Kaieteur News

K

AIETEUR Jagdeo dodges question Wednesday Edition NEWS on Govt.’s monitoring of oil companies expenses - says audits can pick up inflated costs June 22, 2022 - Vol. 17 No. 26

Online: www.kaieteurnews.com Online Price $100 readership yesterday, 79,769

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

Do not approve any additional oil projects without securing more for Guyana

- Opposition Leader

Exxon's admin K/News publisher-led costs alone protest for better oil moves to McDoom more than double deal - protestors demand that Guyana's wages bill Govt. brings Exxon back Guyana's financial - BoG to negotiation table

reserves down by $6.7B

page 18

Article 13 mounts protest calling for renegotiation of oil contract - reminds Govt. of need to keep campaign promise

Indian national found dead in Kitty home

‘Leaders must come clean over recovery of royalties' - Glenn Lall ...queries whether ExxonMobil reclaimed US$18M signing bonus

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Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Guyana guarantees support for IICA proposal to reduce food insecurity in the Americas

Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and other officials during a field visit.

Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha (left) and Manuel Otero, Director General of IICA. Through Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, Guyana has guaranteed support for the continental alliance proposed by the InterAmerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to address growing threats to food security in the hemisphere.

According to a release shared by the Agriculture Ministry, Mustapha made an official visit to IICA headquarters in San José, Costa Rica, where he met IICA Director General, Manuel Otero, to discuss the country’s action plans, priorities and agricultural challenges, and to advance the dialogue on the main advances of Guyanese agriculture and new opportunities for technical cooperation.

“We in Guyana will support the continental alliance and contribute to the Director General’s vision.

We have to work together to achieve food security. The interest they have shown in food security not only in the Caribbean but in the whole world is to be applauded.

IICA has been highly proactive in helping the agricultural sector to progress,” Mustapha said.

The Agriculture Minister described the alliance as an “innovative way of uniting the countries and working together to ensure that we

address food security,” which has been aggravated by a current context of overlapping crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the conflict in Eastern Europe and climate change.

“In Guyana, we are grateful that our president Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali is promoting these same ideas in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to ally with countries from all over the world to address the issue,” Minister Mustapha added.

The alliance proposed by IICA for collective action to combat food insecurity, promote sustainability, guarantee peace and democratic stability, has as its roadmap a document with concrete proposals that was also submitted at the Summit of the Americas last week in Los Angeles, USA. This medium- and longterm work is based on four strategic aspects: the strengthening and transformation of agri-food systems in the Americas, challenges, and opportunities for agri-food trade in the region in the new geopolitical context, the role of science, technology, and innovation, and facilitating economic and social inclusion by reinforcing the cooperative system.

“This alliance should Continued on page 24

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 03

Exxon’s admin costs alone more than double Guyana’s wages bill Guyana’s total wages Bill for 2020 was $6.1B and the following year that went up to $10.1B taking into account the revision of wages and salaries and according to the financial statements recently released

by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), its administrative costs alone, inclusive of its wages bill topped 38.6B during that same period.

As such it would mean t h a t t h e c o m p a n y ’s administrative costs alone for the two years is more than double the entire wages and salaries bill for the entire country over the period in review.

Illustrated in the documents recently released, it was noted in EEPGL—ExxonMobil Guyana—Statement of Profit and Loss and Other Comprehensive Income that at the period ending December 2021, it had paid that year some $17.8B in administrative costs.

According to the records, the previous year it had spent some $20.8B accounting for some $38.6B in spending on administrative costs for EEPGL over the two-year period.

In contrast, Guyana would have spent some $16.2B for the country’s entire wages and salaries Bill over that two-year period.

This publication has in recent days been providing highlights of the entity’s financial performance in Guyana over the past two years. It was reported that at the end of 2021, it recorded a $132B profit after working in the Stabroek Block since 1999.

Revenue for the reporting period increased to $254B reflecting higher production volumes and a stronger price environment versus 2020. Importantly, the company said this was the first profitable year it recorded since working in the basin.

Kaieteur News

understands that overall expenses in the Stabroek Block were up in 2021 versus 2020 mostly due to increased production costs and higher depreciation, both of which were driven by increased oil production.

In its Statement of Financial Position, at yearend 2021, assets totalled $1.3trillion, an increase of 30 percent versus the prior year mostly reflecting substantial incremental investments in the Stabroek Block.

Also, EEPGL’s equity increased 25 percent versus year-end 2020 to $875B driven by earnings and additional equity contributions. The subsidiary said this underscores its strong financial position to meet its ongoing obligations to the government and people of Guyana.

EEPGL’s Vice President and Business Services Manager, Phillip Rietema had told media operatives at

Indian national found dead in Kitty home Relatives of an Indian national, who was found dead on Monday in his home at Sandy Babb Street, Kitty, G e o rg e t o w n , a r e n o w seeking help to get his body back to India.

The dead man has been identified as 48-year-old Arwinder Singh of Punjab, India. He was reportedly employed at BK International Inc. as a supervisor for the company’s gold operations at Mahdia, Region Eight.

Kaieteur News understands that of recent Singh was not working because of ill health and was resting at home where he was found dead.

According to police, the Indian national had been living at the Sandy Babb Street, Kitty home for two weeks and was found lifeless by security guards around 18:30hrs on Monday. Singh was last seen alive around 04:00hrs by one of the security guards. That individual told police that Singh had collected his cellular phone from him, filled a water bottle and went back to bed.

A female security guard took over duties around 06:00hrs and while making her checks around the building noticed that Singh was lying on his bed motionless. At that point she thought he was only sleeping but when it was time for her

the time the information was released that the performance of the company underscores the years of investments required before pay off.

The Exxon Executive had said, “…our total investments to date total $1.3trillion, and with our partners it is over $3trillion.

With the plans we have in place out to 2025 will take investments north of $6T. We continue to invest greater than the returns we receive and we will continue to do so for many years.”

To date, EEPGL and its co-venture partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC Group, currently have four sanctioned developments on the Stabroek Block.

The Liza Phase 1 development, which began production in December 2019 utilising the Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) with a production capacity of approximately 120,000 gross barrels of oil per day, recently completed production optimisation work that expanded its

ExxonMobil Guyana’s Vice President and Business Services Manager, Phillip Rietema production capacity to more than 140,000 gross barrels of oil per day.

The Liza Phase 2 development, utilising the Liza Unity FPSO, began production in February 2022 and is expected to reach its production capacity of approximately 220,000 gross barrels of oil per day by the third quarter.

The third development at Payara is ahead of schedule and is now expected to come online in late 2023 utilising the Prosperity FPSO with a production capacity of approximately 220,000

gross barrels of oil per day.

The fourth development, Yellowtail, is expected to come online in 2025, utilising the One Guyana FPSO with a production capacity of approximately 250,000 gross barrels of oil per day.

At least six FPSOs with a production capacity of more than one million gross barrels of oil per day are expected to be online on the Stabroek Block in 2027, with the potential for up to 10 FPSOs to develop gross discovered recoverable resources.

‘Nothing new from Vice News’ - Glenn Lall says Opposition was silent when K/News was exposing corruption

Dead Indian National, Arwinder Singh to be relieved around 18:30hrs, she noticed that he was still lying in the same position.

The woman informed her co-workers who came to relieve her that Singh had been in the same position all day. They decided to call the Kitty Police Station.

When ranks arrived, they called an ambulance from the Guyana Fire Service and the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) on board pronounced Singh dead at the scene.

His body is currently at the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home awaiting a post mortem examination.

This publication understands that the medical professionals who examined his remains suspect that he might have suffered a massive heart attack.

Singh’s relatives in India

have since indicated to Kaieteur News that he has no family members with him in Guyana and they fear his body will not be returned to his homeland.

According to his wife, Rupinder Kaur, she received a call on Monday around 19:00hrs from one of his acquaintances informing her that he had died. However, she related that no one from the company had spoken to her.

As such the woman and other family members are s e e k i n g g o v e r n m e n t ’s support to grant the necessary approvals for Singh’s body to be transported back to India so that he can be cremated in his homeland.

Singh had travelled to Guyana in 2015 to work with BK International Inc. and since then he has only travelled back to India once.

Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall has criticised opposition and other operatives who have opportunistically latched on to disclosures in a recent Vice News documentary on Guyana, saying that for years his newspaper has shone light on the shadowy deals with the PPP/C Guyana Government and Chinese companies, but the same people who are now speaking up were silent.

The Vice News documentary titled: “Guyana for Sale” which premiered on Sunday has as its main character, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. His Chinese tenant and “friend” businessman, Su Zhi Rong is heard in the interview accusing Jagdeo of allegedly accepting bribes for large developmental projects undertaken in the country. Jagdeo has denied the allegations and has since signalled that he will take legal action against the Chinese businessman and also promised to evict him from his property.

At his Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara home, the former head of state told the undercover reporters of the US-based media company posing as Chinese business investors that he gives his Chinese “friend” all the support needed to facilitate investment transactions and that he has no dealings with finances given his role in government. “No, no, no I’m not getting involved in business.

Su is my friend. He gets all the support. Su deals with all the agreements. I don’t. The thing is that my thing is that I’m in government, so I assist from government side.”

The Vice News reporter was told that Su was the man that could get her a meeting with

Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall Vice President and so he did to prove his connection with the government official, and that any money reportedly paid for bribes to the VP would indeed get to him.

When the Vice News team first met Su, he boasted about his relationship with Jagdeo and that he could secure the meeting since he has a close relationship with the government official. “If you want anything done in Guyana you have to have some connections,” he told the Vice team. “You tell me, it should be no problem. I am very close with the Vice President and the other officials,” the documentary’s subtitle read translating Mandarin to English.

Su described Jagdeo as his “boss.”

“If we are doing business together, my boss is not going to receive money directly.

It’s going to be a service a processing fee then he’ll share some with me,” Su stated. The Continued on page 13

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Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

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

Publisher: GLENN LALL-TEL: 624-6456 Editor: SHARMAIN GRAINGER Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

EDITORIAL

Royalties Jagdeo engaging in a royal runaround

O

n the face of it, this was the simplest of questions that could be posed to anyone. It is simpler still when asked of the man in charge of our oil, Guyanas Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo. Because if anyone should know, it has to be him. The question was and remains: is the 2% royalty that Guyana collects from Exxon recoverable by the company? Amazingly, the Vice President standing as leader and manager of the nations oil couldnt say because he claims he doesnt know. This is not only unbelievable, it is also highly unacceptable, coming from someone like Mr. Jagdeo.

Mr. Jagdeo likes to come over as the only authority in this country on things to do with oil. He is the only one with the smarts to understand and know to the fullest what are no brainer issues to him. We have news for Mr. Jagdeo on this royalty recoverable question: there is nothing more representative of a no brainer inquiry than that. The royalties are either recoverable by Exxon, or they are not. There should be no need to be afraid of having to walk back, as he himself said, anything that he ventures on royalty recovery.

For he is the figure, the leader, the agent of this nation who has been closest to oil, studied it more, spoke of it more than any other Guyanese.

Moreover, it is the same Bharrat Jagdeo that has attacked and undermined the few Guyanese who challenge him on oil-related issues, as a matter of patriotic interest and that of conscientious citizenship. One of the elements that he should know the most about, he knows the least. So, he has to consult with the experts, the lawyers, to get an accurate answer.

What he should have at his fingertips, he has to consult on, to ensure that he doesnt speak out of turn, and have to regret doing so. This would be acceptable from others, but not Mr. Jagdeo, who has made it his duty to stick it to those getting in his way to question him about his handling of our oil wealth. He has never pretended not to know when he goes on the warpath to overpower naysayers and critics, in his defense of the Governments giving Exxon free passes on things that cost Guyana heavily.

But something that he should know, and in his sleep, is that Exxon has not compiled an inspiring record in how it does business in almost every place, that it goes to explore for oil.

Because of the companys history of tricking and cheating others, because of its corporate robberies all over the map, Mr. Jagdeo should know where we stand on the matter of the already paltry royalty being recoverable by the company under some cover or the other. Guyanas leading oil man and oil brain just had to know that since Exxon could stoop so low, and be so criminal, as to plunder and pillage its own people, then only the worst could be expected from a corporate villain like Exxon.

Come on, Mr. Jagdeo, Mr. Oil Fighter, Mr. American Corporate Defender-in-Chief, if Exxon could rip-off Americans, then Guyanese are fair game because they dont count. Because Exxon could take advantage of those on the lower end of Americas economic ladder, Native Americans, then Guyanese are guaranteed that they will not be spared, but ripe for the plucking.

When those who used to be called Indians of a different colour dont matter, then Brown and Black, and others in Guyanas rainbow count for less that the dregs. Mr. Jagdeo ought to have known that our dregs, the 2% royalty, could full Exxons eye, which means that he had to have made that a priority to know beforehand if Exxon was giving us 2% with one hand, but taking it back on the sly with the other.

Our Fathers Day edition headlined Mr. Jagdeos remarkable ignorance on this most crucial of questions, this most sensitive matter (“VP Jagdeo unsure if Exxon recovering 2% royalty” -KN June 19). We make no judgments on this state of the self-appointed father of Guyanas oil wealth, save to say that he should have known as his own name.

The sycophants are out: singing shamelessly for their supper DEAR EDITOR, I am appalled and disgusted. I feel stained, even though I have no relationship to anyone; it is just from being near what goes on in this society. Too often, my brothers and sisters, who claim to be decent and honourable human beings, open their mouths and condemn themselves to be the opposite. On each occasion that I think that we cant be worse than we were before, I am stunned, when we breach prior depths and make utter spectacles of ourselves in shamelessly singing for our suppers.

In the matter of the Vice President of Guyana, as aired

by VICE News, there are those Guyanese who cast aside to the winds any pretense at dignity and self-respect, any claims of what is decent and helpful to this country. The Vice President come out looking like a man with serious troubles, and by his own hand, and it doesnt matter at all for the army of soup drinkers, boot lickers, and those falling over themselves to outdo each other either to defend, or to justify, or

to wish away what is put on the Vice Presidents head.

I would have loved for this nations Vice President to give me cause, give me grounds, give me something to stand for him with conscience and conviction. By now, all Guyana should know where I stand: the man and leader has not helped me to rush to his defense, as much as I would like to for a brother apparently felled by his own hands, by his own record, by his own inexplicable weaknesses.

