not play major roles in the society, and also the backward notion that the Coalition is all about the PNC. But above and beyond that, it as an initial victory for the Guyanese people, who are the ones that would benefit from the policy.

We placed the policy proposal on the table long before the electoral campaign started in order to emphasize the point that for us, it was and is not an electoral gimmick. We were of course dismayed that the political leaders were talking about everything to use the imminent oil wealth for, except direct investment in people— all the other proposals were indirect.

So, as a party that has always argued that public policy must be grounded in both the direct and indirect needs of the people, and must be aimed at altering structural deficiencies in the society, we felt we had to take the lead in pushing the parties and the country in that direction.

You cannot as a poor post-plantation society stumble upon oil wealth and think about economic development in the same old way—there must be a transformative agenda. And

you begin by first transforming the lives of the people, especially the poor, in direct ways.

As it turns out, the Cash Transfer is the only new and innovative policy that has been advanced since the announcement that Guyana would become an oil-rich nation.

If properly implemented, it would transform the lives of the poor and the powerless in dramatic ways. For the first time, poor people would have added income to use in ways that they see fit. It has the potential of banishing the “pay cheque to pay cheque” syndrome that bedevils poor people.

WPA is proud to have been the initiator of this policy initiative, which is being successfully used to tackle poverty by many societies across the world. We emphasize our pioneer role in this regard because in Guyana, we tend to think of a party’s worth solely in terms of its ability to directly win votes.

We are confident that this Cash Transfer policy would indirectly win votes for the political contestants, especially the Coalition, which has advanced a more serious proposal.

We are confident that many voters who would otherwise opt out of the electoral process, will now go out to the polls because they see a direct benefit for themselves and their family.

From the time of its announcement in Buxton in August 2018, it has been very popular among the masses.

So many people have contacted the party to express support for it, and to tie their vote to its embrace by the Coalition, which had initially expressed reservations about it. We also were able to gauge its

popularity when the WPA held over 20 community meetings across the Coast in August-September last year.

WPA would have preferred an Unconditional Transfer for every household. But in the spirit of compromise, we have gone along with the initial Conditional Transfer that is linked to school attendance among other conditions .

The Coalition’s manifesto also lists transfers in the form of Nutritional Support, Housing Support, Public Transport and a SingleParent support program, as well as vouchers for day-care and elder-care services, adult remedial classes and training, increased stipends for students of technical institutes, nursing schools, school of home economics and the Guyana School of Agriculture.

We are aware that that approach deviates from the original proposal, but we hope is that the feasibility study would help to bring it closer to where we began. We also welcome the PPP’s embrace of the proposal, but that party has not offered much detail. It has not spoken much about it on the campaign trail beyond reference to the $10,000 cash grant it gave to parents with schoolchildren.

We wish to point out that that initiative was more of a political gimmick than a serious policy aimed at a transformative outcome.

WPA reiterates that what is needed are serious policies rather that electoral gimmicks.

While the WPA welcomes the embrace of the policy by the political parties, it intends to be vigilant to ensure that it is implemented when the elections are over.

We are aware that political parties play games with the people—they put things in

The Baccoo Speaks The police are going to make an arrest in an old murder. They are going to detain a man on a report of domestic abuse only to find that the man was wanted for a murder that occurred some years ago.

This will bring closure for the relatives of the victim. ** Another road accident

will occur. A speeding car will crash in the wee hours of the morning after a night of fun

and frolic.

The crash will be influenced by alcohol. ** Mishaps are always occurring. This one will lead to yet another fire. An unattended fire will destroy a home. Quick action by neighbours will save some children who would be sleeping at the time.

their manifestoes only to water them down or ignore them altogether when the get into power.

Already we have noted the attempt to change the language from Cash Transfers to Cash Grants— we don’t think that is accidental. Cash grants is not a bad concept, but it is more suited to the PPP’s $10, 000 initiative and was correctly labeled as such by that party.

The Coalition’s proposal goes beyond the PPP’s

initiative. It falls more in line within the universally accepted Cash Transfer model that conceives of the money to the people as an added income rather than a “grant.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper) More of Dr. Hinds’ writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube

Dr David Hinds Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ GuyanaCaribbean Politics and on his w e b s i t e www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.news.

Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com

Sunday February 16, 2020

PAGE 25

Kaieteur News

---Hinds’ Sight by Dr. David Hinds---

Embrace of the WPA’s Cash Transfer Policy: A Victory for the WPA and the Guyanese People I welcome the embrace of the Cash Transfer policy by the two major political formations. As readers know, traditional parties by their very nature do not embrace revolutionary policies unless they are pushed to that point.

That is what happened here.

WPA’s advocacy of the idea, in the face of serious pushback by the political elites in both major parties, and our decision to plant it among the people have led to this outcome.

In that regard, the embrace by the major parties is a rejection of the thesis that so-called small parties do not play major roles in the society, and also the backward notion that the Coalition is all about the PNC. But above and beyond that, it as an initial victory for the Guyanese people, who are the ones that would benefit from the policy.

We placed the policy proposal on the table long before the electoral campaign started in order to emphasize the point that for us, it was and is not an electoral gimmick. We were of course dismayed that the political leaders were talking about everything to use the imminent oil wealth for, except direct investment in people— all the other proposals were indirect.

So, as a party that has always argued that public policy must be grounded in both the direct and indirect needs of the people, and must be aimed at altering structural deficiencies in the society, we felt we had to take the lead in pushing the parties and the country in that direction.

You cannot as a poor post-plantation society stumble upon oil wealth and think about economic development in the same old way—there must be a transformative agenda. And

you begin by first transforming the lives of the people, especially the poor, in direct ways.

As it turns out, the Cash Transfer is the only new and innovative policy that has been advanced since the announcement that Guyana would become an oil-rich nation.

If properly implemented, it would transform the lives of the poor and the powerless in dramatic ways. For the first time, poor people would have added income to use in ways that they see fit. It has the potential of banishing the “pay cheque to pay cheque” syndrome that bedevils poor people.

WPA is proud to have been the initiator of this policy initiative, which is being successfully used to tackle poverty by many societies across the world. We emphasize our pioneer role in this regard because in Guyana, we tend to think of a party’s worth solely in terms of its ability to directly win votes.

We are confident that this Cash Transfer policy would indirectly win votes for the political contestants, especially the Coalition, which has advanced a more serious proposal.

We are confident that many voters who would otherwise opt out of the electoral process, will now go out to the polls because they see a direct benefit for themselves and their family.

From the time of its announcement in Buxton in August 2018, it has been very popular among the masses.

So many people have contacted the party to express support for it, and to tie their vote to its embrace by the Coalition, which had initially expressed reservations about it. We also were able to gauge its

popularity when the WPA held over 20 community meetings across the Coast in August-September last year.

WPA would have preferred an Unconditional Transfer for every household. But in the spirit of compromise, we have gone along with the initial Conditional Transfer that is linked to school attendance among other conditions .

The Coalition’s manifesto also lists transfers in the form of Nutritional Support, Housing Support, Public Transport and a SingleParent support program, as well as vouchers for day-care and elder-care services, adult remedial classes and training, increased stipends for students of technical institutes, nursing schools, school of home economics and the Guyana School of Agriculture.

We are aware that that approach deviates from the original proposal, but we hope is that the feasibility study would help to bring it closer to where we began. We also welcome the PPP’s embrace of the proposal, but that party has not offered much detail. It has not spoken much about it on the campaign trail beyond reference to the $10,000 cash grant it gave to parents with schoolchildren.

We wish to point out that that initiative was more of a political gimmick than a serious policy aimed at a transformative outcome.

WPA reiterates that what is needed are serious policies rather that electoral gimmicks.

While the WPA welcomes the embrace of the policy by the political parties, it intends to be vigilant to ensure that it is implemented when the elections are over.

We are aware that political parties play games with the people—they put things in

The Baccoo Speaks The police are going to make an arrest in an old murder. They are going to detain a man on a report of domestic abuse only to find that the man was wanted for a murder that occurred some years ago.

This will bring closure for the relatives of the victim. ** Another road accident

will occur. A speeding car will crash in the wee hours of the morning after a night of fun

and frolic.

The crash will be influenced by alcohol. ** Mishaps are always occurring. This one will lead to yet another fire. An unattended fire will destroy a home. Quick action by neighbours will save some children who would be sleeping at the time.

their manifestoes only to water them down or ignore them altogether when the get into power.

Already we have noted the attempt to change the language from Cash Transfers to Cash Grants— we don’t think that is accidental. Cash grants is not a bad concept, but it is more suited to the PPP’s $10, 000 initiative and was correctly labeled as such by that party.

The Coalition’s proposal goes beyond the PPP’s

initiative. It falls more in line within the universally accepted Cash Transfer model that conceives of the money to the people as an added income rather than a “grant.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper) More of Dr. Hinds’ writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube

Dr David Hinds Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ GuyanaCaribbean Politics and on his w e b s i t e www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.news.

Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com

Sunday February 16, 2020

PAGE 27

Kaieteur News

==THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN==

Leonard Craig, Joel Edmond, Trevor Williams, Marlon Williams and…

The above named four persons are young men who graduated from UG. They were my students; they did the required introductory philosophy course with me.

They have successful careers. Craig went on to the Ph.D. level. Edmond is a successful lawyer. Marlon Williams is doing well on the corporate ladder, and Trevor Williams was once a marketing manager with Digicel, and is now pursuing a law degree at UG. All four went into politics with the AFC. Trevor was a parliamentarian. Marlon was General Secretary of the AFC. Leonard is currently assistant general secretary. All four are executive members of the AFC. This country needs a younger breed of politicians; people without the baggage of the current leaders that could weigh down an aircraft carrier.

I honestly thought these four young men were part of the future we are looking for in Guyana, but the disappointment is enormous.

Why would such promising young men allow themselves to be kowtowed by those who carry such baggage? Can these four gentlemen save their political career after the March general poll? Would people still accept them when our young politicians are supposed to be leading from the front and they are not?

Let us examine the silence of this group of four against the background of what is taking place inside their party.

The executive is the leadership of a political party.

No one or two or three persons can shape the directions of a party or make policies for it, unless the executive sees the documents and approves of them. There are top leaders in a party that can design those directions and shape those policies, but they have to be taken to the executive.

The AFC renewed the Cummingsburg Accord with APNU, with some glaring

differences from the original covenant. The executive body of the AFC was not presented with that document and has not approved of it. I would think that the young men I named above, who have a future in politics, would see that this is not democratic politics. How can these youths go forward in the future when they see this lack of democracy and remain unmoved?

But there is more to come.

I saw an interview on a Guyana Chronicle programme named, “Vantage Point”, with Svetlana Marshall interviewing Khemraj Ramjattan. When asked how the election campaign is going, Ramjattan said that in 2015 when the AFC held campaign meetings in PPP strongholds, it would get about 25 attendees. In 2020, the AFC is getting about 300 in those PPP niches.

This is phenomenal brilliance. Ramjattan is referring to over 1200 percent increase in support. Then I am asking these four young politicians how they and the other 32 executive members against this backdrop of massive increase in support for the AFC among PPP supporters, could have accepted reduction in resource allocation in the renewed Cummingsburg Accord of 30 percent, from 40 percent in 2015?

Something is not right here. It is either phenomenal brilliance or phenomenal masturbation.

From

Ramjattan’s own words, logical deduction will inform the researcher that from receiving 10 percent of the votes in 2015, the AFC will collect a larger percentage in next month’s poll. Logically, then, in the renewed Cummingsburg Accord, the AFC’s Cabinet allocation and parliamentary seat allocation should go up. But they went down.

How can these four executives that I know so well and expected so much of explain this mystery? And why are they silent on the pronouncement of Ramjattan to the media that the renewed Cummingsburg Accord will remain a secret? My fear is that these four young AFC executives and others like them in the AFC are heading for self-destruction. How can they tell the people of Guyana that they are the future leaders when they do not embrace openness in politics?

I will conclude this commentary with reflections on two issues. First, there was the local government election (LGE). This was held just fifteen months ago. Both Nagamootoo and Ramjattan lost the NDC contest to the PPP in their respective hometowns of Whim and Number 48 village. In that LGE, the AFC contested 38 NDCs, mostly in PPP’s strongholds, and lost all 38.

The PPP won a majority of the NDCs countrywide. What changed so profoundly that after 15 months the AFC has increased its support in PPP

strongholds by 1200 percent?

Finally, AFC held a campaign meeting last week across the road from where I live, in Cummings Lodge. This is a PPP fortress. AFC got beaten badly there in the LGE. I was at this meeting.

Nagamootoo spoke to about

12 persons. The Stabroek News published the photo of the gathering.

Ramjattan’s phantasmagoria is dangerous.

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

Frederick Kissoon

PAGE 28

Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

Let progress continue…One good term deserves another “On March 2, your family and neighbours will go to the polls to elect a government for the next five years. The outcome of these Regional and National elections will decide Guyana’s future for generations.

The choice you face is whether to keep moving forward with progress, building on the solid foundation laid for our economic and social development under the leadership of President David Granger, or to return to the past, to the time when Guyanese faced tremendous hardships because of the politics of the PPP government.

No one can reasonably deny the impressive record of performance of the APNU+AFC Coalition in strengthening the national economy and restoring hope among our people. During the last four years, we embarked on a programme to make systemic and strategic changes to improve the economy, social protection, i n f r a s t r u c t u r e , telecommunications, hinterland development, housing and health care.

We have reduced the tax burden on our people. We have reduced Corporate Tax

The APNU+AFC Coalition’s Manifesto was launched on Valentine’s Day, Friday 14 February 2020, the 5th anniversary of the official launch of this winning partnership of seven political parties.

This is the penultimate stage in a five-stage process that began with the parties re-writing the Cummingsburg Accord (2020) which principally determines the composition of our governing team. The other stages involve the preparation of our manifesto, and the conduct of the elections campaign which is in full swing.

Following is the message from the AFC’s Chairman and Prime Ministerial Candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan, which is published in the Manifesto alongside the message of Presidential Candidate, David Arthur Granger. on businesses with amnesty on arrears.

We have increased the Minimum Wage and Old Age Pension. When the Coalition took over Government, Guyana was on the brink of becoming a “narco-state”, and crime and corruption were damaging the reputation of our country in the eyes of the international community.

We have changed that by using intelligence, surveillance techniques, and investing adequate resources in law enforcement.

Guyana is about to start receiving significant revenues from our new oil and gas sector. Some people, based on their behaviour, would like to get their hands on this revenue to enrich themselves and their friends as they have done in other sectors. We, however, have a plan, which the President has entitled “The Decade of Development”. We are going to use that plan and the oil

revenue to transform Guyana for the benefit of all Guyanese.

The Decade of Development will involve projects and programmes to bring lasting change to our society. Every Guyanese can look forward to progress and prosperity in a new Guyana with continued growth and job creation; reduction in poverty; an environment for our youth to thrive; a society, which is knowledge-based with robust Information Communications Technology; greater access to affordable education, healthcare and housing; improved social protection in a cohesive state where all Guyanese enjoy equal status, equal rights, enhanced safety and security.

Our commitment is that every Guyanese will enjoy a high quality of life and be happy to make and call Guyana their home irrespective of the region in

which they reside, their ethnicity, gender, religion, age, social status, political persuasion, or sexual orientation.

Great things happen when we work together. The Coalition’s achievements in the last term are proof of that.

One Good Term deserves another. I therefore ask for your vote on March 2.

Moving Forward Together. Don’t stop the Progress. ***** ENHANCED LAW ENFORCEMENT & THE SIGNING BONUS In a recent interview, candidate Ramjattan said that the article published recently by ‘Global Witness’ smacked of propaganda and contained manipulated information which was denounced by other global publications. He debunked the lies being repeated by the Opposition about the signing bonus given to Guyana by

ExxonMobil, stating, “We fought hard to get the best deal we could get. We could not procrastinate for a number of reasons, and in light of their commitment to begin oil production in five years, and they have done just that”.

The signing bonus was a good start for Guyana to modernise infrastructure and health facilities; provide better pay and working conditions for teachers and nurses; new stations, equipment, vehicles, overseas training and other human resource development for police ranks; establish a technical vocational institute in every administrative region; provide free education at every level with facilities to prepare at-risk youths for the workforce and self-employment; and to purchase new maritime equipment including a fire boat and faster vessels to service riverain communities,

and to protect fisher folk especially on the Corentyne and Mahaica Rivers from piracy.

In justifying the 2:00 am party curfew, the Chairman said that as unpopular as the curfew is, law enforcement is recording reducing rates of person-to-person crimes, noting that domestic homicides have come down from 20 per 100 persons in 2016 to 14.9 per 100 persons in 2019.

“We have a lot more to do to cultivate different behaviours such as working with community leaders, building better prisons, and mounting additional signage on main roads and highways.

Guyana still has big challenges to overcome such as trafficking in persons and drugs, and nabbing the masterminds of crime. He promised that one of the first amendments to be presented in the next Parliament is for confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

The United States State Department has commended Guyana for making some inroads, but there is more to be done.

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

Sunday February 16, 2020

PAGE 29

Kaieteur News

My column

The love of family - Making a sibling cry There are some things in life that are unforgettable. Ask a man to tell you the most interesting aspect of his life and he will tell you some strange thing like, “There were many interesting things.”

Press him or her and you could get one or two reactions—either a large smile or an angry visage. Some people remember things that happened to them as a child.

A few days go a friend remembered his father beating him for tapping a classmate.

He remembered going back to school and beating the boy, going home to another licking, and continuing the cycle for two more days until his father gave up.

Nobody really talks about their first day at work or the day they got married or their first pay cheque. For them those things are not really as exciting as other things.

Instead they would remember really pleasant experiences like a surprise. Some would remember a really horrible experience like nearly drowning or saving some child from a horrible fate.

Birthday surprises are almost always unforgettable.

I was in the midst of one just

a few hours ago. I can’t give details, because at the time of writing the surprise had not even occurred, but I can predict with deadly accuracy how it went.

The victim of this surprise was the same person twenty years ago. The occasion was her fiftieth birthday. She was living in Guyana at the time. I remember leaving work after promising to take her to dinner to observe the occasion.

Back then things were beginning to look up for me financially. I had some disposable income. My wife and son had migrated and my other children had moved out to start their own lives.

I took my sister, the victim of the surprise, to a nice place.

I asked one of the waitresses to allow me access to their phone which stood on the receptionist’s desk. The cellular phone was not as ubiquitous as it is today.

So there we were, my sister and me, chatting about how fast time flies. We talked about the days when we were children in a very poor household but full of love. We spoke about the most exciting things to happen to us.

She remembered running from a masquerade band with a mad cow. She recalled that

the fear stemmed from the fact that a small bull had butted her. We laughed. But every now and then I would use the phone to call home to find out whether the surprise was in place.

Of course my sister kept asking me about my frequent visit to the phone and I told her some bull about checking on a story that was breaking at the time. Back then I worked with The Evening News.

Kaieteur News was a once weekly publication.

