Guyana Times -- Thursday, January 13, 2022

Guyana’s urban, rural energy gap shrinking – IDB P 9

Nationwide coverage from the best news team in Guyana guyanatimesgy.com

Issue No. 4888

THE BEACON OF TRUTH THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

PRICE

Attempts to derail 2020 elections

Commonwealth SG praises GECOM’s handling of 5-month election fiasco Page 2

GECOM sacks Lowenfield’s assistant for tampering with computer See story on page 7

…files deleted, computer wiped clean – source

$100 VAT INCLUDED

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Guyana now reclaiming cash crop markets lost under APNU/ AFC P3 …former Govt failed to ensure exports adhered to standards

GNSC records 152% increase in importation of stones, P12 cement in 2021 Multimillion-dollar robbery

High Court Judge grants P8 accused $450,000 bail

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo along with Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, met with local importers of meat and vegetables to address several issues of interest (Office of the Vice President photo)

Guyanese mother of 2 trapped in Syria appeals for help to return home

…case engaging Govt’s attention – Foreign Affairs Minister ...several unanswered questions remain Page 13

COVID-19 skyrockets: 1000 new cases …2 more deaths in 24 hours recorded Page 16

PNC/M&CC parking meter fiasco

Mexican company files US$100M proceedings against Guyana Page 10

…AG blames APNU/AFC for leaving destruction for PPP/C to clean up

$70M seized by GRA not deposited into escrow/ Consolidated Fund – AG P11 2020 Report Cutlass- P12 wielding man attacks Police M&CC has no authority to fire City Engineer

…LGC to make final P14 decision on City Engineer’s "dismissal"

2 NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Attempts to derail 2020 elections

Commonwealth SG praises GECOM’s handling of 5-month election fiasco C ommonwealth Secretary General, Baroness Patricia Scotland, QC, has expressed her satisfaction with the Guyana Election Commission’s (GECOM) handling of the five-month fiasco that ensued after the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

Baroness Scotland and her visiting delegation met with the seven-member Election Commission headed by GECOM Chair, Justice (retd) Claudette Singh, on Tuesday. Also at the meeting were the three government-nominated Commissioners – Sase Gunraj, Bib Shadick and Manoj Narayan – and the three Opposition-nominated Commissioners – Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman.

Commissioner Shadick told Guyana Times that the

Commonwealth SG Baroness Patricia Scotland during her visit to Parliament on Wednesday

visit of the Commonwealth SG was more of a courtesy call, during which she ex-

changed pleasantries with the GECOM officials.

Of significance, how-

ever, Shadick related that Baroness Scotland commended GECOM for holding it together during the five months that followed after the March 2, 2020 election, during which the APNU/ AFC Coalition attempted to sway the results in order to hold on to power.

The Commonwealth SG was very vocal during Guyana’s months-long election controversy back in 2020, when the former A Partnership for National

Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government refused to relinquish power despite losing the elections.

However, after former President David Granger had finally conceded and paved the way for PPP/C’s Dr Irfaan Ali to be sworn in as President, Baroness Scotland had said in a subsequent statement that the GECOM Chair “exemplified the courage, fortitude and grace required to uphold the constitution and the rule of law. I wish to thank her for the bravery and strength of purpose that she demonstrated throughout.”

In that missive, she also reaffirmed the Commonwealth’s unwavering commitment to supporting the people of Guyana in their quest to strengthen democratic and inclusive governance and ensure sustainable socio-economic development in the country.

Moreover, Baroness Scotland had also issued the call for all stakeholders and political actors to accept the lawful results, also endorsing the July 9 missive from then Chairman of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph

GECOM Chair, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh

Gonsalves, who had called on all stakeholders to respect the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Guyana’s final Court of Appeal.

“I urge all political actors and stakeholders in Guyana to accept and respect the results of the National Recount and ensure that their words and actions promote an environment of peace, harmony and social cohesion among all Guyanese,” she had said in another statement, referring to Guyana as a muchloved and valued member of the Commonwealth.

TURN TO PAGE 7

NEWS

3

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

BRIDGE OPENINGS OPENINGS BRIDGE

The Demerara Harbour Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Thursday, January 13 – 01:30h-03:00h and Friday, January 14 – 02:00h-03:30h.

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Guyana now reclaiming cash crop markets lost under APNU/AFC …former Govt failed to ensure exports adhered to standards

Thursday, January 13 – 13:15h-14:45h and Friday, January 14 – 13:55h-15:25h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

Parika and Supenaam departure times – 05:00h, 10:00h-12:00h, 16:00h, 18:30h daily

WEATHER TODAY Sunny conditions are expected throughout the day, with partly cloudy skies at night.

Temperatures should range between 21 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius.

Winds: Northerly to East North-Easterly to between 1.78 metres and 4.47 metres.

High Tide: 13:19h reaching a maximum height of 2.26 metres.

Low Tide: 06:50h and 19:26h reaching minimum heights of 1.06 metres and 0.94 metre.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2022

LOTTERY NUMBERS B

09 10 14

18 23 28

FREE TICKET

19 Bonus Ball

DAILY MILLIONS

01 06 08 16 23 LUCKY 3

1

3

1

3

Afternoon Draw

9

9

Evening Draw

DRAW DE LINE

01 02 03 05 11 14 15 SUPER

PAY DAY

PAY DAY

FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 2022

03 06 07 09 14 13

02 09 11 18 19

8

0 Afternoon Draw

FP Afternoon Draw

9

8 Evening Draw

2X Evening Draw

DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS IN PUBLICATION. PLEASE CALL THE HOTLINE FOR CONFIRMATION - TEL: 225-8902

COMMODITIES Indicators

US$

Change %

Crude Oil

$84.90/barrel

+0.27

Rough Rice

$257.274/ton

+0.13

London Sugar

$489.80/ton

+1.77

Live Spot Gold

USD Per Ounce

Bid/Ask

$1824.80

$1825.80

Low/High Change

$1814.60 -0.70

$1828.90 -0.04%

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha

G

uyana’s connection to a number of regional markets to which local farmers once exported crops other than rice and sugar were so badly maintained under the former Government that the current Government is now faced with the daunting task of resuscitating these markets.

This is according to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, who made an appearance before Parliament’s Sectoral Committee on Economic Services on Wednesday. The committee, chaired by opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Shurwayne Holder, has not held meetings in months.

The committee includes, on the Government side, Vice Chairman and Public Works Minister Juan Edghill; Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar; Minister within the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry, Anand Persaud; and Government MPs Seepaul Narine and Alister Charlie. Also sitting on the committee are Opposition MPs Juretha Fernandes, Haimraj Rajkumar and Dineshwar Jaiprashad.

The Agriculture Minister was asked by Indar what was done during the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government’s time in office, from 2015 to 2020, to ensure the exportation of other crops like lime, pineappleS, honey, cassava and pepper to Caribbean markets, including Trinidad and Barbados.

But according to Mustapha, not only was little done to maintain those markets, but Guyana in fact lost them. Among the reasons for this was Guyana not following Sanitary and PhytoSanitary (SPS) procedures when it exported these crops.

“We lost those markets in these countries. Those products and produce that was just mentioned, we lost it. Especially in Barbados, Trinidad…this is because we didn’t follow the right procedure, the former Government would have had in a holistic way followed the SPS procedure. Have regular discourse with their counterparts over there. Have engagements with the Private Sector like what we are doing. Follow up,” the Minister said.

According to Mustapha,

this is what he encountered when he entered office. He revealed that many farmers were not even aware of the relevant SPS standards they had to reach to export their crops.

“You had the Ministry all the time, but I don’t think farmers knew about these rules. I don’t think they knew what they had to do to get these exports out of the country and find new markets. What we are doing as a Government is to implement training,” Mustapha said.

“And (advising them on) the kind of produce they should embark on, and at the same time we are now finding markets, which is more important than anything. And we are training them with the SPS and the standard that are necessary. So those are the policies that have been implemented. And that is why we are getting these kinds of successes.”

According to Mustapha, his Ministry now features a special sanitary department with extension offices that directly interfaces with farmers, and is dealing with this issue.

He explained that the new Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) is playing a key role in this regard, followed by the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI).

In 2017, the US imposed a ban on catfish imports from Guyana after the then APNU/ AFC Government failed to put systems in place for the local fishing industry to comply with new standards set by the US Department of Agriculture

President Dr Irfaan Ali during a tour last year of a soya-bean farm in Ebini

(USDA).

The US Government had said that it notified Guyana of the changes since November 2015 – more than 18 months before the ban took effect.

However, while most countries in the hemisphere complied with the regulations, Guyana failed to adhere to them.

This resulted in the US giving an extension to comply, but years had elapsed under the coalition Administration, and the situation had remained unfixed.

“Bread basket of the Caribbean”

Guyana, which at one point earned the sobriquet of the ‘Bread basket of the Caribbean’, has vast agriculture potential that the current People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government is looking to capitalise on when it comes to servicing the Caribbean region’s food bill.

Last year, President Dr Irfaan Ali had said that, in the next four years, Guyana, with the assistance of more diversified crops, would be aiming to reduce the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom’s) food

import bill by 25 per cent.

“Guyana intends to become the agricultural heartland of the English-speaking Caribbean and play its part in helping the Caribbean Community reduce its food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025,” the President had said in his Agriculture Month message.

President Ali had further explained that agriculture has long been a mainstream of Guyana’s economy, and its contribution cannot be downplayed. He had said that, in 2020, the sector was responsible for 16.2 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and along with forestry and fishing, it accounts for 12.2 per cent of the national employment numbers.

It was only last year that harvesting started at a 115acre soya bean and five-acre corn pilot project in Ebini, Upper Berbice River - a joint venture between various local and foreign investors aimed at proving all raw materials for the production of livestock and poultry feed for the local sector. (G3)

4

guyanatimesgy.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

Views Editor: Tusika Martin News Hotline: 231-8063 Editorial: 231-0544, 223-7230, 223-7231, 225-7761 Marketing: 231-8064 Accounts: 225-6707 Mailing address: Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, marketing@guyanatimesgy.com

Avoid being trapped by NCDs

T

he COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impacts on individuals and communities as a whole are a stark reminder that both the health authorities and citizens must continue to take the issue of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) very seriously.

Based on what the medical professionals have found so far, most of the persons who have died as a result of contracting COVID-19 had had some kind of underlying health complication, many of which are related to NCDs. Guyana’s COVID-19 death rate is 1075, with 1000 new cases in the past 24 hours. For a small population such as ours, this is quite disturbing, to say the least, and it is therefore crucial that the Government, more particularly the Ministry of Health, treat this issue with the greatest degree of urgency.

According to PAHO/WHO, people with underlying health conditions such as NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease, and are more likely to die from COVID-19. Risk factors for NCDs can make people more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with COVID-19. For example, smokers may have reduced lung capacity, which would greatly increase risk of serious illness.

PAHO/WHO has suggested that informing populations about these health risks posed by COVID-19 is critical. Even before the pandemic, poor lifestyle choices such as tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets and physical inactivity had resulted in large numbers of people falling sick and dying.

It is also believed that around 40 per cent of Guyanese are either overweight or obese; and of that number, the majority are women.

Health experts say that chronic diseases result largely from bad food choices and low levels of physical activity. Reducing the risk of developing chronic illnesses, including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and various cancers, is associated with living a healthy lifestyle, which includes such factors as nonsmoking, a healthy diet, regular physical activity, moderate alcohol intake, and a sense of mental wellbeing.

For example, evidence suggests that half of all cancers could be prevented by following a healthy lifestyle. Further, NCDs come at a high cost to individuals and to nation states in terms of human suffering, expensive treatment, and loss of production.

It is estimated that the direct and indirect cost of treating noncommunicable diseases in Guyana was over 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

What is noteworthy is the realisation that most cases of chronic non-communicable diseases are avoidable, and it is within our individual powers to prevent these diseases from affecting our lives.

So how do we make the breakthrough when it comes to getting our citizens to adopt healthy lifestyles, considering the fact that some persons still operate with a high degree of ignorance?

To begin with, we believe that there is need for greater awareness and knowledge in the society about the dangers of chronic illnesses. On this basis, we urge that there be continuous public education and awareness campaigns across the country to address various health issues.

Research has shown that the numerous media campaigns on HIV/AIDS prevention and care, stigma and discrimination have impacted positively on attitudes and lifestyle changes; and messages in a similar fashion should be created towards addressing non-communicable illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes, or dealing with overweightness and obesity.

The Government, even though it must take the lead as it relates to policy drafting and implementation etc, cannot do it alone; the entire society must be actively involved. Perhaps the temples, mosques and churches can take up more active roles in educating their congregations about the need to adopt healthier lifestyles in order to live longer, more fulfilling and happier lives.

Consumer bodies; schools and other educational institutions; civil society groups and, more importantly, the media, also have a role to play; as when we lose our citizens due to premature deaths, the entire country is robbed of its most valuable resource.

It is well accepted that better health is central to human happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution to economic progress, as healthy populations live longer, are more productive, and save more.

Everyone should therefore aim to live a healthy and full life, and to avoid becoming trapped by NCDs.

Commonwealth Secretary General, Rt Hon Patricia Scotland, QC, on Wednesday paid a courtesy call on Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir (Parliament photo)

The people of Afghanistan are starving; to turn our backs on them is morally wrong

By Gordon Brown

H

ow can it be that, in these first weeks of 2022, the world is allowing millions of Afghan children to face death from starvation? And this after months during which the UN, a score of governments, the EU and the Arab League, not to mention US ex-army commanders, ambassadors and humanitarians, have been publicly pleading for immediate action to stop the cascade of Afghan lives lost to famine and malnutrition.

On Tuesday, Martin Griffiths and Filippo Grandi, UN humanitarian and refugee coordinators, once again begged countries to send food and urgent supplies. They announced the biggest humanitarian appeal mounted since 1945 for a single country, a $4.5bn request to help more than 23 million Afghans on the edge of starvation. For the devastation the world was warned about months ago is no longer a distant prospect. “Let us eat” was the stark banner under which protesters demonstrated a few days ago in Kabul, as the guarantees of assistance made by world powers in August have melted into a trail of broken promises. Dawn in Afghanistan sees long queues of women and children outside bakeries for the one food staple still available – bread – and even that is in short supply due to a 40% drop in wheat production after the worst drought in decades. Griffiths forecasts that if we do not act, 97% of Afghans could soon be living below the poverty line. In other words, to be Afghan today is to be sentenced to dire poverty or destitution.

Aid workers are finding children huddled together under threadbare blankets

in temporary camps and hovels or lying wrapped in their mothers’ burqas outside hospitals waiting for treatment that is simply not available.

Until August, 30 million Afghans depended on World Bank-managed healthcare.

Now, more than 90% of the country’s health clinics lack the funds to stay open. Only 11% of Afghans have had a Covid vaccine.

International aid workers are courageously doing their best to keep some food aid moving, some clinics functioning and some schools open for boys and girls. But their work is undercut and any progress is cancelled out by the withdrawal of the aid money that previously accounted for 43% of Afghanistan’s GDP and funded 75% of public expenditure, and by the freezing of banking transactions and trade with Afghanistan, with the result that there is little private cash circulating either.

This is the new world order revealed at its most selfish and morally defective: countries are locked into the narrow nationalism of “America first”, “Britain first”, “China first”, “Russia first”, “my tribe first”, and trapped in a geopolitics that puts military and economic sanctions before food for the hungry.