When he could even invite certain kinds of people into his house to say one word about the business of the state and its peoples, then there is nothing left for conscientious citizens to do, but pray for him, and hope that he will mend his ways, fix himself, get his stories right.

But, even before he can do so for himself, the brigades of opportunists and sycophants, men with some level of education stoop to the crass and craven, with the useless in trying to rationalize by attacking the messengers and others. This is so

ugly, so self-serving, so damning of both the defenders and the object of their protections, that it emphasizes again how far this society has sunk. From what I discern, clearly the Freedom House machinery is working overtime to salvage something of what is left of the Vice Presidents already weak, and now further weakened, reputation.

I wish them well, and the leader under siege as well.

But I regret to share that the Vice President now comes across as damaged goods.

His own words come back to haunt him; his own relationships cultivated so cleverly have turned around on him and bitten deeply.

It is where no amount of party interferences and distractions, through dogged efforts at diluting the damage done, have the necessary standing to turn the spotlight away from the Vice President and put him back together again.

To repeat, he is damaged goods and he has done this to himself. He is going to have difficulty representing us among his peers in

CARICOM and beyond, given the regard that those who know, and are unbiased, will have for him. Behind the careful countenances and neutral speech, he will be looked upon with contempt.

And no amount of social media ranting and defending on his behalf is going to help him. In fact, they achieve the opposite by keeping the fires burning and the attention of the world fixed on his plight.

It would be good, and it is timely, for civil society in its many prongs to weigh-in and register their call for an international probe that is truly independent to look into these claims of the Chinese, as given voice by VICE News.

Trade unions, religious leaders, media sections, all should be part of a push to clear the air on this.

I assert that even the likes of GAWU and the Attorney General have their roles to perform, and it is neither to defend nor attack the Vice President, but to get to the real truth and the whole truth of this shabby affair.

Sincerely, GHK Lall

The Vice Report “Guyana For Sale” should not be overlooked

DEAR EDITOR, For far too long many of us here in Guyana have shown scant regard for corrupt practices. We live in a society where it is so common to pay a bribe to expedite a service and for those in authority to turn a blind eye that we fail to understand the serious effects of corruption on our economy and livelihood. So much so that we take little to no interest in or make a mockery of issues and allegations of corrupt practices in the highest offices of our land.

Allegations of corruption should be dealt with in the same manner as allegations of rape, murder, kidnapping etc. but then again in some instances the handling of some of these cases are also marred by corrupt practices.

The recently released VICE report “Guyana For Sale” which highlighted allegations of corruption against Vice President Jagdeo should be considered a serious matter by the authorities and pursued with the independence and professionalism that is needed for such matters. Fact is every exposed act of corruption starts with an allegation, hence when I see Government Ministers and those on both sides of the main political fronts treat with allegations of corrupt practices in a

nonchalant manner it is worrying. When you have a Minister of Government after viewing the VICE report saying “What a flop! The man you hope will sink Jagdeo says with ease and in clear language, “his hands are clean!”

If you were waiting for fireworks, for the expose, for something… you must have given several long suck teeth-s at the nothingness of that “investigative” piece. I coulda done better and I’m not even a journalist. I say we do the Vice/Yeoung Challenge…” it gives a clear sense of how seriously the Government treats allegations of corruption including millions or probably billions of taxpayers dollars. The level of idiocy in the post by the Minister is appalling; 1. It is not up to a news agency to present incriminating evidence of corruption against anyone. The VICE report provided more than enough information to warrant a thorough investigation. 2. The Minister makes a mockery of the report and attempts to invalidate its seriousness by quoting Mr. Su who said “his hands are clean”. In this same report, however, you can hear the Vice President admitting that Mr. Su is his close friend and he looks after all the agree-

ments and gets his (Jagdeo) full support as a Government official. To think that the Minister does not see anything wrong with that is frightening. Is it that we are so corrupt that our view of corruption and corrupt practices are skewed?

Imagine a Vice President meeting with foreign investors at his home at the behest of a man that calls him the boss, a man he (Jagdeo) stated has his full support as a Government official, a man who walks into his home to introduce him to a man he is seeking to help get a business deal in Guyana and some folks would want to brush that aside as if it’s nothing.

Note, Mr. Jagdeo didn’t ask why are you trying to bribe a government official, nor did he say that’s not how the Government interacts with investors, nor did he make it clear that bribery is a criminal offence, much less report the matter to the authorities. Instead he pointed the man under the guise Mr. Chan to Mr. Su the man who handles the business and gets his support. That in itself tells a damning story. Mr. Jagdeo’s simple but profound utterance clearly points to the issue of trading in influence, which is covered under the United Nations Convention Against

Corruption to which Guyana is a signatory.

Further in the report by VICE it was explicitly outlined how the deals go down. Fact is only immature and foolish government officials would directly collect bribe monies.

It was outlined that monies are collected as part of consultation fees and then funneled to the boss. This kind of revelation should cause us to take a look at past and current contracts, especially those that involved Mr. Jagdeo. What were the consultation fees for similar projects in Guyana and in comparison with other countries? If you were to take some time to understand the workings of corruption you’d want to investigate all the seemingly over-priced projects and the ones that are being increased. The issue of bid rigging schemes should also be investigated especially since we have had a number of locals complaining about specific contracts that are only being awarded to friends and associates of those in Government.

In closing, as a people we need to take allegations of corruption seriously. Mr. Su’s tenant- Landlord relationship with Mr. Jagdeo alone presents a possible avenue (Continued on page 5)

Wednesday June 22, 2022

What is evidence?

DEAR EDITOR, As young police recruits we were made to memorise the definition of many subjects; one of those subject was “EVIDENCE”.

We were taught that evidence is the term used to indicate the means by which any fact or point in issue or question may be proved or disprove in any manner, complying with the legal rules governing the subject. We were further taught that there are two types of evidence: Direct Evidence and Circumstantial Evidence.

Direct Evidence is said to be evidence that directly links a person to a crime, without the need of any inference, i.e. the person was seen committing the crime.

Is was also explained that Direct Evidence is a piece of evidence often in the form of the testimony of witnesses, the account of an eyewitness or a confession. Examples of direct evidence are when a person testifies that he/she saw an accused commit a

crime, heard another person say a certain word or words, or confesses to committing the crime.

Circumstantial Evidence is said to be evidence that relies on an inference to connect to the conclusion of fact, such as fingerprint, DNA or other scientific evidence.

It is often said that a combination of circumstantial evidence, even though not as strong as direct evidence, is often enough to convict someone for a crime. The below was taken from Study.Com, which may give further clarity to the issue: In an ideal world, there would be a direct witness to all crimes who could testify to exactly what happened. This type of evidence is called direct evidence because it directly shows what happened. However, in the real world, lawyers are rarely that fortunate. In most cases, they rely on indirect evidence, which is just information surrounding the crime. This indirect evidence is also called circumstantial

evidence. The circumstantial evidence definition states that it is evidence presented in a civil or criminal trial that suggest a fact is true rather than providing direct proof.

All the pieces of circumstantial evidence are meant to lead the judge or jury to draw a conclusion about the case, and both prosecutors and defense attorneys use it to sway juries and judges.

Consider the following circumstantial evidence example. A group of men wearing masks robbed a bank, and now a suspected group of men are being prosecuted for the crime. Because their faces were covered, it is difficult to identify with certainty who was involved. However, if money with serial numbers matching that of the stolen money is found at one of their homes, this implies that they were involved in the robbery.

Additionally, they may have been heard bragging about being able to afford luxury items even though (Continued on page 6)

The Vice Report “Guyana For...”

From page 4 for Mr. Su to pass on the illgotten gains in the form of rent for the property he is living in. This alone would ensure that his (Jagdeo) hands are kept clean since we don’t know the cost of the rental.

But this is just one way in which Government officials who are involved in corruption around the world maintain their clean hand stance because monies received from rent is seen as legitimate income. So what you find

world over is Government Officials being involved in various types of businesses that are used to accept the gains from corruption under the guise of legitimacy. Some officials while not being directly involved in business may have family members or close associates in business who will front for them and receive gains from corrupt practices on their behalf.

I do hope that our local journalists use this info to conduct further investiga-

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Kaieteur News

tions. Frankly speaking I do not have faith in the authorities to conduct any sensible investigation into these allegations and while it is not up to the news outlets to present evidence to incriminate anyone on any matter I do hope that they take keen interest in investigating and exposing corruption wherever it exists and that as a people we demand that these allegations be properly investigated.

Regards, Clayon Halley

Did Opposition Leader Norton meet with Exxon officials in the USA? DEAR EDITOR, Mr. Norton is the new Opposition leader and we are grappling to figure out if he will do a good job. He was diligent to visit supporters in New York. I understand that Mr. Norton may have met with officials from Exxon in a recent visit to the USA. On behalf of the nation, I would like to ask Mr. Norton, the following questions: 1. Is it true Sir that you met with Exxon officials when you visited the USA after you became the new Leader?

2. If so, what were the names and titles of the people you met?

3. Was that meeting in Washington, DC? 4. If yes, can you tell us what were some topics raised?

5. What were Exxon’s responses to the topics you raised?

6. If there was a meeting, did that meeting have anything to do with your denial that you ever used the word “renegotiation” as regards

the oil contracts?

7. Which other PNC operative went with you to the meeting?

8. Did you raise the question of continued flaring by Exxon?

9. Did you raise the issue of the contract being unfair to Guyana?

10. Did you raise the question of an increased royalty to Guyana?

11. Did you raise the issue of an increased profit share for Guyana?

12. Did you raise the issue of Exxon’s duty-free concessions and not actually paying taxes on profits although they enjoy all kinds of tax waivers and exemptions?

13. Did you talk about Guyana’s proposed gas-toshore project?

14. Did you restate the PNC’s pre-election promise that the PNC will not ask for renegotiation of the current contracts?

15. What will you do to atone for the current con-

tracts being signed under a PNC Government that sold us out forever?

16. What will it take for the PNC to embrace “renegotiation” as a major plank of your party’s platform?

17. Do you see the need for “renegotiation” so that Guyana may get more money that can help take care of services and benefits to your constituencies?

Sir, thank you for any responses you can give to these questions and set the record straight.

It would help the nation to understand your philosophies and leadership propensities. Thank you, Sir. Sincerely, Dr. Jerry Jailall

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Wednesday June 22, 2022

Jagdeo is in a hurry to see Guyana develop and flourish DEAR EDITOR, For quite some time, I did not get involved into political discourse or make public my views on current, topical, or controversial issues. However, I feel compelled to air my views on this Vice News report where certain allegations are made concerning Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.

Let me state from the outset that I totally agree with the analysis of Dr. Tara Singh on this matter and will not delve on those issues he raised about Vice News, suffice to say that it’s very easy to sling mud on a successful political leader in the stature of Dr. Jagdeo. Guyana has a lot of con men, who would get things done for people and then demand a reward for the favours received.

As a former Public Servant, I can enumerate several instances. Therefore, Mr. Su comments can be seen in that light, if he persists or is accurately reported, particularly since the VP has vehemently denied accepting any monies from him for any expedition of services to him or his friends or associates. The Vice President denial of ever accepting consideration for fa-

cilitating any project should be given due credence.

I served as the Permanent Secretary in the office of the President under the Jagdeo Presidency for in excess of five years, being Head of the Public Service and also sitting on every Sub Committee of Cabinet, the Central Intelligence Committee, the Defence Board and Cabinet.

Along with Dr. Luncheon we were closely associated with the inner workings and functions of the President. I can attest nothing but hard work, integrity and impatience for procrastination on work to be undertaken in Government, on the part of Dr. Jagdeo.

At the spur of the moment, he would intervene to bring an issue to head or finality, once it was brought to his attention that there were delays especially when the issue was of importance to national development.

There were many such issues and he intervened and promptly resolved them.

Therefore, he was honest when he said that he would have facilitated many investors that come here and have their projects languishing at

some point in the Government system. Let me give you one example. Mr. Robin Walter Persaud bought eight acres of Land that was tendered out

by Guysuco at Farm, East Bank Demerara, for the purpose of building a Hotel and other housing development.

He was experiencing some delays at the Privatization Unit and became frustrated, booked his flight and was on his way to the Airport when I learnt of this development.

The President had just finished a meeting and I was still in his office. I told him that the developer was frustrated and was leaving and may not carry through with the project.

He asked me to call Mr. Persaud which I did and passed the phone over to him.

He found out what the problem was and asked Robin to return to Georgetown and he gave the assurance that the matter was going to be resolved the very next day. The

matter was indeed resolved the next day and so Park View Hotel became a reality and the flooded abandoned cane fields were also developed and became prime lands for Executive houses. When the President acted then he hardly knew who Mr. Robin Persaud was.

There were many instances where the late Pandit Prakash Gossai, Khemat Budhu or myself, all of us working at OP during that period, would receive complaints over delays in Government leaving persons frustrated and when those were brought to the attention of President Jagdeo, he dealt with them, giving satisfaction to those aggrieved.

That was his trait then and I am aware that he continues in that vein up to today. He is in a hurry to see Guyana develop and flourish.

It is for these reasons that we refer to him as the architect

of modern-day Guyana.

With respect to his integrity returns I can also vouch with a few of his secretariat staff then over his yearly compliance. We knew of his salary and other emoluments, his savings account, his assets, and even some of his daily financial arrangements.

The late Vic Persaud even had control of his Cheque book.

He insisted on many occasions when his house was being built and we ordered materials when he was overseas that those should be paid for from his cheques and would demand to see the receipts.

There was an occasion when he misplaced his transport and wanted the details to ensure the accuracy of his returns and he ensured we secured a copy from the Deed’s registry. His life as President was like an open book to us. We were like his close family to him.

His answer therefore that he facilitated persons projects is indeed a testimony of who Bharrat Jagdeo really is. His accountability to the integrity commission over these years reflects the true state of his financial standings. Those of us who were his close staff can attest to that. Some of us aided in the preparation of his returns and our hand writings would be there on some of those documents.

The current Vice President needs no distraction at this time but should be allowed to use his gifted energies and knowledge towards the development and prosperity of our country.

With President Irfaan Ali, the Prime Minister and the Vice President, along with their team, Guyana will prosper and soared to greater heights.