We eventually left for home in D’Urban Street Lodge (now renamed Joseph Pollydore Street). I followed her to the back of the lot because that was where she lived. The house was in darkness. This evoked some surprise from her because as she said, the household would not retire to bed once she was out because they would want to know how her dinner went.

We went upstairs and she opened the door. A split second later she nearly knocked me over the verandah railing. The surprise had been sprung. She cried like a baby.

Saturday (last night) was her seventieth. Her children planned

the surprise, this time away from their home in Far Rockaway, New York. Her son told her that he was getting an award that night and he wanted her there with him.

“Take the day off from work. Dress fancy. It is going to be a big night.”

What started off as a gathering of her siblings and close relatives simply got big.

The surprise party was one thing. The other surprises were that her mother, her sisters, one of whom lives in Canada and the smallest in Guyana, and me being there.

In fact, she spoke to me on Friday to wish me ‘Happy Valentine’s’ and not knowing that I was already in the United States.

There is a saying that ‘donkey ears big but it don’t hear its own story’. That was my sister. She is going to enter the hall to shouts of ‘surprise’.

She is going to scream and cry.

Then she would see me, and her visiting sisters and her 96-yearold mother sharing the moment with her.

I don’t know if an ambulance was needed because at this time I am a few hours in the future.

There were eight of us and we grew up as a tightly knit unit. I was the first to leave

home for Bartica. My pay cheque helped out with food and rent. It helped with my sisters’ examination fees. It helped the family drag itself out of poverty.

This sister coming after me, was the one who helped my mother raise the others. To this day they talk of how strict she was. She didn’t go too far in school, but she knew right from wrong.

When my other sister left for New York, leaving her four children behind, it was Evelyn who brought them up. When my second daughter got her only child, it was Evelyn who trudged from Lodge to Tucville to bathe the baby.

So it was that everyone agreed that we had to be there for her. Life is funny. My other sisters have done very well. And they have reached out to her. It was their contribution that made last night’s party the event it was.

Why talk about this mundane thing when there are so many more interesting things? Love is sadly missing from our society. We have grown selfish to the point that our younger siblings are often left to their own devices.

Teenagers roam the streets with weapons to rob

Adam Harris people; some beg and many no longer see the need for education and have no one to guide them. Families are no longer the nuclear unit they should be. Those in a position to, no longer help their struggling siblings.

They fail to realize that theirs is the duty to help their siblings along the straight and narrow. Even some parents fail in this regard. I see the mothers outside the jails or in court. I see them rushing to borrow money to help an errant child when that money could have gone toward improving their lives.

But then again, who am I to lecture anyone?

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

PAGE 30

Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

The President on children, women and youth A review of three books by David Granger % Children are the future: A bright future for young Guyanese; Women in Guyana: Working towards achieving women’s equality; and Young Guyana: A decade for youth development President David Granger’s collection of books on his government’s social policies is a useful extension of previously published material on education, the environment, social cohesion and national unity.

The President, in this collection – the texts of important addresses he made on children, women and youth – lays down principles which guide his Government’s policy prescriptions in the most important sections of the population. These, not infrequently, have been seen as vulnerable and, as areas of assumed administrative

inattention, to warrant greater consideration.

Children are the future: A bright future for young Guyanese, the first book in the collection, focusses on children.

It emphasises the two principles that every child is entitled to a happy childhood and that the best place for nurturing a child is in the home. It places strong emphasis on the protection of the child and details an impressive list of laws, policies, programmes and institutions which Guyana has put in place to protect its children.

Children are the most vulnerable segment of society. Few will dispute that they need to be protected or that that it is everyone’s responsibility to do so. The State can pass laws to protect children. It can impose sanctions on those who abuse children. It can establish institutions to care and provide childcare.

The State, however, cannot legislate care and compassion in households which the President views as being desirable for nurturing children. It is expected that the President will address in the future this grey area between the limits of policymaking and achieving its desired ends.

Women in Guyana: Working towards achieving women’s equality, the second book of the collection, is about the unfinished business of women’s equality. President Granger points out that, despite measurable improvements, the ambitious objectives set out in the landmark State Paper on Equality of Women of 1976, have not been achieved. He then sets about to place women’s equality high among his government’s social priorities.

The extant global agenda

on women is dominated by demands for greater sexual and reproductive rights. The President, however, returns to the foundational theme of bridging the economic, political and social achievement gaps between women and men, while emphasizing the need to address poverty, unemployment and spousal abuse all of which place a disproportionate burden on women.

Young Guyana: A decade for youth development, is the third book in the collection.

David Granger, as Opposition Leader prior to 2015, had published a book entitled Young people… the forgotten majority in which he addressed the failure of youth policy up to that time.He bemoaned the failure of the government of-the-day to announce a plan plan to deal with the challenges facing young people in this country.

President Granger identifies youth development central to his current government’s social agenda.

Those who find a thrill in propagating the view that the President’s government has

neglected young people will be deflated by this publication. It presents the President’s vision of youth development and enumerates the numerous initiatives which his government has been undertaking over the past five years to promote youth development.

Education and skillstraining are integral to his vision. The President makes it clear that young people will become the motors of change and progress. They will need to be provided with the knowledge, skills and values necessary to participate in a transformative economy and progressive society. He assures young people not only of a better future but also provides incontrovertible evidence of what he has achieved and continues to do to realize this objective. *** President Granger’s social policies – on children, women and youth as outlined in this three-book collection – are all founded on international best practices. The President makes reference to international conventions,

declarations and reports, as well as the Constitution of his country, to illustrate how his social policies on children, women and youth are consistent with these documents.

This latest collection, which can be appropriately titled, ‘The President and children, gender and youth,” constitutes his country’s clearest policy statement ever on three of the groups in society – children, women and youth – must vulnerable to alienation, discrimination and inattention.

The President’s approach is enlightening; his vision inspiring and his writing crisp and intelligible.

The President on children, women and youth adds to the list of impressive social policies enunciated by the Guyanese Head of State and Government. The implementation of these social policies will propel the Guyana’s human development into a better place.

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

Sunday February 16, 2020

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FACTS ABOUT PAINFUL PERIODS

By Dr Zulfikar Bux Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Many women experience menstrual pains just before and during their menstrual periods. Statistics show that as many as 90% of adolescent females and above 50% of menstruating women worldwide report suffering from menstrual pains, with 10– 20% of them describing their hurt as severe and distressing.

For some women, the discomfort is merely annoying. For others, menstrual pains can be severe enough to interfere with everyday activities for a few days every month. These pains may be because of underlying medical conditions and should not be ignored.

Today we will explain menstrual pain, with the hope that it can shed some light on this annoying condition.

WHYARE MY PERIODS SO PAINFUL? During your period, your body makes chemicals called “prostaglandins.” These chemicals cause the uterus to contract or tighten. It’s the same kind of contraction that happens during labour and childbirth. Contractions

during a period are normal.

But, they can be painful. The medical name for painful periods is “dysmenorrhea.”

ARE THERE MEDICAL CONDITIONS THAT CAN BE CAUSING MY PAINFUL PERIOD? Yes. The following conditions may be the cause of your painful period: – Endometriosis. In this painful condition, the tissue that lines your uterus becomes implanted outside your uterus, most commonly on your fallopian tubes, ovaries or the tissue lining your pelvis.

– Uterine fibroids. These noncancerous growths in the wall of the uterus may be the cause of pain.

– Adenomyosis. In this condition, the tissue that lines your uterus begins to grow into the muscular walls of the uterus.

– Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This infection of the female reproductive organs is usually caused by sexually transmitted bacteria.

– Cervical stenosis. In some women, the opening of the cervix may be so small that it impedes menstrual flow, causing a painful increase of pressure within the uterus.

WHAT DO PAINFUL

PERIODS FEEL LIKE? Women with painful periods have cramping in the lower belly. The cramps can be mild or bad. You might also have pain in your back or thighs. Pain often starts with your period or right before your period.

Some women also have: – Nausea – Diarrhea – Extreme tiredness – Headache – Bloating (a feeling of fullness in the belly) SHOULD I SEE A DOCTOR? See your doctor if: – The pain is getting worse – Pain medicine isn’t helping – You also have pain well before or well after your period – The pain is preventing you from performing daily activities.

ARE THERE TESTS I SHOULD HAVE? Your doctor will decide which tests you should have based on your age, other symptoms, and individual situation.

Most women need only a physical exam. In the exam, your doctor will check the size and shape of your vagina,

cervix, uterus, and ovaries. If the exam isn’t normal or pain medicine doesn’t help, your doctor might do other tests.

These include: – Pelvic ultrasound – This test uses sound waves to make a picture of your uterus, ovaries, and vagina to see if they look normal.

– Tests for infections that you catch during sex – Laparoscopy – This is a type of surgery. The doctor will put you to sleep and make a small cut just below your belly button. Then, he or she will use a thin tool with a camera on it to see inside your belly.

HOW ARE PAINFUL PERIODS TREATED? That depends on what is causing your painful periods.

The most common treatments are: – Pain medicines

– Birth control pills or other types of birth control that involve hormones – Surgery may be an option if a medical condition is the cause of your painful period.

ARETHERELIFESTYLE ADJUSTMENTS THAT CAN HELP? Doing the following may help to minimize you period pains: – Exercise. Studies have found that physical activity may ease the pain of menstrual cramps.

– Heat. Soaking in a hot bath or using a heating pad, hot water bottle or heat patch on your lower abdomen may ease menstrual cramps.

Applying heat may be just as effective as over-the-counter pain medication for relieving menstrual cramps.

– Dietary supplements. A

Dr. Zulfikar Bux number of studies have indicated that vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B-1 (thiamine), vitamin B-6 and magnesium supplements may effectively reduce menstrual cramps.

– Avoiding alcohol and tobacco. These substances can make menstrual cramps worse.

– Reducing stress.

Psychological stress may increase your risk of menstrual cramps and their severity.

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Kaieteur News

SUNDAY US$55B COULD DOUBLE EVERYGUYANESE WORKER’S SALARY FOR THE NEXT 40 YEARS Global Witness has put out a report stating that Guyana is set to lose US$55B in value over 40 years, due to a poorly negotiated deal with ExxonMobil for its right to continue exploring the 6.6 million-acre Stabroek Block.

But because that amount is so much, it may be difficult for one to fathom just how much money US$55B really is.

To put it into perspective, like Global Witness did, Guyana’s 2019 budget was presented as $300B. That is about US$1.4B. When that is compared to what Guyana could lose (US$55B), it becomes clear that that money could impact Guyana’s budget 40 times.

In other words, US$55B could double Guyana’s budget for the next 40 years.

That amount of value, for every Guyanese worker, would mean a doubling of all salaries… for 40 years.

For every bridge, school, or other infrastructural project Government undertook in 2019, it could build 40 more of each with US$55B. For every good or service Government undertook to fund, it could double them for 40 years.

Attorney-at-Law Christopher Ram had also sought to put the US$55B figure into perspective.

In a release to Kaieteur News, he wrote, “It means that at the national minimum public service pay of $70,000 per month, this Government has given away 222 months’ or roughly 18 years and six months’ worth of earnings for every single man, woman and child in Guyana,” Ram said.

The attorney said that President David Granger should rethink his position on the ‘sanctity’ of the Stabroek Block license granted to ExxonMobil and its partners, and renegotiate the “improper” agreement which was signed under the “strangest of circumstances”.

GOVT. MISLEADS NATION WITH CENTRESPREAD AD USING RYSTAD’S “UNJUSTIFIED” FIGURES On Monday, international anti-corruption body, Global Witness, released a report called “Signed Away” which places under the microscope, the poor fiscal terms of the Stabroek Block deal. Upon examining that report, the government has responded with a centre-spread advertisement in today’s newspaper.

The advertisement relies heavily

on comments recently made

by Rystad Energy, a research and business Intelligence Company which is headquartered in Norway.

In one of its most recent releases, Rystad Energy said it did its own analysis of the Stabroek fiscal regime and benchmarked it against those of other “frontier” and upcoming oil and gas producing countries, such as Brazil, the United States (deepwater Gulf of Mexico), Mozambique, Israel, Tanzania, Mauritania, Suriname, and the Falkland Islands.

To measure the impact of the fiscal regimes in these countries, Rystad Energy said it ran its “economic model analysis” on the Liza Phase One project and compared the results against the fiscal regimes for the peer group countries.

For Guyana, Rystad said it found that the average government take is 60 percent, which in Rystad’s benchmarking overview, places the country right between major producer Brazil at 63 percent and fledgling producers Mozambique and Mauritania, at 57 percent.

But several local and international observers have rubbished the analysis put forward by Rystad, while highlighting the fact that its economic model is not in the open so that it can be independently scrutinized for its soundness or lack thereof.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF LIZA-2 FIND, ONE DAY AFTER CONTRACT SIGNING, SHOWS EXXONMOBIL’S DISHONESTY – CHRIS RAM E x x o n M o b i l ’s announcement of a world class oil discovery just one day after the Government awarded the 2016 Stabroek licence to it, shows that the oil company acted deceitfully and dishonestly. That is the remit attorney-at-law,

Christopher Ram, shared in the Thursday edition of his Stabroek News Column ‘The road to first oil’.

The lawyer, in describing the circumstances surrounding the controversial award, stated, “Nothing… shows Exxon’s bad faith more than its announcement of a major find, one day after the Granger Government awarded them a tainted Petroleum Agreement made possible by the infamous Bridging Deed.

It is either trickery or conspiracy.”

The agreement was signed on June 27, 2016. The Bridging Deed, which sought to link it to what would be a “dead” 1999 agreement, was signed on June 29, 2016. The world class Liza-2 discovery was announced by ExxonMobil, the next day, with an estimation of at least 800 million oil-equivalent barrels.

Ram’s comment comes after a report published by globally respected anticorruption watchdog, Global Witness, revealed that ExxonMobil and Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, knew of the second discovery in the Liza field.

It reported not only that, but that Trotman failed to capitalise on G u y a n a ’s strong negotiating position by waiting for the details of a find he knew Exxon was analysing.

Global Witness found that Trotman even knew the company would announce its results on a specific day. Had he waited, the Minister would have been able to bargain that he represented a country with ownership of one of the w o r l d ’s l a rg e s t r e c e n t finds.

While this would indicate that Trotman’s hurried negotiation would place him solely at fault for fa ilure to capitalise on Guyana’s strong bargaining position, another report

buttresses Ram’s assertion, and shows that both parties had a hand in maintaining Guyana’s disadvantage.

MONDAY REPORT EXPOSES EXXON’S HAND IN CABINET MEETING ON STABROEK BLOCK DEAL A strictly private and confidential report commissioned by Cabinet itself has demonstrated that ExxonMobil was intimately involved with the Ministry of Natural Resources in the period leading up to the signing of the Stabroek Block licence.

In fact, the report, which builds on information supplied by Government officials, states that an ExxonMobil official, Brooke Harris, wrote the Cabinet memorandum that Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, presented to Cabinet for its approval of the controversial licence.

Attorney-at-Law Christopher Ram, in the Friday last edition of his Stabroek News column ‘The road to first oil’, called this ‘the most important bit of information’ in the report prepared by British law firm, Clyde and Co. The firm found that, on May 25, 2016, “Harris [Exxon’s former Commercial Advisor] provided by email a first draft Cabinet Memorandum to [Legal Advisor to Minister Trotman, Joanna Simmons Homer]”.

In that email, Harris [the Exxon official] mentioned, “We have strong operational need to complete this entire process (i.e. all agreements are signed and effective) by midSeptember… The timing drives the urgency behind signing the agreements the week of June 6th (following a successful Cabinet meeting), after which we can commence the required 3 month period following our notice of intent to relinquish the current licence.”

In the same email, Harris also said that ExxonMobil has a “strong operational need” to have the Section 51 order confirmed by the National Assembly “before we relinquish the current 1999 Petroleum Agreement”. That refers to the provision, which granted ExxonMobil and its partners a permanent tax holiday.

Ram wrote, “It did not stop there: Clyde states in its report that the Cabinet Memorandum was prepared along the lines of [that] email”.

OPENOIL RESPONDS TO GOVT.’S CRITICISM, SHOWS HOW GUYANA LEFT US$55B ON EXXON’S TABLE Since the release of the report, “Signed Away” by non-governmental organization Global Witness, the Coalition administration has deemed the document to be without merit.

The administration has also said that the report stands on “fanciful” estimates; with the most bizarre one being that Guyana left US$55B on the table following poor negotiations with ExxonMobil and its partners for the Stabroek Block licence.

But the firm which Global Witness commissioned for the economic analysis, OpenOil, has responded via a five page missive to the media.

In that document which will be reproduced in several parts by Kaieteur News, OpenOil categorically states that its US$55B estimate is not only accurate, but the model used to arrive at this figure can withstand public scrutiny. On this note, OpenOil, which is based in Berlin, said that its fiscal model follows the FAST modelling standard (https:// www. f a s t - s t a n d a r d . o rg / about-fso/), on whose advisory board the OpenOil Director, Johnny West, sits.

The FAST Standard,

which was founded over 18 years ago, and is used by thousands of Excel modelers worldwide, allows for public scrutiny and for a number of factors to be considered or amended.

Speaking to the model used, OpenOil said, “…Our model projected the revenues Exxon’s Stabroek licence would produce until 2056, and some have stated that projections like this are speculative, or arbitrary. Of course, our model’s estimates are speculative in the sense of not being empirical fact – all forward-looking estimates are. But they are not somehow more speculative than anyone else’s.”

Further to this, Open Oil said that the model it used not only considers the money lost over a 40 year period (US$55B) but also considers for example, the difference in revenues to government by the end of 2025 which would be US$2.8 billion, and US$16.3 billion in the entire decade of the 2020s.

WORLD BANK ADVISES MECHANISMS TO DETECT CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN OIL LICENCEAPPLICATIONS If an entity applies to be awarded an oil block or any other extractive sector deal, the application process should involve mechanisms to detect any conflicts of interest.

This is just one of several pieces of advice proffered by Guyana’s development partner, The World Bank, in its publication ‘Licence to Drill: How to Reduce Corruption in Extractives Sectors’.

The Bank acknowledges that extractive industries tend to form large sources of income for rich and poor countries alike, and that they have transformational potential to support economic development. In this regard, it notes integrity screening as necessary, (Continued on page 33)

Sunday February 16, 2020

From page 32 because natural resource sectors are highly susceptible to corruption in countries whose economies largely depend on them.

Quoting the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), The World Bank stated that a conflict of interest arises “when a public official has private-capacity interests which could improperly influence the performance of their official duties and responsibilities”.

The Bank posited that the licence application systems should screen, in addition to applicants, officials of the licensing agency and any other officials with a decision-making role in the process. The Integrity Commission would be instrumental in such a process.

The World Bank has identified three types of conflict of interest to be on the lookout for, from OECD research.

The first is the actual/real conflict, where there is in fact an unacceptable possibility of conflict between a public official’s interests as a private citizen and his/her duty as a public or civil servant.

The second is the apparent conflict, where the potential for doubt arises about the officials’ integrity and that of the organisation he/she represents.