Even after America’s $308m contribution on 12 January, the 35-country, US-led coalition that ruled Afghanistan for 20 years under the banner of helping the Afghan people has still put up only a quarter of the money that would allow UN humanitarians to stop children dying this winter.

This is not an isolated incident. Our liberal world order is proving itself neither liberal nor orderly. What has also been destroying thousands of lives in the past year

is an equally counterproductive failure to vaccinate, test and provide treatments for poor people across the world, with the result that we have spawned new Covid variants, endangering us all. Now we are witnessing a similarly shameful and self-defeating failure to prevent famine. Our reluctance to act is not only a moral outrage but will have real-world consequences. These may take the form of mass migration to the west, rising production of heroin and the recruitment of terrorists who will claim that the world’s failure to act proves coexistence is impossible.

The UN security council has finally agreed to offer financial institutions and commercial actors legal assurances that they will not be in breach of sanctions if they engage with humanitarian organisations. It is an important step, but one that does not yet guarantee that enough help will come. So we must make a success of the $4.5bn humanitarian appeal and augment it with all of the $1.5bn held in trust at the World Bank for Afghanistan (currently only $280m has been released).

But even these initiatives amount to just 30p a day per person in Afghanistan for all their food, shelter, healthcare and schooling, and are no more than stopgap measures to get us through the winter.

Humanitarian programmes alone cannot replace that 75% of public expenditure that until August came from aid agencies abroad, or substitute the networks of governmental provision built before the Taliban takeover that are now collapsing.

And so, we must find a way to ensure dollars can come into the country, or for local banks to issue a sta-

ble Afghan currency, so food and salaries for teachers and health workers can be paid.

Nothing should detract from our condemnation of the regime’s repression, abuses of human rights and extrajudicial killings. It must receive no political recognition from any aid we give to the Afghan people. But on condition of demonstrable progress, for example, on women’s and girls’ rights and with aid going through the UN and NGOs, some economic sanctions could be relaxed. If the killings stop and there is a more inclusive government, some development assistance could begin.

The next step must be a UN-backed pledging conference, and I have written to both the UK foreign secretary and the EU president asking them to co-convene it. The Gulf states – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – have the money and have made offers to provide assistance, but they fear an American backlash.

Realistically, it will require the US to break the logjam and end the cycle of starvation and death.

To turn our backs now on ordinary Afghans in their hour of greatest need would be the final insult: a badge of shame that the free world would carry for ever. Visiting Kabul a few days ago, a colleague at the organisation I chair, Education Cannot Wait, met a young girl pleading to go back to school. Her name was Arezou. It is the Dari word for wish, indeed for hope. And it is hope that we must offer her and a despairing Afghan people. Now. (The Guardian) Gordon Brown is the WHO ambassador for global health financing, and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

guyanatimesgy.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

5

You can send your letters with pictures to: Guyana Times, Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown, Guyana or letters@guyanatimesgy.com

Sanitise and improve No spin can make Guyana’s Public Service wrong right Dear Editor, If I were to ask for anything in Guyana, I would ask President Ali to sanitise and improve the Guyana Public Service.

The ineptness, inefficiency and unprofessionalism of this entity has been highlighted ad nauseam.

Complaints of ‘come back later, fill out this form properly, more identification needed’ and a litany of excuses substitute for adept and dexterous performance.

The pervasive alleged paying of bribes to obtain simple documents seems to be the perpetual order of the day, as the public gets frustrated and enraged by such unlawful sloppiness in the workforce.

In other words, the axiom “you grease my hands and I will grease yours” has become a daily routine for many Public Servants.

Take, for instance, the Passport Office. Numerous persons are frequently turned away because, as reported in this and other media outlets, only 100 applicants are being ‘processed’ daily. Applicants are told to come back tomorrow, even if they live

in Bartica or in Lethem!

Just imagine lines being formed as early as 4:00 am at the Passport Office! This is also true when one must obtain a birth or death certificate. People have reported that they had to travel to Georgetown three, four, and sometimes five times from far away to obtain a death or a birth certificate.

These trips are very costly to the poor, who are struggling to survive in a country where inflation has skyrocketed to almost 35 percent.

Another problem with Public Servants of all ranks, which I would ask the President to investigate, is that they do not answer their office phones, and they do not return phone calls. And they are dishonest. If they promise to call, because very rarely do Public Servants inform the public by phone that their documents are completed and they should collect them. And it is known that the few that answer the phones are often rude, arrogant, and disrespectful to the public.

One of the moderators of GLOBESPAN TV, Dr.

Asquith Rose, has stated on several occasions that most Public Servants behave as though they are the people’s bosses and not their servants, and they do not answer their phones or return phone calls.

The post-Independence Public Service was a role model for CARICOM; then it became overly politicised and bloated by past and present Governments. To obtain a burial or cremation permit, or replace an ID Card in Guyana is like fighting a war for months, if not for years, because that is the time it takes to obtain the aforementioned documents. The salient issue with Guyana’s Public Service is not only the carelessness and carefree attitude of Public Servants, but a don’t care attitude/mindset that has infected a huge segment of Public Servants. However, it is said that the improvement of any organisation must be inspired by its leaders, which fits neatly into the saying that, if you want to groom a tree, you must start at the top.

Another issue in the Public Service that needs to be addressed is the lack

of courtesy and professionalism. This trait is widespread in that it exists in almost all Ministries and state agencies. Public Servants are known to radiate the aura that they are doing the public a favour, rather than doing their job, which they are paid to do. Many can be seen polishing their nails, fixing their hair, using their cell phones, or eating at their desks. Mediocrity has replaced efficiency and professionalism. Complaints against unmannerly employees, for the most part, often fall on deaf ears.

With the present conundrum, it begs the question: can the public rely on the management to fix these problems, given that they have caused the problems in the first place?

Retraining and re-educating Public Servants to serve the people must be done urgently. As the situation now stands, a Black Hole phenomenon is the most appropriate description of Guyana’s Public Service.

Sincerely, Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine

An entire overhaul of the PNC needed Dear Editor, Why the big hullabaloo about who is or who should be the PNC’s Leader of The Opposition? What is of public interest and continues to unfold is the greed for power, which is the trademark of the executives of PNC. Why is it that a party that wants to return to power continue to self-destruct? It is clear that, like the AFC, the PNC is now rapidly disintegrating to the point of no return, with members abandoning ship at regular intervals. It may be that those who are walking the plank are good riddance, but are those that remain any better? This is not a difficult question when their track records come under scrutiny.

The name ‘PNC’ is itself a stigma, which Guyanese would like not to even repeat, and numerous baptisms have failed to remove it.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘I have nothing new to teach the world, truth and non-violence are as old as the mountains’. The PNC should ponder upon these words. Has the PNC Executive members displayed any tendency to embrace the truth? Until now, they are yet to come

to terms with the fact that they committed massive electoral fraud from 1968 to 1985. They bankrupted Guyana’s economy and committed theft on a grand scale. Yet they did not repent. They were given another chance in 2015, which they squandered beyond redemption. As soon as they get back into office, they began their old fiendish ways.

But this time they were in a great hurry.

The PNC will never be able to be truthful. It is simply not in their DNA. Just look at the numerous attempts to rig the 2020 Elections, yet they are lying to the world that they did no such thing, and it was the PPP/C which rigged the 2020 General Elections.

Will even their own members and supporters ever trust these barefaced liars?

Moreover, to add insult to injury, they have proceeded with a most frivolous, spurious and vexatious elections petition to challenge the ‘validity and outcome’ of the 2020 Elections. They have now appealed the decision of the Chief Justice (ag), who threw out both petitions. The PNC leaders simply cannot fathom when enough is enough.

Leaders must be honest and truthful to their followers. The PNC, if they want to be accepted by the people, must change their dirty, lying ways, and accept that they indeed rigged the Elections from 1968 to 1985, and attempted to do so again in 2020, and discard their barefaced elections petition.

But to do this, a new breed of young politicians is needed, and I do not see anyone in the current crop.

There must be a complete overhaul.

Has the PNC been able to shed its violent and aggressive ways? The answer is a resounding NO. Let us just replay what happened in the National Assembly on 29th December, 2021.

The PPP MPs had to create a human barrier to protect Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh as he presented the NRF Bill.

Moreover, the Speaker’s Mace, a symbol of his authority, was stolen briefly, which is a threat to governance on Guyana, and can be deemed as ‘treacherous and anti-national’ (Minister Gail Teixeira).

There has been past ruckus in Parliament, but this beats all, and the signs are ominous. Will there be a time

in the future when gunplay will be the accepted norm?

The PNC must exhibit to the masses that it has the ability to debate intelligently, and if there is need to protest, then that must be done without threats of violence and violence, burning, looting, sexual assault and rape. The PNC must convince the populace that they are capable of civilised behaviour. I saw a video in which Rickford Burke, the PNC agitator in the USA, attack Khemraj Ramjattan, the Leader of the AFC, for not participating in the recent ruckus in Parliament.

Those African Guyanese who displayed maturity and encourage racial unity are called ‘house Negroes’- a derogatory term.

In conclusion, will the current PNC Leader and his followers respect Article 184 of the Constitution as it relates to the removal of the Leader of the Opposition?

They have displayed sheer contempt for the Supreme Law of the Land in the past, but maybe they will respect it this time around. Even internal issues bring out the worst from the PNC. Yours sincerely, Haseef Yusuf

Dear Editor, The hedging and sidestepping by the authorities in their attempt at an explanation on the recent fiasco involving breaches of COVID protocols and guidelines in the just concluded Futsal Finals warrant serious sanctions, not only just the collaborative organisation, but those in the echelons of control, who were in

attendance and should have taken determined and firm action at the time and shut down the event.

Their contradictory standard was on full display in this instance. What is wrong simply cannot be right, and no spin can make it so.

Sincerely, Shamshun Mohamed

6

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

Page

Foundation ◄

Negative numbers

N

egative numbers are numbers that are less than zero. You identify them by adding a minus sign to the front of a number. So – 1 is 1 less than 0. – 35.5 is 35.5 less than 0.

Examples:

Look at the number line. Notice that – 4 is four spaces to the left of 0 on the negative side. Also note that 4 is four spaces to the right of 0 on the positive side.

The Property of Additive Inverses: When you add a negative number to its inverse (its exact opposite on the other side of the number line), the total is 0.

For example, – 5 + 5 = 0.

Exercises: Solve

A piece of string Stapler Index card #64 sized rubber band 2 – pencil erasers Hole puncher Popsicle stick

A decent-looking woman, you’d have said, (They often are) Beautiful, but dead scared, Tousled – we roughed her up A little, nothing much

Instructions: Use the hole puncher and make a hole in one end of the popsicle stick.

Put the string through the hole and tie it securely. Use the stapler to attach the string to the popsicle stick to prevent it from coming off.

Centre the short side of the index card on the popsicle stick. Use three staples to attach the index card to the popsicle stick.

Place a pencil eraser on each end of the popsicle stick.

Stretch the rubber band across the popsicle stick so it is wrapped around each pencil eraser.

Make sure you have a clear area to spin your bug on a leash.

Slowly spin your bug on a leash until you hear a buzzing sound. You may need to adjust the speed of spinning to get your bug on a leash to start buzzing.

Make this a science project: What happens if you use a different sized stick?

What happens if you use a larger index card or piece of paper? What happens if you use a longer or shorter piece of string? (scienceisfun.org)

3 )= 6

1) (– 5) + 5 =

5)

2) ( – 1) + 1 =

6) 10 + 21 + ( – 10) + ( – 21) =

3) (– 4) + 5 + 2 + (– 5) =

7) 8 +( – 44) + 0 =

4) 20 + (– 20) =

8) 37 +

4 +( 8

We shouted out ‘We’ve got her! Here she is!

It’s her all right’.

We caught her.

There she was –

Materials:

How it works: The rubber band and index cards vibrate to produce a buzzing sound similar to that made by insect wings.

Remember….

Zero (0) is neither positive nor negative.

3 +( 6

By Elma M itchell

4 ) +( 37) = 8

Wednesday’s answers 1) x = 10

4) q = 9.33

7) p = 8.16

2) p = 6

5) n = 3.5

8) 6.5 = m

3) p = 1

6) x = –21

And not the first time By any means She’d felt men’s hands Greedy over her body – But ours were virtuous, Of course.

And if our fingers bruised Her shuddering skin, These were love-bites, compared To the hail of kisses of stone, The last assault And battery, frigid rape, To come Of right.

For justice must be done Specially when It tastes so good.

And then – this guru, Preacher, God-merchant, God-knows-what – Spoilt the whole thing, Speaking to her (should never speak to them) Squaring on the ground – her level, Writing in the dust Something we couldn’t read.

And saw in her Something we couldn’t see, At least until He turned his eyes on us, Her eyes on us, Our eyes upon ourselves.

We walked away Still holding stones That we may throw Another day Given the urge.

Teacher’s tip

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

WORD SEARCH

NEWS

7

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

GECOM sacks Lowenfield’s assistant for tampering with computer

…files deleted; computer wiped clean – source

Former Personal Assistant to the Chief Elections Officer, Duarte Hetsberger

T

he Guyana Elections C o m m i s s i o n (GECOM) has terminated the services of Duarte Hetsberger after he was found to have allegedly tampered with a computer belonging to the Commission.

Hetsberger had served as personal assistant to embattled former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, who was also fired from GECOM for his role in attempting to derail the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.

Government-nominated Commissioner Bibi Shadick confirmed Hetsberger’s dismissal to Guyana Times.

His termination came after the Election Commission Secretariat’s Information Technology (IT) officers found that the computer system that had been assigned to Hetsberger was completely wiped.

According to a reliable

source at the Secretariat, this discovery was made during a routine check by the IT Department.

“The IT people were called to power up the systems, and when they did, they found that it had been reset as if it carried no programme. When they checked to see what happened, they found that all information on the computer was deleted… and since no information was found [on the computer], nobody is able to say what was the nature of the information,” the source indicated.

Nevertheless, a report detailing this was submitted to the seven-member Election Commission, which took a decision to terminate Hetsberger’s employment effective January 1, 2022.

Meanwhile, Hetsberger, who was initially arrested in 2020 during the Police probe into electoral fraud,

was in the news last year after it was revealed that his employment contract was renewed for another three years by Lowenfield just before he was sent on leave and ultimately fired in August 2021.

This raised eyebrows at the electoral body, since the process reportedly did not follow protocol. This publication was told that Hetsberger’s contract was supposed to end on December 8, 2021.

Instead, Lowenfield renewed Hetsberger’s contract in June 2021. Lowenfield’s own contract was subsequently terminated on August 12, 2021, along with his Deputy Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo. The trio are before the courts facing a series of electoral fraud charges.

It was reported that the renewal of Hetsberger’s contract breached a stipulation that requires contracted employees to give notice of their intent to renew their contract three months before it is supposed to expire.

Guyana Times was unable to ascertain whether the process has commenced to appoint a new Personal Assistant for the CEO. However, GECOM is currently in the process of filling up several other key positions within the Election Secretariat, including a Deputy CEO. Last year,

Commonwealth SG praises...

FROM PAGE 2

During her visit thus far, Baroness Scotland and her delegation have met with several Government officials, including President Ali and his Cabinet members on Monday.

That meeting was a follow-up to their first encounter at the United Nations COP26 last year in Scotland.

During Monday’s engagement, President Ali and Baroness Scotland continued bilateral talks.