Regards, Nanda K. Gopaul

Bad roads in Nooten-Zuil not being fixed because residents refuse to sign PPP party cards DEAR EDITOR, For the past 10 or 12 years we the residents of this small community of Nooten-Zuil, East Coast Demerara have been suffering from horrible drainage, due to clogged up trenches with little or no cleaning from the relevant authorities.

To top it all is our deplorable main access road which

has returned to a mud dam gradually.

After years of having various media houses visiting and highlighting our road conditions to no avail we eventually invited the Minister of Local Government Mr. Nigel Dharamlall to our community to hear and see the plight of the residents of this community in January of this

year where he listened and made recommendations and promised much to the joy and anticipation of the residents.

But lo and behold we are still awaiting even a single of those promises to be manifested to date as we continue to trek through the mud and destroy our vehicles on a daily basis as those responsible for the development of our community continue to ignore us.

Finally Mr. Editor , we the residents of Nooten-Zuil have come to the conclusion that the situation that we face is first and foremost political

and we have been victimised because they were given party membership forms to fill and return to a PPP representative who lives in a nearby village but the residents did not do such hence the delay in doing the necessary works that is so badly in need of completion.

We the residents are at our wits end and are contemplating drastic actions with the hope that we will receive the desired relief we so desperately seek.

Thank you!

Regards, Residents of Nootenzuil

What is evidence?

From page 5 they work low-paying jobs, or perhaps witnesses may have seen a group of masked people fleeing from the bank and getting into a car that looks similar to one of the defendant’s car. Even more suspicious would be if fingerprints belonging to the defendants were found in the bank. Because all of the pieces of information are circumstantial, they fall short of abso-

lute proof. Still, these many pieces of circumstantial evidence may be convincing enough to persuade a jury to convict the defendants of the robbery.

The take away is that you do not have to have direct evidence to convict a person for a crime, circumstantial evidence may suffice.

Regards, Paul Slowe CCH, DSM, ACP (Ret’d)

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

PAGE 08

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Article 13 mounts protest calling for renegotiation of oil contract

C

ivil society Group Article 13 has mounted what it calls ‘a series of protest action’ calling for the renegotiation of lopsided oil contract Guyana inked with Exxon.

According to co-founder of Article 13, Dr. Yog Mahadeo, the protest action is to specifically urge the leaders of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to fulfill a promise made to renegotiate “the horrible” oil deal.

Dr. Mahadeo, who led the picket line on Tuesday, was joined by a group of concerned citizens who held placards and stood in front of the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown office to publicly register their disapproval because of how the matter is being dealt with.

A clearly upset, Mahadeo told Kaieteur News that the purpose of the exercise is to remind the PPP/C of the promise they made to renegotiate the badly done oil contract. He said that his group will engage in protest every week.

- reminds Govt. of need to keep campaign promise

Civil Society Group: Article 13 has commenced a series of protest action calling for renegotiation of the lopsided Exxon contract. The group on Tuesday protested in front the Ministry of Natural Resources, Duke Street, Kingston.

He stressed that the agreement should give the leadership of the PPP/C more than enough reasons to go back to the negotiation table.

“They [the PPP] made this promise while in opposition; they agreed specifically that this is a bad contract, that it was

negotiated under false pretense, there was a misrepresentation and that it is bad for Guyana financially and in every way,” he said.

He continued “ …especially since the last financials that came out say that Exxon is making $320 billion GYD in profit, Guyana gets $85 billion but

Guyana gives Exxon a tax credit to Exxon of $79 billion which means we will be left with $6 billion. So we need to get this straightened out, there is no country in the world that will have a situation where a country will pay taxes for an investor.

You can give them a tax break, holiday or a concession… How long are we going pay Exxon taxes?

Plus, now we know we are not getting a royalty that is being taken out of expenses so really you are paying your own royalty.”

Dr. Mahadeo also spoke to the issue of public disclosure. He explained, “Exxon trades on the stock exchange I believe that Exxon needs to be investigated by the SEC [US, Securities and Exchange Commission] because on one hand they will show that they paid taxes but they haven’t done so. What Exxon does is that they come to the Minister who then goes to GRA and issues them a tax certificate but in Exxon’s books, they will show that they paid taxes…so Exxon wins every way you can think of.”

The Article 13 official noted that while the group leading the charge for the contract to be given better terms and agreement, it is the citizens of Guyana that will ultimately be able to bring the change of contract.

“I believe that the leaders know and are capable of renegotiating the contract but they need the support of the public. So as a Guyanese people let us come out and give them the impetus they need to go and change the contract…”

He noted that “…Vice

President Jagdeo said in one of his press conferences [that] in countries where the contract was renegotiated it came because of the demand of the people. Therefore he is telling the people of Guyana you all demand it and will get it done.”

Additionally, he said there should be an agreement i n p l a c e f o r E x x o n ’s expenses to be audited in the correct timeframe.

“Why are we allowing their exploration cost to be offset, when it’s part of their investment? So we are calling on the Government of Guyana to get their act together and renegotiate this contract…We are saying that the people of Guyana will support you. I hope they can be a reasonable government and stand up to their campaign [promise].”

“The royalty needs to be fully investigated because royalty should be above the line not below. It has nothing to do with profits or expenses. Every day we are discovering something new about this contract because the documents of this agreement were never released to the public. It is severely flawed and needs to be challenged in court,” Dr. Mahadeo added.

Civil society advocate, Jonathan Yearwood was among those who joined Mahadeo on the picket line.

He explained the details emerging from the contract were enough to prompt to a protest.

“I think the Kaieteur News headline this morning [yesterday] about the leaders being clueless about our oil royalty is enough to get the Guyanese people to protest. Based on what I

have been getting from the news is that we are paying Exxon taxes and now I understand that we are paying our own royalty. So really and truly, we are not getting the two percent royalty it is just a farce… this is not a tax break or holiday for period of 10 years. This is for a lifetime. It’s ridiculous as time goes on we are finding more things wrong with the contract.”

Yearwood said too that the fact that Guyana is literally being raped by the oil companies, trumps any alleged sanctity of contract.

“When you have a bad one-sided contract in every way there is no sanctity in that… The PPP/C said they would renegotiate the contract and they know there are ways and means of doing i t s o l e t ’s h o l d t h e Government of Guyana to their campaign promise.”

Trade Unionist, Norris Witter who was also a part of the picketing exercise called on citizens to put aside their ethnic and political views and join the fight for the change.

Wi t t e r s a i d i n h i s capacity as an advocate for workers’ rights, it is pertinent for him to add his voice to call for a better oil deal for Guyana and its citizens.

“This is an unfair, abusive, and illegal contract it is a condemnation of our current and future generations of all political affiliations, racial and religious persuasions… If this contract is maintained, the entire Guyana will be condemned both present and future generations,” Witter said as he urged more citizens to join the picketing line.

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 9

Kaieteur News

The President needs to get a grip on his government T

he President of Guyana must share some responsibility for the controversy which has erupted over the Vice News feature on the Chinese presence in Guyana. The countrys Head of State has given too leeway for the Second Vice President to involve himself in too many areas of governance and to be seen as wielding too much influence within the government.

Full executive authority resides in the President and the President alone. However, the President can delegate aspects of his executive responsibility, and this is done through the assignment of ministerial portfolios.

The Vice President has been handed responsibility for the countrys natural resources sector. But it appears as if he is adopting the role of a super-minister by regularly pronouncing on issues which relate to other portfolios.

Even yesterday, he took the liberty of speaking on the Commission of Inquiry which has been established. He also speaks regularly on matters concerning the economy and has been the lead person in governments part-time jobs initiative.

Upon his return from the Commonwealth Summit, the President needs to get a grip on his government and to clearly demarcate the areas of responsibility of the Vice President. There is a Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister who has responsibility for information. That Minister should have been the one who should have been dealing with the media on the issue of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the 2020 General and Regional

Elections.

There is also a Minister with responsibility for labour relations. It would have been more appropriate for that Minister, rather than the Second Vice President, to have spearheaded the initiative aimed at providing part-time jobs to thousands of Guyanese.

Instead, however, the Second Vice President has been darting around the Regions implementing this initiative.

This should never have been and is perceived, in some quarters, as a pre-emptive move to enhance the Second Vice Presidents popularity in anticipation of any possible fallout from the Vice News feature.

Vice News failed miserably to entrap the Second Vice President. All they were able to do was to have someone state that he collects fees for facilitating investors. But that brag is not even prima facie evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The Second Vice President has long disputed allegations of being involved in bribe-taking.

The Vice News feature did however reveal some inappropriate actions. For one, the Second Vice President is not the Minister of Finance or the Minister with responsibility for investment. The President holds the finance portfolio and is assisted by a Minister with responsibility for Finance. Investment issues have long been under the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce but it is not clear whether GOINVEST the agency responsible for promoting and facilitating investment falls under the Office of the President or the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and

Commerce.

Either way, the Second Vice President should not be involved in facilitating any investment outside of the natural resources sector. And even more so should have excused himself from any discussion on an investment being intermediated by his tenant. This represents a potential conflict of interest.

Also, no one should be providing any commitment to facilitate an investment unless that person is au fait with the nature of the business. To express a disinterest in knowing about the business deal of the undercover investor but at the same time to say that support will be given is an ill-advised response.

The President has to prevent any such future occurrence by doing a few things.

For one he should clearly outline, the various ministerial responsibilities, including that held by the Second Vice President.

Every Minister should be instructed to not encroach on the portfolio of other Ministers.

Secondly, the President needs to establish a Code of Conduct for all his Ministers, including the Second Vice President. That Code of Conduct should make provision for avoiding possible conflicts of interest, including between Ministers and their tenants. In light of another development, it should also make clear measures relating to what happens with someones business interests when that person becomes a government Minister.

Thirdly, the President should consider the fact that the appointment of Vice Presidents creates a political hier-

Dem boys seh...

Winning de lottery can be more dan a jackpot A man comes home a day to he wife after winning de lottery. He tell he wife, “Honey, if ah win de lottery, wat yuh would do?”

De wife was not in a good mood. So she tell he, “Ah would take half of it and den leff yuh.”

With a huge grin on he face, de husband say, “Perfect! Ah win ten dollars! Here tek five and be on yuh way!”

But winning de lottery is not easy. Some people does mek it a study. Deh gat people

does be studying dem lotto numbers as if dem preparing fuh engineering exam. Dem does be writing down all kind combinations.

Some does play de same numbers all de time in de hope dat one day dat set of numbers gan be de winning combination.

And nuff men does go and gamble out dem money and dem wife does leff dem because dem cant support de home.

It mek dem boys remem-

ber de story of when de wife win de lottery. She was suh excited dat when she open de front door, she call out, “Pack yuh bags, ah win de lottery!”

De husband answer, “Weh we going?”

To which de wife reply, “Wat yuh mean we?”

Another time a wife ask she husband, “Would you still love me if yuh win de lottery?”

De husband reply, “Of course.... But I’d miss you.”

Talk half. Leff half.

archy. But the Second Vice President, constitutionally, is not the second in command of the government. After the President is the Prime Minister who is automatically a Vice President. He needs to be so referred and needs to be so seen if the countrys constitutional hierarchy is to be re-

spected.

The President needs to rein in the Second Vice President. There is no need for any superman within the government. Such a development, even if only at the level of perception, will undermine respect for the Presidency and create headaches such as

that which the government now faces.

(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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Wednesday Monday May June 02,22, 2022 2022

THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN

Mia Mottley knows who and what are the problems in Guyana When Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley was h e r e i n F e b r u a r y, t h e chairman of the Decade of People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana Chapter IDPADA-G accused the Barbadian Prime Minister of ignoring three things one of which never existed, the other is a fiction and the third is a distortion of Guyanese history.

Let's elongate on them.

He accused the PM of ignoring Guyana's internal situation. He noted: “Guyana`s internal antagonisms/conflicts are treated as minor, or mere irritants, and responded to nonchalantly; with a shrug of the shoulder; and the nonapplication of her, otherwise, profound analytical methodologies.”

What does the Prime Minister know about Guyana? Guyana's sociological conflicts only surfaced when the APNU+AFC lost the 2020 election. No one wrote CARICOM Prime Ministers

expressing their intervention between 2015 and 2020, when the 2015 election result was almost 50-50. There were no internal conflagrations then in Guyana. Between 2015 and 2020 there wasn't even one.

Prime Minister Mottley knew that in 2011, the incumbent lost its majority but no one attempted to burn down the country. She knew in 2015, the PPP lost the election and no one subsequently tried to create “mo fyaah/slo fyaah.”

Ms. Mottley obviously knew that in 1992, 1997 and 2001, post-election mayhem took place because election losers did not want to accept defeat. She came to Guyana knowing that one month after the losers conceded defeat there was post-election violence in Region Five. Ms. Mottley knows that Guyana's conflicts are manufactured because those who accept to participate in elections do not accept when they lose.

The chairman apprised the Prime Minister of the

situation through these words: “The evolution of the Guyanese society mirrors inequitable development, starting with the enslavement of the Amerindians that c re s c e n d o e d w i t h t h e enslavement of people of African descent and the institutionalisation of disparity and inequity to the extent that a conversation is urgently required to redress that legacy.”

It is naïve for the chairman to think that the PM is not familiar with the story of Guyana. For 33 years, from 1964 to 1992, then from 2015 to 2020 the African oriented party, the PNC, had state power. Of those 33 years, PNC leader, Forbes Burnham possessed power for 21 years.So great was Mr. Burnham's achievements and legacy that Mr. Vincent Alexander along with Mr. Burnham's trusted aide, Elvin Mc David, founded the Forbes Burnham Foundation. As President, David Granger housed four foundations in his private

residence named after Burnham.

The question that the chairman must answer is what became of the 33 years of PNC's hegemony? I used the word, “hegemony” b e c a u s e i n 1 9 7 6 , M r.

Burnham invented the doctrine of “paramountcy of the party” which enunciated a new political architecture in which the ruling party would have jurisdiction over state institutions. By the time Mr. Burnham died in 1985, the PNC party has jurisdiction over 80 percent of the economy.

Let's expose more of the contents from the chairman's letter in the newspapers headlined: “PM Mottley smoothed over Guyana's internal dynamics.” He noted that IDPADA-G wrote Ms. Mottely in her capacity as CARICOM chairman to intervene in the election crisis and for her to understand that Guyana's problem goes way beyond election competition but ethnic divisions.