The Bank advises that, to identify this conflict, one should ask, “Does official X appear to have a conflict of interest?”

TUESDAY ENERGYDEPARTMENT DIRECTOR SAYS… 75% OF STABROEK BLOCK DISCOVERIES OIL, 25% GAS … SAYS NATURAL GAS ENGAGEMENT HEATING UP The proportion of oil to gas in ExxonMobil’s

discoveries is finally out in the open. Roughly 6 billion of the 8 billion oil-equivalent barrels, or 75 percent, is oil.

This was revealed to reporters during a press conference Monday at the Ministry of the Presidency’s Kairuni Room, by Energy Director Dr. Mark Bynoe.

Up until now, the public has only been privy to the knowledge that there are 8 billion oil-equivalent barrels.

That figure includes the quantity of oil as well as gas.

Dr. Bynoe said that about 2 billion of those 8 billion barrels are gas, with a conversion factor of about 5.8.

That amounts roughly to 340 billion cubic metres of gas.

These figures do not include ExxonMobil’s 16th discovery from the Uaru well.

Dr. Bynoe noted, however, that these are rough estimates, based on analyses of a single well for most of the finds.

“We all can appreciate that this is a very complex [process] and it also requires a lot more appraisal before one can be able to determine precisely how much you’re treating with,” the Energy boss said.

This is a fair statement, as

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subsequent appraisals of a discovery after the first well is drilled may yield more comprehensive results.

For instance, ExxonMobil recently had reason to revise its estimate of the oil and gas content in its first 15 material discoveries in the Stabroek Block, to indicate that the quantity of the reserves was found to be a whopping 2 billion oil-equivalent barrels more than the 6 billion oilequivalent barrels previously estimated. There has been a fixation in public discussion on oil development, and very little about gas.

Dr. Bynoe said during Monday’s media briefing that Government is deepening its engagement on gas–to-shore possibilities, with a projection of gas being able to land on Guyana’s shores by 2023.

LOCAL CONTENT POLICY COMPLETED; TO BE RELEASED THIS WEEK Energy Department Director, Dr. Mark Bynoe, revealed Monday that the long-awaited Local Content Policy has been completed and printed. The Director said that during the course of the week, this crucial document will be available for the public to access. Speaking at his first press conference for the year at the Ministry of the Presidency, Dr. Bynoe said that the policy, which ensures local goods and services are given first preference; Guyanese are trained for jobs in the sector; and relevant technologies are transferred, is fit-for-purpose.

Expounding further, the Director said the policy offers a balanced alignment between the Government’s policy

goals, while maintaining consistency with Guyana’s international and regional trade and economic cooperation obligations.

Further to this, the Energy Department Head said that the policy promotes education, inclusion and advancement of Guyanese persons who demonstrate expertise and experience required to participate in the petroleum industry; ensures participation of Guyanese persons in employment opportunities; assures capable Guyanese suppliers of contracting and procurement opportunities within the petroleum sector, inside and outside of Guyana; and localizes supply chains in procurement of goods and services that support the petroleum industry by providing opportunities for Guyanese persons and suppliers.

Dr. Bynoe was also keen to note that the policy will stimulate efficiency and cost benefits to the oil and gas sector by potentially increasing supplier response speeds and reducing operation and maintenance costs. The policy is also expected to enhance alignment with good industry standards in the petroleum sector, and drive local competitiveness through increasing the range and scale of employment and supplier opportunities.

DEPLETION POLICY TO COMEAFTER ELECTIONS – ENERGY DEPT. SAYS GUIDELINES WITH IDB It appears that Guyana will have to wait until the March 2020, General and Regional Elections are over to have a

Depletion Policy in place.

Kaieteur News became aware of this during a press conference that was held Monday by Energy Department Head, Dr. Mark Bynoe.

At the media engagement, this newspaper asked Dr. Bynoe to provide an update on the policy which allows the leaders of the day to determine how fast or slow the oil and gas resources must be developed.

The Energy Department Head noted that since it is a policy issue, one would have to wait after March 2 for certain decisions to be made.

Be that as it may, Dr. Bynoe did note that Depletion Policy Guidelines were completed since December last and submitted to the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) which funded the exercise.

It was in early 2016 that talks emerged about the need for Guyana to have a depletion policy. Trinidadian Energy Expert, Anthony Paul would have cautioned in a previous interview that if Guyana wants to lengthen the life of its oil industry, then it urgently needs to put this policy in place.

In the absence of this crucial document, ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC/NEXEN, are steaming ahead with plans to extract Guyana’s oil as quickly as possible from the Stabroek Block. In fact, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that ExxonMobil would be introducing five Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSOs) into the Stabroek Block, by 2025.

The first FPSO, Liza

Destiny, has been in operation since December 2019. The second FPSO, Liza Unity, is projected for hook up by 2022.

The FPSO for Payara has a 2023 deadline. The IMF noted that a fourth FPSO would be in Guyana’s waters in 2024 with the fifth vessel hooked up in 2025.

WEDNESDAY GLOBAL WITNESS SPENT OVER TWO DECADES EXPOSING CORRUPTION IN EXTRACTIVE SECTORS … ITS WORK LED TO FORMATION OF EITI The globally respected anti-corruption watchdog, Global Witness, recently released a report titled ‘Signed Away’. That report detailed how a poor negotiation process and questionable behaviour by Government officials led to the inking of a lopsided oil deal with an Exxon-led consortium for operations in Guyana’s lucrative Stabroek Block.

A firm consulted by Global Witness is quoted in its report as having calculated that Guyana stands to lose US$55B over 40 years due to unfair fiscal terms. And this is calculated at an oil price of US$65 a barrel.

In response, the Government of Guyana issued a statement condemning the work of the transparency advocate as sensationalist, agendadriven, malicious and extraordinarily speculative.

Then, Government referred to the institution’s suggestions as preposterous, and the presented US$55B figure as arbitrary and utterly (Continued on page 41)

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Ending or Evolving: the UK/ACP Relationship

By Elizabeth Morgan KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC Feature) – A Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) article reproduced in the Sunday Gleaner of February 2 titled “ACP Sugar Producers want UK to provide new incentives” led me to reflect further on the UK/ACP relationship post-Brexit.

Resulting from the membership of the United Kingdom (UK) in the European Union (EU), fortyone (41) developing Commonwealth members joined in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, and have been in a treaty relationship with the EU from 1975, Lomé to Cotonou. It seems that the UK's approach to the ACP became lukewarm through these years.

The 2000 ACP/EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA), to which the UK has been a party as a member of the EU expires on February 29.

The UK formally withdrew from its EU membership on January 31 and is in the transition period to end on December 31.

From Article 129 of the UK's EU Withdrawal Agreement dealing with external actions in the transition period, the C PA w o u l d r e m a i n applicable to the UK up to December 31.

An EU Council Decision of November 2019 on the CPA informs that the EU and ACP agreed to extend it to December 31 or until a new agreement, now being negotiated, is concluded and adopted.

Therefore, from January 1, 2021, the CPA, which covers political, economic, social and cultural relations between the ACP and EU, will no longer apply to the UK. This will also apply to

development cooperation.

The UK contributed 15% of financing to the €30.5 billion European Development Fund (EDF) from which the ACP is funded. The EDF is to be integrated into the new EU budget for 2021-2027.

I found a UK Parliament document from May 2018 which indicates that the UK has been considering its postBrexit relationship with the ACP, whether it should be a non-EU observer to the new post-Cotonou Agreement.

This also includes whether it will contribute to EU development financing. I found no other documents informing of the UK's decision.

I was not aware that the UK has been an active participant in the postCotonou agreement negotiations or that it is contemplated that this agreement should have observers. I assume the UK contribution to EU development finance should be addressed during the transition.

Thus, effective December 31, with the end of the CPA, only the trade relationship between the UK and ACP countries covered by the regional Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will remain.

CONTINUITY EPAs Since 2018, the UK has agreed continuity EPAs with ACP regions/countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The ACP Caribbean (CARIFORUM) signed its continuity EPA with the UK in March 2019. These EPAs will take effect on January 1, 2021, to ensure that preferential trade between the UK and ACP countries will continue.

In his address to ACP Trade Ministers in Brussels in October 2018, then UK Trade Policy Minister,

George Hollingbery, said that the ACP countries remained important to UK commerce and the UK would be working with them to increase trade post Brexit as the country turned to the world.

The UK is definitely courting Africa now. On January 20, the government hosted a UK/Africa Trade and Investment Summit in London.

The invitees were not only from ACP African countries. It seems there will be another opportunity for the business community to engage with African leaders when the Commonwealth Africa Summit is held in London in March.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting will be held in Kigali, Rwanda in June and intra-Commonwealth trade will be on the agenda. There will be business related events.

In a Commonwealth context, the UK now has its “Pacific Uplift” policy through which it is increasing its diplomatic presence and engagement in this region. I have heard that a UK/Caribbean meeting is being scheduled for the spring in London.

There is a UK/Caribbean strategy prepared by the UK High Commissioners and Ambassadors in this region.

I am sure Caribbean sugar producers were involved in crafting the ACP Sugar proposal to the UK. I believe, however, that CARIFORUM needs to be clear o n t h e U K / A C P relationship following the transition period.

Will the UK still be engaging with: the ACP group/Organization; the individual ACP countries and regions; or through the Commonwealth? There is need for clarification of the UK's position.

This will determine whether the UK will be dealing with CARIFORUM or CARICOM in the future.

Nevertheless, the Caribbean does need to be determining its approach to the UK. Elizabeth Morgan, who writes for CMC, is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics.

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

Sunday February 16, 2020

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After 20-plus years and a sordid record, what good can we expect from Jagdeo?

A

ny government headed by anyone will be better than one headed by Bharrat Jagdeo, or by another with him as the de facto leader. He is only interested in power, and by now it is clear to all Guyanese that Irfaan Ali's name as presidential candidate is no more than a faรงade.

In less than a month, Guyana's fate will be decided at the polls, and each eligible voter will take responsibility for the choices they make, whether they vote or don't vote for Guyana's future. As Martin Carter said, all are involved and all are consumed.

We expect Guyanese will be able to move forward either peacefully or in constant fear of marginalisation, r e c r i m i n a t i o n , discrimination, economic deprivation. Governance under Jagdeo is not only unforgettable but in many instances unforgivable. We can never forget the unprecedented level of corruption, misuse of government land and selfenrichment projects.

How can we forget the 'treason charges' and other acts of jailing/locking people up for daring to dissent; the extra-judicial killings and the number of businessmen, police and ordinary citizens killed in turf and gang wars as government seemed uncaring to arrest the situation; the proliferation of the narco economy and the get rich quick syndrome where our youth were more motivated to fill their pockets than to earn an honest living; the rise of ageism.

It is unforgivable the willful division of the trade union movement; discrimination in budgetary allocation; taking away of the trade union subventions i n a t t e m p t s t o marginalise/silence the voice of the GTUC, cripple the economically dispossessed and workers' opportunity for further advancement; refusal to honour agreements with the trade union and Opposition; devaluing of the Office; corruption of the police force; U.S withdrawal of government officials' visas, unprecedented in this country; management of the

jail break and chaos that reigned after.

These are not just a case of badmouthing but all evidence-based indisputable facts. The reason why Jagdeo needs to be kept at bay is not just an error or two in judgment or project he didn't get right; it is about the heightened division he deliberately nurtured, the social unrest he created, overtly and covertly, putting Guyana on the brink of failure, making it into a pariah state, rated by Transparency International as the most corrupt in the Englishspeaking hemisphere.

I have lived through various regimes and you can find positive and negative in all. This is the reality around the world, but when you have a government where fear stalks, there is reason to be concerned.

Come March 3rd do we move forward with the assurance that the affairs of state will be managed not necessarily by a perfect government but one in whom you can place your trust and confidence that all, regardless of race, ethnicity or geographic location will be able to peacefully coexist, and enjoy the goodwill of a regime prepared to govern in the interest of all not just from whom support can be guaranteed?

This government is one where Jagdeo pursued a vendetta to destablise and stop them. Yet still they were able to make strides, even as they had to navigate their way through a successful confidence vote. Whereas the PPP faced one before they did not allow it to come to a vote.

This government has brought about a level of peace and more even development. There is less tension in the society. There is more openness in society.

It is still growing and there is a potential for more. We can see more responsiveness to the societal concerns as evident in the release of the Exxon contract and US$18M signing bonus.

There is greater effort being made to allow constitutional bodies to work without political interference, such as the Public Procurement Commission and GECOM, where no longer the government's spokesperson directs what must happen as done during the Jagdeo administration.

Notably too is the effort to streamline the economy by signing on to the AML/CTF that helped to monitor and reduce the free flow of money laundering activities, which was resisted by the PPP government. There is greater effort to fight corruption as noted by Transparency International Corruption Index (2019) where Guyana jumped 34 points,

registering significant improvement in the last eight years.

Noted too is the effort to improve morale by setting out to make the police force more professional and accountable through capacity building, and the Public Service through the Bertram Collins College. There is a little more trust and confidence in the promises of this

administration as against the previous, in instance such as the promise to remove university fees and the PPP now promising to do same after having imposed it.

The average (or most) government doesn't get it right the first term, but what you do is judge them based on their challenges they faced and ability to overcome them.

This government is still

growing, but we have seen what Jagdeo has done. These are the choices we have - a new government that is making efforts as against another one that has failed the people.

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

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Sunday February 16, 2020

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THE

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Sunday February 16, 2020

STORY WITHIN THE

Rise of the teen robbers

By Leonard Gildarie

E

lections are two weeks away. There is almost a surreal feel in the air. People are walking almost in a daze, as if the elections are months away instead. The Coalition has come out with a manifesto which commits to several things, including more house lots and the development of a natural gas plant. I did not see the Kaieteur News report talk about the plans for crime.

However, this is the one area that needs to be addressed.

While national figures will tell a tale of major crimes down and cases being solved, there is a growing development that is holding communities hostage. Yes, it literally has people terrified of walking alone.

I can tell of Diamond and Golden Grove, and Grove and Craig. Workers are afraid to walk through the streets. The robberies are taking place in front of persons. The robbers are on motorcycles, for easy getaways, and bicycles.

I read one story where the woman claimed she was robbed by someone sitting on a bridge combing his hair.

I saw a video of a woman this past week, thrown violently to the ground. She was walking and had just crossed the road, when a motorcycle pulled up alongside her. It appeared that her handbag was pulled and she was dragged and thrown in front of an oncoming car during the process. Fortunately, the car braked in time. It appears that other drivers saw, but were powerless to do anything.

Yesterday, I read of a teen f r o m We s t D e m e r a r a Secondary School being violently attacked by a robber while riding home from school. He suffered a fractured skull.

A social worker, wearing a hijab, was slashed on the face by a knife-wielding bandit last week during an attack. The incidents will tell a story of bandits not caring who the victims are. A child, a Muslim woman, a domestic worker.

Recently, two sanitation workers from Puran Brothers were violently robbed of their phones and other possessions.

The driver of the vehicle lost his wedding ring. Do we need

to go on with more incidents to illustrate the growing threats in our communities?

Across at Belle West, West Bank Demerara, a gang that preyed on working families by carrying out daytime burglaries was busted last week. The fact of the matter is that in almost all the communities, little gangs are raising up. It can be two little teenagers. It can be several.

I read one account of a woman yesterday who said she looks with suspicion at every person riding a bicycle and wearing a haversack.

As a media worker, I am in a state of constant alert.

Driving to work, I am constantly checking side and rear-view mirrors a n d positioning the vehicle for quick acceleration. It is a mental thing. Coming home, my eyes are on dark spots.

Can we blame our people?

I spoke to police ranks and it is a problem. Many of the crimes go unreported.

I read yesterday of a woman in Sophia who is being threatened and calling the Turkeyen police station. 'The vehicle is in the workshop. We can't send a patrol'. The police force remains underequipped. We are a small country and daily I shake my head in frustration. This coalition to its credit has started moves to fix the police force.

It has installed a number of specialist deputy commissioners, thus paving the way for constant promotions.

However, the daily shakedowns, the stops and the subtle, suggestive hints of 'leff something nah' continue to speak of a culture of bribery and corruption that is beyond sickening. I will continue to speak out. Better must come.

Recently, at Diamond, I was pulled over. I was doing a little over 60 km per hour and the police rank said I was speeding. I said yes, and can I get a break, as I am late for an assignment.

The rank, a young man I have never seen before, was respectful and said 'please take your time, sir'. He is an exception. So on one hand, we have young men‌and teens, mainly, who are not willing to work, but stand ready to prey on the innocent. On the other, there is the under-staffed, under-equipped police force.

Leonard Gildarie In the absence of an abundance of resources, how do we fix a growing problem?

I am sure that the police force is not unaware of the growing problem.

We cannot deny what is happening. Just go to the communities and talk to residents. There is a very real fear. Many will tell you it is the young gangs who smoke and prowl the area daily.

We have experimented with neighbourhood police groups. The fact is, I may be able to recognize one or two of the members of those groups.

There should be more engagements between the police and residents.

I've said it before, and I wrote it so many times‌the police can do so much better if the relations with the communities are better.

I have many police friends.

I can call them. The respect is there. But if you speak to residents, they will tell you they don't trust the police.

Anecdotally, they will tell you stories of police ranks being hand in glove with criminals. Information is passed and protection is given.

It is all part of the system. Is there evidence?

Well, residents will tell you which ranks go to which drug yard regularly.

They will tell you who are the suspicious persons in the neighbourhood and who are the persons buying the stolen stuff. The solving of crimes, the crime fight in general has to be a community-tackled one. But the people will have to feel some level of comfort in dealing with police ranks and stations.

For all the cameras that we have installed around the city, at the station level, the need for more training is imperative.

However, it will all be in vain if the culture continues to be one in which ranks seek to capitalise on every situation.

We all know how the game is played. Let's not deny it.

Introspection may be the word of the week as we look to the future and demand that we have changes.

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

Sunday February 16, 2020

From page 33 absurd, despite the fact that a detailed economic model has been published by the firm, OpenOil, to support its conclusions.

The Norwegian firm, Rystad, has published its own report, which claims Guyana will get a much higher share.

Unlike OpenOil, Rystad’s assumptions and its economic model are not public. Hence, its claims cannot be independently verified.

Yet, Government continues to embrace that report.

There have also been attempts to cast aspersions on the integrity of Global Witness, by officials like Carl Greenidge who called the non-governmental organization a pack of “jokers”.

This would strike many as absurd, as the anti-corruption body’s reputation precedes it as one that has spent decades fighting corruption, exposing human rights abuses, and helping governments recover significant sums of lost revenue.

CITY COUNCIL MOVES TO CANCELALL LEASES GRANTED BY ROYSTON KING The Georgetown Mayor and City Council is set to cancel all leases approved by former Town Clerk Royston King. The announcement was made by City Mayor Ubraj Narine, at Monday‘s Statutory meeting. Mayor Narine said that Council is set to cancel the leases after careful examination of the deals made by King to a number of private individuals and companies.

During his tenure at City Hall, the former Town Clerk had been implicated for leasing out several river side and reserves under the Council’s purview.