Then, on Tuesday, the Head of State hosted a din-

ner for the visiting team from the Commonwealth Secretariat. Before dinner, President Ali presented the Secretary-General with a painting dubbed “Ruler of the Jungle”. The Dillion Craig piece captures Guyana’s largest bird of prey, the Harpy Eagle, and the national animal, the mighty jaguar.

Accompanying Baroness Scotland are: Director and Head of the SG’s Office, Deborah Jamieson; Senior Director, Governance and

Peace Directorate, Professor Luis Franceschi; Assistant Research Officer of the SG’s Office, Francis Wanjiku; and Assistant Research Officer of the Governance and Peace Directorate, Fayola Fraser.

The Commonwealth of Nations, generally known simply as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 54 member states, including Guyana, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire. (G8)

four candidates were shortlisted for this post, namely: Melanie Marshall, Neil Bacchus, Mohamed Arjoon, and Deodat Persaud.

After the selection of Vishnu Persaud as the new GECOM Chief Elections Officer in December, the Commission was expected to discuss and select the final candidates from this lot to be interviewed for the DCEO post.

Meanwhile, the electoral body is also looking to fill several other key senior positions within the Elections Secretariat, including Assistant Chief Elections Officer, Chief Accountant, Legal Officer, Logistics Officer and Civic and Voter Education Manager.

At Tuesday’s statutory meeting, the Election Commission had a packed agenda – first, having a cour-

Correction

G

uyana Times in its Wednesday, January 12, 2022 edition inadvertently published a story headlined “World Bank projects Guyana’s GDP to double in 2022”.

However, that headline and story should have read “World Bank projects Guyana’s GDP growth rate to double in 2022”. Guyana Times apologises for the error.

Former CEO Keith Lowenfield

tesy visit by Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland and her visiting delegation.

Following that visit, the Commission dealt with a number of issues relating to the electoral body, including its budget proposal for 2022, which took up most of the meeting, hence the Commission was unable to deal with the appointments.

Shadick explained to this

newspaper that since some of the key positions within the Commission, such as Chief Accountant, are vacant, GECOM is running behind on its budget proposal to the Finance Ministry.

In fact, the seven-member Commission had a short meeting again on Wednesday morning to formally approved the budget proposal as required, so that it can be sent off to the Ministry. (G8)

8 NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Multimillion-dollar robbery

High Court Judge grants accused $450,000 bail

bours told the Police that the man, who lived there, left for the interior.

Robbery

On bail: Peon Lee

Jailed: Keyon King

On remanded: Delroy Jackson

ne of two men charged over the August 5, 2021 robbery that occurred at Wallison’s Trading in Kitty, Georgetown, in which gunmen carted off $58 million and raw gold, has been granted $450,000 bail by a Demerara High Court Judge.

Peon Lee, called “Nino Brown”, 35, of Herstelling, East Bank Demerara (EBD), was initially charged with four counts of robbery under arms in August last year. A city Magistrate refused to grant him bail, and he was therefore remanded to prison.

His lawyer, Bernard Da Silva, made a bail application at the High Court, in which he submitted that the next adjourned date in the matter is January 20, which spans almost six months from the time charges were laid.

Given that there has been no disclosure of statements, the lawyer said, this evidentially presents a strong likelihood of further delay to a trial date.

“This extended delay can be properly considered a breach of Article 144 (b) of the Constitution, where the defendant is entitled to a fair hearing within a reasonable time,” Bernard stated in a Fixed Date Application (FDA).

Also, the lawyer argued that at this stage of the proceedings, his client is also aptly entitled to rely on the presumption of innocence pursuant to Article 144 (a) of the Constitution, and believes that bail favours him on all the charges.

In the FDA, Lee’s lawyer complained that his client is made to endure inhumane conditions of incarceration, which can amount to punishment before trial.

Moreover, the lawyer submitted that his client’s continued incarceration has had a significant economic loss to his family, since he is the only breadwinner thereof.

Conditionalities attached to the bail require Lee to lodge his passport with the court and report to the Providence Police

Station every other Friday until his trial ends.

other, they robbed Francis Santos Lumes of raw gold worth $20M and $38M in cash and other valuables.

They also robbed Fernanda Carmichael of an iPhone valued at $350,000 and Wellington Batista Da Silva of a phone valued at $160,000.

O

Jailed

Meanwhile, Keyon King, the former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Sergeant who pleaded guilty to his involvement in the multi-million-dollar robbery, has been

Wanted: Antonio Maraj, called “Pluckin” or “Thuggy”

sentenced to three years in prison back in November

by Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs.

At his sentencing hearing, a remorseful King, who served in the army for 15 years, told the Magistrate that he got involved in the crime because he was faced with tremendous pressure to support his family, since he is the sole breadwinner.

The ex-solider had explained that he was also finding it difficult to save money to build a house, and as such, he did not think twice when an offer was made to him to rob the establishment. He nevertheless apologised to his family and the GDF.

Also charged

King, 32, of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo, was charged along with 36-yearold Delroy “Bug” Jackson of Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara and Lee. At the time, Lee was the company’s Chief Security Officer; Jackson was also a security officer.

The charges against Jackson and Lee state that while armed with guns, and in the company of each

Wanted: Jamal Hazel

Wanted

The Guyana Police Force has issued a wanted bulletin for the driver of the getaway car and two other men, who were caught on CCTV camera robbing the business.

Wanted is Antonio Maraj, also called “Pluckin” or “Thuggy,” of Leopold Street, Georgetown; Agricola, Greater Georgetown; and Buxton, East Coast Demerara. Maraj was one of the persons caught on CCTV during the commissioning of the robbery. Police are also on the hunt for ex-soldier Jamal Hazel, who was also caught on camera. The 24-year-old is from Guyhoc Park, Georgetown.

Also wanted is the driver of the getaway car, Dequan King, also called “Titus”, or “Quanie”, of Lot 20 ‘D’ Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown.

Police reportedly found the car that was used in the robbery parked outside a house at 435 Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown.

Upon searching the premises, Police found and seized several household items. It was reported that neigh-

It was reported that on the day in question, at about 10:00h, three armed men went to the Lot 23 Gordon Street, Kitty, Georgetown business and indicated that they had gold to sell. However, within minutes, they held several staff members at gunpoint and demanded that they open three safes in which the money and gold were secured.

After committing the robbery, the armed men bound and gagged the cashier and two other staff members, after which they locked them in a room.

Moments after escaping in a white motor car, the cashier managed to free herself and raise an alarm. The Police

Wanted: Dequan King, called “Titus” or “Quanie”

were called in, and immediately one of the two security guards was arrested.

Based on intelligence, detectives went to a house in ‘B’ Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown, where they conducted a search and found some personal items belonging to the owner of the business.

There, another security guard was taken into custody. The security guards were, however, interrogated, during which one of them confessed to being part of the plot to rob the establishment.

Following leads, the detectives turned up at King’s home, where a search was conducted in the house but nothing substantial was found. During the search, ranks noticed a “disturbed” piece of land and decided to dig.

It was then that a bucket was found buried, which, when checked, contained $15 million in $5000 notes and an additional $3 million in $1000 notes. The bucket was wrapped in two black garbage bags, while the money was neatly packed in transparent bags. (G1)

Arrival...

T

…of our Chinese cohorts o those who’re worried about the Chinese and what they’re up to in our neck of the woods, please remember that yesterday was the 168th anniversary of the arrival of Chinese to our shores! Yep…Chinese aren’t any “johnny-come-lately” in our fair(?) mudland. But history has an ironic twist that can bite nations in their behinds sometimes. Back when the British dragged the Chinese to labour on their plantations, they’d just fought an Opium War with China that roiled that country.

“Opium War” you ask, dear reader? Yup!! Britain had conquered India and forced its poor peasants to switch from their crops like rice and wheat to produce poppies – from which the narcotic Opium is extracted. Many displaced Indian farmers had to emigrate to Guyana etc!!

The Brits then shipped tons and tons of Opium into China, and created a market of millions! They used the Chinese currency obtained to purchase Chinese finery like silk etc, to ship to Europe and make another killing – in more ways than one!!

When the Chinese Emperor protested about his subjects being drugged up, the British declared war!! The Americans and French later joined in on a Second Opium War, because they wanted piece of the action. They forced the Chinese to create “Treaty Ports” like Hong Kong, Xiamen and Canton, that THEY controlled to ship drugs and goods out!! Most of our indentured Chinese came from these Treaty Ports. And nowadays, the US and Britain complain about drugs being shipped through Guyana to their people!! Ahhh…payback’s a bitch, no??

Anyhow, back to the arrival of our Chinese brothers and sisters. While their numbers were fairly small, they punched waaaay above their weight in their contributions to the country. Think of a field of endeavour - ANY field – and the Chinese been there, done that! Farming, settlements.

Groceries, rum shops, big business, manufacturing, bakeries public service, politics. And no one can accuse THEM of being racist!! They intermarried with everyone. Okay…they HAD to, because the British shipped in even less women that with the Indians! But still!

After independence, reacting to Burnham’s policies, as did the Portuguese, many Chinese Guyanese moved on to Toronto. And if you want to taste the best Chinese food in the world – just mosey up there!! The restaurants now in Guyana aren’t the real deal…they’re from different parts of China with different cuisines. None of them can make a lowmein to tickle your Eyewitness’s gourmet tastebuds. Any Hakka Chinese, here now? Thought not!!

Anyhow, we hope that even in this age of COVID (which came out STRAIGHT OUTTA CHINA!!) there was a ceremony at the Memorial at Windsor Forest, where the first Chinese were sent.

And was President Arthur Chung’s home village!!

…of the Commonwealth SG Your Eyewitness hails the Commonwealth Secretary General – our very own Caribbean-origin Baroness Scotland!!

Her 52-member organisation condemned the blatant 2020 rigging attempt by the PNC. The Commonwealth Observer Mission Head was the venerable ex-PM of Barbados, Owen Arthur. Asked about the PNC’s stonewalling, he announced that the results of the recount were “incontrovertible”, and said bluntly, “I find it almost impossible for them [APNU+AFC] to feel that that can be done. It would be tantamount to a coup.”

He was echoing Barbados’ PM Mia Mottley, then Caricom Chair, who said, “Many of us have observed with great sadness what has been transpiring in Guyana. Regrettably, we’ve seen a level of gamesmanship that has left much to be desired, and has definitely not portrayed our Caribbean region in the best light. This is definitely NOT our finest hour, and we MUST NOT shy away from that reality.”

If it were not for the integrity of such persons, Guyana would’ve now been declared a “pariah state”!

Thank you, Baroness!

…of PNC’s SoPs? Responding to Norton’s demand that he should step down from his Opposition Leader’s post, Harmon replied he was elected by 218,000 PNC votes as compared to Norton’s 967.

So, he’ll now show the PNCs SoPs as proof?

Readers are invited to send their comments by email to eye@guyanatimesgy.com

NEWS

9

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Guyana’s urban, rural energy gap shrinking – IDB

N

oting the importance of reliable energy to ensure economic growth, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has taken note of Guyana’s efforts to close the energy gap between urban and rural communities, while also highlighting areas for more to be done.

The IDB recently released its Caribbean Quarterly Economic Bulletin, which deals largely with digital infrastructure and development in the Caribbean. According to the IDB, infrastructure and energy challenges remain an obstacle to developing industries in Guyana.

“Infrastructure challenges in terms of transportation, energy and telecommunications continue to represent significant obstacles for Private Sector development in Guyana. High energy costs and reliability are major challenges,” it said.

“The average tariff for electricity in Guyana is US$0.30/kilowatt hour (kWh), representing one of the highest rates in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the average tariff is US$0.18/kWh,” the IDB further said.

There has been developmental progress, as the IDB noted that access to energy has expanded over the last decade. According to the institution in its report, the access to energy gap between urban and rural communities in Guyana has steadily closed, to the point where access to energy has

bitious plan to introduce an energy mix of solar, wind, hydro and natural gas, which would see some 400 megawatts of new power added to the National Grid.

The flagship initiative of Government’s plan is the gas-to-shore project.

Estimated at a cost of some US$900 million to build, the gas-to-shore project is a game-changing initiative that would see excess gas from the Liza Field offshore Guyana being piped onshore to generate power.

The main objective of the initiative is to transport sufficient natural gas from the Stabroek Block’s petroleum operations to supply some 200-250 megawatts of energy to the National Grid, leading to a significant reduction in electricity costs.

President Dr Irfaan Ali had previously said the gasto-shore pipeline, which will

The recently released IDB Report

increased to 92 per cent.

IDB drew reference to the fact that members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which are mostly high-income countries, had energy coverage of 100 percent over the same period. This, the IDB said, is according to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators.

“Access to energy (in Guyana) has expanded over the last decade, increasing from 79 percent in 2008 to 92 percent in 2018, while over the same period

in Latin America and the Caribbean as a region, it increased from 90.5 to 96 percent, and in the Caribbean as a sub-region it increased from 94 to 98 percent.

“In Guyana, the gap between urban and rural communities has narrowed, but the widespread use of generators to supplement transmission, and reliance on heavy fuels for power generation represent a significant cost to the economy,” the IDB further explained.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government has been pursuing an am-

land at Crane on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD), would lead to “big industrial development taking place there that is linked to not only power generation and a power plant.” He had also said the investment on the Demerara River shoreside would create massive opportunities and a trickle-down effect, especially for Region Three.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips, who has responsibility for the energy sector, has also previously said Government is looking to produce 200 megawatts of power from the gas-to-shore project by 2024.

Another major project on Government’s energy agenda is the revival of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project (AFHP), which is the brainchild of the previous PPP administration, but was shelved soon after

the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government had taken office in 2015.

In November of last year, it was announced that the Cabinet granted its “no objection” for the Office of the Prime Minister to engage China Railway Group Limited to construct the 165-megawatt Amaila Falls Hydropower Project.

The construction of the AFHP will be based on a Build-Own-OperateTransfer (BOOT) model in which the company would supply electricity to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc at a cost not exceeding US$0.07737 per kWh, and where the company would provide the entire equity required by the project and undertake all the risks associated with the project. (G3)

10 NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

PNC/M&CC parking meter fiasco

Mexican company files US$100M proceedings against Guyana …AG blames APNU/AFC for leaving destruction for PPP/C to clean up

M

exican company Smart City Solutions (SCS) has filed a US$100 million claim against the Guyana Government over the controversial parking meter project that was introduced under the APNU/AFC Government five years ago, but had to be stalled after massive rejection and outcry by citizens of Georgetown.

This was revealed by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall SC, during his weekly programme – Issues in the News.

He indicated that the

Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC

SCS has filed proceedings at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington DC, United States, in which they are “…claiming against the Government of Guyana US$100 million as compensation.”

The ICSID is an arbitration institution established by the World Bank Group to address legal dispute resolution and conciliation between international investors and States.

According to the Centre’s website, the case was filed on December 22, 2021. It was noted that the acting Secretary-General has registered a request for the institution of arbitration proceedings.

Nandlall told Guyana Times on Wednesday that the Attorney General’s Chambers have already been served copies of all the documents filed on behalf of the company. He added that the Chambers have since retained a law firm in Washington, Foley Hoag and Associates, which would be leading a team from the AG’s Chambers to defend the pro-

bodies, and ordinary citizens, who formed an organisation called Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) – which went on to hold some of the largest non-political protests ever seen in the city.

Amid public pressure, the Guyana Government finally intervened and suspended the bylaws which paved the way for the implementation of metered parking, thus ef-

for the city, “but it’s the way you introduce [it]”.

Although the contract had already been renegotiated, the Mayor also indicated that he would still need to further renegotiate with the investors before moving to reintroduce the project.