IDPADA- G complained that the organisation got no response. This is the second time in the Frederick Kissoon newspapers that the organisation has lamented the non-response T hursday, March 5, then of from the PM. But much to the Friday, March 13. It was only disappointment of people when the world rejected the w h o k n o w p o l i t i c s i n false numbers in those Guyana, it was intellectually declarations that a letter was myopic to write Ms. Mottley. sent by IDPADA-G to the Here is why the PM did not PM. Ms. Mottley had to see it answer.First, if Guyana's as a conflict of interest problem was more than b e c a u s e a p a r t y periodic elections, then why representative in GECOM the party that the chairman of was asking to downplay the IDPADA-G represents in the importance of the election.

Thirdly, in citing the election commission ethnic divisions in Guyana to (GECOM) accepted victory in 2015 and formed the the PM, the chairman was government for five years? unwise to write the PM in his Why when it lost in 2020, capacity as chairman of an elections become less A f r i c a n - o r i e n t e d pressing than the ethnic organisation. It would have been best to have asked for question?

Secondly, the chair of one of those among the usual IDPADA-G must have been suspects to do so.

(The views expressed in seen to be practicing conflict of interest. He was involved this article are those of the in the election as a GECOM author and do not necessarily commissioner and accepted reflect the opinions of this the declaration of results of newspaper.)

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaieteur News

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PAGE 12

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Jagdeo dodges question on Govt.’s monitoring of oil

companies expenses - says audits can pick up inflated costs

Kaieteur News Publisher, Mr. Glenn Lall asks a question during the press conference

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo

E v e n t h o u g h ExxonMobil is deducting 75 percent of Guyana’s oil towards its expenses upfront, the country seems to have no mechanisms in place to monitor the US billiondollar spending of the oil companies, as the nation’s Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, could not state whether the country has mechanisms in place to oversee and authorise any spending activity.

When Jagdeo was asked on Tuesday during a press conference to specifically say who is monitoring the spending, he shifted the discussion to stakeholders in the Stabroek Block.

He said, “We’re a 50/50 business not from a management perspective.

Yo u h a v e a d i ff e r e n t perspective…CNOOC is an investor, Hess is an investor, Exxon is an investor. The three of them own the consortium so then they hire

an operator which is the management firm. So even CNOOC who has 25 percent shares and Hess 35 percent shares, they don’t make management decisions.”

He elaborated on the fact that the oil companies own 100 percent of the venture but yet they are not privy to decision making. In Guyana’s case, he told the publisher of Kaieteur News, Mr. Glenn Lall, that the country gets 50 percent of the profit but are not 50 percent owners of the company.

Even though Jagdeo was not asked to elaborate on stakes and ownership, he went on “the company is owned 100 percent by these three entities that I just explained. We get 50 percent of the profit…”

The Vice President was then asked how Guyana could be certain that their 50 percent share of profit is Continued on page 24

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 13

Do not approve any additional oil projects without securing more for Guyana – Opposition Leader Given that the Government of Guyana has already missed a “glorious” opportunity to rake in more value for Guyanese from its rich oil resource – by failing to use the Liza One Permit renewal to secure better terms from the oil operator, ExxonMobil – Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Aubrey Norton, is of the firm view that any future permit approval must bring additional benefits to Guyana.

Norton in an invited comment on Monday told Kaieteur News that he believes that in any negotiation, parties use their leverage to achieve their objectives; likewise the leaders in government must follow in the footsteps of other developed nations to ensure their people benefit from the oil wealth.

On May 31, the stateoperated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), renewed ExxonMobil’s permit to operate in the Liza

achieve your objectives and I think any government should use the leverage it has to achieve its objectives within the confines of the law and I think the government missed that opportunity and here we are.”

The Opposition Leader

Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton One oil field, in the Stabroek Block, without inserting clauses that could benefit the people. Instead, the EPA added a mere US$5 for flaring of gas and settled for ‘assurance’ instead of insurance.

Meanwhile, the United States (US) oil company is currently seeking an approval for its fifth projectUaru Plus. The EPA has

since ordered that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) be carried out to determine the risks involved with the operations.

In this regard, Norton has made it clear that future projects must ensure the Guyanese benefits.

Norton said, “In a process of negotiation, you use the leverage you have to

‘Nothing new from Vice News’ From page 3 reporter noted that after a few hours with some Chinese businessmen she was informed by them that if they were investing in business they could help out, “because they have really good relationships with the head of state in this country.”

The reporter was also told that service fees charged by the middlemen are really bribes for deals. “The consulting fee is the bribe. So, they include it in the consulting fee because they don’t do any actual consulting.”

An individual identified as the General Manager for China’s largest state-run construction firm also pointed out that the middlemen were very important. “With just one word we can get something done,” the Chinese businessman said.

Where were they?

Meanwhile, speaking Monday night on his radio programme: The Glenn Lall Show, Lall said he observed over the weekend, Senior Counsel and Shadow Attorney General, Roysdale Forde calling on Jagdeo to resign. Lall told his audience those allegations have been in the air for years now.

“Maybe Roysdale Forde was in nursery school when the Kaieteur News had reported how the PPP Government gave away to Bai Shan Lin half of Guyana’s lands that wasn’t supposed to be touched, lands that were to be preserved for future generations. The same coalition government had to come in and rescind that and take back some from the Chinese. These allegations are nothing new,” Mr. Lall detailed.

He said the Vice News Reporter, Isobel Yeung spoke about the hydro falls project, with the Chinese “and we have been talking about that since Jagdeo announced it in 2007, down to the other day. We went into details to show it was a Ponzi- Scheme. The world was building Hydro back in 2007 for US$1M per MW, when Jagdeo wanted to tell us to build the Amaila Falls hydro for US$4B per MW.

The Vice News [reporter] talked about your gold, diamond and bauxite lands that end up in the Chinese and all them foreign people hands; the Vice News and Mr. Su also talked about the oil blocks and the oil business and how big money had to pass…Isn’t that what Glenn Lall and the Kaieteur News have been saying all the time?” Lall queried. He said every year the Kaieteur News has been reporting on these corrupt deals and the Opposition did not take action. “They didn’t call for anybody’s resignation,” Lall declared.

“Every single day massive corruption and thievery going on in every project with y’all tax dollars, from a school toilet, to the Marriott Hotel corruption, don’t let us start with that never done airport that milking ayuh granny wha nah produce milk and Roysdale Forde and the rest of the Opposition don’t see that. A foreign reporter’s voice has weight on an allegation and the facts the Kaieteur News putting out every day, they not seeing that.”

Lall added that under the same Coalition Government, which Forde was part of, “our prime Ogle land ended up in Chinese hands, he didn’t call for resignation. Understand me; I am not defending Jagdeo, I just letting you people know that they only open their mouths when it suits them. I have said it many times before, these politicians we have ‘pampazetting’ themselves are incompetent, corrupt, and in most cases pennywise and pound foolish; talking about a single tree while the entire forest is on fire, focusing on local content pennies for the Guyanese people while your royalty disappearing back into the hands of the owners that give you the next day. Yes those same oil companies taking back that money and nobody knows anything about it. Another foreign reporter will come to shine that light and when people like Forde them hear that foreign voice, they gon put out a statement and call for another resignation,” Lall concluded.

added, “I believe that in the nature of the government it is so corrupt that you don’t know why they don’t want to act but I do believe that we can engage in a civil manner, Exxon or all people involved in exploration and exploitation of our natural resources in a way that

establishes that we the people must benefit.”

He noted in his preamble that now that it has been confirmed that Guyana has oil and is now the magnet for petroleum companies, it is critical for the leaders to pursue better benefits from Continued on page 24

Kaieteur News

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Wednesday June 22, 2022

‘Leaders must come clean over recovery of royalties’

- Glenn Lall

...queries whether ExxonMobil reclaimed US$18M signing bonus Amid growing concerns as to whether ExxonMobil is recovering the 2% royalty it pays to Guyana for its oil, Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall, has called on the country’s leaders to speak definitively on exactly what is the situation. He has also queried whether the controversial, US$18M

signing bonus Exxon paid to Guyana back in 2018 was recovered by the oil major.

Kaieteur News has examined the Production Sharing Agreement Guyana signed with Exxon pertaining to recoverable and non-recoverable items.

In the latter category, there is no explicit listing of royalty

being an unrecoverable item.

It is crucial to note that oil companies such as ExxonMobil have paid US$3 billion over the past 15 years to resolve a range of charges including that they regularly cheated the U.S. government and Native American communities out of royalties on oil and gas

leases, raising concerns they use similar techniques to rob citizens in poor countries of resource wealth.

Further research on Exxon’s treatment of nations on royalty payments further underscores the need for authorities here to be extremely cautious.

According to a 2010

Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall publication by the Oil & Gas Journal, ExxonMobil Corp. had agreed to pay a US$32.2 million federal fine to resolve a whistleblower’s claim that its affiliates knowingly underpaid natural gas royalties on federal and American Indian leases.

The US Department of Justice had said the claim arose from allegations that Mobil Natural Gas Inc., Mobil Exploration & Producing US Inc., and their affiliates systematically underreported the value of gas taken from the leases from March 1, 1998, to November 30, 1999, and consequently paid less in royalties to the federal government and various Indian tribes. At the moment, Guyana is conducting audits of Exxon’s post 2017 bills which total US$9B. The consortium, which is made up of local and foreign auditors, is reportedly expected to complete same in four months. It is unclear if the team would be examining said bills to ensure royalty is not being recovered or if royalties were underpaid.

The issue of royalty recovery came to the fore and became a matter of concern when Kaieteur News reporters, during their coverage of the recently concluded Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference in May, found out that for 60 years, the oil operator there was giving the twin nation royalty payments on one hand and recovering it on the other.

This unfortunate situation, it was explained, befell the CARICOM state after it failed to detail explicitly what costs are recoverable by the oil company in the sharing agreement.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo was unable to be pellucid as to whether ExxonMobil’s subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) is in fact recovering the sums paid as

royalty. When asked the question at his last press c o n f e r e n c e , t h e Vi c e President told this newspaper that he did not want to make a statement that he might have to retract.

He preferred to leave the question in the capable hands of the nation’s tax and legal authorities/guardians.

“I don’t want to venture public positions that I may have to walk back on at some point in time so I will be a bit cautious on this,” he told the newspaper.

Opposition members were asked the same question. Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton told the Kaieteur News that the Stabroek operator should not be able to recover the two percent royalty.

“If it is royalty, it cannot be recoverable,” the Leader said. He added that the Stabroek block PSA doesn’t make royalty recoverable, but the smaller blocks have an unusual clause in place that makes royalty recoverable in that regard.

Former Minister of Infrastructure, and current Shadow Oil and Gas Minister, David Patterson also told the Kaieteur News that the two percent, “is not supposed to be recoverable.”

He told the Kaieteur News that according to his understanding of the PSA, Guyana’s two percent royalty is not supposed to be recovered by the oil company.

Leader of the Alliance For Change and former Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan in his contribution submitted that during the Coalition government’s handling of the PSA, there was no provision in the document for Exxon to reclaim the two percent royalty.

As such, he said, he is “unaware” that the payment is recoverable. Ramjattan added too that if the oil company is in fact reclaiming the royalty, it “goes against the contract”, in his view.

Continued on page 22

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaieteur News

PAGE 15

Guyana’s premiere Rotary Club installs new Board of Directors

O

n June 18th, 2022, the Rotary Club of Georgetown- Guyana’s premiere Rotary Club installed its new Board of Directors for the year 2022-2023, under the leadership of President Sheldon Hazelwood.

This announcement was made via a release which noted that the Club celebrated its 63rd Anniversary on May 20th, 2022, a significant milestone. Over these years the club has made notable contributions to society such as the construction of the Convalescent Home, construction of water wells in areas such as Old England/Siberia, Coomacka and Kuru Kururu; numerous donations to several organisations throughout the length and breadth of Guyana; food supplies for many senior citizens homes; Christmas gifts to children hospitalised as well as medical equipment to the Georgetown Public Hospital and other institutions; sponsorship of other rotary, Rotaract and Interact clubs; several medical outreaches and many other projects.

Immediate Past President, Ramona Singh, thanked the outgoing Board of Directors for their priceless contributions towards the achievements of the club over the past year.

According to Singh, this year, the Rotary Club of Georgetown is exceedingly proud to have executed projects across seven of Guyana’s 10 administrative regions impacting and changing the lives of persons living in these regions. This is the level of impact organisations such as Rotary seek to make in their communities which, she said, the club will continue.

Some of the major projects included the donation of an ECG Machine and Electrocardiograph Unit, to the Georgetown Public Hospital; Donations of Electronic tablets towards the Ministry of Human Services and Continued on page 22

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaieteur News

PAGE 16

Mining operations locally account for 75% of deforestation in Guyana While deforestation in Guyana remains comparatively low, given the size of the country’s forest and the level of logging permitted, a report by the Guyana Chapter of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) has found that mining is responsible for 75 percent of deforestation domestically.

The findings have since been contained in the EITI’s third country report, recently released to the public.

In that document it has been outlined that despite the fact that deforestation rates typically expand with economic development, the forestry sector in Guyana has successfully emerged against an increase in production when compared to 2017 with a very low deforestation rate of 0.051 percent.

This equates to an annualised deforestation rate of 0.051 percent which is slightly higher than the change reported in the previous year recorded at 0.048 percent.

…EITI Report finds State Lands most affected

An overhead view of a mining area and its impact on the surrounding forest It was noted, however, that the main deforestation driver for the current (2019) forest year reported is mining, which accounts for 75 percent of the deforestation in the period.

Alarmingly it was found that the majority—78 percent—of the

deforestation is observed in the State Forest Area.

According to the report, forests cover nearly 18 million hectares of Guyana total landmass of 21 million hectares with about 12.6 million hectares of the forestland designated as State Forests and placed

under the management of the Guyana Forestry Commission.

Indigenous peoples manage approximately 14 percent of the forest surface and the rest have been designated as protected and research areas divided in the following five areas: Kaieteur National Park; Iwokrama forest 180,000 hectares; Kanuku Mountains Protected Area; Konashen Community Conservation Area; and Shell Beach Protected Area, which includes mangrove forests.

As it relates to the mining operations locally EITI, identified these to be gold, bauxite and diamonds.