In fact, one of the leases under contention was made to Quick Shipping Inc. for a

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water front property on Lombard and Sussex Streets.

King has reportedly been collecting a yearly rent from the tenants, despite claims that the State holding company– National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) – owns the property. The dispute over the ownership came up before a Commission of Inquiry into the Council’s operations.

King was eventually dismissed for dereliction of duty as result of that COI. On Monday, the Mayor noted that again the lease had nothing to do with the Council but was made by King in capacity as Town Clerk.

“Careful examination of transport and lease to Quick Shipping determined that it has no connection to Council.

[King] took it upon himself and leased the property. There are a number of leases here that were made by King, himself and not the Council.

We must admit that these leases were never brought before the Council or any committee. It is therefore within the rights of the Council to have all the leases he made cancelled.

ORINDUIK BLOCK HOLDS 5.1 BILLION BARRELS OILEQUIVALENT – REPORT REVEALS The Orinduik Block is now estimated to have 5.1 billion barrels of oilequivalent, according to a recent Competent Persons Report contracted by Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas. The firm, Gustavson Associates LLC, conducted the report, updating the gross prospective resource previously estimated in March 2019 to be four billion barrels of oil-equivalent.

Eco’s co-founder and chief operating office, Colin Kinley, said “We are pleased to announce a new and updated CPR for our Orinduik Block offshore Guyana. The

understanding of our resources has gained strength and momentum with the discoveries we made in the Tertiary last summer and the recent discovery of light oil in Carapa-1, made on the Kanuku Block to the south of us. This has also been driven by the discoveries of over 8 billion barrels of oil immediately East of us by ExxonMobil.”

Eco Atlantic reported that the estimate indicates about 771 million barrels of oilequivalent as its share, representing Eco’s 15 percent working interest in the Orinduik Block.

Its joint venture partners on that Block are Tullow Guyana BV, which is the operator with a 60 percent working interest; and Total E&P Guyana BV, with a 25 percent working interest. The 1800-square kilometer Block is located in shallow water, about 170km offshore Guyana, according to Eco. A small fraction of the estimated 5.1 billion barrels has been unrisked. Two discoveries have been made so far in the Block, Jethro-1 and Joe-1. Tullow announced the Jethro-1 find on August 12 and the Joe-1 find on September 16, last year. The Jethro-1 well is estimated to hold 208.3 million barrels of oil-equivalent, while the Joe1 well is estimated to have 104.4 million oil-equivalent barrels. These have been reported as heavy oil finds,

which are more challenging to produce.

Those two finds had formed part of the Block’s tertiary leads, which now amount to an estimated 1.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels.

There is probably lighter oil to be found as well.

THURSDAY GUYANA’S LOCAL CONTENT POLICY REMAINS BOUND BY CONFIDENTIALITY PROVISIONS A preliminary review of Guyana’s Local Content Policy shows that some key recommendations which were made, have been ignored.

The draft report which was done by UK Consultant, Dr. Michael Warner, contained a provision which called for companies’ Local Content reports to remain confidential between the Minister of Business and his Ministry. Only a “summary” of those reports submitted would be made public.

During the period of submissions on the said draft, this publication had contended that this confidentiality provision should be removed, since a Minister’s interpretation of these reports, along with his or her selective extraction of aggregated data, would not necessarily provide a full and fair opportunity for citizens to make an informed analysis or conclusion of how local content is being achieved, or the lack thereof.

In the interest of holding the operator, the regulator and the government accountable, Kaieteur News recommended that the full reports are made public. Significantly, in the said recommendation it was noted, “In whose interest is it to keep such reports confidential? Is it in the interest of Guyanese or the companies? If it is the latter, then this provision would be in contradiction to the very essence of the title of this document which states, ‘Local Content Policy.’ No provision in this policy

should even have the appearance of straying from the objective.”

In spite of the foregoing, the provision for confidentiality remained in the Local Content Policy. The provision states that “legal constraints” prevent the disclosure of submitted and reported information on local content to parties beyond the Minister.

GUYANESE EXPERTISE TO BE INCLUDED IN COMPLETION OF SECOND FPSO The completion of the Liza Unity, the second Floating Production Storage and Operating (FPSO) to operate in the oil-rich Stabroek Block, will see the use of local expertise.

This was recently revealed

by Energy Department Head, Dr. Mark Bynoe who has been adamant in ensuring maximum levels of local content in the petroleum industry. The official made this known while providing a progress report on the FPSO construction on Monday.

Dr. Bynoe was keen to note that the inclusion of Guyanese in various stages of the Unity’s completion was one of the key conditions for the approval of the Liza Phase Two Field Development Plan.

Speaking to progress made thus far, Dr. Bynoe noted that the Hull for the Liza Unity is completed and sailed from Shanghai on December 29, 2019. As for the topsides fabrication, Dr. Bynoe said that this is progressing well, with all 19 modules under construction. Development drilling is projected to commence in February 2020 once the conditions of (Continued on page 42)

PAGE 42

From page 41 approval are met. Kaieteur News understands that installation vessels are undergoing preparations for start-up of the first installation campaign aimed at March 2020.

The Liza Phase Two project is expected to produce over 6 million barrels of crude per month. According to documents submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), oil production from the Liza Phase Two Development is expected to last at least 20 years.

EEPGL will drill approximately 35-40 wells offshore to support extraction of the oil from below the sea floor. Each well will be drilled to a depth which is over 5,000 metres (m) below the sea floor.

EEPGL will then install some of the oil production facilities on the sea floor at approximately 1500-1900 m (4900-6200 ft) water depth.

These subsea facilities include various types of pipes and hardware. The subsea facilities allow the oil from the wells to be gathered and moved to the surface of the ocean for further processing.

CJ DISMISSES CHALLENGE TO MINISTER TROTMAN’S ISSUANCE OF OIL EXPLORATION LICENCES Chief Justice Roxane George has dismissed the legal challenge to Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman over the issuance of exploration licenses to subsidiary oil companies to carry out works offshore Guyana. The decision was handed down Wednesday at the Georgetown High Court.

The case was filed in the Court by local activist Ramon Gaskin.

Gaskin, through his legal team, comprising Trinidad-based Senior Counsel, Seenath Jairam and environmental Attorney

Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

Melinda Janki, applied to have Trotman’s actions deemed unlawful and overturned in view of the fact that three oil companies – Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Limited (Esso), Hess Guyana Limited (Hess) and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Ltd (NEXEN) – were issued Petroleum Production Licences (PPL) based on an environmental permit issued to one company alone–Esso.

Gaskin’s lawyers had contended that in the absence of the environmental permit issued to Hess and NEXEN in accordance with part IV of the Environmental Permit Act, Trotman was prohibited from granting the PPL to three companies to carry out the LIZA 1 project.

The Attorneys urged that the respondent (Trotman)’s powers to issue a PPL was restricted to Esso only, and could not include NEXEN and Hess.

It was submitted that the Minister acted illegally, ultra vires, irrationally, arbitrarily, capriciously, erroneously, and in excess of his jurisdiction, contrary to sections 14 of the Environmental PermitAct (EPA).

More specifically, Gaskin sought to block the companies from proceeding with their exploration and production on the grounds that Hess and NEXEN are covered by the environmental permits issued to ExxonMobil, through its local subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited.

FRIDAY PURELY CRIMINALTO HAVE EXXONMOBIL DRAFT CABINET DOCUMENT – JAGDEO “Can you imagine the government, which looks out for our interests… in a negotiation with [ExxonMobil]… gets the company to prepare the first draft of our negotiating strategy?”

“This is criminal, purely criminal.”

These and other

comments were made by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, during a press conference at his Church Street office, Thursday, of news that ExxonMobil drafted a Cabinet Memorandum on behalf of Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, before Government signed the Stabroek Block off to ExxonMobil in 2016 with a new agreement.

The revelation, brought to the public by Kaieteur News just days ago, came from a report Cabinet itself commissioned, but has not officially publicly released.

The report, which builds on information supplied by Government officials, states that an ExxonMobil official, Brooke Harris, wrote the first draft of the Cabinet memorandum that Minister Trotman presented to Cabinet for its approval of the controversial licence.

Jagdeo said that the Global Witness report paints a troubling picture, but that the Cabinet-commissioned report, produced by British law firm, Clyde & Co, paints an even more worrying one.

Even in an attempt to absolve himself, Trotman facilitated the release of information which implicates him even more, Jagdeo said.

He said it is unheard of, that in negotiations with a foreign company, Government would allow the same company to draft its negotiating strategy.

“This is the most unusual thing.”

“Is this not the height of incompetence and callousness?”

“That is what [President David] Granger has to answer for,” Jagdeo said, as the President has been silent on many controversial issues, with regards to the sector.

TROTMAN SHOULD HAVE HEEDED EXPERT’S ADVICE ON EXXONMOBIL DEA LCHATHAM HOUSE ASSOCIATE FELLOW The controversial Global Witness Report titled “Signed

Away” makes several disturbing pronouncements on the negotiations that obtained for the Stabroek Block deal between Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman and ExxonMobil.

One of the most damning of the conclusions is that Minister Trotman presented Exxon with feeble negotiation terms and ignored expert advice that more financial information was needed before he signed the licence.

During an exclusive interview on Kaieteur Radio’s show, Guyana’s Oil and You, Associate Fellow of Chatham House, Dr. Valerie Marcel, said that the Trotman should have heeded the foregoing advice that was provided to him by experts.

Dr. Marcel said, “I think it would have been better for him and for Guyana to heed that advice because it was good advice. I don’t know why he didn’t but that is something the government set in motion last summer, an investigation into all the handling of that process and that just came out a week and a half ago. I would be keen to read and better understand what happened.”

The report Dr. Marcel was referring to was done by an international law firm called Clyde and Co. It was commissioned by Cabinet last year. Kaieteur News reported recently that the report unambiguously states that the negotiation of improved terms for Guyana in the 2016 agreement with Exxon was not a priority for the Government of Guyana.

Apart from stating her position on the Trotman conclusion, the Chatham House Associate was keen to note that the Global Witness report was valuable in pointing out that Exxon used aggressive tactics during negotiations with a government that was new to the sector. The foregoing aside, Dr. Marcel said that there were a number of other issues in the report which she

simply could not agree with.

MEDICAL COUNCIL APOLOGISES FIVE YEARS LATER FOR GRANDPA’S DEATH The Medical Council of Guyana has broken its fiveyear silence on the death of a 74-year-old Edward Subryan.

The grandfather died on February 1, 2014 at the Woodlands Hospital with the family filing a complaint with Council shortly after about the quality of service offered by the doctors and the hospital.

The then Chair of the Council, Dr. Vivienne Mitchell, in a scathing report blasted the hospital and two doctors, Dr. Surendra Persaud and Dr. Kumar, and ordered they settle out-of-court with the family.

The Council recommended that the two doctors also face appropriate disciplinary action and said that they did not even meet the standards of being doctors.

Thursday, after weeks of reports in the media, the Council formally offered condolences to the family.

It said that a court case had set aside decisions and opinions of the Council in 2015 and that a new hearing is now underway.

The disclosures by the Council would raise questions about the operations of the Council as it has regulatory powers to sanction doctors.

Family members said that they have been going back and forth to the Council without any definitive word on the matter.

They were constantly being told over the five years that the matter is being handled by the Council.

According to the Council, which is chaired by Dr. Navindranauth Rambaran, the Medical Council of Guyana (the Council) is “obliged to make the following statement in

respect of the complaint lodged by the personal representatives of the late Mr. Edward Subryan against doctors who managed Mr. Subryan prior to his passing on February 1, 2014.” he Council said it is taking the opportunity to convey formally its condolences at the loss of Subryan and the grief that his family has endured.

SATURDAY NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE STABROEK BLOCK LICENCE… GUYANAHELDALOT OF POWER BUT DIDN’T REALISE IT In the report that the coalition administration commissioned last year from international law firm, Clyde and Company, it was noted that the negotiation of improved terms for Guyana in the 2016 agreement with Exxon During her first appearance on Kaieteur Radio’s programme, Guyana’s Oil and You, Chatham House Associate Fellow, Dr. Valerie Marcel was asked to state if she is aware of this conclusion in the report, to which she answered in the affirmative.

Questioned on what she made of the said pronouncement, Dr. Marcel said, “Well I mean, that certainly echoes the kinds of concerns that were talked about at the time in Georgetown, you know the sense of threat coming from Venezuela. (But) I think the thing that is often forgotten in those moments, or that was forgotten at that moment, was that Guyana was actually quite powerful but it didn’t see that. I think the Guyanese Government perhaps didn’t see how powerful it was visà-vis Exxon.”

In response to a request to expound further, Dr. Marcel noted that Guyana went from (Continued on page 43)

Sunday February 16, 2020

From page 42 being a frontier country where it was struggling to find investors in its oil sector, to a country that was really emerging as a hotspot; as a place where significant exploration money had already been put into finding reserves.

The Energy Expert added, “And I think it seems likely Exxon knew what it had there, and therefore, the government had power and since then, the power of the government has grown, because (there) has been a string of impressive discoveries, and I think it is really important to see that power and not to feel like little Guyana anymore.”

Further to this, the Chatham House Associate Fellow was reminded of the controversial Global Witness report which stated that Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman ignored expert advice to the effect that more financial information was needed before he signed the Stabroek Block licence. On this note, Dr. Marcel was asked to say if she believes that an investigation is needed to understand why that advice was ignored. Dr. Marcel said it is her understanding that was part of the focus of the Clyde and Company investigation.

The Chatham House Fellow added, “I mean, that is just taken from public sources.

I thought that was the gist of the investigation, understanding step by step

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of the whole process…”

Dr. Marcel noted, nonetheless, that she believes it is important to understand if there was mishandling of the award of the contract.

IDB LOANS GUYANA $121M TO BOOST EXPERTISE IN ENERGYDEPT. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has loaned Guyana US$606,062 (approx. G$121M) which will go towards strengthening the technical functions of the Department of Energy (DE).

According to procurement documents perused by Kaieteur News, the loan will go towards three areas. Component one of the project which is set at US$331,062 (approx. $66M) will support the operationalization of the protocols for the management of the Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) and all other contracts.

The protocols were recommended to the Department of Energy, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission Petroleum Unit (GGMC-PU), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other critical agencies in the regulatory framework.

These protocols include the forms and reports that outline the tiers compliance commitments of both the Government and the Operators. Particularly, this component will support contractual compliance

monitoring and records management; facilitate an increase in Guyana’s organizational capability in relation to the oil and gas sector by adopting best practices and improved interagency information cooperation and communication during the contract management process.

The protocols also take into account, the provision of advice regarding IT platform functionalities for the collection, processing, and retention of contract and regulatory compliance data.

The IDB was keen to note that the management and retention of the volume of data generated by exploration, appraisal, field development, production, and decommissioning are also important to improve audit capabilities and transparency.

Component two of the loan which totals US$150,000 (approx. G$30M), will facilitate an increase in Guyana’s organizational and managerial capability and the construction of handbooks and provision of training for government officials in the DE, GGMC-PU, EPA, and other relevant agency in the use of contract management software and tools for compliance monitoring and enforcement of the Stabroek PSA and all other oil block agreements in Guyana.

The IDB said that this component is intended to improve the operational implementation of the PSA compliance forms and other

proformas to increase competencies of designated contract management tools users.

With respect to Component Three of the loan, US$100,000 (approx. G$20M) has been set aside to manage the public interest in the oil and gas sector, as well as ensuring transparency among all key stakeholders.

Activities will include the dissemination of products generated under this technical cooperation and other assistance programmes from the IDB to the Guyanese oil and gas sector; and engagement with stakeholders through conferences, events, brownbag lunches, etc. to discuss the most salient issues in operationalizing the PSA protocols for the sector as it evolves.

This newspaper understands that US$25,000 (approx. G$5M) has been put aside for travel contingencies bringing the total of the project to US$606,062.

The Bank, through the Mining, Geothermal Energy, and Hydrocarbons (MGH) and the Energy Division (INE/ENE) of the Infrastructure and Energy Department, will act as the executing agency due to its ability to leverage its extensive network of internal and external subject-matter experts and well-established relationships with involved stakeholders.

The IDB has also said that it will contract individual consultants, consulting firms, and non-consulting services in accordance with the Bank’s

current procurement policies and procedures. It was further noted that the IDB will lead implementation, programmatic oversight of the different activities and coordinate results reporting with other organizations operating in the field.

FREE UG, GAS PLANT, 20,000 HOUSE LOTS AMONG PROMISES IN APNU+AFC’S 2020 MANIFESTO A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) on Friday launched its 2020 manifesto under the header ‘Together Let’s Move Forward’.

The key promotions of this document are a growing, innovative, and competitive economy, a free public education system straight up to university, a modern, stateof-the-art healthcare system, modern infrastructure, and a roof over every head. These are set to be accomplished in the President’s “Decade of Development – 2020-2029”.

Some of the major promises to give effect to those general principles are free education, tax relief, infrastructural upgrades from the oil and gas sector, a natural gas terminal and 20,000 house lots.

The largest coalition in Guyana’s history, comprising six parties, is making its bid for re-election come March 2, 2020, to complete what it started in May 2015. It consists of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Guyana

Action Party (GAP), Justice For All Party (JFAP), National Front Alliance (NFA), People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), and Working People’s Alliance (WPA).

It claims its term was cut short by the No Confidence Motion of December 21, 2018.

Launching its manifesto at its Camp Street headquarters on Friday were coalition leader and presidential candidate, David Granger; AFC leader and prime ministerial candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan; and other party frontbenchers, Dawn HastingsWilliams, Joseph Harmon and Raphael Trotman.

Notably different were the circumstances of the launch – a closed door event, only for the media corps. Guyana Press Association (GPA) President, Nazima Raghubir, was first to point out during the question and answer segment that this arrangement was very different from the coalition’s launch for the previous general election. The previous manifesto had been unveiled at Stabroek Market.

Harmon told the media corps that that launch would not be the only one, and that there will be others open to the wider public.

BUSINESSMAN CLAIMS OIL COMPANY HAS HIM ON WATCHLIST AFTER FACEBOOK LIVE Businessman Brian Mackintosh, popularly known as Bryan Max, believes that a recent (Continued on page 44)

PAGE 44

From page 43 Facebook live video is the cause that he is being followed.

Mackintosh, who says he has been an advocate for the people for over two decades, told Kaieteur News that he recently took on an oil company for its deal with Guyana. He said that he demanded that a better contract be signed and wondered what it would take to have a better deal.

However, according to Mackintosh, who is a race car driver as well, it appeared that his Facebook posts have not gone down well with the oil company and other persons.

“I received a call from a friend who asked if I had threatened the oil company. I was sent a BOLO (Be On The Lookout) notice which had been issued to security personnel of the oil company.”

According to Macintosh, he even felt certain of being followed and had to hire two security personnel and install more cameras at his home.

He has not yet contacted the US Embassy on the matter. “I have sent an Instagram message to the US president Donald Trump who

Kaieteur News

actually knows I exist. During his campaign, he acknowledged my support for him…from someone as far away as in South America.”