Nevertheless, during his programme, AG Nandlall contended that this latest proceeding against the State

fectively halting the parking meter project. The project has since remained stalled.

Meanwhile, in January 2018, a ‘Parking Meter Renegotiation Committee’ at City Hall proposed a reduction in the parking fee from $500 per hour to $150 per hour. Three months later, the then City Council approved amendments to the bylaws, and had even appeared before the Coalition Cabinet to discuss the changes of the contract, but the then Government never gave the green light for the project to recommence.

However, a new City Council was elected later that year, and current Mayor Ubraj Narine had told this publication back in April 2019 that he was in no rush to reintroduce the initiative.

He explained that parking meters are a good initiative

is reflective of a series of destructive acts left behind by the APNU/AFC Coalition that the PPP/C Government has to now clean up.

“This is (the) kind of destruction that these people have done…and then you saw their behaviour again in the National Assembly just (two weeks) ago… I don’t know what is wrong with this bunch,” Nandlall expressed.

“And these people are still clamouring for power… we have to be reminded of the destruction. These are invaluable taxpayers’ dollars that we will have to now spend in defending a claim, and APNU and AFC and PNC are living their merry lives. They don’t have anything to do with this. They just wash their hands off of it and left this burden with us to carry,” the AG asserted. (G8)

Protest against parking meters

ceedings.

“The proceedings have already begun…One of the first tasks is to appoint a panel of arbitrators who will be presiding [over the case]. That process is ongoing. When the tribunal is appointed, then we will file our answer to their claim and make all or any technical objections,” he related to this newspaper.

However, the AG could not say how long the appointment process would take.

Back in May 2016, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council under Mayor Patricia Chase-Green signed a contract with Smart City Solutions for the paid parking system to be rolled out in Georgetown.

The meters were active in January 2017, but this was met with strong resistance from the then PPP/C Opposition, Private Sector

NEWS

11

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022| GUYANATIMESGY.COM

$70M seized by GRA not deposited into escrow/Consolidated Fund – AG 2020 Report T

he Audit Office of Guyana has flagged several practices at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) over its seizure of goods and money, including the untimeliness of depositing seized currency into an Escrow Account or the Consolidated Fund.

This matter was highlighted in the 2020 Auditor General’s Report which dealt with matters for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020.

It was noted that, over the past three years (2017 to 2020), “it has been a concern that seized cash is in the possession of the Authority, and not being deposited into the Escrow or the Consolidated Fund”.

The AG Report noted that at the 2020 year-end cash count, GY$118,000; US$280,760 and EU$50,000 (equivalent to approximately G$70.878M), were in the possession of the GRA. “It was reported that the Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LEID) lodged the monies for safekeeping. As such, there is a breach of Part VII (44) of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act, and there is room for the misplacement of these amounts,” the AG Report explained.

In fact, the AG Report contended that this practice “places the cash in a position to be more susceptible to loss or theft.”

In its response to this concern, GRA explained that when the monies were seized, they were handed over to the Central Data Processing, Registration and Revenue Accounting Unit, in keeping with the Revenue Authority policy for same to be placed in Escrow. In view that the matters were either before the Courts or were subjected to Police investigations, or further claims by

223-7230-1 (Ext 55)

the individuals from whom seized, since these persons have either fled the jurisdiction upon receipt of bail, and the court matters have been withdrawn by their attorneys, forfeiture proceedings were instituted, and these monies will be deposited into Consolidated Fund.

Notwithstanding, the Audit Office recommended that the GRA comply with the FMAA and ensure that “seized cash are deposited promptly to the ESCROW Account and transferred to the Consolidated Fund, where applicable at the conclusion of the investigations.

Meanwhile, operating procedures that were established in accordance with Section 223-227 of the Customs Act 82:01 require that a file be opened and maintained for all cases of seizures until the matter is finalised. At the time of reporting in September 2021, for the years 2015 to 2019, a total of 336 seizure files remained open.

During the year 2020, the Authority did not close 67 files from a total of 275 files. It was noted that, due to pending sale of seizures, disposal of assets and the payment of fines and taxes, the 67 files could not have been closed.

In response to this, the GRA said it has closed an additional 128 files for the period 2015 to 2020, and that some 403 files remain to be closed.

Meanwhile, GRA record-

ed 275 cases in the Seizure Register for the year 2020.

Audit

examination of the Seizure Register revealed 108 cases were still open.

Further examination highlighted that three of those cases deemed closed were actually open. Also, seven of the cases were moved or cancelled, and four cases were closed but stated as open in the register.

While the GRA provided an explanation for these discrepancies, the Audit Office recommended that the tax body continue its efforts to ensure seizure cases are addressed promptly, so that all outstanding revenues are promptly collected and files are closed within a reasonable timeframe.

Of the 275 seizure files opened in the year 2020, 48.4%, or 133, were in relation to motor vehicles and spares, and undervalued goods, while the remaining 142 seizure files were in relation to alcoholic beverages, foreign chicken, prohibited items, investment agreements, fuel and others.

The Authority has implemented various measures, such as the excise tax stamps affixed to alcoholic beverages and the ASYCUDA World, which helped to curb smuggling of alcoholic beverages and to identify undervalued goods during clearance.

In addition, during 2020, the Authority reviewed

Investment Agreements established through GOInvest and GGMC for compliance. As a result of the review, items were seized and the relevant taxes were received by the Authority.

The graph below provides a comparison of the categories of seizures between the years 2020 and 2019.

Moreover, it was reported in the 2018 Auditor General’s Report that there were items that were seized and detained during the years 2016 and 2017 by the Law Enforcement Investigation Department at the Lethem

Integrated Tax Office, and the Authority took no action at the time of reporting in September 2019.

These items were stored in the walkway or the center of the Internal Revenue Department, while others were stored in the Internal Revenue Department compound being exposed to the rigorous weather. As such, the delay in processing these seizures can result in deterioration of the goods and subsequent loss in revenue.

At the time of reporting in September 2021, the Audit Office said it was unable to verify that the situa-

tion had been remedied.

In response to this, the GRA said, “The seizures that were stored in the compound of Lethem Integrated Regional Tax Office were disposed of, and the files regarding same are available for audit review. However, action will be taken to have the additional items properly disposed of immediately.”

Notwithstanding, the Audit Office recommended that the GRA take steps to ensure that the items are disposed of in a timely manner, since delay to do so can result in the deterioration of the related items and subsequent loss in revenue. (G11)

12 NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

GNSC records 152% increase in importation of stones, cement in 2021

T

he Guyana National Shipping Corporation (GNSC) last year recorded a 152 per cent increase in profitability and a 9.5 per cent increase in revenue.

This was revealed by Public Works Minister Juan Edghill during a recent press conference on Monday, when he noted that this was the first year that the GNSC’s operations fell under the purview of the Ministry of Public Works.

In the past, the Ministry of Finance had oversight of the GNSC. “The Guyana National Shipping Corporation increased its revenue by 9.5% in 2021, and it has become more profitable. they are reporting 152 per cent in profitability over what was budgeted for 2021,” Edghill explained.

This success has been credited to the GNSC having seen major increases in the importation and exportation of cargo and containers.

“We’ve seen a general increase in cargo by 55.1 per cent, and that’s a good thing.

More cargo is coming to Guyana…cement accounted for about 29 per cent,” the Minister explained.

“Aggregates increased by 686 per cent, that’s the importation of stone, and that speaks about the kind of development and what is happening as a country…” he added.

There was also a significant increase in exports. According to the Minister, “More containers pass through the National Shipping. There was increase in containers-to-export by 32 per cent.”

“The handling of rice for export increased by 54%,” he posited.

Moreover, the Public Works Minister said, the GNSC has seen a decrease in its expenses.

“They have been able, through good management, to reduce expenses. Expenses went down by 6.3 per cent versus what was budgeted…So, the Guyana National Shipping Corporation is in a very good place,” Edghill added.

In 2020, Edghill had told the newly installed Board of Directors of the GNSC to focus on profitability, and stop subsidising the Private

Sector.

“Guyana National Shipping Corporation must not be subsidising anybody

in the Private Sector […] by giving them meagre rents.

They are charging competitive rates for the services that they are giving. In that way, they are making larger profits, because we are doing business as a Government entity, and had they gone to a Private Sector man to rent the same space, they would have had to pay a better price,” Edghill had said.

The Minister had also reminded about the entity’s Articles of Incorporation, which give it authority to engage with other parties. He suggested that the GNSC should consider decentralising the location of its head office, as the current location on the shipping block takes away some prime space that could be used for storage.

Edghill had said modernisation is especially im-

portant with the emerging petroleum sector. “These facilities are some of the mostsought-after facilities in the country right now. Once you’re near the water with sheds and storage, everybody in the oil and gas industry will be seeking out partnerships and engagements,” he had noted.

The GNSC Board is chaired by Attorney-at-law Euclin Gomes. The other members on the Board are GNSC Managing Director Andrew Astwood; engineers Oswald Chisholm, Dimitri Alli and Ramkumar Gopaul; Community activist Desmond Morian; Rajendra Paul and Miguel ChooKang; and Advisor to the Public Works Minister on Maritime Affairs, Claudette Rogers.

Cutlass-wielding man attacks Police R anks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) came under attack on Wednesday morning as they attempted to arrest a cutlass-wielding man of unsound mind at the Leonora market, West Coast Demerara (WCD).

In a video circulated on social media, it was observed that the man climbed on to the roof of a building while Police were trying to apprehend him. During that time, the man was seen firing several chops in the direction of the officers.

The man’s relatives were overheard saying that his name is ‘Buddy’, and that he suffers from a mental illness.

Residents of the area allege that after law enforcement officers came under attack, they threatened to shoot the man. In the video, relatives were heard screaming.

The man later surrendered, since persons in the video were heard telling the officers “No! No! Look, he already surrendered!”

While details remain sketchy, Guyana Times has been informed that the man was wanted by Police for

The man on the roof of a building

chopping to death a 30-yearold ‘male street dweller’ in an incident which occurred on January 4. That street dweller used to be in the market, where he also slept.

On January 4, a resident

news@guyanatimesgy.com

said he was at home when he heard someone calling out to him.

As such, he went out to enquire, and his handyman indicated to him that a street dweller had been chopped in the market.

He was heading into the market when he saw a male who frequents the market area on a daily basis. The man had a cutlass in his hand and he was walking away from the scene.

The victim was picked up and taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), where he succumbed while receiving medical attention.

Several calls to Regional Commander Errol Watts for more information on Wednesday’s incident have proved futile. (G9)

NEWS

13

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Guyanese mother of 2 trapped in Syria appeals for help to return home …case engaging Govt’s attention – Foreign Affairs Minister ...several unanswered questions remain

Guyanese Rafeena Kumar

By Amar Persaud

T

rapped in the war-torn country of Syria for almost seven years, a 29-year-old Guyanese mother of two is pleading with the Guyana Government to help her return home.

Rafeena Kumar left Guyana for Syria in March 2015 after signing up with an online programme to help people in the country – which is currently engrossed in a civil war that began some 10 years ago.

At the time, Rafeena was without children and had just lost her father, who had to undergo surgery after being involved in a freak accident.

The young lady was a student of the Guyana School of Nursing, and after losing her dad, she felt the urge to turn her life around and help others in need.

When she came across the online programme, the unsuspecting woman eagerly signed up and left for Syria.

Upon her arrival there, the woman realised she had been deceived and the organisation was just a farce.

After more than a year, she managed to flee the organisation and sought shelter at a refugee camp, where she has been living under inhumane conditions for several years.

While there, she met a man from Germany whom she married. She also gave birth to two sons, ages three and five.

Rafeena originally hails from Riverstown, Essequibo Coast, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), where her distraught family members are exhausting all means in a desperate bid to

get her back home.

The woman’s older sister, Sherry Subrena Kumar, told this publication that Rafeena was not the same after her father died.

“My dad was working in the interior as a mechanic.

He got into an accident while fixing one of the trucks. It was not jacked up properly, and fell and pinned him down, where he punctured his intestine.” The sister explained this is what led to their father undergoing surgery.

When Rafeena informed her family that she was going to Syria, they were not too keen on the idea. In fact, Rafeena was not living with her mother at the time she decided to leave Guyana.

Subrena recalled that when her sister realised that she had been duped by the organisation, she immediately contacted her family back home.

“When she went, it was nothing what she expected.

It wasn’t really nothing to do with aid, nothing to help nobody like that. So, the persons, like the organisation that she went with, who she agreed to go with, they lied to her basically and they were in control of her,” the sister explained.

When probed for more information, the sister did not explain exactly what the organisation turned out to be.

However, after spending about two years with the organisation, Rafeena managed to move to another city with some locals, after which she was taken to the refugee camp.

“She handed herself to the Kurdish, the Kurdish there are responsible for like relocation to your home country…they said that Guyana’s Government need to request for her to be sent back,” the sister explained.

“So, ever since then, she’s been waiting in the camp for like three years now…she has no travel document, no passport, no nothing, and there aren’t any flights out of Syria just like that,” the older Kumar stated.

Government support

When the APNU/AFC Administration was in power, the family had written to then President David

Three-year-old Salhudeen Reitz

Granger and other officials, seeking help to bring Rafeena back home.

“I would say like about two years ago, we wrote a letter to the Minister of National Security and the President, but there was no response. And other than that, we didn’t know who else to reach out to,” the sister related.

When asked if they plan to reach out to the current Government, Subrena expressed, “Yes, we do. We already drafted up a letter to send again. I would just like to asked them kindly to do whatever it takes to help get my sister back home as well as her two children, because it’s been years that we haven’t live together as a family with her, and she is not even getting her basic need over there, and neither are the children. No sort of education or health facility, nothing. So, I would just like to plead to Government and the other authorities to kindly help us in bringing her home.”

Life in the refugee camp

The Kumar family only hears from Rafeena once a week at most. Sometimes, weeks go by when they hear nothing.

“She’s allowed to contact us once a week, which is every Wednesday, and she’s allowed to send us a brief message… sometimes we would go weeks without hearing from her, and sometimes months,” the sister explained.

Thankfully, the family last heard from their loved one today. “She sent a message to us today. Every time she would send us a message,

Five-year-old Abdullah Abbasi

basically it was just saying how they’re doing, how the kids are doing, and asking if Guyana’s Government is doing anything about her situation, about trying to help her,” the sister explained.

Subrena describes her sister’s life in the refugee camp as “inhumane”, due to little time and attention that is paid to the refugees by the leaders.

“It’s very inhumane, I would say. This is like little to no life actually. They would just be living in the camp and they get nothing really much to eat or drink, unless Red Cross does visit

or unless we can assist her, but even at times, there is no way possible of sending her things.”

“Sometimes it’s very cold, like winter time, like December, and they have no kind of winter clothing or no heat or anything like that for her or the kids.”

As if the story could not have gotten sadder, the woman’s husband had also been trying to flee the country, and when he eventually got through, he left, leaving Rafeena and the two children behind.

Stress and emotions

Rafeena’s mother, 54-year-old Bibi Faziela Kumar, explained that the stress of having her daughter trapped in another country has taken a toll on her health and wellbeing.

The woman, who is a mother of four, has a fibroid in her uterus and has to undergo surgery on Friday to have that removed. She also has to undergo other medical procedures.

“Tomorrow I have to be admitted to undergo surgery, so it’s like my head is so packed,” the grieving

Rafeena Kumar’s mother, 54-year-old Bibi Faziela Kumar

mother lamented.