Mining in Guyana is

administrated via the six established mining districts namely Berbice, Potaro, Mazaruni, Cuyuni, North West and Rupununi. The mining districts cover approximately 45.8 million acres. The largest district is the Rupununi which covers 17.6 million acres, while the smallest is Potaro.

There are currently two large gold mines active in the Guyana Shield: The Aurora mine, operated by Aurora Gold Mine and the Karouni mine, operated by Troy Resources. Gold production from both large-scale gold mines represents 29 percent of gold production in 2019.

Since becoming a member of the global body,

government had agreed to adhere to several requirements, in this case, EITI requirement 2.4 (a) of the 2019 Standard states that Guyana should publicly disclose all mineral agreements entered into force prior to the reporting period, in this case, 2019.

Importantly, the report highlights that the country’s Mining Act (1989) does not include any expressed restrictions on the public disclosure of mineral agreements and licences by the government.

There are currently 10 companies holding largescale licences in Guyana.

The Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. holds three large scale licences for the extraction of bauxite in Kurubuka (Block 22), North East (Block 5 in Kwakwani), Berbice (Block 38) for a total area of 16,691 acres, in which Government has a state participation of 10 percent as confirmed by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

Bosai Minerals Group Guyana Inc. holds three (3) large-scale licences for the extraction of bauxite in East Montgomery, Tailing area and Dacouria for a total area of 3,063 acres, in which the Guyanese Government also has state participation of 30 percent as confirmed by NICIL. Correia Mining Co. holds a large-scale licence Continued on page 22

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaieteur News

PAGE 17

Kaieteur News

PAGE 18

Wednesday June 22, 2022

K/News publisher-led protest for better oil deal moves to McDoom - protestors demand that Govt. brings Exxon back to negotiation table The protestors at McDoom, East Bank Demerara

K

aieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall was joined by a group of citizens on Tuesday to picket at McDoom, East Bank Demerara as they continue the call for better terms and conditions in Guyana’s oil deal.

The protestors held placards and stood on the sidelines of the east bank public road as they expressed disgust at the PPP/C administration for ignoring their calls to renegotiate the oil deal.

“We, the Guyanese people, continue to suffer while the cost of living has gone up. People are getting poorer while Exxon getting richer!” one protestor said as he stood on the picket line.

Several of the protestors shared the view that the politicians are taking advantage of the poor and defenseless people of the country.

“We want these politicians to know that while they allowing Exxon to go away with we oil, some people can’t feed their children, some can’t afford to pay their bills or even get proper toilet in the house,”

one man said.

“Not only Exxon want money, Guyanese want money to, Exxon dem mek more money than God what happen to we?” another protestor shouted.

The group is adamant that if they do not engage in the exercise, a change of the contract would never be a reality.

At one point of the protest, the police were called by an employee attached to the Guyana Shore Base Inc. (GYSBI) to remove the protestors who were standing in the vicinity of the road leading to the McDoom-based operation.

However, the officers were reminded by the Kaieteur News publisher that the road is in fact public property.

Lall told the officers instead of standing in opposition, they should join the action since it is for the betterment of all Guyanese. The Guyanese businessman has been calling for the renegotiation of the oil contract with Exxon with protest action at various parts of the city.

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 19

Ali names panel to conduct CoI into 2020 elections rigging President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday released the names of the persons who will oversee the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.

The announcement comes days after the President reassured citizens that he will establish the CoI into the polls.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the President said that the CoI will be conducted by a panel of distinguished judicial professionals including retired Justice of Appeal Stanley John; former Attorney General, High Court Judge and acting Justice of Appeal in the Eastern Caribbean, Godfrey P. Smith SC; former Chair and Chief Elections Commissioner of India, Dr. S. Y. Quraishi; and Former Chancellor of Guyana (Ag), Carl Singh, OR, CCH. Kaieteur News understands that of the panel, retired Justice of Appeal John is expected to chair the commission, while Dr. Afari Jayan and Dr. Nasim Zaidi will serve as resource personnel to assist the Commission with its work.

Ali noted in the statement that “In the coming weeks, the intended

President Irfaan Ali Commissioners and resource personnel will review the reports and documentation, set out modalities and commence work.”

The President had made a promise during his campaign that a probe would be launched into the reports of rigging surrounding the elections.

Last Thursday, he told the media that next week Tuesday he will be naming the persons to sit on an international panel to inquire into the chaotic 2020 General and Regional elections.

The President made the announcement while wrapping up his speech at the Enmore Martyrs’

Commemoration Service.

“In honour of these martyrs and all Guyanese who fought relentlessly to ensure that our country did not go down as an undemocratic state…we will have an international CoI into the last elections. Not a review…we promise, particularly your president promise a CoI and I say to all of you before dawn on Tuesday, your President will name the members of that CoI and those who sought to subvert democracy… the CoI will set the truth from the untruth…” Ali declared.

Ali’s announcement came a few days after Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo had indicated that this (CoI) is not the route the government wishes to take at this time.

Jagdeo told a news conference that he believes the decision by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission to not allow the review at this time is the right one.

He said for such a review to take place, persons no longer in the employ of GECOM and who are before the Court for alleged wrongdoings would be relied on for information.

Jagdeo said he believes that the matters which face the elections commission can be

Despite COVID-19 impact, NBTS set to make blood collection target - Director The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) is well on its way to meeting its annual target for the collection of blood. This is according to the Director of the NBTS, Dr. Pedro Lewis.

D r. L e w i s m a d e t h i s disclosure on Monday during an airing of the Your Health Matters programme on Kaieteur Radio.

During the radio programme, Dr. Lewis also spoke of a roll out of activities that was held in Observance of World Blood Donor Day on June 12, last.

The NBTS Director revealed that the blood bank has been involved in a number of sensitisation activities geared at getting fresh blood donors as well as sustaining the relationship with the regular givers of blood.

“We have been going across the country showing our appreciation to persons who see the importance of donating blood to save lives.

We have been distributing little tokens as a way of encouraging those persons who sometimes donate two and three times per year,” Dr. Lewis said.

Director of the NBTS, Dr. Pedro Lewis He disclosed too that this year, the blood bank has done relatively well in terms of collection for its annual quota.

“We are at over 6000 units and our annual quota is between 10,000 and 12,000 units so you can safely say that we are on our way to meet our yearly target,” Dr. Lewis added.

He underscored the importance of voluntary blood donations. “This is a very critical service at all our major health facilities there is a need for blood, whether

it is the surgeries, the pregnant women or some other serious condition, blood is needed. Pregnant women especially; every, one in two pregnant mothers need some form of blood treatment, so this is a highly critical area in the sector,” he explained.

Dr. Lewis noted too that he is very pleased with the recovery of the service after a sharp drop in donation at the height of the COVID- 19 pandemic.

According to Dr. Lewis, the NBTS had recorded a 25 percent reduction in blood donation for 2020 before there were any signs of a gradual increase.

“I am quite pleased with the response that we are getting now which will allow the blood bank to meet all its quotas this year,” he asserted.

Back in 2020, the NBTS started to see a decline in the number of persons donating blood. Dr. Lewis said there was a “sharp reduction” between March and August at the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Continued on page 24

accommodated in the amendment to the Representation of the People Act. “It’s nonsense, it’s before the court now. And then, they are trying to link this review

with support for the amendment for the Representation of the People Act. Now clearly, they don’t want the Representation of the People Act to be amended even after going

through a public process and everybody recognises now that we have to put arrangements in place in the Act to avoid some of the things we have had,” Jagdeo said.

Kaieteur News

PAGE 20

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Guyana’s financial reserves down by $6.7B - BoG With inflation and the cost of living skyrocketing globally in recent months countries have been increasingly grappling with volatile price increases for imports.

With Guyana expected to maintain a buffer reserve enough to cover three months of import, the most recent Bank of Guyana Statement on the country’s Assets and Liabilities, instead lists the country’s General Reserves as minus $6.7B. The account for the Contingency Reserve accounts for some $2.4B. The information has since been published in the Official Gazette which documents the country’s total Capital and Liabilities at in excess of $487B. T h e c u r r e n t administration has in recent months consistently blamed exogenous factors such as the global supply chain crisis for the prices volatility affecting both exports and imports. The war currently

President Irfaan Ali being waged by Russia against Ukraine has also been blamed for escalating commodity prices across the world.

Head of State President Irfaan Ali in a recent public broadcast seeking to address the situation had cautioned Guyanese to brace for an increase in cost of living as a result of the global supply chain crisis.

At the time he had adumbrated, “what are we doing today is presenting you with the facts, with

reality, with what the government is doing to address issues that are global in nature, how we are defining policies to address these issues, the impact global challenges is having on our economy, and the way in which the government is addressing those challenges.”

To this end, he added that he believes that it is very important for all Guyanese to understand that “We do not live in an isolated environment and we are part

of the global community.”

The President said that Guyanese are part of the process of globalisation and what occurs globally; while highlighting that the country is also affected by global challenges.

Over the weekend during an address at the 74th commemoration of the Enmore Martyrs Thursday last, more than two years after discussions on the issue, President Ali informed that Cabinet had finally agreed with the recommendation of the tripartite committee, and is thus supporting the new increase.

Minister within the Office of the President, with responsibility for Finance, D r. A s h n i S i n g h i n presenting the Budget for this year had said, inflation is predicted to be 4.1 percent, driven largely by continued but gradually moderating imported price pressure.

He had noted at the time that beyond its global public

health consequences, COVID-19 also had severe disruptive effects on global production and trade and, particularly, on the global supply chain. Since the onset of COVID-19, supply chains across the world have been clogged up with disruptions in critical shipping routes due to port congestion, shortages in labour and key materials, and fluctuating demand.

Additionally, he said a shortage in container availability helped drive up freight charges significantly.

The consequence has been freight rates that have increased by over 400 percent over the past two years with most of that increase occurring in 2021.

Dr. Singh, “As a result, inflationary pressures were amplified the world over, and global inflation is at its highest in at least a decade and, in some places, inflation is at its highest in over four decades. The disruptions created by the pandemic are

not expected to dissipate in the near term.”

According to Dr. Singh, however, the government has moved to contain the pass-through to the domestic economy.

Specific interventions identified by Dr. Singh at the time included the restricting of the freight cost to preCOVID-19 levels for the purposes of determining the taxable value of imports.

Additionally, successive reductions in the excise tax charged on diesel and gasoline, first in February 2021 from 50 percent to 35 percent and then in October from 35 percent to 20 percent, also helped contain the cost of domestic transportation which feeds through directly to prices more broadly.

The price for fuel has continued to increase internationally and locally already leading to the increased prices for transportation and commodities.

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaieteur News

PAGE 21

PAGE 22

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

‘Leaders must come clean over recovery of royalties...’

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From page 14 Winston Jordan, who was Finance Minister under the last administration, told the Kaieteur News, “absolutely not,” that the two percent royalty is not recoverable by the oil companies. He even mentioned that the oil company itself has stated that the two percent royalty is coming out of its profit.

Not focused Meanwhile, addressing the issue on his radio programme: The Glenn Lall Show Monday night, Lall did not mince words calling out the Guyanese leaders for being at sea on the very important issue. He lamented that the country was already being short-changed on a lopsided contract and even with the meagre royalty, the possibility of it being recovered by the oil company is frightening. “We are all waiting on the ‘Oil President, VP Jagdeo, to send out a release or to talk to this nation on this royalty issue. I see them running around the country spending hours busing and cussing down the PNC and you are not hearing a single word from him on what he is doing for us to get more from this oil wealth.”

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Lall said what the politicians are engaged in by “cussing and busing down each other” is a clear case of distraction from what is going on with your oil wealth.”

“This attitude was described nicely by a Trinidadian when he said the politicians in T&T were using a soft touch approach when it comes to the oil industry,” Lall said, “This is why T&T was short-changed not only with the royalty, but they later found out that down to the bonus money T&T received was snatched back by the oil companies, unknown to them. This brings me to the question: Did ExxonMobil take out the US$18M signing bonus back from Guyana?”

Jagdeo, according to Lall, is in the best position to tell the nation that, but instead “he spent months cussing down the PNC for hiding that

from the nation and you hear little to nothing from his mouth on this oil industry, matter of fact the only time you hear this man say something is when he is asked questions about the oil and you hear the type of answers he gives..” a frustrated Lall lamented.

Leaders in the dark On the issue of the leaders being uncertain as to whether the royalty is recoverable, Lall said he was ashamed of them. He said too he was astounded to hear Ramjattan repeating himself when he was re-elected last week, saying Guyana got a good oil deal. “That’s what you call the soft touch approach that caused T&T and many other oil producing countries to be where they are today. Silence makes the oil companies happy and keeps the nation stupid.”

Lall also addressed, the

controversial decommissioning. He noted that “one single expense the oil company taking out in two years is more than half of what Guyana gets for the two years. “Them (oil companies) took out US$355M and Guyana gets US$607M, then Guyana allow ExxonMobil to keep the US$355M to be used 20 years from now for cleanup, while Ali, Jagdeo and Ashni Singh along with the Opposition went to the UK and CDB for US$190M to build the Mabura-Linden Road, then another US$100M to build the East Bank (Demerara) road what the oil companies breaking up every hour. This is the good deal Guyana get with the oil company, Ramjattan, Norton and Jagdeo?

Indebting this country every day with loans to facilitate the oil companies that are taking back your royalty and signing bonus?”

Mining operations locally account for...

From page 16 for the extraction of gold and diamonds for a total area of 3,681 acres.

Guyana Goldfield Inc. holds a large-scale licence for the extraction of gold in Cuyuni (Aurora) for a total area of 14,339 acres while Guyana Industrial Minerals Inc. holds a large-scale licence for the extraction of bauxite in the Bonasika Mining project for a total area of 18,940 acres.

Additionally, North American Resources Incorporated Ltd. holds a largescale licence for the extraction of gold for a total 5,950 acres.

Pereira Mining Company

holds a large-scale licence for the extraction of gold, silver, and valuable minerals for a total area of 5,105 acres.

Meanwhile, Romanex Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds a large-scale licence for the extraction of gold and valuable minerals for a total area of 11,110 acres; while Ontario Incorporated holds a large-scale licence for the extraction of gold and copper for a total area of 8,346 acres.

Troy Resources Guyana also holds a large-scale licence for the extraction of gold for a total area of 15,160 acres.