According to the activist, it is simple what he wants.

“I am saying that Guyana must have a fair deal.

Presently we are getting two percent, but in actuality it will be less. We are supposed to get 12.5 percent after deduction, but we are not getting that. I am worried for myself and family.”

“When the oil contract and its signing bonus first came up, I spoke about it. It took a little while to read between the lines, and I finally reached the conclusions that the oil company has blatantly and viciously robbed Guyana.” He said he started to write more on the oil deal and just over a week ago, tackled the issue in greater detail in a Facebook live video.

“We started talking about what it would take for the

company to understand that Guyanese are serious; that not everybody is in agreement with the oil contract, like the government and a few supporters. We talked about what we need to do. Do we need to go out in front and protest in front of your building?”

Mackintosh said he also pointed out that Guyana is unaware if natural gas is being taken from the offshore wells.

He said afterwards he received a call that the Facebook live came to the attention of the oil company which sent out the BOLO to its security people.

“It had my photograph and said I made reported threats to the company. It also talked about the vehicles I am driving.”

Mackintosh claims that the BOLO notice was sent to a number of security personnel from overseas working with the oil company- mainly ex-Marines and military persons. In concluding, the businessman insisted that he is not politically aligned, but has a preference to give a smaller party a chance in the general elections slated for March 2nd.

THREE YOUTHS HOSPITALISED AFTER SUV PLOUGHS INTO THEM Three youths, ages 9, 14

Sunday February 16, 2020

and 16, are presently hospitalised with serious injuries about their bodies after the driver of a Nissan Xtrail ploughed into them on the Bushlot, Corentyne, Berbice public road on Friday afternoon at 12:15 hrs.

Injured and hospitalised at the A&E of the New Amsterdam Hospital are sisters, Aliya and Aneela Mohabir (aged 16 and 14 respectively) and Roshini Mohan, aged 9. Aliya Mohabir is in a critical condition. Aneela suffered a fractured right leg and is in a stable condition. Roshini Mohan is under observation.

The driver of the Xtrail bearing license plate number PXX 5165 has been identified as a 31-year-old resident of #72 Village, Corentyne. He is said to be a doctor attached to the Skeldon Hospital.

According to the police, the vehicle was reportedly heading east along the northern carriageway at a normal rate, when the driver alleges that he saw a school child (the 9-year-old) who was standing on the southern side of the road, run across the road into the path of his vehicle. As a result he applied brakes and swerved to avoid a collision, but this proved futile, and he ended up on a foot path where the other two girls were walking.

They were immediately picked up by public spirited persons and rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital and subsequently transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital where they were admitted.

Mother of the two teenagers, Bashwattie Rambrich, told reporters that her older daughter is not attending school but the younger one, who is in form 2 at Bushlot Secondary, wanted to purchase a Valentine’s Day gift for her class teacher at the shop located near the said school.

She added that the older girl said she would accompany her to the shop.

“Dem binna go shop to buy a gift for she teacher

when dem get knock. Me get the call seh they end up in accident and dem gone Port Mourant Hospital, but when me go there, dem bin already transfer to New Amsterdam”, she said.

Meanwhile, Roshini Mohan’s mother, Latchmi Devi Mangru, while speaking to this publication, related that it was her husband who rushed home and informed her that her daughter, who is a student of the Kildonan Primary School, was struck down by a vehicle on the public road.

She stated that when she reached to the location her daughter had already been taken to the hospital. When she arrived she was informed that her daughter would be transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital and had sustained head injuries and other injuries about her body.

However, the grandmother of the child explained that Mohan would eat lunch at her house which is located a lot away.

“She just left my house and told me she going back to school, but it nah meet three seconds and me hear a impact, so me start holler out for she and me run out and see she pon the road. Me neighbour dem come out and rescue she and take she to the hospital”, she said.

According to the woman, her gran-daughter’s body was “like two feet away from the white line” and there was no pedestrian crossing near. She confirmed that Mohan was crossing the road when she was hit.

The driver of the Xtrail after hitting down the three youths, stopped and exited his vehicle, but he appeared to be in shock over what had happened, eyewitnesses said. He was subsequently taken into custody at the Whim Police Station where he is assisting with investigations. His vehicle, which was also impounded, was released shortly after it was inspected at the station by ranks.

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Immigration watching you on Facebook and Social Media...

By Attorney Gail S. Seeram

W

hen using social media on your phone, there is reason to worry that the U.S. government is watching you and even tracking your location.

The Trump administration is now using Cell Phone Location Data for Immigration Enforcement since it bought access to commercial

database that maps movements of millions of cellphones in America. I advise clients to turn off their Location setting.

In addition, when completing any visa application, the U.S. Department of State is now asking for social media information like Facebook.

Likewise, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services also engage in social media screening.

The internet provides a platform where people can easily connect and through social media tools like Facebook, people tend to accumulate a large group of friends (some known and some unknown).

In turn, social media has provided the Department of Homeland Security with a tool for them to “observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities”.

What types of fraud are we talking about?

(1) marriages that are not based on love but rather a business arrangement to help the beneficiary get legal status in the U.S.; (2) immigrant that was deported and returned to the U.S. without permission or proper entry; and (3) investigations into misrepresentations made to an officer during questioning to gain an immigration benefit.

Fraud can be detected in

various stages of the immigration process – submission of petitions, preinterview, post-interview, admission at the U.S. port of entry, deferred inspection, and removal/deportation proceedings.

The following are common I-130 family based petition fraud indicators: (1) short time between entry and marriage: (2) unusual marriage history; (3) children born during marriage to other parent; (4) unusual number of children and large discrepancy in age; (5) unusual dates on submitted documents; (6) divorce/new marriage dates close; (7) large age discrepancy between spouses; (8) unusual cultural differences; (9) same employer of petitioner/beneficiary; and ( 1 0 ) u n u s u a l associations between family members.

Based on various fraud indicators, an officer may investigate petitioner and beneficiary on various social media sites to verify the

Gail S. Seeram relationship and/or statements made during the interview process. When affected by social media problems in screening when attempting to immigrate into the country, the individual may need the support of an immigration lawyer to overcome these hurdles.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper) Attorney Gail Seeram, LL.M., J.D., BBA call | text 407-292-7730 whatsApp 407-353-1363 e m a i l : Gail@GailLaw.com l i v e c h a t : www.GailLaw.com Download FREE App: Gail Law Copyright © Law Offices of Gail S. Seeram, 2020. All Rights Reserved

Hypocrisy unmasked at the OAS From page 24 Ms. Espinosa, in the effectiveness of his presentation and the content of the answers he gave to questions. His Achilles heel is his central and pivotal role in the creation and operation of the Lima Group, a gathering of a few countries dedicated to regime change in Venezuela.

Mr. de Zela's smooth veneer was dented by the Ambassador of Grenada, Yo l a n d e S m i t h , w h o inquired how he planned to build consensus in the OAS when he was the planter of the seeds of division by creating the Lima Group (not an official or recognised group of the Organisation) that ignored the official regional groups and operated in an exclusive process.

The OAS is at the crossroads. It can continue the business of the last five years, in which case countries will withdraw and t h e O rg a n i z a t i o n w i l l become an unrepresentative body with no hemispheric legitimacy, or it can choose sound management, transparency and greater

effectiveness through the inclusion of all in genuine dialogue that takes account of every view. The latter would not be seeking a l o w e s t c o m m o n denominator consensus; it would be based on guidance by established rules, principles and international law.

Of the candidates who spoke on February 12, María Fernanda Espinosa offered the best course for every member state to achieve the latter objective – and that was the general belief.

(The writer is the Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organization of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto.

The views expressed are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)) Responses and previous c o m m e n t a r i e s : www.sirronaldsanders.com

Kaieteur News

Arielle Ming

Sunday February 16, 2020

This week's scintillating beauty is Miss Arielle Ming. This gorgeous belle enjoys going to the gym, swimming, reading, Latin dancing, and helping the less fortunate.

One of her favourite quotes says, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.�

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Using volunteerism to make the world a better place….

YCG Executive Director, Dmitri Nicholson,

By Sharmain Grainger

A

b o u t t w o decades ago a young man decided he would embark on a journey of volunteerism. It was a path he didn't know he needed to tread, but for some reason, life's circumstances steered him in that direction.

Maybe it was a chance to get away from his regular life; but he would learn, eventually, that it was an opportunity to grow and morph into a human being who has an appreciation of how important it is to help others and not expect anything, other than their upliftment, in return.

The young man who embarked on this path, unlike many before him and many more who will come, to this day, has not seen volunteerism as a stepping stone to a more lucrative career, but rather, a destined forte that he must continue to embrace if life is to remain worth living.

Being duly featured today as our 'Special Person' of the week, is Dmitri Nicholson, a son of the soil, with what some may describe as a 'mysterious drive' to reach the pinnacle of volunteerism.

And after years of treading this path, he has no question that he made some good life choices that have today, though belatedly, thrust him into the limelight of recognition for never reneging or turning his back on those who need that extra help to get their life on the right path.

Through his affiliation with Youth Challenge Guyana [YCG], which is said to be one of the leading youth empowerment agencies in the country, providing effective education, health, life skills and livelihood programmes, Dmitri said, “I got the chance to work with young people who had many different circumstances, and helped them to bring out their best.”

According to him, “The satisfaction I got from helping these young people explore their own potential to become better individuals, is what sort of kept me going, or moved me in the direction of this type of career.”

BECOMING A TEACHER

is a 'Special Person' But the results of choosing this path back in the day was not as clear as they currently are to him today. In fact, Dmitri, whose earthly existence started on July 9, 1980, tried for a spell to understand the concept of volunteerism before reaching to the point of no return.

It all started in the late 1990s, when Dmitri was caressing the idea of becoming a teacher in the mainstream school system.

that we had many other children to play with…it was quite a multi-ethnic environment, so I had an appreciation, as a young person, for people of different cultures,” said Dmitri, as he recalled his family eventually moving to East Ruimveldt for space and to be closer to his paternal grandmother.

He attended a number of primary schools because of the move, which culminated at St Gabriel's, and

subsequently positioned him for a place at Christ Church Secondary. Not satisfied with his CXC performance, Dmitri, who from a young age developed a knack for good decision making, decided to shore-up his secondary education by attending Saint Stanislaus College.

By the time he graduated, he was found good enough to become a teacher himself, and was accepted as a Temporary Qualified Master at Sacred Heart Primary. He remembers all too well his inaugural pay cheque of $13,566, and though it didn't

Our 'Special Person', Dmitri Nicholson allow him to do much, he intimated, “it felt good working.”

Reflecting on those days, he recalled, “I was kind of an own way person…so I didn't hear much about what

A committed family man

A loving father to his daughter, Zemirah

Imparting life-changing knowledge A photo op with one of his favourite presidents, George W. Bush It certainly wasn't a passion of his to become a teacher, but he had long recognised that “I had a natural gift for working with young people, and I thought teaching was the area that was going to help me explore that.”

Raised as a city boy in a nuclear family, Dmitri has fond memories of his boyhood days, many of which he spent in Kitty and then East Ruimveldt. He didn't share too much about his parents and siblings, during his recent interview, but what remains etched in his mind to date are the many interactions he had as a young boy while living in an apartment building in Kitty.

“What I loved about it, is

people had to say, I just wanted to do what I think I wanted to do,” said Dmitri, when asked if, as a young boy, he had envisioned himself as a teacher. He quipped, “I didn't like Mathematics, so what I knew even then is that what I was going to do; it would not have anything to do with Maths.”

AN AWAKENING Interestingly enough, it was while teaching that he got an inclination to dabble in volunteer work. And Dmitri remembers vividly how it all came about. “One day I heard an ad on the radio that you can spend some time i n t h e i n t e r i o r volunteering…the ad was telling you how you could help people and I just decided to call the number that was announced, and it w a s Yo u t h C h a l l e n g e Guyana [YCG].”

Back in 1998, YCG was reaching out to persons of (continued on page 57)

Sunday February 16, 2020

Govt. appoints 44 new Board of Directors

A

ccording to the Official Gazette, w h i c h w a s published yesterday, the Government of Guyana appointed 44 new Board of Directors across several government agencies.

The Guyana National Shipping Corporation (GNSC) under the Ministry of Finance has been appointed to serve for a period of one year, with effect from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Nine persons were appointed.

The Guyana National Printers Limited (GNPL) under the Ministry of Business has been appointed to serve for a period of one year, with effect from February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021. Ten persons have been appointed.

The Guyana Fire Service and Recruitment Training Board under the Ministry of Social Protection has been appointed to serve for a period of one year, with effect from February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021. Six persons have been appointed. The Guyana Prison and Agriculture Board under the Ministry of Social Protection has been appointed to serve for a period of one year, with effect from February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021. Ten persons were appointed.

The Guyana Prison Service Sentence Management Board also under the Social Protection Ministry has been appointed to serve for a period of one year, with effect from February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021. Nine were appointed.

The Cabinet appointed boards previously, following its defeat in the National Assembly by a vote of No Confidence, and a consequential order by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that it is in a Caretaker status.

Former Attorney General and Opposition Member of Parliament, Anil Nandlall, had criticised these appointments, positing that it is an arrogant defiance of the Constitution and the Caribbean Court's ruling.

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YCG Executive Director, Dmitri Nicholson, From page 22 different backgrounds to help achieve its volunteerism goals. This was quite intriguing for Dmitri, who had not only developed a passion for international exchange relations, but he also wanted a break from his routine existence. “I wanted to get away,” said Dmitri, as he recalled the pull to become involved in volunteer work. But even at this point, he wasn't sure this was his calling.

“I didn't think of volunteering as an opportunity then, but when I signed up for this [YCG] programme, I started to volunteer at the Red Cross for a little while. I just wanted to see how I would feel volunteering…so I tested it out, so to speak,” Dmitri recounted. He was able to learn skills as a First Responder, and eventually became a First Aid Instructor in the afternoons after teaching.

He was able to uncover a side of himself that he didn't even know existed, and it all felt so natural being able to insert himself into the multicultural environment of the Red Cross, by virtue of its international reach.

As he embraced this new path, it became clear that he was prepared for the 1999 July to September interior journey with YCG. But getting on board with YCG, required that persons have a little bit more than just a desire to volunteer.

According to Dmitri, as part of the entry requirement to volunteer, persons had to be successful at the YCG's selection weekend, during which they had to fund-raise a certain amount of money.

YCG LIFE Outspoken and oozing an abundance of selfconfidence, Dmitri excelled during selection weekend and was among those chosen to be further prepped for the volunteerism getaway in Guyana's hinterland region.

Preparation for this journey entailed learning to swim, understanding how to apply first aid, and developing interpersonal and communication skills.

Setting out on the eightweek long journey intended to take education and needed life skills to Region One, on this occasion, were not only Guyanese volunteers such as Dmitri, but others from Canada and Australia too. “I

thought I was really good as a teacher because I'd taught before…I did well with the children in the schools. We used a method from the Bahá'ís called 'On the wings of words',” Dmitri shared, as he recalled being inspired, after the eight weeks of volunteerism, to become a trained teacher.

Encouraged by other

was pursuing a degree in International Relations at the University of Guyana. He certainly didn't mind letting YCG yet the best out of him.

“How the organisation worked, as a small entity, different projects came into the organisation and you got exposure to many different areas of knowledge and work, and as you got the

“

Volunteering has a lot to do with your drive, there is no one size fits all when it comes to getting into this kind of activity, but if you want to make a difference, you will find the space that is best for you to do that. When I decided to do this, I didn't do it for the accolades or because I wanted to be recognised, so to speak; I just did it because I saw I could use my skills as a facilitator and a creative problem solver to help other young people be able to find their own solutions to their problems.

teachers to embark on this training, Dmitri joined the student fraternity at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE). But as he recalled it, “Unfortunately that did not work out in the way I was expecting. For two reasons,

”

exposure to these different areas, you sort of gained a bit more seniority in the organisation,” Dmitri shared. He developed a knack for writing outstanding funding proposals, which was one of

In the company of a like-minded colleague

one: I am a bit of a radical, an own way person; and I like to see how rules apply, and if they do, I follow how they apply and if I don't think the rules are necessary for an adult, I'm going to question it, and CPCE was not the place for me, because I was a bit too outside of the box.”

But as fate would have it, just when Dmitri decided to part ways with the teachers' training college, YCG had an opening for an intern, which he applied for and was accepted. Soon after, Dmitri

the main reasons that the organisation continues to thrive to this day.

“I have a high drive for this work and I don't slow down, and because of that drive and my ability to get resources, I kept being elevated and offered additional responsibilities, although on occasions the additional responsibilities and elevation did not come with the kind of remuneration you expected, because the resources were limited,” Dmitri revealed.

A committed family man But this never dampened his spirit, since he felt that he was being his true self in this realm of work.

“I really liked the success of the work that we were doing. For example, I saw lots of people who benefited from the HIV and AIDS work that we were doing…so many people who had no knowledge about condoms or safe sex, suddenly had the epiphany that they can have safe sex. I saw young people who were affected by HIV, who felt devastated by it, and b e c a u s e o f programmes we were able to do with them, they had a renewed sense of value for their own lives,” Dmitri related with pride.

The work of YCG has been farther reaching, according to Dmitri, who assumed the role of Executive Director in 2012. He pointed out that “Young people who would have otherwise turned to crime, went through life skills training with us, and after that decided they might have a more stable and sustainable livelihood…that is one of the reasons I continue to do this work.”

REMAINING FOCUSED But remaining focused and dedicated to volunteerism has not been without some concerns being tossed Dmitri's way.

“Many people would come up to me, even nowadays, and say 'how you still with this organisation?' They see what I am doing as a career boost, but the fact is, I am very creative in finding solutions to problems…I am

a creative problem solver and I can use that to help people. I value being in an environment where I can get to identify a problem, and work with a team to solve it, and as a result of seeing results consistently, I've remained with the organisation. If we go to help 10 people, then 10 people will get good help, and over time you can see the difference in their lives,” Dmitri noted.

In fact, he confidently added, “I may not be able to do a longitudinal study, but for the people I know who would have been through the programmes we offer, their lives are much different now; they are much better people than when I first met them.”

Despite the major impact the work he does has had on society, Dmitri has remained a 'simple and down to earth' kind of guy. “I am not an elaborate and flamboyant person, I like very calm things. Yes, I am very outgoing, I love soca music and soca concerts, and I enjoy being around people and having a good time, but I am very simple,” Dmitri insisted. In fact, aside from his volunteerism work, he gets immense satisfaction from making his wife, Lauressa, and his young daughter, Zemirah, happy.

“My life changed dramatically when I got married, and even more so when I got my daughter.

During that process as well, I learned so many things, and one of the things I've learnt is that I love being a father; I

enjoy fatherhood. It is precious in a context where you get to reflect a lot. I like to reflect a lot on where I came from and where I am going. I don't want the things I don't like about my own life to be transferred to my daughter, so every day I am working on improving myself so I have good habits that my daughter can emulate,” said Dmitri.