Subrena added, “It’s stressful and traumatic to her, and now knowing that she has to do the surgery and we’re dealing with all of this, it’s very stressful for the entire family, but we are hoping to get a good outcome of this situation with my sister, and that would be comforting to all of us.”

When contacted, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Hugh Todd confirmed that they have now been made aware of the matter, and an investigation is underway.

14 NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

M&CC has no authority to fire City Engineer …LGC to make final decision on City Engineer’s "dismissal"

J

ust after a motion was tabled by Councillors of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to have City Engineer Colvern Venture terminated, Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine said the M&CC are waiting approval from the Local Government Commission in this regard.

On December 7, 2021, a vote was taken by all members, and the majority voted for the City Engineer’s dismissal. However, neither the Mayor nor the Councillors have the power to dismiss the engineer; they can only recommend.

The motion was then documented and sent as a recommendation to the Local Government Commission, which is expected to make the final decision on whether or not the engineer would be dismissed.

According to the Mayor, the motion was tabled and passed based on the laws that govern the City Council. It was also tabled by two APNU/AFC councillors, Heston Bostwick and Clayton Hinds.

However, following the motion, Venture said he does not plan to leave his post, and has sent a lawyer’s letter to the Mayor. Venture’s letter to the Mayor states that the motion collides violently with the order made by the Chief Justice on May 13, 2021, which prohibits, restrains, and prevents the Mayor and Councillors from exercising any disciplinary action against him.

It also states that permission must be given by the Local Government Commission, which the Mayor claimed is currently being sought.

Realising that its action to debate a motion for

City Engineer’s Department to find the workers simply doing nothing productive.

But according to Venture, City Hall has starved his department of funds, and now in turn is claiming that it is not functioning.

In contempt

Mayor of Georgetown Ubraj Narine

Venture to be fired was not in keeping with the High Court ruling, the Mayor attempted to pacify the situation by saying that they did not “fire” the City Engineer.

“We did not fire Mr Venture… we recommend to the Local Government Commission, who has the authority, and they will have the final say… the Council did their part, and that is what we are missing,” the Mayor said on Wednesday.

At Wednesday’s press conference, the Mayor also presented what he described as “evidence” against Venture. “What more evidence do you need more than these files or letters? What more evidence do you need when you go around the city and see the clogged drains? What more evidence do you need when you see five and six people every day running from the Engineering Department to the Office of the Mayor to deal with plans,” the Mayor ranted.

The Mayor further alleged that, on countless occasions, he would visit the

Meanwhile, last year, the Council made the decision to suspend Venture for one month without pay, which resulted in him taking them to court. The suspension came on the ground of Venture allegedly abusing his sick leave.

City Engineer Colvern Venture

On May 13, 2021, Chief Justice Roxane George ruled in favour of Venture in the case of Venture vs.

Town Clerk.

“And it is ordered that an order of Prohibition is hereby issued directed to the Town Clerk of the City of Georgetown and the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown, restraining, prohibiting and preventing them personally or acting through their servants or agents from exercising any disciplinary functions or imposing any disciplinary sanction against the applicant Colvern Venture,

City Engineer of the City of Georgetown, or from terminating or purporting to terminate the employment of the said applicant Colvern Venture, City Engineer, without the approval or permission of the Local Government Commission,” the Chief Justice had ordered.

Venture’s lawyer, Ronald Burch-Smith, wrote to the Town Clerk in a letter stating that, by allowing the motion even as so much to be debated by the Council, she and the Council would be held in contempt of court.

Driver admits to staging robbery against employer

A

39-year-old man who was employed as a driver with Fernandez Guyana Enterprise Inc at Dookie Sand Road, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD) has been arrested by Police after he admitted to staging a robbery against his employer.

The incident occurred at around 17:45h on Monday.

The Police have said the businessman was robbed of $129,730, all of which has since been recovered.

The suspect reported to the Timehri Police Station that he was robbed of an undisclosed sum of money belonging to the company by two men on a motorcycle.

According to the suspect, one of the bandits had a gun.

An investigation was launched, and the suspect was reinterviewed on Tuesday, due to some inconsistencies in his initial report. The inconsisten-

The money that was stolen during the staged robbery

cies were brought to his attention by the Police, after which he admitted to staging the robbery.

The man said he staged the robbery because he felt he was being “overworked and underpaid” by the company.

He then took the Police to his residence, where he proceeded to a derelict car parked in his yard. He then opened the trunk of the vehicle, where he retrieved a black plastic bag containing cash, which he indicated was the property of Fernandez

Guyana Inc. The money was counted in his presence, and it amounted to $129,730.

The suspect was then escorted to the Timehri Police Station and placed into custody, pending charges. (G9)

One man walks free, another on bail on separate charges

T

wo men have been arraigned before City Magistrate Dylon Bess at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday on separate charges of robbery and attempted robbery.

The charge against Kendrick Haley was, however, dismissed after the virtual complainant refused to offer evidence against him. It has been alleged that on January 8, at East and Quamina Streets, Georgetown, Haley, while armed with a piece of brick, attempted to rob Kester Kellis, a Special Constable.

Meanwhile, in the other matter, Deon Allen pleaded not guilty to a robbery charge, and has been placed on $50,000 bail.

It is alleged that on January 9, at Kitty Public Road, Georgetown, he robbed Damian Binder of US$600 (Gy$120,000). He has been instructed to return to court on March 7.

While at court, Allen’s mother claimed that her son was beaten by Police ranks.

(G1)

Deon Allen and Kendrick Haley (blue shirt) being escorted by Police after their court appearance

NEWS

15

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

Dismissed election petition

Jagdeo, Nandlall seek leave to challenge ruling at CCJ Act, which entails the parties first seeking leave from the Court of Appeal to file an appeal to the CCJ. “The leave is normally granted; it is not refused.

The CCJ in judgements handed down prior has explained that the Guyana Court of Appeal performs a gatekeeping function; meaning that it cannot refuse you entry once you have a right of appeal,” the Attorney General explained.

No jurisdiction

Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC

V

ice President Bharrat Jagdeo, in his capacity as General Secretary of the PPP, and Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC are seeking special leave from the Guyana Court of Appeal to appeal against a ruling of that very court to take jurisdiction to hear an election petition filed on behalf of the APNU/AFC that was dismissed by the Chief Justice for non-service.

They are also asking the Court of Appeal for a further stay of execution on its ruling, which was rendered on December 21, 2021, until the determination of their intended appeal at the CCJ. A previous stay was granted by the court the very day the judgement was made; however, it expired on January 4, 2022. The request for a further stay of execution is to prevent the Court of Appeal from hearing the matter until the hearing and determination of the appeal that will be filed to the regional court.

On his weekly programme - ‘Issues in the News’ - Nandlall explained that the application for special leave to appeal is simply a procedural requirement that is set out in the CCJ

According to him, the Court of Appeal does not have jurisdiction to refuse an application unless an appeal does not lie to the CCJ. Considering this, Nandlall noted, “We are satisfied that an appeal lies, so we have to go through the procedural requirements of going before the Court of Appeal to seek leave first… Because that is how the CCJ rules are structured.”

Advocating why they have the right of appeal, Jagdeo and Nandlall cited Section 7 of the CCJ Act, which states that an appeal shall lie to the CCJ with leave from the Court of Appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeal in any civil matter which, in the opinion of the latter court, the question is one that is of great general or public importance.

“The intended appeal is a matter of public interest which touches and concerns national, general and regional elections, and as such, are proceedings of great general and public importance,” reads the Notice of Motion seeking leave to appeal that was filed by Jagdeo and Nandlall.

Highlighting why the court should further stay its ruling, they said, “This honourable court has a duty to protect the integrity of appeals so that they are not

rendered nugatory before they are heard and determined. Unless the status quo ante is preserved, the intended appeal before the [CCJ] would be rendered nugatory insofar as the orders granted by this court would take effect before the intended appeal is heard and determined.”

As such, Nandlall and Jagdeo requested the Court of Appeal to further stay its ruling so that the CCJ “can bring a resolution of these fundamental issues which concern the interpretation of the Constitution of Guyana, as well as issues integral to Guyana’s constitutional democracy.”

Moreover, they submit that their intended appeal to the CCJ is an “arguable one” with a “realistic prospect of success”.

Ruling

In a 2-1 majority ruling, the Court of Appeal ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear an appeal against a decision of Chief Justice Roxane George, SC, to dismiss election petition #99 based on improper service/ non-service.

The majority ruling was delivered by the Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette

Cummings-Edwards and Justice of Appeal Dawn Gregory, SC, while Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud had a dissenting judgement.

The petition filed

by Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse challenges the results of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections with the intent of having David Granger declared as the duly-elected President.

In their ruling, Justices Cummings-Edwards and Gregory held that to oust the Appeal Court from hearing the appeal against the Chief Justice’s ruling would defeat the purpose of Article 163 of the Constitution of Guyana.

Justice Gregory said, “Parliament would not have left the matter for implication if a decision of the High Court was intended to be a final decision. Parliament would have so expressed.

I don’t read the silence to provide an appeal procedure as a shutting out of the jurisdiction of appeal under that scheme — the National Assembly Validity of Election Act.” As for the Chancellor, while she noted that she considered all the precedence relied on by the Attorney

General, she said they failed to invalidate the Court of Appeal’s jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

Meanwhile, Justice Persaud said that considering the unambiguous language of that constitutional provision, as well as the fact that Justice George did not dismiss the petition on its merits, but rather because of procedural errors, a right of appeal did not lie to the Court of Appeal.

“In applying the application test here, it is clear that the order made by your Honour was interlocutory.

Had her Honour ruled that the second respondent was not a necessary party or that service was in time, the petition would have proceeded to trial,” noted Justice Persaud.

The Justice of Appeal added, “In any event, there was no final determination of the dispute between the parties. In the circumstances, I would strike out the notice of appeal for want of jurisdiction.”

The petition which was filed on September 15, 2020 was dismissed on January 18, 2021 by the Chief Justice as a result of the petitioners’ failure to effect service on the second-named re-

spondent, former President David Granger, within the statutorily prescribed time.

The manner of service is prescribed in Rule 9 (1) of the National Assembly (Validity of Elections) Rules, which imposes on the petitioners the statutory obligation to effect service within five days after the presentation of the petition.

Having been filed on September 15, 2020, the petition should have been served on Granger five days thereafter, which would have been September 21, 2020, since the fifth day – September 20, 2020 – was a Sunday.

But in Nurse’s affidavit of service, it was stated that the petition, along with the relevant documents, was only served on Granger on September 25, 2020 – five days outside of the statutorily prescribed period.

Nandlall had filed an application to have the petition struck out on the procedural irregularity, and succeeded before the Chief Justice.

At the Court of Appeal, he had argued that since Justice George never determined the questions raised in the petition, there was no statutory or constitutional jurisdiction to the Court of Appeal to hear an election petition dismissed for procedural impropriety or any other reason not stated in Article 163 (1) of the Constitution of Guyana.

However, Senior Counsel John Jeremie and Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who are representing the petitioners, told the Justices of Appeal that an appeal to a dismissed election petition not only lies under Article 123 of the Constitution, but also the Court of Appeal Act. Also, they argued that given that the Chief Justice’s ruling was a “final order”, it can be appealed against to the Court of Appeal. (G1)

15 major waterfront projects granted approval in 2021 …several more to get permission in 2022

U

nder the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government, as many as 15 major waterfront development projects that include shore base developments to service the oil and gas sector received no-objections from the Sea and River Defence Board.

This was revealed when Public Works Minister Juan Edghill held a press conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC), in which a number of agency heads were featured. Responding to questions from this publication, Secretary of the Sea and River Defence Board (S&RDB), Jermaine Braithwaite, gave an update on shore base developments.

“In total for 2021, the board granted 15 no-objections for major waterfront development projects. And these include, in some in-

Secretary of the Sea and River Defence Board, Jermaine Braithwaite

stances, what you would define as shore bases. There were a number of applications that spoke to wharf structures, providing services not necessarily for the oil and gas industry, but shipping services general-

ly,” he said.

“And those projects, the board, with support from the technical team from the Sea and River Defence Department, has been monitoring implementation. Of course, the majority of these projects are being undertaken by Private Sector companies, some of which are in collaboration with international companies to develop facilities to provide services for oil and gas and other navigational services,” Braithwaite said.

The engineer further explained that the Sea and River Defence Board has been monitoring the rate of implementation of these various projects.

While his board’s focus has been on making sure the works maintain and enhance flood defence, other agencies, like the Maritime Administration Department

A conceptual design of the proposed NRG facility

(MARAD), have been looking at the structural integrity of these facilities.

“Of course, other regulatory services are involved, including the

Maritime Administration Department, (which) would look at the integrity of the structures themselves.

Those technical aspects. But where the flood defence as-

pect is concerned, we have been conducting our reviews, and are quite satisfied with the level of adherence to our requirements.

TURN TO PAGE 16

16 NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

COVID-19 skyrockets: 1000 new cases in 24 hours

…2 more deaths recorded

GUYANA COVID-19 DASHBOARD JANUARY 12, 2022 UPDATE

NUMBER OF NEW CASES

T

he rapid surge in COVID-19 cases continues in Guyana with a whopping 1000 new infections detected within a 24-hour period, taking active cases in the country to over 7000.

According to the Health Ministry in its updated COVID-19 dashboard for Wednesday, the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana has gone up to 47,005.

Of this, however, a staggering 7584 are currently active cases. These comprise 13 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 7571 persons in isolation – 109 in institutional isolation and 7462 in home isolation.

Another nine persons are in institutional quarantine, according to the dashboard.

Meanwhile, the deaths of two more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus were reported.

The latest fatalities are a 57-year-old female from Region Five (MahaicaBerbice) who was unvaccinated and died on Monday, and an 80-year-old female from Region Six (East

Berbice-Corentyne), who was fully vaccinated and died on Tuesday.

With these, the total number of deaths from the virus in Guyana has gone up to 1075, with the COVID-19 death toll for the year thus far at 20.

Some 38,346 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease to date – 54 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, approximately 456,353 persons have been tested so far and of this number, some 21,937 males and 25,068 females were found to be positive.

Of the 1000 new cases reported on Wednesday, 24 were from Region One (Barima-Waini); 33 from Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam); 123 from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); a whopping 668 cases from Region Four (DemeraraMahaica); 11 from MahaicaBerbice, 82 from Region Six, 32 from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), and 27 from Region 10 (Upper Demerara- Berbice).

There were no new cases recorded in Regions Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) within that 24hour period, according to Wednesday’s dashboard.

Health authorities have attributed the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases over the past three weeks to the Omicron variant, which though not deadly is highly transmissible.

Challenges as persons flock testing sites

In fact, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, during Wednesday’s COVID-19 update, admitted that authorities were facing challenges as persons continue to flock Government testing sites amid the Omicron surge.

But in the same breath, he contended that the processing of samples only took a few hours and therefore, persons should get their results within a short period of time.

“I don’t know where they’re getting a timeframe of 10 days, we’re able to process PCR in a much faster way and in fact, with the equipment that we have, we can process PCR within a

15 major waterfront...

“We envisage, based on the trend we have been seeing, that there will be a number of new projects likely to be established during this year, and, in fact, some companies have already started to engage, not only our board, but other regulatory agencies on proposals that they want to implement,” Braithwaite further explained.

In September of 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had granted an environmental permit to consortium NRG Holdings Inc, which plans to build a multi-million-USdollar shore base and terminal at Foreshore Plantation Best on the West Coast of Demerara (WBD), Region Three (Essequibo IslandsWest Demerara).