Along with the 10 largescale licences, the report

notes that there are 62 mining entities making material payments to government exceeding $35.1 million.

Since these account for 50.1 percent of the reported payments in 2019 to the Guyana Gold Board and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), it was recommended that the contracts for these companies also be released.

As it relates to Bauxite, it was noted that the companies engaged, includes Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), Bosai Minerals Group Guyana Inc. (BMGGI) and Guyana Industrial Minerals Inc. (GINMIN).

Guyana’s premiere Rotary Club installs...

From page 15 Social Security’s WINN Program; Distribution of Flood Relief Hampers across seven regions of Guyana, Distribution of Back of School Hampers to children across Guyana; Distribution of Wheel Chairs to Hospitals across Guyana; Medical Outreaches in Regions 3, 5 and 10. “We thank our sponsors and corporate partners who have made these projects a success. Congratulations and best wishes to President Sheldon and the Board of Directors for the ensuing year,” Singh added.

The installation of the club’s new Board of Directors was yet another great way to continue the celebration of achievements as the Club continues to execute life changing projects.

President Sheldon in his acceptance speech said, “It is quite an honour for me to serve as President for Guyana’s premiere and prestigious club – the Rotary Club of Georgetown. I will always cherish the invaluable

support I received from Rotarians ever since I was a Rotaractor and more specifically, a Rotaract president thru: the investment of time and resources, collaboration on many projects, the sharing of advice and knowledge and more importantly and facilitation of Rotaractors into Rotary.

He committed to leading his club through yet another successful year under the Rotary International Theme “IMAGINE ROTARY”.

The president further stated “As the 64th President of the Rotary Club of Georgetown, we will continue with our community service agenda, invite new people to our organisation, energize our new members, bring back the projects that have impacted so many and above all, share the tradition of rotary with others.”

He emphasized that his club was not spared the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on attendance and membership engagement.

He stressed, however,

that the focus for this new rotary year “will be on projects that will be geared towards bringing our club back together. We will have to reach out to our membership individually, elicit feedback from them on how best to re-engage them, organise social events that will engender camaraderie, and organise speakers that are high impactful, influential and interesting.”

“In terms of service projects for this year in this post pandemic period, our focus will be aimed at follow up projects in some communities where projects were executed before. More emphasis will be placed on collaborations as we strive to execute projects within the ambit of Rotary’s 7 Areas of Focus,” the president further noted.

The Rotary Club of Georgetown, in its release, expressed appreciation to all of its sponsors, partners, and volunteers for their generous support over the years which made their projects and activities successful.

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 23

Kaieteur News

Renovation of Prime Minister’s residence estimated to cost $25M The Office of the Prime Minister (PM) is looking to renovate the roof of the PM s residence for an estimated

cost of $25 million. During the opening of tenders on Tuesday at the National Procurement and Tender Administra-

Office of the Prime Minister Renovations to the roof at the Prime Ministers residence

Guyana Water Incorporation Expression of interest for surveying services

tion Board (NPTAB) office, four contractors submitted bids to execute the works.

Based on their bids, the

roof can be renovated for less than $25 million. The bids range from $12 million to $19 million.

Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Rehabilitation of roundabout at the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia

Also opened, is a contract for the rehabilitation of the roundabout at the National Exhibition Centre, located in

Sophia. This Ministry of Tourism project is estimated to cost $14 million. Below are the companies and their bids:

Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) Construction of swine facility with semen processing area at the GLDA Livestock farm

Supply of high density polyethylene tubes for NDIA Lot 1 & 2

Regional Democratic Council of Region Five Supply and delivery of one new wheelchair accessible bus

Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation Supply and installation of cluster piles for the DHB

National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Construction of head regulator at Reliance Essequibo

Procurement of welding plants for DHB

Ministry records 82 new COVID-19 cases Mechanical repairs to western pump in Lusignan Pump Station

Supply and delivery of motor vehicle Lot 1: extra cab 4-WD pickups (6 units), Lot 2: double cab 4-WD pickups (3 units), Lot 3: single cab 4-WD pick up (3 units), Lot 4: mini-bus (2 units), Lot 5: station wagon type 4 door car (5 units).

Ministry of Public Works Consultancy services for road safety diagnostic and action plan

GUYSUCO Supply and delivery of computer Lot 1: low end desktop (48 units), Lot 2: mid-range desktop (7 units), Lot 3: mid-range laptop (16 units), Lot 4: high end laptop (6 unit), Lot 5: video editing laptop (I unit).

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health via its dashboard reported that within the last assessed 24-hour period, a total of 82 new COVID-19 cases were recorded across the country. The new infections have brought the total number of confirmed cases to 66,588.

The dashboard also shows that two patients are in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit, 22 persons are in institutional isolation, 894 are in home isolation and two are quarantined institutionally.

To date, a total of 64,422 persons have recovered from the virus.

PAGE 24

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Elon Musk: Billionaire’s daughter cuts ties with her father (BBC NEWS) - Elon Musk’s transgender daughter has applied to legally change her name and gender, saying she no longer wants to “be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”.

The 18-year-old has asked to be recognised as female and have the name Vivian Jenna Wilson. She was known as Xavier Alexander Musk. The peti-

tion for both a name change and a new birth certificate was filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica.

Her request is set out in court documents filed in April, which have only recently come to light. There was no further detail of the apparent rift between Mr Musk’s daughter and her father.

The Tesla and SpaceX

entrepreneur has yet to comment. Mr Musk was married to Vivian’s mother, Canadian author Justine Wilson, from 2000 until they divorced in 2008.

Their first son, Nevada, was born in 2002, and died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) at 10 weeks.

The pair went on to have twin sons called Xavier and Griffin and triplet boys Damian, Kai and Saxon. He

Jagdeo dodges question on Govt.’s...

From page 12 accurate. To this, he noted, “If we don’t have a say in a private business, how do we determine profit? The GRA (Guyana Revenue Authority) every year looks at this. Remember there are two audits; the GRA has an audit where they can audit for that purpose that you were talking about, then there is a separate audit which is determined by the PSA (Production Sharing Agreement), which is the audit we are doing now.”

Lall, who is also a businessman, then reasoned that ExxonMobil can hand Guyana a bill for US$1 billion as a cost for a Floating Production Sharing and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, when the company only spent US$300 million. He related, “Isn’t that shortening our share? Who is authorising and who is okaying?”

To this end, the Vice President assured that such costs are verified after the oil company hands Guyana a bill.

According to him, “So assuming they claim in the books a billion dollars, but only spent $700 million or inflate the price.

The industry average is only $700 million for this piece of equipment that they claim

to be a billion dollars, then the government in the audit, determined by the PSA can flag that transaction and we can investigate the transaction and should we find that this transaction here doesn’t meet industry standard then they can’t claim that…assuming its true then the $300 million goes then to profit oil for redistribution.”

It was only last month that government signed a contract for a four-month review or audit of ExxonMobil’s expenses between the years 2018 to 2020 that has already been billed to the country.

This bill stands at US$9 billion.

Concerns have already been raised about the short timeframe that the company will be required to complete the audit, given the large sums involved, but the government is confident that the country will get a chance to conduct a proper review of the expenses within the four months timeline.

Kaieteur News had asked the Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat at the signing of the contract whether he feels the time span was adequate for the audit of the US billion-dollar expenses

to which he assured that the government is quite comfortable with the arrangement.

“We consulted with the company before we actually set a timeframe. It wasn’t done by the ministry in isolation.

We would have consulted with them and this is the time that they are comfortable with; it’s a timeframe that we are comfortable with too, as well as the international companies who are involved, and they will be working dedicatedly on the audit for the next four months so we are pretty much comfortable that it can be completed by the consortium and the international partners.”

The minister assured that the report will be made public, following the review of the expenses.

The consultancy was awarded to VHE Consulting which is a registered partnership between Ramdihal & Haynes Inc., Eclisar Financial, and Vitality Accounting & Consultancy Inc. The Local Consortium is supported by International firms - SGS and Martindale Consultants for the ‘Cost Recovery Audit and Validation of the Government of Guyana’s Profit Oil Share’.

Despite COVID-19 impact, NBTS set to...

From page 19 On average, he said there was a 35 percent reduction between April and August. One unit is equivalent to about 450 ml to 500 ml.

Actual figures show that

391 units were collected in March, 2020 – the same month that Guyana recorded its first COVID-19 death – compared to 582 for March, 2019. In April, 2020, 369 units were collected compared to 1,060

in April 2019; 517 in May 2020 and 896 in May 2019; 641 in June 2020 and 685 in June 2019; 488 in July 2020 and 772 in July 2019, and 425 in August 2020 and 723 in August 2019.

has two other children, X Æ A-Xii and Exa Dark Sideræl who goes by Y - with singer Grimes, with whom he has had an on-o f f r e l a t i o n ship. His children have kept a relatively low profile despite their father ’s fame.

On Father ’s Day, the entrepreneur tweeted that he loves all his children.

The BBC is not responsible

for the content of external sites.

There has been no comment from Mr Musk about his daughter’s decision to distance herself from him.

He has been vocal on various transgender issues, and has been branded antigay in several rows.

Last year he complained about people using their own pronouns.

The court document for his daughter’s name and gende r c h a n g e w a s f i l e d a month before he publicly declared his support for t h e R e p u b l i c a n P a r t y, having previously voted Democrat.

He has also said he is a fan of Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor who introduced the socalled “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Guyana guarantees support for IICA...

From page 2 promote a new generation of public policies that empower family farmers, who are essential, with new extension strategies, giving greater importance to questions of associativism and cooperativism. It also seeks to foster science and technology and increase trade and integration. A new alliance is needed between production and the environment,” said Manuel Otero, IICA Director General.

“It is necessary to act now to generate an effective coalition to promote food security in our continent, transforming threats into opportunities and generating a set of concrete actions. It is time to come together; no country can get through this crisis alone. Food security must be combated with concrete actions in the short and medium-term,” Otero added.

Agriculture Priorities in Guyana On his visit to IICA headquarters, Minister Mustapha, who is also chair of the Ministerial Work Group established by the CARICOM to analyse the food agenda and the agri-food system in the Caribbean, spoke about the reality of the agriculture sector in his country, a strategic nation with a great capacity to become the food basket of

the region. He explained that Guyana’s priorities are to reduce food import costs by 25% in three years, diversify production and increase resilience to climate change, focusing on corn, soy, and wheat crops; boost intra-regional trade by removing barriers that impact the country; harmonise standards; and foster more science, innovation, and technological development, boosting the institutional framework in these areas.

“We must look for ways to reduce the food import bill by 25% in the next three years; this is a monumental task, and we are going to need investments and a lot of capital, but we have the capacity. We want to diversify our economy, make it more resilient so that small-sized farmers are part of this development that we seek,” said Mustapha.

“We have the land, the water and the capital, we can produce the corn and soy that we need for the Caribbean and for Guyana itself, which can become the centre of food production, reduce its import costs and have a resilient productive sector,” he added.

During the meeting, Mustapha spoke about other issues the country is focusing on: work in logistics and food transport, infrastructure,

agricultural extension, attracting young people to agriculture, and boosting the meat, poultry and aquaculture industries and rice and sugar chains.

Manuel Otero, IICA Director General, committed to providing technical cooperation to Guyana for re-engineering and strengthening the National Agricultural Research Extension Institute (NAREI), connecting science with innovation and promoting entrepreneurialism, train young rural people in the use of new technologies for agriculture and act as a bridge in bilateral dialogues and in south-south cooperation actions.

“We wish to continue building an increasingly stronger technical cooperation agenda,” concluded Otero.

At IICA HQ, Mustapha was shown the initiatives included in IICA of Open Doors, such as the Interpretative Centre for Tomorrow’s Agriculture (CIMAG), the Fab Lab agricultural technological innovation laboratory, and the Typical Rural House.

He was also informed in detail on IICA technical cooperation programmes in Bioeconomy, Agricultural Health, International Trade, Climate Change and Territorial Development.

Do not approve any additional oil projects without...

From page 13 its natural resource. According to him, “When we started these negotiations as a country you were dealing with a lot of risks, you didn’t know if there was oil there, etcetera, and I agree in principle that a company should be compensated for the risks but having now confirmed the level of oil and gas resources we have we should as a country pursue obtaining better benefits for this country.”

Norton was keen to note that developed nations such as the United States of America as well as Canada have been seeking additional benefits for its people and Guyana should do exactly the

same. “If a big country like the United States of America, Canada if all of them are seeking more benefits for their people, why shouldn’t we? I think we should.”

When asked what specific measures he believes should be taken, Norton explained that as a political party it is important that he consult with the other parties involved before making a pronouncement.

He shared that after consultations with the oil and gas team, the details will be shared at an appropriate time. “Don’t forget we are a political party that will have to produce a manifesto.

We are a political party that will have to outline our vision and we have to be careful that we don’t put everything out there before the right time, so at the right time we will expound on it and not only will I be involved but the professionals. I have long said that no leader should operate as if he or she is the know it all.

You are guided by a technical team and as the technical team when we meet and we complete all of our positions, we will put it in the public domain and the technical team together with the Leader and others will answer those questions,” Norton reasoned.

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaliningrad: Russia warns Lithuania of consequences over rail transit blockade (BBC NEWS) - Russia has warned Lithuania of “serious” consequences after it banned the rail transfer of some goods to the Russian territory of Kaliningrad.

Russia “will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” senior security official Nikolai Patrushev said.

Lithuania says it is only following the EU sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Kaliningrad a strategic region where Russia’s Baltic Fleet is headquartered - has no border with mainland Russia.

The western territory was annexed from Germany after World War Two in 1945, and is bordered by EU and Nato members Lithuania and Poland.

The region - where an estimated one million people live - relies heavily on imports of raw materials and spare parts from Russia and the EU. Regional Governor Anton Alikhanov said the ban

would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports. During a visit on Tuesday to Kaliningrad, Mr Patrushev said the blockade

by Lithuania was instigated by the West “in violation of... international law”. The secretary of Russia’s Security Council warned that “appropriate measures” would be taken “in the near future”. “Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania,” he added, without giving any further details.

Earlier on Tuesday, the EU ambassador was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry over the blockade.

Last week, the Lithuanian authorities announced they would ban goods subject to EU sanctions from passing through their territory to Kaliningrad. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said: “It’s not Lithuania doing anything.