But even with the addition of family responsibilities, Dmitri continues to be a force to be reckoned with in the realm of volunteerism.

The key to remaining dedicated to this kind of work is not only by being selfless, he disclosed, but by having an ingrained passion to keep doing more.

“Volunteering has a lot to do with your drive, there is no one size fits all when it comes to getting into this kind of activity, but if you want to make a difference, you will find the space that is best for you to do that.

When I decided to do this, I didn't do it for the accolades or because I wanted to be recognised, so to speak; I just did it because I saw I could use my skills as a facilitator and a creative problem solver to help other young people be able to find their own solutions to their problems,” Dmitri shared.

And so for remaining true to a cause that has influenced positive changes for many in our society, we at Kaieteur News duly bestow Dmitri Nicholson with our title of 'Special Person'.

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K O

BO

Book review: Bivouac Author: Kwame Dawes Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD

M

ore than any of his recent w o r k , 'Bivouac' clearly demonstrates the genius of Kwame Dawes. With driven certainty 'Bivouac' delivers a haunting indictment on a people that has lost all cultural and spiritual bearing.

Against an opaque and arid backdrop, an existential crisis looms with deadly implications. Dawes' characters are losing a wrenching battle to find meaning in a world that is nasty and unforgiving.

Ferron, the lead character is a sympathetic, forlorn figure, an anachronism that struggles to fit in. He's educated from known pedigree, but there are no rewards here. His world is hostile. He recoils physically, escaping into the

Sunday February 16, 2020

Anchoring on Shifting Sands

wilde rness, escaping from his own inadequacies. But there's no respite, for his burdens he carries, unable to unload.

He was made from the rib of his father, George Ferron Morgan, a politically and culturally astute man scholarly - a tired revolutionary-turned-writer, from whose unpublished material we inhale the stench and fatalism of Jamaican society. His is the voice of a vanquished man: “I knew they were telling me that I could die. Be killed. Of course my comfort here is nonsense. I am nothing, here.

I am nobody.”

There is resignation, a fait accompli. He is professionally defeated, “How many read the papers for news anyway?”

He is snide, bitingly critical of his peers, an affront to Jamaica's tradition of great writers, world class writers, he argues. His sense of schadenfreude is his only defence against selfdissolution.

His writings speak of a

broken nation, “Here we are in the glorious decade Restoration Jamaica. Now we can put off puritanical austerity and buy American apples and grapes, import good shoes from foreign and to hell with turning a hand to make fashion. The whole thing seems like such a pathetic farce now, an absurdity. Why I listen to music, Bob Marley is dead, and it is as if everyone is smoking cockiness or that crack to make music.”

Colonialism has dealt a death blow to a striving nation. “It's roots time, reggae time, man time now...”

His demise stirs rumours, conspiratorial ones; the downing of a promising revolutionary. Lucas thinks so. But Ferron has his doubts but he's led down a road fraught with intrigue. After all, is he not being followed?

Is his father's passing the work clandestine political operators or just one of so many preventable mishaps?

And his father's comrade-inarms, Femi, is convincing: “They killed him, they cared that he died, because they were there when he died, and it mattered to them. Because they is a necessary construct - a political necessity.”

Whatever the case, “he is dead revolutionary. Look where it got him.”

Dawes' paints a society shredded by the weight of existence, an existence wrought with violence and fear. It is no secret. One character speaks volumes, “The place is virtually a ghetto now, those people a real worthless set of tenants.

But you tell them that, nuh.

Tell them and them liable to just shoot you.”

Not unlike Ferron, Lucas, his enigmatic brother, is a complex character, a man teetering on full blown neurosis. There is more to Lucas than imagined. He is the archetypal representation of the dysfunctional family.

In a psychoanalytic sense he represents libidinal frustration and psychic regression. The death of his father opens unresolved wounds and we easily peer into his unconscious terrain.

He shouts, points fingers, jockeys with his siblings and projects his guilt on those around him.

The foundation of a once rooted house buckles despite the effort of the matriarch, Mother Miraculous, her sobriquet, “for always managing to keep them together, always the family

first.”

And of Bivouac's many disturbing scenes, the derailment of Ferron's intimacy with his fiancée stands out. No doubt, he is very much a victim as his deflowered victim.

Feelings are frayed and their future doomed: “[T]he rape had objected something emotional into the relationship. That she felt it was unfair to blame him was clear. But that she still, despite that, blamed him and felt great anger toward him was even clearer. What he felt was resentment, even anger, at the idea of having to feel something...”

Bivouac signals more than the tragic end of political ideals. It is a compelling odyssey into the w o r s t o f h u m a n i t y.

Somehow there is truth behind the words of Ferron's

uncle: “We are all killed, you know? When we die, most of us, somebody harbours murder in their hearts for us somebody wishes us dead...They can wish these things into being.”

Bivouac is raw and unapologetic, leaving us terrified of our own fate - our o w n r e g r e t s , disappointments, resentments and loneliness not unlike its many characters, all groping for light in blinding darkness.

F e e d b a c k : glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby Bivouac by Kramer Dawes Publisher: Akashic Books, Brooklyn, NY ISBN: 978-1-61775710-5 Available at Amazon Ratings: A Must Read

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

STANDARDS IN FOCUS

GNBS commences monitoring electrical equipment and fittings FOR RENT

SERVICES

FOR SALE

Visa Forms Preparer.

Tel#626-7040, Publish your Death Annoucements & In Memoriams online. Email: dthmemo@gmail.com

Brand new computers, Wifi, Bluetooth, Windows 10. Call or Whatsapp #687-4970 CXC Past papers

ICONIC MARKETING & PRINTING –TEL: 6006887: We create A/works, logos, business cards, posters, etc, placements of ads included.

PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, G R A D U AT I O N , W E D D I N G S , ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620

Steel Rod 1/2"- 12mm$745+14% VAT, 5/8- 16mm $1,315 +14% VAT at Alabama Trading , 27 Lombard Street Werk-en-rust/ #231-3345/2274234 1-152 Laverda combine with wabble box, Fiat engine and buggie axle, hardly work, owner leaving country. #6589852 1- Raymax X-tray machine with Konica Minolta processor. Asking $5.5 neg.

Tel# 641-3001 LAND FOR SALE Transported land for sale in Rose Hall Town.Call#603-1441

VEHICLE FOR SALE 1 Suzuki Escudo.Excellent condition, Low Mileage (50,000Km).$3.4M Neg.Call #649-0956.

New Volkswagen Jetta, going cheap, owner leaving country. Tel# 629-2619

CAR RENTAL DOLLYSAUTO RENTAL CALL: 225-7126 & 2263693 -DOLLYS AUTO RENTAL@ YAHOO.COM/ W W W . D O L L Y SAUTORENTAL.COM AIDAN’S CAR RENTAL & TOW TRUCK SERVICE:PICKUP,9-11 SEAT MINI BUS, GOOD FOR AIRPORT & FAMILY OUTINGS, CHEAPEST RATE#698-7807.

TO LET Lodge Apartments (Vlissengen/Durban): Unfurnished $40,000-$60,000 p/m. Furnished ( For Visitors) $600 US p/m. #633-8514/6687305/697-6421 Decent working couples, One bedroom apartment in Georgetown, Parking & Telephone $45,000. Tel# 6238759/675-7842

Land for sale in Herstelling New Scheme (44x87) $5 Million. Contact Alistair #6268040 Diamond $5M, Sophia $5M, Schnoord $4M, Supply $27M, Loo creek wharf 6 acre $60M Sacacalli. Shawn #231-2199/ 618-7483 Two (2) acres of transported land at La Grange, Middle Dam WBD for sale. Contact # 6155372

Ransom (Concrete mixers), Scaffolding, Power washer, compactors, hire truck service etc, free delivery. Telephone: 610-5360.

Email: dmdscaffolding@yahoo.com PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, G R A D U AT I O N , W E D D I N G S , ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Fully furnished, luxury 2 bedroom apartments. Long & Short term. Rentals #687-8818/ 666-7028 Lower unfurnished 3 bedroom home in Eccles. Spacious & Parking available $150,000/ USA $750. Contact Ajai #6297132/ USA# 281-739-6550 Two bedroom apartment, parking & overhead tank $45,000. #626-5846 Self contain rooms to rent in Prashad Nagar. Tel#227-2993 Two 2 bedroom house in Herstelling, 1 month rent, 2 month security. Call: 696-1680 2 bedroom, Lower Flat, in Hadfield St, Lodge, Tiled, Secured & Grill. Mature Individual. $300 USD per month. Tel#610-5210/2268149 2 bedroom top flat at 55 Mocha Village EBD. Tel# 6330509 3 bedroom house fully furnished house located in Diamond, secured, price $1,500 monthly negotiable.

Contact Whatsapp #648-7621

The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) as of February 01, 2020, commenced the monitoring of a number of electrical equipment and fittings based on the requirements of thirtyone mandatory national

VACANCY Receptionist, Deskstaff, 25-50 years, three shift system. Tel# 225-0198 Diesel mechanic/welder to work on TM trucks. Contact #223-5273/223-5274 Accounts clerk for Eccles Office, English1, Mathematic-2, Quickbooks.

Email application to: techserigy@yahoo.com Maid to cook and clean for East Bank area. Call: 615-9132 One male janitor. Apply at Alabama Trading 65 Robb Street, Bourda 2 Vacancies- Clerk & Domestic, Live-in facilities for Berbicians & Essequibians. #219-5354 Office Assistant- Maths & English, Excel & Quickbooks.

Apply to Mima Decor, 8 Sheriff St, G/town. Email: mimadecor12@gmail.com.

Tel# 227-0186/227-0176

Lot 1397 Section A, Block ‘X’ Great Diamond, Housing Scheme, Serious Buyers only.

(110x62) 231-6345

Looking for a job & educational services?

Contact The Job Centre 43 Croal & Alexander Street or call: 600-8457

Land for sale - 480 acres of transported waterfront land situated @ Hogg Island, Suitable for Cattle, Rice, Eco Tourism. Contact#617-4004

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Car, Canter & Bus drivers. Call: 225-3234/225-9223

PROPERTY FOR SALE

DATING / PEN PAL

Two Certified cooks needed, speciality african and local dishes urgently. Grandma’s Kitchen. #233-0010/691-5777

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Contact Pacific Development Inc. 223-6035/ 604-4909

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Contact Gary #664-1569 for more info

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One Body work technician.

Call: 227-1717

Puri cooks, kitchen assistant, Apply @ Shanta’s- 225 Camp St

Truck Driver to work in Georgetown. Call: 227-1717

One general domestic to work in interior, to cook, clean.

Accomdation & meals provided. #680-2702

Oil company looking to buy residential house lots in Guyana. We pay in USD $.

Tel# 617-9930/+305-2972803(whatsapp only)

Charlestown $15M, South $22M, Norton $22M, Diamond $10M, Gordon, Tucville $22M, Princess $15M. Shawn #2312199/618-7483

Farm (East Bank) $4M Parfaite Harmonie $1.4M Schnoord (100 ft x 50ft) $3.8M Tel# 6481635

Golden Grove, EBD, 4 bedroom upstairs, Kitchen, Dining room downstairs.

Tel#691-2921/220-9353

Newly Constructed 4 bedroom,3 bathroom, house overlooking the sea for sale.ECD#675-1510/613-7964.

- importers and dealers to ensure compliance of products standards.

These electrical products include Decorative Lighting Products, Lamp Holders, Armoured Cables, Panel Board, Knife Switches, Conduit, Tubing, and Cable Fittings, Surge Protective Devices, Moulded-Case Circuit Breakers, MouldedCase Switches, and CircuitBreaker Enclosures, Cord Sets and Power- Supply Cords, Thermoset- Insulated Wires and Cables, Attachment Plugs and Receptacles, DryType General Purpose and Power Transformers.

Importers and dealers of these products are now required to take the necessary step to ensure that they acquire the relevant standards and aggressively take steps to ensure their products meet the respective requirements.

Products monitored by the Bureau will be flagged for examination at the time of importation and Inspectors will be visiting sale outlets across the country to examine products, which are offered for sale to ensure compliance. Importers and dealers will have to take the necessary corrective actions when substandard products are encountered.

Meanwhile, importers and dealers are reminded of the following: 1. To register with the GNBS for the current year by completing and submitting to the Bureau the prescribed application form along with a copy of the business registration form and registration fee.

2. To acquire the relevant National Standards from the GNBS for products imported, in order to ensure the importation of standardcompliant goods.

3. To submit samples of new products to GNBS for approval, prior to the importation to avoid substandard products and rejection.

4. To have consignments of commodities examined by Inspectors of the GNBS at the Ports-of-entry or Warehouses, before clearance and sale in the country.

5. To make timely arrangements with the GNBS to facilitate the examination of products at the Ports-of-entry simultaneously with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

6. To ensure that products imported are for the purpose

intended and are safe for use.

Importers should purchase from sources that issue warranties that could be easily passed on to consumers.

7. To ensure that any brochure, instruction manual, leaflets, etc., which are associated with products, are in English Language and accompany the product at the time of sale.

8. To facilitate periodic inspections by GNBS Inspectors at their premises including warehouses and workshops.

Records relating to the operation of the premises should also be available for checks by Inspectors of the Bureau.

All records such as copies of invoices, customs documentation, bills of sale, etc. must be properly kept and should be easily retrievable.

9. To ensure, where necessary, that imported products bear a national or international certification mark from a Regulatory Body in the country of origin, or a certificate of quality compliance should be submitted to the GNBS to verify the quality of the product imported.

Compliance certificates should be obtained from an independent Certification Body, a National Standards Body or the relevant Regulatory Body.

Importers are urged to check their products received to ensure conformance to the quality specification and to detect any deterioration in quality or other damage during storage and transportation. In addition, importers should address complaints received from customers regarding products purchased.

The GNBS also monitors Domestic Electrical/Electronic Appliances, Weighing and Measuring Devices, Textiles, Garments, Footwear, Safety Helmets, Safety Matches, New and Used Tyres, Gas Stoves, Cigarettes, PVC Pipes, Furniture, Christmas tree and Decorative Lighting Outfits, Cellular Phones and Gold Jewellery.

For further information, visit the Guyana National Bureau of Standards at Exhibition Site, Sophia or its website: www.gnbsgy.org or call 219-0062, 219-0065, 219-0066.

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

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

CONSUMER CONCERNS

CONSUMERS WELCOME CATALYTIC ROLE OF CARILEC IN MODERNISATION OF GPL

By Pat Dial

The Guyana Consumers Association and the consumer community as a whole have always shown an interest and concern with any event or trend, which affect the Public Utilities.

In Guyana, we are mainly concerned with three Public Utilities - Guyana Water Inc., which supplies water, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Co. (GTT), which supplies telecommunication services, and the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL), which supplies electricity.

The Water and Electricity Corporations are state-

owned while GTT is owned by a small American company and has always been considered by the consumers as an exploitative monopoly.

In today’s offering, we will be focusing on the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL). The GPL is involved in three basic activities - the production of electricity, the transmission of such power and the distribution of such power but the equipment and technology used to perform these three basic activities are mostly old and outdated and this results in the frequent breakdowns and blackouts and this also causes cost

of electricity to be among the highest in the world.

Both the frequent breakdowns and the high cost of electricity militate against the growth of industry have inhibited investment in the country.

Ordinary householders suffer loss when the contents of their refrigerators spoil or deteriorate with blackouts.

Any happening or circumstance, which may seem to bring some hope of betterment to GPL would therefore be welcomed by consumers. Such a happening is the Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC)’s

Executive Officers and Leadership Symposium, which will take place in Guyana in May. This Conference would be hosted

by GPL and the CARICOM Secretariat and would be one of the most important held here. Dr. Cletus Bertin, the Executive Director of CARILEC, paid his preliminary visit 7 or 8 weeks ago and was satisfied with arrangements. He held discussions with colleagues at GPL and even spoke with the media.

CARILEC consists of 104 members, which include 34 electric utilities that are full members and 70 affiliate or associate members. Others attending the conference will include general managers, chief financial officers, business executives, consultants, senior technical officers, vendors in the energy and electricity industries, international and regional organizations, development partners and government officials and policy makers.

The Conference will be hosted at

Marriott Hotel and Pegasus will accommodate the spillover.

Executive Director Bertin gave the raison d’etre of the Conference and what benefits are expected to accrue to Guyana and other participating countries: In Dr Bertin’s words: “we’re going to get in some of the reasons why we have outages, load shedding and so on in the electricity sector in Guyana, that is GPL. That is why we have conferences for the sharing of best practices, new technologies, new techniques and having material assistance and collaboration”. Dr Bertin went on to explain how CARILEC operates: “GPL is a member and what we do for our members is industry training, conferences, advocacy and assistance programmes after disasters where utility members help each other out with restoration efforts. If there is something like an earthquake or a hurricane, we have a programme where we have a

fund of about a million US dollars and that is used to help members in their recovery”.

Dr Bertin reminded that the electricity and energy industries often go hand in hand as one is needed to supply the other. Guyana has already become a place for various energy-related conferences as the country moves into being one of the most noteworthy oilgenerating countries in the world. This trend is matched by the growing economic expansion where there is greater need for power.

Consumers are heartened and optimistic that the CARILEC conference in May would serve as a catalyst for modernizing GPL and this goal would become quickly realizable owing to the availability of oil revenues and eventually cheaper fuel as well.

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

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

Gun-point robbery on Land Court Judge and her husband…

Three sentenced to 16 years each

On June 23, 2016, Nicholas Narine, Damien Millington, and Warren McKenzie all of Agricola, East Bank Demerara, were each sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment.

Following a trial before Magistrate Zamilla AllySeepaul at the Sparendaam Magistrates’ Courts, the men were found guilty on two counts of armed robbery committed on Land Court Judge Nicola Pierre and her husband Mohamed Chand.

They were also found guilty on two counts of felonious wounding committed on the Land Court Judge and her husband. Like with the armed robbery charges, the men were sentenced to four years

imprisonment on each count of felonious wounding.

The Magistrate ordered that the four, four year sentences to be served consecutively; bringing their total sentence to 16 years imprisonment each.

The Land Court Judge and her husband were at home with their 11-year-old son located at Montrose, East Coast Demerara on July 9, 2015 when gunmen pounced on them.

Narine, Millington and McKenzie disarmed a female security guard before storming the couple’s home.

In fact, the family had just retired to bed when the group of men invaded their home.

During the incident, Pierre and her husband were able to see their attackers, as the men

wore no masks, and lights were on in the home. The intruders threatened them and demanded money and other valuables.

Pierre and Chand were gun-butted into unconsciousness after the men, gained entry to their home via a window. The robbers carted off a small safe containing US$7,000, gold and diamond jewellery, highend cell phones, gem stones, brand name watches and sunglasses among other valuables.

While leaving the home, the gunmen shot at a security guard. Police were called in to investigate and the three men were arrested and charged.

In the end, the Land Court Judge was left with a broken jaw; her husband lost an eye as a result of the severe beatings inflicted on them by the robbers.