The US$600 million investment will be done by a 100 per cent Guyaneseowned consortium of companies comprising National

Hardware Limited, Hadi’s World Inc and ZRN Investments Incorporated.

Some of the features of the facility, which sits on 400 hectares of coastal land, would include an offshore terminal; dry dock facility; a fabrication yard; offshore components; umbilical preparation and spooling yard; administrative buildings to house offices and modernised logistics centres; warehousing; area for a helipad; a wharf, berths, and a dry dock.

When it comes to employment, the company had proposed employing approximately 150 to 200 persons during construction, and 50 to 100 persons will be employed for the basic operation and maintenance of the base port facilities.

Phase one of the project would see the deepening, widening and dredging of the access channel, as well as land reclamation. It also

FROM PAGE 15

includes an offshore terminal, dry dock facility, and fabrication yard spanning 65 hectares. Meanwhile, phase two involves deepening the dredging of the access canal and expanded reclamation.

Last year, Canadianowned company CGX Energy Incorporated also commenced construction of a US$130 million Berbice Deep Water Port (BDWP).

The construction is being done on 30 acres of land on the eastern bank of the Berbice River, adjacent to Crab Island.

The company has said it would construct a 91-metre x 30-metre wharf platform and a 49-metre x 12-metre approach trestle which would be able to accommodate two platform supply vessels. In addition, it plans to build a compacted port site with warehousing and tubular storage. (G3)

1000

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN INSTITUTIONAL ISOLATION

109

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN HOME ISOLATION

7462

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN COVID-19 ICU

13

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN INSTITUTIONAL QUARANTINE

9

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES BY GENDER (FEMALES)

25,068

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES BY GENDER (MALES)

21,937

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES IN GUYANA SINCE 2020

47,005

NUMBER OF RECOVERED CASES

38,346

TOTAL 1st DOSE VACCINATED FULLY IMMUNISED

REGION 1

1770

REGION 2

1777

REGION 3

6109

REGION 4

23,186

REGION 5

1683

REGION 6

4415

REGION 7

2033

REGION 8

635

REGION 9

2804

REGION 10

2593

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN BE SAFE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Wear a face mask.

415,611 301,918

TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATHS

DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES SINCE MARCH 2020

1075

Keep a physical distance of at least 6 feet.

Wash your hands or use handsanitizer If you have any symptoms, call the COVID-19 Hotline.

GET MEDICAL ADVICE ON COVID-19 FROM MOH 24/7 HOTLINE NUMBERS: 2311166; 226 7480; 624 6674; 624 2819; 624 3067 OR 180/181.

two-four-hour period, so I’m not sure where they’re getting that timeframe from,” Dr Anthony said in response to reports that persons who have tested at Government facilities were waiting as many as 10 days before they get back their results.

According to information received by Guyana Times, when persons get tested at Government facilities, they are informed that they must isolate themselves until the results are returned to them within three days. However, this is not always the case as some people end up waiting a much longer time.

Nevertheless, the Health Minister said authorities were facing a challenge with persons flocking testing sites.

“We’ve had a challenge since we’ve had the Omicron surge: as soon as somebody’s infected – well not even infected – if there’s somebody who is tested positive, let’s say in a work environment, then all the co-workers, whether they have been directly exposed or not, everybody immediately want to be tested.”

“And they show up at our

sites, and when they do so, they are putting an undue burden on the testing system,” he explained.

In this regard, the Minister reminded that testing too early could prevent persons from knowing their true status.

Dr Anthony had previously recommended that persons wait at least five days after potential exposure before getting tested.

The only exception, he had noted, is if they start to experience symptoms.

“You have to wait, there’s a window period for you to wait and if you test before that window period, obviously it’s going to be negative…people need to understand that if they truly want to understand their status – whether negative or positive, they must, first of all, quarantine for a couple of days, and then come to do the test,” Dr Anthony reiterated on Wednesday.

“So, if it’s a PCR test that you’re doing, then at least that waiting time should be about four days, if it is the antigen test that you’re using, then antigen works best when the person is symp-

tomatic,” the Minister explained.

Meanwhile, persons are urged to get vaccinated, and for those who qualify, their booster shots, in order to add a layer of protection against the virus.

So far, 415,611 persons or 81 per cent of adults have received a first dose of a COVID vaccine while 301,918 or 58.9 per cent have received both doses of the COVID vaccine.

For children aged 12 to 17, some 31,333 persons or 43 per cent have received a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine while 22,193 or 30.4 per cent have received both doses.

For booster doses, some 20,713 persons have received their jabs.

But as more people continue to get vaccinated, authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising – which are more necessary now with the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant. (G8)

NEWS

17

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM

GBTI Corriverton branch Report on newer forms of celebrates 25 years violence handed over to …remains backbone of agriculture Analysis of 1996 Domestic Violence Act

Human Services Minister

lending in Berbice

H

Human Services and Social Security Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud

The GBTI Corriverton, Berbice team

T

he Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) this week celebrates 25 years serving the Upper Corentyne communities, having opened its Corriverton branch on January 13, 1997.

“It’s been 25 years since we have first opened our doors to serving our customers of Corriverton and surrounding communities, and today we are just as delighted to continue that service,” Branch Manager Ghoeblall Mahadeo said.

To mark the occasion, the bank acknowledged some of its first customers with mementoes of that occasion. Among them were Colin Nathoo and Mohamed Haleem.

Poornima Seepersaud, who assisted in cutting the ceremonial ribbon to commission the bank, reflecting on her relationship with GBTI, says, “My fondness for GBTI has never wavered since I was younger. Being a part of the branch’s opening ceremony is a memory that I

will continue to cherish. The level of excitement was immeasurable on that momentous day. GBTI Corriverton has provided exceptional service to myself and my family. The friendly, helpful, and courteous staff have solidified GBTI Corriverton as our preferred bank. The array of services provided by GBTI has been beneficial throughout my time attending university. I am confident that the bank will continue to serve the community and myself for another 25 years.”

GBTI’s acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), James Foster, in a recent meeting with the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), told those present that GBTI was ready more than ever to support the economic advancement of the region.

“GBTI is geared to support economic development throughout Guyana. We are fostering business start-ups and expansion in local and national economies to keep

them vibrant and growing and we are ready to do business with creditworthy borrowers in your region,” he said.

Foster applauded the GBTI team who “continue to support our communities and our clients despite the challenges of the pandemic, and pledged that “your bank will continue to work diligently to upgrade its core banking systems; to provide new and improved self-service and in-branch customer experiences. We are proud to serve you and are here to support your traditions and joys – no matter what life may look like.”

uman Services and Social Security Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud has received reports of recommendations to update the Domestic Violence Act and on new and emerging forms of violence – including family violence – following a legislative analysis of the 1996 Act and research under the Human Services Ministry-spearheaded Spotlight Initiative.

These recommendations and reports, the Ministry said in a release, were crafted by consultants Rawle Small and Attorney-at-Law Rosemary Benjamin-Noble who were engaged through the Spotlight Initiative. This was after numerous key informant interviews undertaken over the last four months with stakeholders including the Judiciary; Magistracy; Guyana Police Force; Child Care and Protection Agency; Community Support Officers (CSOs); Amerindian

Affairs Ministry; Education Ministry; Finance Ministry; Health Ministry; Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP); University of Guyana; survivors; perpetrators and Regional Executive Officers (REOs).

According to the Ministry, Small’s report proposed the need to expand the current Domestic Violence Act to include family violence in recognition of the existing gaps relating to newer forms of violence and the need to increase the categories of persons eligible to apply for protection orders.

Minister Persaud and Spotlight Liaison Officer Anuradha Persaud engaged in extensive discussions with the consultants on their reports. Minister Persaud in acknowledging the impact of the newer forms of violence said that this type of research under the Spotlight Initiative which focuses heavily on identifying mechanisms to tackle

domestic violence is one of the key elements in modernising legislation and policies and ultimately strengthening systems.

According to the Ministry, Noble-Benjamin presented more than 40 proposed amendments to the current Domestic Violence Act including expansion of the definitions of ‘domestic violence’; inclusion of more comprehensive definitions of ‘economic, emotional and psychological violence’; updating the penalties for breach of protection orders; and inclusion of batterer intervention programmes and counselling as remedies under the law.

Persaud made several suggestions in the discussions on the proposed recommendations, and cited the analysis as a good foundation to having expanded discussions and advancing the process.

The Minister also recognised that amending this law would impact on other laws, including the Evidence, Custody, Contact, Guardianship and Maintenance Acts to give full effect to the proposed recommendations. She committed to engaging the AttorneyGeneral’s Chambers as the next step as the Government of Guyana is focused on tackling the scourge of domestic violence at all levels.

The discussions concluded with the Minister reaffirming her commitment to continued engagement with all relevant stakeholders on these recommendations on the Domestic Violence Act under Pillar 1 of the United Nations-European Union Spotlight Initiative.

18

guyanatimesgy.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

Regional

Omicron detected in nearly every Barbadian PM sends warning on ‘vex vote’ country in Americas – PAHO B

D

riven by the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, new infections have reached unprecedented levels across the Americas, the Pan American Health Organisation said, doubling cases during the past week.

During a regular news briefing on Wednesday, PAHO Director, Dr Carissa Etienne said cases across the Americas rose to 6.1 million on January 8, from 3.4 million cases on January 1.

“Infections are accelerating across every corner of the region of the Americas,

and once again, our health systems are being challenged as emergency room visits and hospitalisations are rising,” Etienne said.

The new data came as nations around the world were seeing record high increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisation rates, driven by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant – putting pressure on already-strained health systems.

Dr Etienne said the Omicron variant has been detected in 35 countries in the Americas – nearly ev-

ery country in the region – and it is soon expected to become the most dominant variant.

Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil have been experiencing significant increases in new cases, she said, while in Argentina and Paraguay COVID-19 infections have increased by nearly 300 per cent over the last week.

The United States, PAHO said, is reporting the bulk of the new cases, with states in the East and Midwest regions experiencing the most rapid surges.

(Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

arbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has warned voters about not supporting the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and ending up with a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Government.

She was speaking on a platform mounted to endorse the BLP’s City of Bridgetown candidate Corey Lane on Monday night.

In calling the elections last Boxing Day, she had said she needed the country to unite behind one leader and she reiterated that to party supporters.

Quoting the BLP’s campaign song that instructs voters not to “stand home vex” but to give her the “x”, Mottley told online viewers and those in person that she was “breaking it down” for them.

“You know them ain’t ready yet, but I talking about us. What I need from you, what my team needs from you, is a proper mandate . . . . We need people to come out . . . you can’t take no chances. You gine play that you vex wid somebody and end up with a hangman’s noose around your neck if the Dems win. I never see such foolishness in my life. (Nation News)

Brazil rains: Minas Gerais hit by deadly landslides and floods

Colombia says Consul in Haiti threatened after Moïse’s killing

C

olombia says its consul in Haiti has received threats after trying to provide aid to 18 former Colombian soldiers arrested as part of an investigation into the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse last year.

Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez said on Tuesday the threats were aimed at Julio Cesar Santa Martinez, who serves as Colombia’s sole representative in Haiti, where Bogota does not have an embassy.

She did not provide further details on the nature of the threats or who made them, but said they occurred as the Consul sought to provide humanitarian assistance to the ex-soldiers who were among the dozens of suspects arrested in a wide-ranging probe into the killing of Moïse in his home in July 2021.

The assassination cast Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, into further political and economic chaos, which recently had been compounded by several natural disasters.

Thousands of residents have had to leave their homes across the state Police stand near a mural featuring assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [File: Joseph Odelyn/The Associated Press]

Haitian officials have maintained the killing was carried out by a group that included former Colombian soldiers working for a private security firm.

No one so far detained in the killing has been formally charged in Haiti, however, United States authorities in early January arrested 43-year-old Colombian Mario Antonio Palacios.

He was charged with “conspiracy to commit murder or

kidnapping outside the US” and “providing material support resulting in death, knowing or intending that such material support would be used to prepare for or carry out the conspiracy to kill or kidnap”.

The US Justice Department has said Palacios and the other intruders had initially sought to kidnap Moïse, but killed him in the process. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

L

andslides and flooding caused by torrential rains have killed at least 15 people in south-eastern Brazil, officials say.

The victims died between Sunday and Tuesday in Minas Gerais state, where rivers have overflowed, leaving towns partially submerged.

More than 28,000 people have had to leave their homes.

Authorities are monitoring dams that could burst, as more downpours could affect the hardest-hit areas.

Five people from the same family, two of them children, were found buried on a hillside near the state capital, Belo Horizonte. In the city of São Gonçalo do Rio Abaixo, an 11-year-old girl was killed when a wall collapsed on her bedroom as she was sleeping.

Two other deaths were reported in the city of Caratinga, including a 41-year-old man who was killed when his car fell into a river while he tried to cross a bridge. In Perdigão, two women, 55 and 79, died when the car they were in was dragged away by

floods.

In the town of Juatuba, the Paraopeba River burst its banks, leaving entire neighbourhoods flooded.

“We lost everything. My wife and children left the house in a boat,” Daniel Valeriano de Oliveira told AFP news agency.

Brazil’s mining agency said 36 mining dams were in a state of emergency in the state. On Saturday, a dam at an iron ore mine in Nova Lima overflowed, disrupting traffic on a major highway for two days.

(Excerpt from BBC News)

Bolsonaro accuses Supreme Court justices of partisanship Jamaican ex-Permanent Secretary

B

razil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has accused two members of the Supreme Court of taking sides in this year’s election and favouring left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro has railed at Justices Luis Roberto Barroso and Alexandre de Moraes for months over rulings against his policies and investigations into the President, including one for spreading fake news related to COVID-19.

Lula, who was President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010, spent a year and a half in jail on cor-

ruption charges that were annulled by the Supreme Court last year, allowing him to run again in this year’s election.

Bolsonaro and Lula are expected to face off in a polarised election in October, though neither have formally declared they will run.

“Barroso and Alexandre de Moraes want Lula to be President,” Bolsonaro said in a television interview on Wednesday. “OK, they might not want to vote for me, but do they want to return to office the man who robbed the nation for eight years?”

Barroso last month

ruled on requiring vaccination proof from all travellers arriving in Brazil, a measure contrary to the views of vaccine-sceptic Bolsonaro. De Moraes oversees five investigations of the President, including one into his comments falsely associating coronavirus vaccines with AIDS. The latest comments by Bolsonaro, who has faced widespread criticism and protests for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, came as polls show Lula with a clear lead over the far-right leader in advance of the upcoming vote.

(Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

devastated by son’s murder in T&T

F

ormer Jamaica Mining and Energy Ministry Permanent Secretary Godfrey Perkins says his family is shaken and devastated by his son’s murder in Trinidad and Tobago.

Perkins’ son, Garth, 34, was gunned down outside a Chinese restaurant on Broadway, Port of Spain on Monday night.

Police said Perkins left the restaurant with relatives and was shot by a man who rode away on a bicycle.

Police took him to the Port of Spain General Hospital, where he was de-

clared dead.

Perkins migrated to T&T to work as an event coordinator for the Hyatt Regency Hotel before becoming a manager at Estate 101, Maraval.

On Wednesday, the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper reported that the elder Perkins was grieving his son’s murder and recalled his last conversation with him in December.

“We are badly shaken by it.

“We have to be now telling ourselves that while we are devastated, it has happened and it cannot be undone. Luckily, we are

believers. So, we have put the matter before God and have sought His support with peace of mind and I think we have His support.