Kaieteur News

PAGE 25

PAGE 26

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Guyana lauded for educating migrant children

Senior Regional Coordination Officer and Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mr. Robert Natiello handing over some of the items to Deputy Chief Education Officer (Administration), Ms. Fazia Baksh

Guyana’s efforts to ensure that migrant children receive an education have been lauded by Senior Regional Coordination Officer and Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mr. Robert Natiello.

Mr. Natiello made this disclosure on Monday during a simple handing over ceremony of sanitising agents to the Ministry of Education to be used in schools. He said, “IOM recognises, welcomes and applauds the efforts of the Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Education to make those accommodations for the increased influx of new students.”

According to Mr. Natiello, the IOMGuyana office has recognised in some of the communities that are receiving migrants that there are added pressures

with the influx of new students. He said that it is an honour for IOM to give support to the Ministry of Education.

He said that the donated items will go towards ensuring a healthy and safe environment for students. The items that were handed over include liquid hand soap, hand sanitiser and manual dispensers.

The Deputy Chief Education Officer (Administration), Ms. Fazia Baksh and the Coordinator of the Risk Management and Migrant Support Section (RM&MSS), Rampattie Prashad-Bisnauth thanked the IOM for the donation on behalf of the Education Ministry.

Other representatives of IOM, who were also present on Monday, included Mr. Kurt Kerrett, Project Assistant and Aditi Klien, Interim Programme Coordinator.

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 27

'A punch that hits you where it hurts'...

From page 32 attitude and service to the sport.“Let me take this opportunity to say condolences to the football fraternity and everything Banks would have been involved with, and also send my condolences to his family. It's just some sad news today and I am going to agree with the rock group that sang 'I don't like Mondays' because it's a

punch that hits you were it hurts, but let's just keep our chins up,” Richards told the Antigua Observer.

In a statement, the ABFA also acknowledged his contribution.“He gave his all to football and his vision for the sport in which the Caribbean is equal to all and subordinate to none, and he paid a great price. Still, neither his love for football nor his support for those of

us still in the game waned.

From chairman to cheerleader, his passion was unmuted and, perhaps, unmatched”.“We express profound condolences to his wife, Wendy, and his children, Nazir and Gia, his siblings, Colin and Sandra, his DSC and friends, brotherhood, his extended family, and all who mourn his loss,” the FA's statement read.

Asalanka, spinners help...

From page 31 stitched together 58 runs for the fifth wicket.De Silva bowled the left-handed Head for 27 and Maheesh Theekshana got Glenn Maxwell trapped lbw for one with a successful review after the on-field umpire denied the appeal.But the big moment came when the left-handed Warner missed out on his ton after getting stumped off de Silva as the home team celebrated the key wicket.

Cameron Green and Cummins attempted

to turn the chase on in a 31-run stand but Vandersay bowled Green.

Cummins departed in the 49th over but Kuhnemann fought till the end before getting out on the final ball.The final match is on Friday at the same venue.Scores: Sri Lanka 258 all out (Asalanka 110, de Silva 60, Marsh 2-29, Cummins 2-37, Kuhnemann 2-56) beat Australia 254 all out (Warner 99, Cummins 35, Karunaratne 2-19, de Silva 2-39, Vandersay 2-40) by four runs.

Wednesday June 22, 2022 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Try to bring things down to reality today, Aries. This is a good day to consolidate and organize. When it comes to matters of love and romance, try not to be so fickle.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) Your sensitivity will be greatly appreciated today, Taurus, and you'll find that there is a great grounding force that will help balance your extreme emotions.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) The general atmosphere of the day may seem too slow and stodgy for your tastes, Gemini. Try not to get bogged down in details. Try not to worry too much.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) You might be charged with energy but feel you have nowhere to aim it, Cancer.

The force is there, but the goal may not be.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) Arguments that have been brewing are coming to a climactic point for you, Leo. Don't be surprised if heated opposition rears its head today.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) There is no need to frown when another person walks by just because you don't know that person, Virgo. You must break the habit of living your life in fear. Take active steps toward curing this trend by not stepping down.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) A blast of energy is headed your way today, Libra. You'll find that there is no shortage of adrenaline in your system.

Don't delay - there are opportunities now that may not be there for you later.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) You could run into some emotional roadblocks today, Scorpio. This could be due to a lack of honesty on your part. Make sure you're sticking to the truth at all times.

SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) There is a fun-loving, boisterous energy to the day that should give you a great deal of power and selfconfidence.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) You might be getting a bit forceful with your emotions today, Capricorn. Don't be surprised if you're like a firebreathing dragon when you speak. Sparks are apt to fly.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) This is a fantastic day for you, Aquarius. You'll have a great deal of physical power.

Engage in activities that put this strength to good use.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) This is a good day to stand up for yourself and make it known that you aren't a pushover, Pisces. Use the powerful energy of the day to follow through on projects that may have lost momentum.

West Indies coach Phil Simmonds expects improved bowling performances from spinner Gudakesh Motie.

'Motie's bowling will improve' - Windies coach Simmons backs spinner to find his feet SportsMax - West Indies coach Phil Simmonds expects improved bowling performances from spinner Gudakesh Motie in the future after a fruitless debut with the ball against Bangladesh last week.Overall, the spinner ended the opening Test with no wicket from 16 overs and conceded 43 runs.

The debut stood a far way from his performances in the West Indies Championship this season where he claimed 17 wickets in five matches, earning the attention of the West Indies selectors.

The 27-year-old did, however, make some sort of contribution with the bat after making 23 unbeaten

from 21 deliveries, in the first innings.“He scored a 100 in the Championship, so he can hold the bat and he can score like we saw but his bowling is going to improve,” Simmons said, following the first Test.“I think when you play in your first Test match there's always nerves, there's a lot of things, but his bowling is going to improve,” he added.

While, for the most part, it was the pace bowlers who dominated affairs, Bangladesh spinner Mehidy Hasan claimed 4 for 59 in the first innings to put some pressure on the West Indies batting line-up. West Indies and Bangladesh will face off in the second and final Test on Friday.

RHTYSC honours...

From page 30 shared on a weekly basis to members of the church as they celebrate birthdays or anniversaries. The RHTYSC, MS was founded in September, 1990 by the St Francis Roman Catholic Youth Club and the two organisations have always enjoyed a close working relationship over the last three decades.

Guyana beat...

From page 33 Liburd (9) to take the score to 41 before off-spinner had Liburd caught and bowled.Parker added 29 for ninth wicket with Tiffany Thorpe (9) to frustrate the Guyanese and give their s c o r e s o m e respectability.Thorpe was trapped LBW by off-spinner Sheneta Grimmond before Parker was LBW to Mangru.The first semi-final is scheduled for today between Barbados and Trinidad, while Jamaica tackle host Guyana in the second semi-final on tomorrow.The Leewards and Windwards battle for fifth place on Friday before the semi-final winners clash in the grand finale on Saturday.

Kaieteur News

PAGE 28

Wednesday June 22, 2022

GFF Women's Development League officially launched - Four months of matches scheduled

Y

e s t e r d a y, t h e Guyana Football Federation (GFF) in association with the Danish Football Union (DBU), Union of European Football Associations ( U E FA ) A s s i s t a n d CONCACAF launched the Wo m e n ' s D e v e l o p m e n t Football League at the GFF Training Centre, Providence.

The ceremony featured

remarks by GFF President, Wa y n e F o r d e , U E FA International Relations Project Specialist, Chris Milnes, and Guyana National Association for Women's Football (NAWF) President, Andrea Johnson, along with GFF Assistant Technical Director, Bryan Joseph.

Forde said, “We are very excited to take one further step into development of

women's will. Much of this would not have been possible without the generous support of our international partners.

A few years ago we signed a MoU with the DBU after a warm visit from the Ms. Eva Pasquier, who is the head of International Relations of UEFA and DBU President, (Jesper) Møller, and on that occasion we discussed extensively the

GFF's recently acquired Minivan. developmental needs of Guyana's football and the importance of the partnership we were forging.”

“We entered into a five years MoU that, to some extent was derailed by the pandemic. Now that we are seeing football returning, it was only timely that we got to get with our partners. Ever since 2020, we started to put the key components in place for the launch of this Tournament.

I am so happy that the good relationship that is so critical and the essential partnership that football generally needs to really realize the vision of the sport, the spirit of football which is to ensure that we operate as a global football family,” the GFF President added.

During Milner's remarks, he stated, “UEFA Assist has played an important role in the build up to today. With the support of Danish Football Union, DBU, we're absolutely delighted that we're able to provide support to the fourth pillar of UEFA Assist, where we connect UEFA Member Associations together with Federations outside of Europe to help

develop football.”

UEFA Assist has assisted the GFF with US$30,000, which the Federation used to acquire the equipment for the 37 teams participating in the League.

“Today would not be possible without a close, strong deliberation with the GFF, CONCACAF and DBU developing in the last few years. UEFA Assist has provided funds in terms of infrastructure development.

We've also been supporting GFF in terms of bouncing back from the pandemic and m o s t r e c e n t l y, w i t h workshops,” Milnes disclosed.

He also revealed that they assisted the Federation with a minivan to assist with their operations. Milner then opined that UEFA take prides in its specialized programmes designed to promote and empower women in football. The UEFA rep then congratulated the Federation for taking the initiative with the hopes that the partnership continues and Women's Football rises through the ranks.Johnson said, “My executive and I are elated about this opportunity;

we want to say thank you to the GFF, UEFA Assist and the DBU for this opportunity. We are getting back to where we want to be in terms of Women's Football. All logistical matters for this event will be handled by my Association and I can assure you that this tournament will be a remarkable one because we have some really spectacular players coming from all the clubs here.”

Following the launch, the two teams that contested the first match of the League were the Fruta Conquerors and the Guyana Police Force.

According to Joseph, the League will run from June to October at 13 venues across the Nation, a total of four months of Women football, which was a feat unheard of in Guyana. They will then commit to the 2nd edition of the Women's Super-16 that is scheduled to commence in November.

Joseph, like the rest of attendees, urged the players present to make the most of the opportunities presented to them and enjoy the League to the fullest since they are the primary beneficiaries of this venture.

Coleman, Richardson headline...

From page 29 Thomas, who collected bronze on the women's side at the Games and is the thirdfastest woman in the distance, will battle against Abby Steiner, who produced a season-leading 21.80 earlier this month.

The women's 400m hurdles will offer an epic rivalry between Sydney McLaughlin, who won gold in Tokyo in a world-record 51.46, and reigning World Champion Dalilah Muhammad.

An intriguing rivalry

also is taking shape in the men's 110m hurdles, with world champion Grant Holloway's title under threat from Devon Allen.

The Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver beat Holloway in New York earlier this month in an all-time thirdfastest 12.84 and is b r immin g w i t h confidence ahead of Eugene, where he ran at college.

"I would say I am just a great athlete. I bet that if I had played tennis 15 years ago, I would be a pro tennis

player or golf, whatever," he told reporters after winning the Oslo Diamond League meet.

"I enjoy doing a lot of sports. It is really hard to be great at anything on this level."

Another Oregon favourite, world shot put record holder Ryan Crouser will face world champion Joe Kovacs, with Tokyo silver medallist Raven Saunders up against world indoor silver medallist Chase Ealey on the women's side.

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 29

Coleman, Richardson headline top at U.S. championships (Reuters) - Christian Coleman and Sha'Carri Richardson will battle to stake their claims as the king and queen of American track in Eugene, Oregon this week, as the 100 metres specialists headline the U.S. championships.

The top three finishers in the meeting who meet certain qualifying standards and reigning global titleholders advance to the first world championships ever held in the United States at the same Oregon track starting on July 15.

Returning world champion Coleman, who came back to action in January after serving an 18month suspension for breaching anti-doping whereabouts rules, said he was "the same guy" he was when he grabbed the 2019 global title in 9.76 seconds.

"I feel like it's there," Coleman told reporters after winning last week's NYC Grand Prix 100m in 9.92.

"When you have a long layoff, obviously it's going to affect you in some kind of way, so this whole season to me is a learning experience."

He will be closely challenged by Olympic silver medallist Fred Kerley

and U.S. Olympic trials champion Trayvon Bromell in one of the highlights of the meeting, which begins on Thursday.

Kerley won the distance in 9.92 at the Rome Diamond League meet earlier this month, while Bromell produced a wind-aided 9.75 at the UNF Invitational in April.

The ebullient fanfavourite Richardson, whose Olympic dreams ended early due to a 30-day suspension

Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) reacts after placing second in the women's 100m in 10.92 during the 47th Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

Men's 60 meters silver medallist Christian Coleman of the U.S. poses on the podium during the medal ceremony.

Junior athletes continue to impress on USATF circuit Ajani Tinnie, Justin Murray and Sean Kitt have all qualified for the Amateur Athletic Union's (AAU) Regional Qualifier following good performances at the USATF New York Association Junior Olympic Championships.

The three athletes of Guyanese descent all finished in the top six in their events at the Icahn Stadium, New York, NY this past weekend to meet the conditions needed for the upcoming event in New Haven, Connecticut from June 24-26.

Competing in the Boys 8&-Under 200 Meters, Kitt finished third in a time of 3 2 . 1 6 s b e h i n d Ya n i c k Walker and Naji Barton, who finished first and second with times of 30.75s and 31.16s, respectively.

Kitt returned with strong performances with be victorious in the 400m and 800m races.

He clocked 1:14.33s in the 400m ahead of Victor

Sean Kitt Wills (1:18.15s) and Hunter Dinham (1:22.41s).

In the longest of the three distances, the Dashing Dons athlete won in a time of 2:44.53s ahead of Harvey Hightower (2:44.58s) and Cyrus Boschen (2:49.52s).

Kitt's club mate, Murray, qualified in the Boys 9 – 10 age group 400m, 800m and

1500m races. He ran a time of 5:16.06s to be victorious in the longest distance, while he placed second in the 800m with a time of 2:39.63s behind Keannu Lawson (2:37.80s).

For the 400m sprint, Murray's time of 1:09.53s was good enough to cop third place behind Stephen BaronWilliams (1:05.68s) and Lawson (1:05.99s), in that order. Tinnie on the other hand has advanced after a good show in the field events arena.

Meanwhile, Kunusasha Medas-King continues to make waves in the junior track and field arena in the United States.