Magistrate Ally-

Seepaul, in her ruling, had said the crimes were committed with a high level of brutality. She told the court, “I have noted that the injuries suffered by the victims in this matter were of a very serious nature.

The medical certificates showed that the injuries were life threatening for

both of them. While the men were attacking the victims, they showed little or no consideration for whether the victims would survive or not.”

The Magistrate had underscored that Narine, Millington and McKenzie were all charged as accessory to each of the offences, and

she found them equally culpable of the crimes.

Despite the Magistrate’s guilty ruling, Narine, Millington and McKenzie still maintained their innocence. They said that they played no part in the crimes and had pleaded with the Magistrate for leniency in their jail terms.

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

Over 1,500 dead; 66,000 ill from CoronaVirus in China

Family in despair as older sister involved in Bush Lot accident dies

…tourist in France becomes first to die in Europe of it

Customers wearing face masks shop inside a supermarket, yesterday. REUTERS/Stringer SHANGHAI/PARIS (Reuters) - An 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the coronavirus has died in France, the first fatality in Europe and the fourth outside mainland China from an epidemic that has shut Chinese factories, curbed travel and disrupted global supply chains.

The outbreak, thought to have originated at a wildlife market in the central Chinese province of Hubei, has presented China’s ruling Communist Party with the huge challenge of halting its spread while at the same time

minimising damage to the world’s second-largest economy.

Beijing’s latest figures yesterday showed 66,492 cases of the illness and 1,523 deaths, mostly in Hubei.

Outside mainland China there have been about 500 cases in some two dozen countries and territories, with four deaths in Japan, Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, the Philippines and France.

In the French case, the Chinese man died at the Bichat hospital in Paris of a lung infection due to the flulike virus, authorities said

yesterday.

“We have to get our health system ready to face a possible pandemic propagation of the virus, and therefore the spreading of the virus across France,” said Health Minister Agnes Buzyn.

Robin Thompson, an expert in mathematical epidemiology at Britain’s University of Oxford, said that with nearly 50 cases in Europe, a death was not surprising. “The most important thing to point out, however, is that there still hasn’t been sustained person-toperson transmission in Europe,” he added.

After an extended Lunar New Year holiday, China urgently needs to get back to work. But some cities remain in lockdown, streets are deserted, employees are nervous, and travel bans and quarantine orders are in place around the country.

Those returning to Beijing from the holiday have been ordered to undergo a 14-day selfquarantine to prevent the spread of the virus. Many factories are yet to re-open, disrupting supply chains for everyone from smartphone makers to car manufacturers.

Dead: Aliya Mohabir One of the teenagers involved in the accident at Bush Lot Village, Corentyne, Berbice has succumbed to her injuries at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where she was transferred.

Kaieteur News was informed that Aliya Mohabir, 16, died just around 03:00 hrs yesterday. She was picked up in an unconscious state after the accident and was hospitalised in a critical condition at the New Amsterdam Hospital.

She was subsequently transferred to the GPHC after her condition worsened.

According to a relative, “she was brain dead and suffered internal bleeding, they could not save her.”

Surviving sister: Aneela Mohabir She was struck along with her sister Aneela Mohabir, 14, who remains hospitalised.

Another lass, Roshini Mohan, 9, was first hit with a Nissan X-trail owned and driven by a 31-year-old doctor from Number 72 Village who is attached to the Skeldon Hospital.

The doctor was subsequently arrested and his vehicle was lodged, inspected and released at the Whim Police Station.

However, police sources have since disclosed that the medical professional complained of feeling unwell while in custody and was admitted to the Port Mourant Hospital yesterday.

Police had indicated that a breathalyzer test was conducted on the driver and it showed he had no alcohol in his system when the accident occurred.

According to the police, the X-trail vehicle, bearing licence plate number PXX 5165, was heading east along the northern carriageway of the road “at a normal rate of speed when the driver alleged that he saw the child in her school uniform

Injured: Roshini Mohan (Mohan) on the southern side of the said road suddenly dashed across the road from south to north into the path of his vehicle.” It was after he struck Mohan that he “applied brakes and pulled left…” but ended up on the northern footpath and collided with the Mohabir sisters who were walking on the said footpath.

Mother of the two teenagers, Bashwattie Rambrich, told reporters that her now dead daughter was only accompanying her younger sister to the shop located near her school (Bush Lot Secondary) to purchase a Valentine’s Day gift for her (Aneela) teacher.

Meanwhile, Roshini Mohan who is a student of the Kildonan Primary School was heading back to school on foot from her grandmother ’s house (located a lot away) when she attempted to cross the road and was hit.

“She just left my house and told me she going back to school but it ain’t meet three seconds and me hear a impact, so me start holler out for she and me run out and see she pon the road.

Me neighbour dem come out and pick she up and take she to the hospital,” the grandmother said.

According to the woman, her granddaughter’s body was “two feet away from the white line and there was no pedestrian crossing nearby.” She confirmed that little Mohan was crossing the road when she was hit.

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

Confidentiality provisions in Guyana’s Local Content Policy undermine transparency...

Show Govt. not acting in country’s best interest

By Kiana Wilburg International best practice guidelines on Local Content policies from agencies such as the World Bank, all underscore the importance of transparency. In light of this, none of these guidelines promote the use of confidentiality provisions.

Yet, Guyana’s Local Content Policy which was completed

by UK Consultant, Dr. Michael Warner, contains such clauses.

The first two drafts of Guyana’s policy which was done by Trinidadian Local Content Expert, Anthony Paul, never contained those provisions. It was only after the Department of Energy hired Dr. Warner—who has ties to ExxonMobil—that the confidentiality provisions were inserted.

Upon noting that the provisions made its way into the final document, Attorneyat-law, Charles Ramson during an interview with this newspaper yesterday, said that the move clearly undermines openness while demonstrating that the government clearly isn’t acting in Guyana’s best interest.

Ramson, who holds a Master’s Degree in Oil and Gas Enterprise Management from the University of Aberdeen, firmly asserted that confidentiality provisions in the policy would be damaging to the development of local talent and careers in the industry.

The lawyer said, “When there is openness in the disclosure of the local content information, citizens would be able to better position themselves for opportunities

Attorney-at-law, Charles Ramson Jnr. in the industry. Furthermore, only propriety information should ever be confidential and information related to local content could never be proprietary.”

Ramson said therefore that the inclusion of confidentiality provisions in the policy shows that the government is not acting in the best interest of the country. He stressed that information makes markets function effectively and therefore, confidentiality clauses would only be harmful to the process.

Kaieteur News would have also observed in Appendix G of the Local Content Policy that reference was made to several Local Content Policies that were used as source documents.

The policies came from Tanzania, Ghana, and Sierra Leone. Interestingly, none of those policies or their local content laws, which were scrutinised by Kaieteur News, had any clause about confidentiality.

Appendix G of Guyana’s completed policy also said

that reference was made to the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association’s (IPIECA) Local Content Guidance Document for the oil and gas industry. Again, this document, which was reported on extensively in the past, and perused yesterday by this publication, does not promote the use of confidentiality provisions.

In fact, no part of the policy explicitly explains why such provisions were necessary and what international best practice they abide by.

- Ramson Jnr. The provision in the policy simply states that “legal constraints” prevent the disclosure of submitted and reported information on local content to parties beyond the Minister.

According to the policy, the Minister shall disclose the anticipated contracting and procurement opportunities for Guyanese suppliers in the form of completed tables in an Operator’s Local Content Plan. Information would also

be pulled from the operator’s half-year and end-of-year reports.

The Minister on an annual basis would also be allowed to disclose a “summary” of the operator’s Local Content Utilisation Report. The policy notes that the operator is expected to include additional commentary on its disclosures such as an explanation of inconsistencies between anticipated levels of local

content and actual performance.

Further to this, the Local Content Committee alone would have the authority to view “in confidence” the approved Operators’ plans for the sole purpose of carrying out its function of policy oversight.

In all other cases, “information submitted to the Minister in Operator’s Local Content Plans and appendices and half-year and end-of-year Local Content Reports, shall remain confidential to the Operator and Ministry.”

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Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

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Kaieteur News

Bryant named Basketball Hall of Fame finalist, three weeks after death CHICAGO (Reuters) Three weeks after Kobe Bryant, one of the most dominant players in NBA history, was killed with his daughter and seven others in a helicopter crash, the global sports icon was named a finalist to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bryant, fourth all time in NBA scoring, played for the Los Angeles Lakers during an illustrious 20-year career that was highlighted by five NBA championships, two NBA Finals MVPs and one league MVP. The announcement came during the NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago, which culminates on Sunday with an exhibition game featuring the sport’s best players. The

Former NBA star Kobe Bryant, CEO of Kobe Inc, speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2016. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson) three-day event is likely to be muted as the National Basketball Association pays

homage to the fallen star.

“I’ve never seen in my long life an athlete passing

Sunday February 16, 2020 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Expect a lot of letters and phone calls from lovers, close friends, or children today, Aries. You might also want to make a few yourself.

TAURUS(Apr.20–May20) Studying some paperwork involving your finances could bring a pleasant surprise. You’re better off than you thought, Taurus! Dividends or benefits of some kind might be forthcoming.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) Today some information might come your way that inspires you to come up with some valuable new ideas. Your own intuitive faculties are operating at a very high level.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) Your intuition, physical and intellectual energy, and insight are at an all-time high today, Cancer. You'll probably want to spend much of the day alone.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) You’re very intuitive by nature, and today you should be feeling especially so. Don't be surprised if you spontaneously tune in to the ideas and emotions of those around you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) This should be one of those days when you feel as if you could conquer the world.

You feel strong and determined, Scorpio, and willing to do whatever it takes to get wherever you want to be.

SAGIT(Nov.22–Dec.21) A business or love partner could bring opportunities for advancement your way today, Sagittarius. You may decide to draft or execute legal papers that could be very important to your future.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) A The hard work and good business sense that you’ve put into your job may finally be paying off. Expect some positive changes to take place at the workplace this week.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) You could well be bubbling over with physical energy today, Leo. You might want to spend your day visiting with friends. You could pick up some interesting information from them.

AQUARIUS(Jan.20–Feb.18) Insights that may come welling up from the past could be put to work for you in a positive way. You could use them as inspiration for a creative project of some kind.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) Visitors in your home, perhaps invited by others in your household, could put a crimp in your desire to be alone and hash out your thoughts today, Virgo.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Your home might need some work today, Pisces. You and other members of your household could decide to join forces and get everything done.

that had the impact that Kobe’s passing had on people, people on the street, people that didn’t even know him,” said Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, after the announcement was made.

“In my case it was personal... so much more difficult for me and family,” said Colangelo, a long-time NBA executive who was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2004.

Bryant won nine AllDefensive First Team honors, four All-Star Game MVP awards and a Slam Dunk Contest title. Bryant also sits as the Lakers’ all-time leader in several categories, including games played and steals.

Bryant wore the No. 24 and No. 8 during his career.

Both numbers are retired by the Lakers with his jerseys hanging from the Staples Center rafters.

Joining Bryant as finalists were former NBA stars Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh, along with former Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) stars Swin Cash and Tamika Catchings.

Also named as finalists were three-time NCAA National Championship coach Kim Mulkey, five-time Division II National Coach of the Year Barbara Stevens, four-time National Coach of the Year Eddie Sutton and two-time NBA Champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich.

Bryant was on his way with his daughter and seven others to a youth basketball tournament on Jan. 26 when the helicopter they were in crashed in Calabassas, California.

Class of 2020 inductees will be named during the NCAA Final Four in Atlanta, Georgia in early April. The enshrinement ceremony will take place at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. on Aug. 29.

Fireworks anticipated...

From page 66 Boxing Coach Sebert Blake had earlier informed that, “Although some of our best Boxers like Keevin Allicock, Colin Lewis, Desmond Amsterdam and Dennis Thomas are presently in Cuba, we have some talented young fighters who can produce entertaining bouts.

So we are trying to give the Guyana Boxing public a competitive night of Boxing.”

The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) under the stewardship of GBA’s Technical Director and National Head Coach, Terrence Poole, has dominated local boxing for over two decades and the individual Gyms have not been getting a fair opportunity to win ‘Best Gym titles’ due to the large number of Pugilists that represent the Army.

But this time GDF will not be fighting as a team and according to Blake, all the Gyms will be ganging up against the GDF Boxers to make it a man-to-man rivalry.

“We want to see if the GDF will be able to put up a battle against the rest of the Gyms,” said Blake, the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) Coach.

Jason ‘AK 47’ Barker of the Republican Gym is back and wants to reclaim his title and is coming up against GDF’s Daren France, while National lightweight Champion Clairmont ‘Cartel’ Gibson who knocked out Jamal Eastman of the Rose Hall Jammers Eastman, will again trade punches in what is anticipated to be a riveting re-match.

In the other scheduled bouts on for tonight: Malachai Jones will battle Sean Graham, Richard Howard vs Ryan Benjamin, Jaqwan Milo vs Shurlon Stephen, Mark Crawford vs Jerron McKenzie, Emmanuel Pompey vs Neil Warden, Abiola Jackman vs Alesha Jackman, Patrick Harvey vs Jarmin Grant, Dewani Lampkin vs Orin Bancroft, Richard Subratee vs Quacy Abrams, Sean Griffith vs Julius Kesney.

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Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

Schools continue battles in Burnham Foundation NSC, AL Sport Windball cricket

Akalla Rampratop, J. Samaroo of L’Aventure Sec Schools continue to battle for top spots as play in the Forbes Burnham Foundation (FBF) National Sports Commission (NSC), AL Sport & Tour Promotions sponsored and organised “Hit It For 50” Schools Windball Cricket competition progressed at the National Gymnasium on Friday.

Latest results show several teams recording victories with some

Deonarine Tiwari 97 (6-13). outstanding performances in front of a good crowd.

Deonarine Tiwari, who starred with both bat and ball, Akalla Rampratop and J. Samaroo were all impressive.

In results from the matches played: BOYS: L’Aventure Secondary made 140-2; Jonathan

Samaroo 55 and Ravin Paramdeo 44.

Brickdam Secondary fell short in reply at 97-4; Julius Craigen 58; J. Samaroo 4-22.

Tucville Secondary made 149-1 with Dwayne Jones 93.

School of The Nations 108-3 in reply, Kampta Persaud led with 51.

The New Central High

Students take in the action during the tournament at the National Gymnasium.

School rattled up 132-1 with Deonarine Tiwari hammering 97 before returning with the ball to capture 6-13 versus Richard Ishmael Secondary who made 94 with Alive Persaud 58.

GIRLS: L’Aventure 110-3; Melea Beckles 30, Sarah Hughes 22.

Richard Ishmael 113 -1

with Akalla Rampratop 64 to lead the victory.

Queenstown Secondary 108-2; Kiesha Rawlins 43, Aliyah Peters 40.

Brickdam Secondary fell just short of victory with 1140; Taquasha Thompson 42 and Ashanti Kennedy 38.

School of the Nations compiled 81-2, Amy Grant 45,

Tenecia Noble 35.

Tucville Secondary replied with 85-0 with Kizian London 62 for the win.

The New Central High, 64-3, Tiqumba Hunte 22; Althea Barnwell 2-8 for Charlestown Government Secondary who replied with 66-1 to claim victory as Donna Lowe top scored with 32.

Fireworks anticipated as Red Force staring at defeat after Moseley hundred B R I D G E T O W N , over when he knocked over GBA holds Mashramani Barbados, CMC – Trinidad the experienced duo of Jason and Tobago Red Force were Mohammed (5) and Denesh Extravaganza tonight left facing a heavy defeat on Ramdin (0) to leave the Red today’s final day after opener Force innings in disarray at Shayne Moseley struck a 30 for four. at Gymnasium career-best hundred and Mohammed, who never

Jason ‘AK47’ Barker (right) will face Darren France tonight here at the weigh-in.

All roads lead to Mandela Avenue when the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) hosts their one-night Mashramani Boxing Extravaganza on the tarmac of the National Gymnasium from 18:00hrs in keeping with Guyana’s 50th Republic Festivities.

This will be the first Amateur Card to be held outdoors in recent times and the GBA aims to make the Event as competitive and entertaining as possible with some good fights carded for the evening.

Admission is free and there will be a well stocked Bar and the GBA is encouraging those in the Boxing fraternity

to support this venture.

GBA President Steve Ninvalle says fans are free to make donations to help the Boxers presently in Cuba training for the Olympic qualifiers from March 26 to April 3 in Argentina.

The 2020 Olympics will be held in Tokyo Japan from July 24 to August 9.

Fans will be in for a treat with the many young talent on show and the main event should have them on their feet as many in boxing circles will anticipate the return of Jason ‘AK 47’ Barker. Daren France will be the man facing Barker and an exciting slug out is promised. National (Continued on page 65)

new-ball pacers Kemar Roach and Chemar Holder tore through their top order to leave an improbable run chase in strife.

Needing a massive effort on the penultimate day here yesterday in order to remain in the contest at Kensington Oval, Red Force found themselves battered by lefthander Moseley who stroked an unbeaten 155 as Red Force piled up 342 for five declared in their second innings.

All-rounder Kevin Stoute chipped in with an unbeaten 55 and Test wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich, 26, before Pride put Red Force out of their misery with a declaration about 45 minutes after tea.

Set 377 for victory, Red Force slumped to 48 for four at the close after Holder (213) and Roach (2-25) wiped out their top order in a lethal burst.

Left-handed opener Jeremy Solozano played back to one from Holder which kept low and was bowled in the second over for five with just nine runs on the board and captain Yannick Ottley (1) followed in the fifth over, caught at gully of the same bowler at 25 for two.

Roach then turned the game on its head in the next

settled, offered no shot to the third ball of the over and had his stumps shattered while Ramdin lasted three balls before clipping a full length ball to mid-on where Holder pouched a simple catch above his head.

It was left to young opener Joshua DaSilva, who finished the day unbeaten on 23, to prop up the innings along with Yannic Cariah who was unbeaten on 12 at the close.

Pride had earlier taken a stranglehold on the encounter after resuming on 127 for two, as Moseley carved out his third first class hundred and Stoute struck his second half-century of the game.

On 49 at the start, Moseley made his way safely to 98 at lunch with Pride on 214 for three, before reaching his landmark in the second over after the interval when he whipped left-arm seamer Daniel St Clair to the backward square boundary for his 10th four.

All told, the 25-year-old carved out 17 fours off 314 deliveries in just over 7-¾ hours at the crease.

He extended his overnight stand with Justin Greaves to 48 before losing the all-

Fast bowler Kemar Roach … grabbed two wickets in one over. rounder, holing out to deep mid-off off left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein (2-66), after adding just seven to his overnight three.

Moseley then anchored two key partnerships to bat Red Force out of the game.

First, he posted 56 for the fourth wicket with Dowrich who struck two fours and a six off 47 balls before falling lbw to off-spinner Bryan Charles.

And when Kyle Mayers perished cheaply for six, 19 balls later, Moseley and Stoute combined in an unbroken 114-run, sixth wicket stand to further increase Red Force’s misery.