“It is just very sad, just very sad what happened to him. We are hurting,” Perkins told the Gleaner during their last conversation, his son wished him well for the new year.

As of Wednesday morning no one had been held for Perkins’ murder.

Police suspect it may have been a robbery, but no official motive has been established.

(Trinidad Newsday)

guyanatimesgy.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

19

Around the World

OILNEWS OIL NEWS

Prince Andrew to face civil sex assault case after US ruling

P Oil rises 2% on US crude drawdown, weaker dollar

O

il prices hit two-month highs on Wednesday on tight supply as crude inventories in the United States, the world's top consumer, fell to their lowest since 2018, and as the dollar weakened and worries eased about the Omicron coronavirus variant.

US crude inventories fell 4.6 million barrels last week to 413.3 million barrels, their lowest since October 2018, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. Analysts had forecast in a Reuters poll a 1.9-million-barrel drop.

"The crude draw was bigger than expected despite a material drop in refining activity," said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler, a data firm.

Brent crude futures settled up 95 cents, or 1.1 per cent, at US$84.67 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up US$1.42, or 1.8 per cent, at US$82.64.

The falling dollar was the main driver of higher oil prices, overtaking even the EIA draw, Kpler's Smith said. A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated oil contracts cheaper for holders of other currencies.

The dollar fell to a fresh two-month low against a basket of currencies after data showed US consumer prices rose solidly in December. The Brent contract was in backwardation, with front-month delivery around US$4.41 more expensive than delivery in six months, indicating tight near-term supply.

US crude inventories have dropped for seven consecutive weeks, and overall inventories have been tightening across the globe as major producers struggle to increase supply even as demand rises despite rising cases of Omicron.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) is still holding back more than three million barrels per day (bpd) in output while Iranian exports are pinned back by US sanctions.

Though OPEC+ is raising output targets each month, technical difficulties have prevented several countries from hitting their quotas.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the US economy should weather the current COVID-19 surge with only "short-lived" impact and is ready for the start of tighter monetary policy.

"Assuming China doesn’t suffer a sharp slowdown, that Omicron actually becomes Omi-gone, and with OPEC+’s ability to raise production clearly limited, I see no reason why Brent crude cannot move towards US$100 in Q1, possibly sooner," said Oanda analyst Jeffrey Halley.

"There are plenty of variable outcomes in the previous sentence, the biggest threat being Omicron in China, India, and Indonesia." (Reuters)

rince Andrew is to face a civil case in the United States over allegations he sexually assaulted a woman when she was 17.

Virginia Giuffre is suing the Prince, claiming he abused her in 2001.

His lawyers said the complaint should be dismissed, citing a 2009 deal she signed with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But a New York Judge ruled the case could continue.

The Prince has consistently denied the claims.

Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on an ongoing legal matter.

The motion to dismiss the lawsuit was outlined in a 46-page decision by Judge Lewis A Kaplan of the United States District Court for the

Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001

Southern District of New York.

It means the case against the Duke of York, 61, could be heard in court later this year.

Judge Kaplan said his rul-

US COVID deaths rising but likely due to Delta, not Omicron, says CDC chief

C

OVID-19 hospitalisations in the United States have increased by about 33 per cent and deaths are up by about 40 per cent from a week earlier, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, speaking on a media call, said US COVID-19 cases, driven by the

fast-spreading Omicron variant, are expected to peak in the coming weeks.

"The magnitude of this increase is largely related to the Omicron variant, which now represents about 90 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in the country," she told reporters.

Hospitalisations have been on the rise since late December as Omicron surpassed the Delta variant as

B

of confidence in the PM. "He is the Prime Minister, it is his government that put these rules in place, and he has to be held to account for his actions," he said.

If 54 backbench Conservative MPs send letters to the 1922 committee it will trigger a leadership challenge.

Ministers have urged MPs to wait for the outcome of an investigation into alleged COVID-rule breaking at Downing Street parties by senior civil servant Sue Gray, which they say will be published shortly.

But Wragg, who chairs an influential select committee, said the Prime Minister's position was "untenable".

"I don't think it should be left to the findings of a civil servant to determine the future of the Prime Minister and indeed who governs this country," he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. (Excerpt from BBC News)

the dominant version of the coronavirus in the United States, although experts say Omicron will likely prove less deadly than prior iterations.

The recent increase in COVID deaths is likely a lagging effect of the Delta variant, which was surging before Omicron took hold in the United States in December, Walensky said.

With Delta and other prior variants, deaths have lagged infection rates by a few weeks.

"We may see deaths from Omicron, but I suspect that the deaths that we're seeing now are still from Delta," Walensky said, adding that it will take time to understand how Omicron impacts coronavirus death totals.

(Excerpt from Reuters)

Migrants fleeing Lebanon by NATO-Russia talks at impasse amid “real sea accuse Greece of abuse risk” of Ukraine war

Senior Tories urge UK PM to quit after party apology

ritish premier Boris Johnson is facing calls from senior Tories to stand down as Prime Minister after he admitted attending a drinks party during lockdown.

The PM apologised for the way he had handled the event in the Downing Street garden in 2020 and said he understood the public's "rage" over it.

Cabinet members, including deputy PM Dominic Raab, rallied round Johnson.

But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and senior backbenchers William Wragg and Caroline Nokes called on him to go.

Ross, a Member of Parliament (MP), said he had a "difficult conversation" with Johnson after the PM's apology to MPs earlier on Wednesday.

He said he would write to the 1922 Committee – which organises Tory leadership contests – to register his lack

ing did not determine the "truth or falsity" of Giuffre's complaint.

Giuffre said she was "pleased" that Prince Andrew's attempt to dismiss

the case had been denied and "that evidence will now be taken concerning her claims against him".

A statement issued by her lawyer, David Boies, added: "She looks forward to a judicial determination of the merits of those claims."

In court documents, Giuffre said she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by late billionaire financier Epstein.

Part of her abuse involved being lent out to other powerful men, she alleges.

Prince Andrew, the Queen's second son, said in an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had no recollection of ever meeting Virginia Giuffre, and her account of them having sex in the US and UK "didn't happen".

(Excerpt from BBC News)

A growing number of Lebanese and Syrians are resorting to migration via perilous boat journeys amid an economic meltdown in Lebanon [Hellenic Coast Guard/AFP]

W

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “there is a real risk for new armed conflict in Europe” [Johanna Geron/Reuters]

N

ATO and the United States have rejected key Russian security demands for easing tensions over Ukraine, but left open the possibility of future talks with Moscow on arms control, missile deployments, and ways to prevent military incidents between Russia and the West.

The decisions came at a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on Wednesday, the first of its kind in more than two years. That Russia’s delegation did not walk out of the talks and remained open to the prospect of future meetings despite the West rebuffing central demands were seen as positive notes in a week of high-level meet-

ings aimed at staving off a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants NATO to withdraw its troops and military equipment from countries neighbouring Russia, which include Ukraine but also NATO allies like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Putin also wants the 30-nation military alliance to agree not to admit any more members.

The meeting was called as Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 combat-ready troops, tanks, and heavy military equipment near Ukraine’s eastern border. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

hen Ahmad, a goldsmith in Lebanon’s coastal town of al-Mina, could no longer operate his machines due to protracted electricity cuts, he knew it was time to find a way out.

“I sold all of my equipment and decided to leave,” the 25-year-old from Lebanon told Al Jazeera. Some of his friends had reached Italy by embarking on the perilous boat journey from the northern city of Tripoli. They persuaded him to do the same.

With three-quarters of the population living in poverty, fuel shortages forcing power plants to shut and the value of the currency plunging with no end in sight, a growing number of Lebanese and Syrians are resorting to migration.

Ahmad said he was among 82 Lebanese and Syrians who boarded a fishing boat on October 26 and sailed far out to sea. But the group never reached its des-

tination.

Al Jazeera spoke to three of the passengers, whose full names have been withheld as they feared jeopardising their chances of migrating.

They recount being caught in a web of illegal pushbacks, arbitrary detention and beatings that human rights organisations describe as an increasingly common tool to keep migrants out of Europe.

The Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy has denied any wrongdoing, saying that their actions are compliant with international legal obligations, and denied using force against the migrants.

Earlier this week, Al Jazeera reported allegations that at least 30 Cubans, hoping to claim asylum in Europe, were subjected to abuse by the Greek authorities and forcibly expelled to Turkey across the land border late last year. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

20

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

guyanatimesgy.com

DAILY HOROSCOPES

ARCHIE

(March 21-April 19)

Stay focused on what you are trying to achieve. Connect with people who can help you reach your goal. A conversation, meeting or interview will give you the platform you need. Speak your mind.

Look at the possibilities before making a decision that can change how you live. Taking a step into unknown territory can be daunting if you haven't done your research. Leave nothing to chance.

DILBERT

(April 20-May 20) Stick to what works for you. Don't exaggerate, overreact or take anything for granted. Use your intelligence and plan your journey in detail. Don't let anyone lead you astray. Be smart.

(May 21-June 20) You'll gravitate toward odd individuals and hobbies that give you something to consider. Reflect on the past, and you will figure out how to reach your goal. Love is featured.

PEANUTS (June 21-July 22)

Partner with someone who shares your beliefs, and together you will make a difference. A passionate approach to life, a canny outlook and a positive attitude will pay off.

(July 23-Aug. 22) Wait for the perfect time to make a move. Don't let emotions drag you in a direction you aren't ready to go. Focus on personal growth, physical changes and deciding what you want to do next.

CALVIN AND HOBBES (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Network, set up meetings, socialize and start conversations that can help you learn more about the existing possibilities, and you'll find a way to finetune your skills to suit trends.

(Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Worry less about what you cannot change and put more effort into what's possible. Broaden your awareness by tuning in to what loved ones are going through. Understanding and compassion will help.

SUDOKU (Oct. 24-Nov. 22)

Don't be fooled by appearances.

Someone will offer false information or exaggerate about who they are or what they can do for you. Tread carefully in all your doings.

(Nov. 23-Dec. 21)

SOLUTION FOR LAST PUBLISHED PUZZLE

Keep working toward your goal until you feel confident that you have mastered what you set out to do. Embark on a journey that focuses on diversity and originality, and challenge yourself to do better.

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Concentrate on your home and family. Refuse to let anyone sway your opinion or talk you into something you don't want to do. Put your energy where it will bring the best returns.

(Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Make smart decisions. Say no to over-the-top behavior, regardless of temptation. Don't take a risk or let an emotional situation lead to regret.

Gravitate toward people you can trust.

(Feb. 20-March 20)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

21

Bumrah’s five-for steals Petersen's thunder before South Africa strike vital blows

T

Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli bump gloves

wo days have been done and dusted in a compelling Cape Town contest, and the destiny of a thrillingly fought series remains firmly up for grabs. In battling through to the close with an unbeaten third-wicket stand, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara overcame the cheap loss of India's openers to stretch their side into a promising lead of 70.

But, on another day dominated by high-class fast

wicket of Dean Elgar in the closing moments of day one, Bumrah was right back on the mark from the moment that play resumed under gleaming blue skies at Newlands. His second ball was a sharp inducker that surged past Aiden Markram's fatally upraised bat and into the off stump.

At 17 for 2, India's 223 already looked significantly more substantial than at first glance. And so it transpired for the remainder of an engrossing

SCOREBOARD SOUTH AFRICA 1ST INNINGS Dean Elgar (c) c Pujara b Bumrah 3 Aiden Markram b Bumrah 8 Keshav Maharaj b Yadav 25 Keegan Petersen c Pujara b Bumrah 72 Rassie van der Dussen c Kohli b Yadav 21 Temba Bavuma c Kohli b Mohammed Shami 28 Kyle Verreynne † c †Pant b Mohammed Shami 0 Marco Jansen b Bumrah 7 Kagiso Rabada c Bumrah b Thakur 15 Duanne Olivier not out 10 Lungi Ngidi c Ashwin b Bumrah 3 Extras (b 4, lb 4, nb 4, w 1, pen 5) 18 TOTAL (76.3 Ov, RR: 2.74) 210 Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Dean Elgar, 4.4 ov), 2-17 (Aiden Markram, 8.2 ov), 3-45 (Keshav Maharaj, 20.2 ov), 4-112 (Rassie van der Dussen, 39.2 ov), 5-159 (Temba Bavuma, 55.2 ov), 6-159 (Kyle Verreynne, 55.4 ov), 7-176 (Marco Jansen, 62.2 ov), 8-179 (Keegan Petersen, 64.4 ov), 9-200 (Kagiso Rabada, 71.3 ov),

bowling, it has been Jasprit Bumrah's triumphant return to the scene of his 2018 Test debut that has so far made the crucial difference between the teams.

As India target an extraordinary triple-crown of overseas series wins in Australia, England* and now South Africa, Bumrah's Test career speaks directly to their dramatic transformation away from home (not that their standards on home soil have exactly suffered in recent times).

He's playing his 24th Test out of 27 away from home, and now boasts a stunning haul of 112 wickets at 22.58, including each of his seven five-fors, a tally that no bowler has surpassed since that 2018 debut.

After prising out the critical

10-210 (Lungi Ngidi, 76.3 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Jasprit Bumrah 23.3-8-42-5 Umesh Yadav 16-3-64-2 Mohammed Shami 16-4-39-2 Shardul Thakur 12-2-37-1 Ravichandran Ashwin 9-3-15-0 INDIA 2ND INNINGS KL Rahul c Markram b Jansen 10 Mayank Agarwal c Elgar b Rabada 7 Cheteshwar Pujara not out 9 Virat Kohli (c) not out 14 Extras (b 8, lb 4, nb 5) 17 TOTAL (17 Ov, RR: 3.35) 57/2 Yet to bat: Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant †, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Mayank Agarwal, 4.5 ov), 2-24 (KL Rahul, 5.5 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Kagiso Rabada 6-1-25-1 Duanne Olivier 2-0-13-0 Marco Jansen 5-3-7-1 Lungi Ngidi 3-3-0-0 Keshav Maharaj 1-1-0-0

innings, as South Africa pinned their hopes of parity on another coming-of-age knock from the steadfast Keegan Petersen, while riding out the contrasting but unrelenting threats of a superbly balanced India attack.

At varying moments in the course of the day - most notably when they reached lunch on 100 for 3 with only the additional loss of the nightwatchman Keshav Maharaj; and again half-an-hour before tea, when two wickets in three balls from Mohammed Shami again derailed a well-established innings - South Africa looked set for a significant lead.

Instead, their final six wickets were picked off for 51 - not without a fight, but with a certain inevitability, such was

the calibre of the attack bearing down on them.

The key scalp of the innings was that of Petersen for 72; and, sure enough, it was Bumrah who delivered with his second wicket of a pre-tea double whammy that, moments earlier, had served up the dangerous Marco Jansen, bowled for seven by that relentless inducker as he played down the wrong line.

For the first hour of his innings on a baking-hot morning at Newlands, Petersen had set his sights purely on survival.

With Maharaj providing a measure of impetus in a doughty stay as nightwatchman, Petersen had just six runs from 42 balls by drinks, all the while buoyed by the memories of his breakthrough fifty at the Wanderers last week in a similarly low-scoring tussle.

He needed some luck to make it that far, however, including when KL Rahul failed to wrap his fingers round a low edge to third slip on four. But when Umesh Yadav's scrambled seam burst through Maharaj's loose drive to bowl him for 25 just before the hour mark, Petersen took his cue for a controlled counterattack.