She was recently crowned the New York City USATF Junior Outdoor Champion in the 400m, 800m and 1500m events.

At this same event, her sister, Kcaysha Medas-King swept the 100m, 200m and 400m races.

Next Stop is Region 1 O u t d o o r Yo u t h Championship.

for a positive cannabis test, has declared for both the 100m and 200m.

The 22-year-old finished a hundredth of a second off her personal best to win the 100m earlier this month in Florida in a wind-aided 10.73.

"I feel phenomenal," Richardson told reporters after producing a 10.85 to finish second behind compatriot Aleia Hobbs at the NYC Grand Prix.

The meeting will also

feature the last U.S. championship appearance by retiring Allyson Felix, the most decorated American athlete, in the 400m, and four-times world champion and twice Olympic triple jump gold medallist Christian Taylor, on a comeback mission after missing the Tokyo Games due to an injury.The men's 200m will be Tokyo bronze medallist Noah Lyles' sole focus, and Gabrielle (Continued on page 28)

Kaieteur News

PAGE 30

Wednesday June 22, 2022

RHTYSC honours Bisram Tika as Walter Nero Father of the Year - Makes presentations to dozens of fathers

T

he twelve cricket teams of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club on Sunday last honoured Bisram Tika as the club Walter Nero Father of the Year. The simple presentation ceremony was held at the Area H Ground and was attended by several club executives including Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster, Asst Secretary/CEO Jonathan Rampersaud, Organising Secretary Robby Kissoonlall and Tyrone Pottaya.

Foster, disclosed that Tika was chosen as the

Father of the Year after strong consideration was given to his dedication to the cricketing career of his son, Raj and to the work of the club as well. Raj is an under17 player who plays for the Rose Hall Town Bakewell under17 team and Pepsi Under19 team. The RHTYSC Secretary /CEO, who is also the President of the Berbice Cricket Board, congratulated Tika on his selection as Father of the Year and urged him to uphold his high standard of being a dedicated and supportive parent. He noted

that in a world where there are a lot of distractions, it was very important for parents to remain focused.

He committed the club to always maintaining a culture where respect for parents and family life is priority.

Mr Tika expressed thanks to the management and members of the club for honoring him and making his 2022 Fathers Day special. He received a Medal of Excellence, framed certificate and several gifts from the club along with a food hamper.

The cricket teams also

donated several gifts to the St Agnes Anglican Church of No 64 Village. The gifts, which were received by head of the church Sydney Jackman, were shared out to members of the congregation on Sunday while the cricket teams also assisted the St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church of Portuguese Quarter to honour thirty outstanding parents on Father's Day. Each father received a special gift and a food hamper. They were also treated to breakfast after Sunday Mass.

The RHTYSC, MS also assisted the St Francis Youth club to donate close to sixty special birthday gifts to the church. The gifts would be (Continued on page 27)

RHTYSC Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster honours Bisram Tika as the Walter Nero Father of the Year.

Kaieteur News

Wednesday June 22, 2022

PAGE 31

Best Bowler female - Kareena Nalim - Parika Salem.

Player of the tournament - Jameel Sahoye- Leguan

Leguan Secondary School triumph Leguan Secondary School were crowned Region 3 champions when the Circle Tennis Sub-Association and A L S p o r t a n d To u r Promotions 56 Independence Anniversary mixed team tournament was played at the Uitvlugt Community Centre Ground.

In the final, Parika Salem Secondary batted first and scored 59-5 off their 25 deliveries with Emmanuel Armstrong scored 24, Devika Hiralal and Harish Bodhram got 10 each.

Leguan turn in the middle hit off the required runs in 17 deliveries, 61-2. Player of the tournament, Jameel Sahoye made 23 and Remesh Seeram 22.

In other matches playedWest Demerara Secondary made 86-4. Samuel Lakish scored 23 and Samuel Williamson 21.

Vergenoegen Secondary School replied with 83-2.

Leguan Secondary winner receive the GTT Trophy.

Johnat Huang made 32, Jamal Pollydore 19 and Ashly Narine 12.

Zeeburg Secondary scored 85-3 with Joshua Harbin scoring 20, Timeon Mc Pherson 16, Kashauna McRae 17 and Shaunell Deonauth 10.

Uitvlugt Secondary made

83-1 with Thigt Butters making 38, Lakesh Harrylall 27 and Chandra Persaud 16.

Semifinals - It was Leguan day as they hit a record 128-2 off 25 deliveries with a record 102 out, two fours and 16x6 from Jameel Sahoye while Budhram Sharma got 17.

West

Demerara Secondary made 58-3, Areanna Playter got 18 and Samuel Lakish 14.

Parika Salem scored 643. Emmanuel Armstrong made 28 Haresh Boodhnarine 13, Shaul France 12.

Essequibo Islands Secondary (Wakenaam)

scored 47-4. Ravi Nandalall made 11 and Melisa Wiggins 10.

Awards were given to Uniform team of the tournament - Parika Salem; Player of the tournament Jameel Sahoye Leguan; Best Bowler female - Kareena Nalim Parika Salem; Special

prize for a Teacher - Devika Hiralal Parika Salem; Highest team score in the Tournament – Leguan; Most Discipline Team - Essequibo Island Secondary; Winner – Leguan; Second - Parika ; Third - West Demerara; Forth - Essequibo Island Secondary; Fifth - Zeeburg ; Sixth - Uitvlugt ; Seventh Vergenoegen.

The sponsors were Ansa Mc Al Trading Guyana, G u y a n a Te l e p h o n e &Telegraph Co Ltd, Team Mohamed's, Department of Youth MCYS Ministry of Housing and Ministry of Natural Resources.

Special thanks to the Commander D Division ,the Management & Staff of West Demerara Regional Hospital, Manger Uitvlugt Estate, The NSC for providing the Technical Personal , REO Department of Education Region 3, Head Teachers from the participated school.

Asalanka, spinners help Sri Lanka clinch ODI series AFP - Charith Asalanka's maiden one-day international century and an inspired spin attack led Sri Lanka to a thrilling four-run series-clinching win over Australia yesterday.

The left-handed Asalanka made 110 to guide Sri Lanka to 258 all out, a total that proved just enough to hand the hosts an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series in Colombo.

Opener David Warner's 99 went in vain as Australia were bowled out for 254 and the island nation won its first bi-lateral series against the Aussies in over a decade. They last won in 2010.

Spinners Dhananjaya de Silva, Jeffrey Vandersay and fast bowler Chamika Karunaratne, who was the only regular seamer in the team, took two wickets each.

Pat Cummins' late cameo of 35 and a 12-ball 15 by number 10

Matthew Kuhnemann, who hit three fours as Australia needed 19 from the 50th over, gave Sri Lanka a scare.

Earlier Asalanka rescued Sri Lanka from a precarious 34-3 as he put on 101 runs with Dhananjaya de Silva, who made 60.

Australian bowlers kept coming back with crucial wickets but Asalanka reached his century to the cheers of a raucous home crowd that jumped to their feet to applaud the knock.

Wanindu Hasaranga played a useful cameo of 21 not out as he put together 34 runs for the eighth wicket with Asalanka.

Asalanka finally fell to Cummins and Australia soon wrapped up the innings in 49 overs with two run outs.

In reply, Australia lost skipper Aaron Finch for nought with Karunaratne trapping the opener

Sri Lanka's spinners bowled 43 overs and shared seven wickets among them. (AFP)

lbw.

Warner kept his cool and put on 63 runs with Mitchell Marsh who looked good for his 26 before he fell to Dunith Wellalage's left-arm spin.

Australia lost Marnus Labuschagne and wicketkeeperbatsman Alex Carey after they got starts but fell to the Sri Lankan spinners.

The usually attacking Warner held fort to try and grind down the opposition attack as he got Travis Head for company and the two (Continued on page 27)

PAGE 32

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Kaieteur News

GFF President Wayne Forde, flanked by UEFA experts Joost de Wit and Chris Milnes opens the club development workshop at the GFF National Training Centre.

GFF, UEFA assist and CONCACAF deliver Club Development Workshop

T

he Guyana F o o t b a l l Federation (GFF) joined forces with UEFA Assist and Concacaf to stage a three-day club development workshop over the weekend as part of ongoing preparations for the launch of Guyana's first professional league, which is slated for 2023.

UEFA Assist experts Joost de Wit and Chris Milnes delivered capacity building sessions to representatives of Elite League clubs, GFF regional associations and the GFF Competitions Department, covering areas such as financial management, operational planning, brand development, fan engagement, administration,

governance, regulations, and revenue generation.

“The efforts that we are m a k i n g h e r e t o professionalize the game will benefit greatly from this capacity building support we are getting from UEFA Assist,” said GFF President Wayne Forde.

“The workshop has given our clubs and associations a sense of what it will take for us to get to a professional level - and who better to deliver this workshop than a confederation that has proven they understand the intricacies of professional football?”

UEFA Assist has built a strong partnership with the GFF in recent years, including the delivery of two minibuses to support the

operations of the GFF's nationwide academy system, capacity building for the return of play following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Guyana U16 national team's participation in a U E FA d e v e l o p m e n t tournament in BosniaHerzegovina.“We've been collaborating with the GFF for several years now, together with the support of Concacaf,” said Chris Milnes, UEFA International Relations Project Specialist.

“This club development workshop is an important step towards building a strong and competitive professional men's league in Guyana, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with Concacaf and the GFF in future.”

'A punch that hits you where it hurts' - WI legend Richards left stunned by passing of former CFU president Derrick SportsMax - Legendary West Indies batsman Sir Viv Richards was among those expressing shock at the sudden passing of former Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president and long regional football executive Gordon Derrick.

According to reports, Derrick passed away at the hospital on Sunday evening, in Miami, after suddenly complaining of feeling ill. He was 53.Banks, who was also a general secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA), served as president of the CFU between 2012 and 2017 but was prevented from contesting the presidency of CONCACAF in 2016 and later banned by the world football governing body FIFA.The administrator was fondly remembered in his native Antigua for both his (Continued on page 27)

Former CFU president Gordon Derrick

Wednesday June 22, 2022

Educator Carl Ramsammy honoured as BCB Brian Ramphal Father of the Year “You are a dedicated parent and we at the Berbice Cricket Board are very proud to honour you as our Brian Ramphal Father of the Year. It is my sincere hope that every parent who is involved in our cricket can follow your example. May God continue to bless you and may he grant you health, peace of mind and happiness," the words of Berbice Cricket Board President Hilbert Foster as he handed over the 2022 Brian Ramphal Father of the year a w a r d t o M r. C a r l Ramsammy of Rose Hall Canje on Saturday last at the Area H Ground during a simple presentation ceremony.

Ramsammy was selected by the Berbice Cricket Board as its Father of the Year based on the role he has played in the cricketing careers of his two sons Zeymul and Abdul who have both represented Berbice at the youth level.

Zeymul has captained Berbice and has also played on national youth teams.

Apart from been involved in cricket, the Ramsammy brothers have also make their father, a teacher, proud by excelling in their educational pursuit as well. Additionally they are considered, two of Berbice most disciplined youth players and are actively

involved in their Muslim faith.

Ramsammy, a teacher at the Canje Secondary School, has also been involved in the administration of cricket and has served at the club level for the Young Warriors and Tucber Park Cricket Clubs.

The BCB Father of the Year Award is sponsored by overseas based Guyanese Brian Ramphal as part of his multi-year sponsorship of Berbice Cricket. It forms part of the BCB's efforts to acknowledge the contribution of parents in the development of their children on and off the cricket field.

The board last month had honoured Johonel Munroe as the 2002 Mother of the Year and has been hosting the programme on an annual basis since the election of Foster, since 2018.

Ramsammy in brief remarks expressed thanks to the board for honouring him and stated that he felt humbled to be selected from the large range of outstanding fathers in the county. He praised Foster for his outstanding leadership of the county's cricket and urged him to continue doing so in the future. Ramsammy received three gifts along with a framed certificate, trophy and medal.

BCB President Hilbert Foster honors Carl Ramsammy as the Brian Ramphal Father of the Year.

Kaieteur News

CG United Super50 Cup...

Guyana beat Windwards by 8-wkts Join B'dos, Jam & T&T in Semis

By Sean Devers Playing in their first match in the CG United women Super50 for this season, Guyana were led by pacers Tremaine Smartt (412) and Cheery-Ann Fraser (3-19) as they destroyed the pointless Leewards by eight wickets yesterday at Providence to join Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad in the semi-finals.

After dismissing the Leewards for a paltry 76 all out in 29.5 overs, Guyana lost two wickets before reaching 77-2 to give themselves a chance of winning their first title since Regional Women's cricket began in 1976.

Skipper Shemaine Campbelle led the way for the host with an unbeaten 30 from 35 balls with four boundaries, while ViceCaptain and fellow Berbician Shabika Gajnabi reached the ropes twice in her unbeaten 14 from 12 balls.

The pair joined forces at 21-2 and featured in an unfinished 55-run stand to see their team to victory as a wide from Rozel Liburd.

Mandy Mangru struggled to get the ball off the square before she fell to Shawnisha Hector for three

Shemaine Campbelle

Tremaine Smartt from 19 balls at 20-1.

Katana Mentore and her Captain Campbelle added 21 before Mentore (16) was run out.

Earlier, Smartt, surprisingly not selected for the inaugural Women's CPL tournament, was the architect of destruction with 4-12 while fellow fast bowler Fraser supported with 3-19 as the Leewards slumped to 18-7 and never recovered.

Terez Parker, who hit three fours in 22 from 64 balls, shared in a 23-run eight wicket stand with (Continued on page 27)

GFF Women's Development League officially launched - Four months of matches scheduled

Players of the recently launched Women's Development League take a photo op at the ceremony. Sitting with the players are (L-R): GFF Assistant Technical Director, Bryan Joseph, GFF President – Wayne Forde, UEFA International Relations Project Specialist, Chris Milnes, and Guyana National Association for Women's Football (NAWF) President, Andrea Johnson.

s t r o Sp

Kunusasha Medas-King Sean Kitt, Justin Murray and Ajani Tinnie share a moment after their races.

Kcaysha Medas-King

Junior athletes continue to impress on USATF circuit CG United Super50 Cup...

Guyana beat Windwards by 8-wkts Join B'dos, Jam & T&T in Semis 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.