Stoute faced 99 balls and

counted six fours, reaching his half-century after tea as Moseley also passed 150 for the first time in his career.

Scores: PRIDE 209 (Kevin Stoute 52, Ashley Nurse 48, Kemar Roach 38, Shayne Moseley 23; Uthman Muhammad 3-47, Terrance Hinds 3-51) and 342 for five decl. (Shayne Moseley 155 not out, Kraigg Brathwaite 58, Kevin Stoute 55 not out; Akeal Hosein 2-66).

RED FORCE 175 (Jeremy Solozano 50, Akeal Hosein 28, Uthman Muhammad 27; Keon Harding 5-57) and 48 for four (Joshua DaSilva 23 not out; Chemar Holder 2-13, Kemar Roach 2-25).

Sunday February 16, 2020

PAGE 71

Kaieteur News

Milo Schools U-18 F/Ball tourney

East Ruimveldt beat Saints in most exciting match of the day - President’s College and Marian Academy also victorious

Ricardo Percival, Rolan Hamilton & Chad Henry were the goal scorers for Marian Academy in their 3-1 win over St Joseph’s at MOE ground yesterday.

In energy sapping heat at the Ministry of Education (MOE) ground on Carifesta Avenue the 2020 Milo Schools U-18 football tournament organised by the Petra Organisation got going yesterday with a triple header.

President’s College beat Queenstown Secondary 4-nil in the opening game before Marian Academy whipped St Joseph’s 3-1.

The match of the day, which was watched by fair size crowd, was the most competitive encounter of the day with Saints fighting back from a 5-nil margin at the 35-minute half time break to fire in

three goals in the second half to eventually lose 6-3.

Cleon Wray started the first half blitz by beating Saints Custodian Robert Marcus in the 4th minute before 16-year-old Skipper Keon Marques who looked the most accomplished player yesterday, found the back of the net in 17th minute.

In a dominant first have display in which they had most of possession, ‘Back School’ got their third goal off the boot of Donavan Pyle compliments of an expertly executed pass from the left flank in the 21st minute the skilful Marques.

Goals from Jerimiah Harris (24th) and Devonte

Cummings (31st) completed a first half which one the flaws for East Ruimveldt Second was that their over exuberant forwards kept getting themselves in off-side positions.

The second half began with Pyle scoring his second goal in the 42nd minute to make it 6-nil and a demolition job in the making, but that was not to be as Saints opened their account with a Goal in 43rd minute to spark to total transformation in their play as Isaiah Jackson beat the goalie.

Maybe it was complacency from the East Ruimveldt players after the first half result but Saints

Fantastic Five! Cleon Wray, Keion Marques, Donahvan Pyle (2), Jeremiah Harris & Devonte Cummings scored East Ruimveldt six goals in their 6-3 win over Saints. played aggressive football had several raids on their opposition goal; firing shots with the Atlantic wind on their backs.

Jodel Fernandes scored in the 49th before Shawn Roberson netted in the 54th but although they had the better of the second half, their effort was too little too late.

In the first game, President’s College, thanks to goals from Motell McAlmont (25th) and Jerimiah Johnson (28) ended the first half with a

2-0 lead.

A brace from Sholom Chislosm in the 41st and 69th minutes condemned Queenstown to a 4-nil defeat.

St Joseph, playing with a 10-man team after Labron Jupiter was given a Red Card for using bad language to his opponent after he was ‘elbowed’, were never in contest.

Marian Academy’s Rolan Hamilton patted a ball past the burly Joshua Zaman in Goal to go 1-nil at the break.

Chad Henry scored before Kahlil Gittens pulled one back for St Joseph in the 48th minute, while Ricardo Percival scored in the 50th to make 3-1 for Marian Academy.

The competition continues today with three more games and defending Champions Christiansburg Secondary from the mining town of Linden go into action in the day’s second game when they face-off with Golden Grove secondary.

(Sean Devers)

Full fixtures today: 2/16/2020 Round Robin Round 1 Day 2 Ministry of Education Ground Match # 12:00 hrs Bishops High v/s Cummings Lodge 4 13:45 hrs Christianburg Secondary v/s Golden Grove 5 15:30 hrs Lodge Secondary School v/s Ann’s Grove 6

Johnson ends drought with career-best hundred as Jaguars chase win ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Captain Leon Johnson ended a prolonged rut with his first domestic four-day hundred in nearly 2½ years to pass 6,000 first class runs while all-rounder Chris Barnwell smashed the second century of his career, as Guyana Jaguars claimed the advantage on day three of their fifth round match against Windward Islands Volcanoes.

Resuming the day at the National Stadium here on 65 with his side well placed on 145 for three in response to the hosts first innings of 318, the left-handed Johnson stroked a magnificent unbeaten 189 to fire Jaguars to 426 all out.

Not to be left out, Barnwell gathered a scintillating 107 after resuming from his overnight 28, posting his first century in five years.

Together, Johnson and Barnwell masterminded a 170run fourth wicket stand which put Jaguars in control of the

contest and eventually handed them a first innings lead of 108 runs overall.

In their second turn at the crease, Volcanoes lo s t Roland Cato for two with the score on 10 in the sixth over, lbw to left-arm seamer Raymon Reifer hitting across the line, to finish the day on 46 for one.

Veteran opener Devon Smith was unbeaten on 16 and partnered by captain Kavem Hodge on 17, the pair having so far put on 36 for the second wicket.

Much will depend on the pair heading into today’s final day especially with Volcanoes still trailing by 62 runs.

The day belonged to Johnson, however. With a mere 77 runs in his last six innings and a single halfcentury this season, the 32year-old relieved the pressure with a high quality innings to surpass his previous career best of 165.

He counted 20 fours in a knock requiring 357 deliveries

and spanning just over 7-½ hours.

Barnwell, meanwhile, proved the ideal counter, lashing 11 fours and four sixes off 117 deliveries in just over 2-¼ hours.

Hodge eventually broke the stand with his left-arm spin, claiming Barnwell lbw, but Johnson combined in a damaging 82-run, sixth wicket partnership with wicketkeeper Anthony Bramble who lashed an up tempo 47 off 62 balls with four fours and two sixes, as Jaguars raced towards the 400-run mark.

Even after Bramble became one of left-arm pacer Preston McSween’s five wickets, Johnson continued to punish Volcanoes in a 40run, ninth wicket stand with Nial Smith (11).

S c o r e s : VOLCANOES 318 (Keron Cottoy 56, Kavem Hodge 53, Shane Shillingford 53, Devon Smith 27, Andre Fletcher 27, Roland Cato; Veerasammy Permaul 4-59,

Devendra Bishoo 3-73) and 46 for one.

JAGUARS 426 (Leon Johnson 189 not out, Chris Barnwell 107, Anthony Bramble 47, Shimron Hetmyer 32; Preston McSween 5-102).

Meanwhile in the other match: FLORENCE HALL, Jamaica, CMC – Leeward Islands Hurricanes, trailing

Jamaica Scorpions by 158 runs on first innings, reached 134 for four in their second innings at the close on the penultimate day of their fifth round match in the Regional Four-Day Championship at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium here yesterday.

S c o r e s : HURRICANES 227 (Terrance Warde 65 not out,

Montcin Hodge 52, Amir Jangoo 35; Patrick Harty 443) and 134 for four (Devon Thomas 54; Nicholson Gordon 2-54).

SCORPIONS 385 (Jermaine Blackwood 98, Denis Smith 84, Pete Salmon 47, John Campbell 35, Derval Green 33, Oraine Williams 30; Rahkeem Cornwall 4-130).

PAGE 72

Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

RHTYSC, MS and Ansa Mcal Fyrish, Chesney, Ramnarine (Guy Ltd) renews long Memorial and Albion Open outstanding relationship advance to third round

BCB/ Premium Asphalt and T/R Construction 20/20 tournament

Fyrish, Chesney, Ramnarine Memorial and Albion Open have joined Rose Hall Town Tigers in the final teams in the Berbice Cricket Board/ Premium Asphalt and T/R Construction Ltd 20/20 cricket tournament.

The tournament is been played for second division teams located in the Lower/ Central Corentyne area.

Berbice powerhouses Rose Hall Town Bakewell and Albion have been debarred from the tournament in an effort to encourage the other clubs.

Fyris h defeated Ta m a r i n d Root at Hampshire, Albion open got past Belvedere United, Ramnarine Memorial defeated Port Mourant, while the returning Kennard Memorial found Chesney too hot to handle.

Scores from the matches 1. At Hampshire, Fyrish

defeated Tamarind Root by 61 runs.

Fyrish 128 all out in 19.3 overs- R. Ramcharran 41, Javed Mohammed 31 and Yogindra Chinapen 14.

Sewnauth Joseph 2 for 17 and Kelly Ongraj 2 for 10.

Tamarind Root 67 all out- 14.3 overs- Ricky Deonarine 15 and Michael Ramdhial 10.

R. Ramcharran 4 for 18 and Sayaad Bacchus 3 for 18.

2. Chesney defeated Kennard’s Memorial by 7 wickets.

Kennard Memorial - 148 for 9 in 20 overs- T. George 36 and K. Ramaldo 31. R. Singh 4 for 28, S. Latchana 2 for 12 and R. Singh 2 for 19.

Chesney 150 for 3 in 17.2 overs- Yogindra Gurdyal 46, Joey Latchana 46 and N. Deonarine 26. E. Singh 2 for 24.

3. Ramnarine Memorial got pass Port Mourant by 5 wickets at Port Mourant.

Port Mourant 49 all out in 15.4 overs - R. Singh 11 and Andy Mohan 10. K. Hooper 2 for 10 and J. Holder 2 for 6.

Ramnarine Memorial - 50 for 5 in 8 overs. Eldeen Mendonca 12 and Mahendra Charran 12. Mahendra Boodram 3 for 12.

4. Albion Open defeated Belvedere United by 4 wickets at Jai Hind.

Belvedere United 122 for 9 in 20 overs- L. Bisram 22, Justin Gobin and J. Nibbler 20.

Lyndon Lewis 2 for 34, Adrian Singh 2 for 15 and Z. Zaheer 2 for 20.

Albion Open - 125 for 6 in 16.2 overs. S. Saheed 40, Andy Naidu 30, M. Lalbehari 27 and Adrian Singh 16 not out. A. Aproo 3 for 25.

The draw for the next round would be Chesney vs Fyrish, while RH Town Tigers would play Albion Open @RH Town. Ramnarine Memorial has drawn a bye to the lone semifinals.

Inaugural Seven Seas 40-Mile Cycle race set to pedal off today in Berbice

Massy Berbice Branch Manager Wazim Ali (right), accompanied by Assistant Manager Ramnarine Makhai (left) presents sponsorship package to organiser Randolph Roberts.

Cycling action for 2020 gets rolling in Berbice today Sunday16th February, with the staging of the Inaugural Seven Seas Cycle road race.

The event which is sponsored by Massy Distribution, distributors of the Seven Seas Products, is organised by the Flying Ace Cycle Club (FACC).

The event is open to cyclist of Berbice only and the top riders from the Ancient County are expected to take to the road for the 40 miles event.

The race is expected to pedal off at 09:00hrs from Main and Alexander Street, New Amsterdam, proceed to Taki Gas Station at Adventure Village Corentyne, before returning to finish at its place of origin.

Earlier in the week, Massy, Berbice Branch Manager Wazim Ali, accompanied by Assistant Manager Ramnarine Makhai presented the sponsorship package to organiser Randolph Roberts for the staging of the event.

Ali stated that sponsoring of the event is part of the Company’s corporate responsibility

in giving back to the community which it serves.

Prizes will be awarded to the first five finishers in the Open category, the first two juveniles and the first three 12-14 riders. The 12-14 riders will ride from Benjamin Sports to the finishing point. There are also eight sprint prizes up for grabs.

The likes of Romello Crawford, Balram Narine, Curtis “Chappy” Dey, Andrew Hicks, Andre ‘Padlock’ Green, Ajay Gopilall, Ralph Sewnarine, Jeremiah Joseph, Mario Washington and David Hicks are among those expected to take to the road.

Officials from Massy Distribution are expected to be on hand to start the race and help with the distribution of prizes at the end of the event.

The (FACC) is expressing deepest sympathy to family, friends and colleagues of the late former National cyclist Jude Bentley.

Bentley, who was a friend of the club, lost his life tragically a few days ago. A minute’s silence would be observed before the start of the race. (Samuel Whyte)

“All of us at the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, MS are very grateful for your assistance over the years. For over twenty years, the partnership between the club and Ansa Mcal has touched and changed the lives of countless youths. We have also honoured dozens of heroes with the company’s sponsorship, while many youths have fulfilled their sporting dreams to represent Guyana. We cherish this relationship and it is our sincere hope that it would continue in the future.”

Those were the sentiments expressed by RHTYSC, MS Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster as he expressed gratitude to Ansa Mcal Managing Director Troy Cadogan as they renewed the long-lasting sponsorship relationship between Guyana’s leading sports Organisation and the premier business company.

The relationship has existed for over twenty years.

Under the 2020 sponsorship the company would co-sponsor the clubs 30th anniversary magazine, 30th annual award ceremony in April and the annual Ansa Mcal Award of Excellence in July. The company would also sponsor the annual Tribute to Teachers programme in October and support the RHTYSC massive Christmas Charity Programme.

Last year, the company had sponsored the annual Christmas Children Village and the RHTYSC/BCB Youth Cricketer Booklet under its non-alcoholic brand. Foster, who also serves as President of the Berbice Cricket Board,

Human Resources Manager Mr. Sheldon Hazelwood (left) hands over sponsorship to RHTYSC Secretary Hilbert Foster. noted that Ansa Mcal had also sponsored a 50 overs cricket tournament in Berbice.

The 48 pages booklet would be published at the F and H Printery in Georgetown and would feature the Club’s major achievements since it’s formation in 1990 by the St. Francis Community Developers. The 30th Annual Award Ceremony would be hosted in April, 2020 and a total of almost forty awards would be shared out to outstanding members who excelled in cricket, education and community development.

A total of $3M worth of trophies, medals, prizes and gifts would be shared out.

Outstanding Teachers, Students, Law Enforcement Officers and executive of the RHTYSC would also be recognized and honoured.

Under the annual Ansa Mcal Award of Excellence, five outstanding Berbicians would be honoured for their outstanding contribution to Guyana in the field of Sports, Culture, Community Development, Health and

Security. On world Teachers Day in October, the club’s ten outstanding teachers with support from the beverage giants would be recognised.

Asst Secretary/CEO Simon Naidu stated that 2020 would be a special year for the club, which is the only youth and sports club in Guyana’s history to have ever receive a national award as its 30th anniversary would be observed in September with a target of 700 activities planned for 2020, the club has already successfully completed over 100 in the year so far. The Asst Secretary hailed the cooperation of Ansa Mcal, with special mention been made of MS. Beverly Harper, Troy Cadogan, Nigel Worell, Errol Nelson and Kris Apannah.

Managing Director Troy Cadogan in brief remarks expressed satisfaction with his company’s relationship with the RHTYSC and stated that the club was doing a remarkable job of making a positive difference in Berbice.

Bounty Farm Ltd Handicap Squash Tournament set to conclude today The 2020 Bounty Farm Ltd Handicap Squash Tournament continued Friday evening at the usual venue, The Georgetown Club, with quarter final matches in the Open Category, and plate matches in both categories.

It was a night full of upsets in the Open category as both of the top seeded players were beaten. Lucas Jonas (2) played excellent squash to defeat Peter Michael De Groot (-15) 15 - 4, 15 – 1, while Brian Edwards (9) had to come from one game down to miraculously oust Nicholas Narain (-15) 13 - 15, 15 - 9, 15

- 9. Mohryan Baksh (0) beat Lloyd Fung A Fat in two close games 15 - 13, 15 – 13, while in the last of the quarter final matches Louis da Silva (10) easily beat Zachary Persaud (10) 15 - 8, 15 – 11.

Results of all the matches played were as follows: Open category Lucas Jonas (2) defeated Peter Michael De Groot (-15) 15 - -4, 15 - 1 Brian Edwards (9) defeated Nicholas Narain (-15) 13 - 15, 15 - 9, 15 - 9 Mohryan Baksh (0) beat Lloyd Fung A Fat 15 - 13, 15 13 Louis da Silva (10) easily beat Zachary Persaud (10) 15

- 8, 15 - 11 Open Plate Kirsten Gomes (0) beat Robin Lowe (9) 15 - 12, 15 - 11 Lydia Fraser (7) beat Regan Rodrigues (8) 15 - 8, 15 - 14 Steven Persaud (9) defeated Abosaide Cadogan (0) 15 - 4, 15 - 10 Medhi Ramdhani (6) beat Tian Edwards (12) 15 7, 15 - 9 Category A Plate Nathan Rahaman (5) beat Joshua Verwey (-5) 15 12, 15 - 12 The tournament concludes today with the finals slated to get underway from 11.00am.

Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

PAGE 73

France double hands Pepsi Hikers male title; GCC GBTI Tigers are female champs

G

oals on either side of half time

by Robert France handed Pepsi Hikers a 2-0 victory over GCC The Sequel in the male final of the Bounty/Antonio’s Grille one-day hockey tournament which was contested yesterday at the Guyana National Stadium.

Both teams showed purpose in the opening exchanges, but France it was who found the back of the net to hand his team the lead in the 7th minute.

Shortly after, GCC The Sequel were denied twice in quick succession by some stern defence.

Following the interval both teams created several chances, but failed to finish.

However, France netted his second in the 18th minute to seal his team’s victory.

In the female final, GCC GBTI Tigers beat GCC

GBTI Spartans 1-0 courtesy of a Sonia Jardine first half strike.

Spartans showed some fight in the second half, but Tigers kept their composure to ensure that they lifted the title.

In the semi final, Tigers beat Spice 3-0 and Spartans overcame Saints by a similar margin.

Speaking with the media following the win, Jardine said that she is happy with the win. “One day tournaments are always tough, however we did our best and credit must go to the opposition for the way they played.”

She said that it’s a positive way to start the season, adding that self confidence and maintaining possession were among the main ingredients in coming out successful.

(Zaheer Mohamed)

The victorious Pepsi Hikers team.

The female winners GCC GBTI Tigers.

PAGE 74

Kaieteur News

Sunday February 16, 2020

Sunday February 16, 2020

Kaieteur News

PAGE 75

Milo Schools U-18 F/Ball tourney

East Ruimveldt beat Saints in - President’s College most exciting match of the day and Marian Academy rt

Spo

also victorious Donavan Pyle beat Saint’s custodian Robert Marcus at the MOE ground yesterday. (Sean Devers photo)

Johnson ends drought with career-best hundred as Jaguars chase win Leon Johnson carried his bat to an excellent 189 not out to lead the Jaguars response.

(ESPNcricinfo)

Jason ‘AK47’ Barker (right) will face Darren France tonight here at the weigh-in.

Fireworks anticipated as GBA holds Mashramani Extravaganza tonight at Gymnasium Printed and published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd., 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown. Tel: 225-8458, 225-8465, 225-8491 or Fax: 225-8473/226-8210.