With Rassie van der Dussen now taking his turn to drop anchor, Petersen cashed in on a fractional slackening of India's extreme discipline, with six fours flowing from the next nine overs, including four exceptionally placed carves through the off side when offered a fraction of width, and a flick off the toes through midwicket off Shardul Thakur.

Even R Ashwin, typically economical in an understated nine overs of deployment, couldn't escape Petersen's flood of confidence as he reverseswept the third ball he faced past backward point.

In consecutive overs before lunch, the pair brought up both their fifty stand and South Africa's 100, but van der Dussen's poise vanished during the 40-minute interval.

He could have run himself out twice straight after the break, but instead fell for 21 to a scuffed drive off Yadav, with Kohli at second slip clinging onto a fast-flying edge.

Petersen, however, found another important ally in Temba Bavuma - himself enjoying a period of serenity as a Test asset, for all that another hundred (to follow up the famous maiden effort he made on this same ground in 2016) remains elusive. Few current players can put away a cover-drive with more aplomb right now, and in a hint at South Africa's waxing fortunes, he even managed to turn a dropped catch at first slip into five bonus runs, as Pujara's spill rolled into the stack of helmets behind the wicketkeeper.

But on 28, and moments

after the fourth and final bullet boundary of his innings, Bavuma was undone as Shami dragged his length back for Kohli to cling onto his 100th Test catch at second slip; and when

since the Trent Bridge Test in August last year, as Lungi Ngidi looped a leading edge into the covers.

The day's jeopardy wasn't done just yet. With

Kagiso Rabada accounted for Mayank Agarwal early on

Kyle Verreynne dangled his bat loosely two balls later to depart for a duck, South Africa were 159 for 6, and back in a heap of trouble.

That was the cue for Bumrah to rev back into action.

For three consecutive overs, he tormented Jansen in the channel outside off, then did for Petersen with some extra lift into the heel of the bat. And despite some long-handled resistance from the tail, most particularly Rabada, he would not be denied his first five-for

a slender lead of 13, Mayank Agarwal overturned an early lbw verdict in a hornet-like newball onslaught from Rabada, but departed soon afterwards for 7 as Rabada fizzed a fulllength delivery off the edge to first slip. And though Duanne Olivier's first two-over spell was wayward, Jansen's opening gambit was anything but, as KL Rahul was enticed by the full length, and fenced a fourth-ball drive to Markram in the slips.

Kohli, however, fresh from his supreme 79 in the first

Jasprit Bumrah finished with 5 for 42

innings, refused to allow his side's ascendancy to slide any further, as he and Pujara closed up for the evening in a 33-run stand. (ESPNcricinfo)

Andy Murray into Sydney Tennis Classic last eight with victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili

A

ndy Murray overcame Georgia's world number 23 Nikoloz Basilashvili in three sets to make the last eight in Sydney.

Britain's former world number one, 34, prevailed 6-7 (47) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in an encounter that stretched over three and a quarter hours.

The Scot wasted set point in the first, and another four in the second, before winning the tiebreak to pull level.

Basilashvili could have extended the match further, but Murray saw off break point to serve out the deciding set.

Murray, who accepted a wildcard to next week's Australian Open, was cheered as he continues to improve on the first-round defeat in Melbourne that marked the start of his 2022

season.

"It was an unbelievably tough match. He's hitting the ball consistently bigger than anyone on the tour," Murray said after a match in which Basilashvili hit 59 winners to his own tally of 24.

"I was having to do a lot of defending, a lot of running. My legs stood up well, really well in the last set."

Murray, a five-time runnerup at the Australian Open, has not appeared at the tournament since a 2020 appearance that had seemed set to be his last before major hip surgery.

Earlier in the day, British number two Dan Evans continued his winning start to 2022 with a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over Spain's Pedro Martinez.

The 31-year-old third seed was dominant in all areas,

converting all four of his break points to snuff out world number 61 Martinez's hopes.

Evans will play either Serbia's Dusan Lajovic or American Melbourne runner-up Maxime Cressy in the quarter-finals, while Murray will take on Belgium's David Goffin, whom he beat in the decisive rubber of Britain's Davis Cup Final win in 2015.

Evans started 2022 with a clean sweep of his five matches at the ATP Cup. He beat Germany's JanLennard Struff, Canada's Denis Shapovalov, and American John Isner in singles, as well as pairing with Jamie Murray for two doubles’ victories. He is ranked 26th in the world, and will be looking to carry his recent form into next week's Australian Open, where he has not been beyond the second round since 2017.

Katie Swan will not join compatriots Evans and Murray in the main draw at Melbourne Park, after losing 6-0 7-5 to Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova in qualifying.

Harriet Dart, the only Briton remaining in women's qualifying, will play Australian wildcard Kimberly Birrell on Thursday for a place at the tournament proper. (BBC.COM)

22 National teams’ scouting process benefit from Super-16 events THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

GFF President, Wayne Forde

I

n doing a review of their year-end tournaments, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has drawn up a long list of positives that can be derived from the now concluded activity. One such positive is the convenience with which National Team Head Coaches Jamaal Shabazz and Akeelah Castello were able to view several of

GUYANATIMESGY.COM

GFF Assistant TD, Bryan Joseph

the country’s best prospects.

Assistant Technical Director Bryan Joseph and GFF President Wayne Forde attested to this fact during a press briefing at the Federation’s Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon.

Both Guyana Men’s and Women’s Senior teams will see international engagement this year, along with the fe-

male Under-17 and Under-20 teams.

Joseph, speaking from the point of the Male Super-16 tournament, said, “I thought the tournament provided a tremendous opportunity. As a matter of fact, it would have been so difficult for the new Men's Head Coach to put together a team if he didn't have this opportunity.

“Because he’s now coming back into the fore, the players that he would have worked with before, you’re no longer seeing most of them, and we really needed an opportunity for him to have a look.”

The Assistant TD went on to share that their discussions on this activity at the Federation level were fruitful, with a common observation being the commendable fitness levels.

“Our discussion with him and the technical team is that the tournament provided sufficient opportunity for us to really see what’s out there.”

Joseph went on to explain, “And I can say personally, again, it's a discussion that we were pleasantly surprised at the level of play in the Super-16 tournament, after being away from football for two years. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of most of the matches.

We were shocked at the level of fitness that was displayed by the players. It tells us, you know, everybody was hungry, everybody was thirsty, everybody wanted to come back in and present the best version of themselves,” he added.

Going forward, Joseph thinks it is a great position for the National Programme to be at, especially considering yet-to-be-announced programmes.

“So, we are happy. Clearly, I believe we go forward from here, we will try to improve, you know, all the facets of the game that need improving, and it starts with some of the programmes the President set out to do,” the Assistant TD shared.

On the other hand, Wayne Forde addressed the same issue with regard to the Female Super-16 tournament.

“The female National Team Coach travelled to most

of the outof-town locations that games were played. She was on hand, with a lot of our support staff, to identify talent,” the GFF President revealed.

He went on to add, “So there have been a lot of players that actually presented themselves now to the pool, and it will be interesting to see when those squads are called in.”

Referring to the upcoming CONCACAF Championships for the Guyanese ladies, Forde disclosed that he is looking forward to seeing the composition of those teams.

“We have the U17, U20 and the senior women that will be in action this year, and we are very confident that many of the girls that presented themselves during the period of the tournament will be eligible for selection,” Forde shared.

Crown Mining Golf Tourney to tee off this Saturday

“…Crown Mining Supplies is one of the major tournaments of the year,” says LGC VP

LGC VP Paton George

By Timothy Jaikarran

T

he long-awaited Crown Mining Supplies Golf Tournament is set to tee off this Saturday, January 15, 2022 at 12:30 pm, with keen competition set to storm the greens. This was announced at a simple ceremony held on Wednesday at Crown

Crown Mining Supplies Executive Manager Nadine Persaud

Mining’s Lot 9 North Road location in Georgetown.

Speaking at a simple ceremony, Vice President of the Lusignan Golf Club, Paton George, noted that the club is excited to be hosting its first tournament for 2022.

He explained that the Crown Mining Supplies Golf tournament is one of the major tour-

naments of the year, and this kicks off what the club expects to be a good 2022 season.

“All players must observe all COVID protocols. Golf lends itself to social distancing naturally, so we are blessed in that area; but we still, before the tournament, at the press conferences, announce and insist that we follow all COVID guidelines,” Paton George has posited.

He divulged that he expects a good turnout for the tournament, and despite the rains, the ground is in excellent condition. He clarified that while it has been a month since the club has had a tournament, with the tournament being Crown Mining, it would be a big thing among the players.

Sharing her bit was

Bishops’ High School, Anna Regina Secondary join Chess in Schools Programme

T

he Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has now expanded its Chess in Schools Programme to reach over 30 children in two new secondary schools.

The Bishops’ High School and Anna Regina Secondary have now become the latest schools to benefit from the comprehensive online training for youth development in the sport.

This initiative was formed through collaboration with

Bishops’ High School Physical Education teacher Daniel Benjamin and Headmaster of the Anna Regina Secondary School, Lalljeet Rooplall. Over 30 students are now engaged in training, which commenced on Sunday, January 9th and is set to continue the course over the next six weeks. The initiative targets youths aged 7 to 15 at all skill levels, but older students are able to participate.

The GCF’s online training has restarted for the year 2022, with over 60 new entrants and 60 continuing students from over 20 schools from every county. Some of the country’s best and brightest minds have eagerly grasped opportunity to learn the game.

The federation’s goal of discovering new talent and expanding the reach of the game to every region in 2022 is well on its way, despite the pandemic.

More than one hundred 7-to15-year-olds have been exposed to chess over the recent months, thanks to the proactive use of technology by the GCF. The GCF Chess in Schools Team continues to promote the game, and is willing to collaborate with any group that is interested in the development of the sport and Guyana’s children.

Members of the LGC receiving the sponsorship cheque

Nadine Persaud, one of the Executive Managers. She thanked the LGC for accommodating the annual sponsorship of the company, owing to the fact that it has been close to seven years since they have been sponsoring tournaments at the club.

“It’s always a pleasure in participating with the club in promoting recreational and sports activities in Guyana.

As a company, we strive more to participate in sports and in society, and to give back to society in some way, and we are happy to do that through golf.

We’d like to thank members of

the golf club for encouraging golf and sports in Guyana,” Persaud explained.

The format of the tournament is a Medal play over 18 holes net scores in three flights shotgun start. The three flights are players-9-and under handicap, 10-18 handicap, and 19-36 handicap.

Aside from first position receiving prizes in all three flights, to add the icing on the cake, Crown Mining has extended its generosity by providing a second-place prize in all three flights and additional gifts for the tournament on Saturday.

Prizes would also be given for nearest to the flag, longest drive, best net overall (first, second and third), and best gross.

All participants are advised to contact the club’s manager on the day of the tournament to collect their score cards, pay the tournament fees, and proceed to their allocated tee boxes to tee off.

Crown Mining Supplies is the exclusive distributor of a wide array of Tolsen construction equipment, such as Vibratory Roller, Tamping Rammer, Concrete Cutter, Double Drum Roller, Vibrator Poker and Vibrator, Reversible Spoil Plate Compactor, Plate Compactor, Single Drum Roller, Ransom Concrete Mixer, among others.

Presentation of prizes will be held upon completion of the tournament, at around 5:30pm. Persons interested in registering are asked to contact Lusignan Golf Club on 220-5660. Registration closes on Friday January 14, 2022 at noon.

Sunrisers Masters beat CCC in Ramdhanie Samaroo Memorial match

S

The victorious team Sunrisers Masters struck a pose after the game

unrisers Masters defeated Caribbean Cricket Club (CCC) by seven wickets in the final of the Ramdhanie Samaroo 6 overs’ over-40 three-team tournament on

Sunday at Hibernia ground, Essequibo Coast (Region Two Supenaam-Pomeroon).

CCC made 111-6 from the allotted six overs, while Sunrisers Masters achieved the target in the penulti-

mate over.

Chandi Jairam led the way with an aggressive 45, while former Essequibo Inter- County opening batsman Ravi Beharry supported with 32. Yaseer Mohamed grabbed two wickets for 28 runs from his two overs.

In CCC’s innings, Gary Ragnauth hit a top-score of 38, and Prashad Mahadeo made 34.

Seepersaud Sankar claimed 2-30.

In the first encounter that preceded the championship game, Sunrisers Masters got the better of Hibernia by four wickets.

The victorious side received a trophy in the final.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

GUYANATIMESGY.COM

23

West Indies cricket South Africa U-19 beat West

Indies U-19 in warm-up legend Clive Lloyd receives knighthood

C

ricket legend Clive Lloyd has been knighted after the ceremony was delayed due to COVID. The Guyana-born batsman, 77, was honoured for his service to the game, and played for Lancashire from 1968 until 1986, as well as captaining the West Indies from 1974 until 1985.

He made a huge contribution to Lancashire’s one-day successes, and went on to win two One-Day League titles in 1969 and 1970, and four Gillette Cups between 1970 and 1975, with a memorable 126 against Warwickshire in the 1972 final at Lord’s.

After retiring, Lloyd - a huge Everton fan - coached the West Indies and worked for the International Cricket Council, before settling in Greater Manchester.

The Lancashire legend is a Vice President at Emirates Old Trafford, and was on the Club’s Committee from 1993 until 2012.

Lloyd, a left-handed batsman, played in 110 Tests and 87 One-Day Internationals,

West Indies Captain Ackeem Auguste scored a half century

A

Sir Clive Lloyd (Credit: PA Images)

making his Test debut in December 1966 against India.

He captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1984, and is one of the most successful Test captains of all time.

During his captaincy, the side had a run of 27 matches without defeat, which included 11 wins

in a row.

He was also the first West Indian player to earn 100 international caps.

In 1971, Lloyd was also named Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year, while in 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. (Itv.COM)

Hetmyer

aims to end flashy innings and bat longer

Shimron Hetmyer scored the most runs at the T20 World Cup for West Indies in 2021

By Brandon Corlette

S

himron Hetmyer is regarded as one of the most talented batsmen in the region. This batting maestro is more determined than ever to bat for longer periods and end those flashy innings. After stroking a classy 149 from 256 balls in the Guyana Harpy Eagles trial match at Albion last week, Hetmyer spoke about his new and improved approach to batting.

"I just go out there and try to bat as long as I possibly can, and try to help my team to win in whatever way possible. I try to accumulate, and just to be there as long as possible. It is really something I am trying to bring into my game, instead of playing that flashy innings and just batting a couple of balls. “(Again), I just try to be there as long as possible, and just help my team. Even if we cannot win it, I can try to draw it. That is basically along the lines I am thinking right now,"

Hetmyer disclosed.

Hetmyer, who was left out of the West Indies squad for the ongoing Ireland series due to fitness issues, displayed great skill in his stroke-play and running between the wickets during that 300-minute knock of 149 at Albion last week.

That trial match will be used to select the Guyana Harpy Eagles squad for the upcoming Regional 4-Day tournament in February, and also marked the return for Hetmyer in red-ball cricket.

"As it is, I am just trying to do as much running as I can. As for the past few years, I was not really part of red-ball cricket for a while now, so I am just trying to get back into it, you know, just try to accumulate and bat at the crease and stay at the crease for as long as possible," he explained.

"So far, it has been fun actually. I really enjoyed playing red-ball cricket with good friends and so on. Good friends on the field always help you to focus a little bit more. Instead of thinking of the sun and the heat and stuff, you try to enjoy it as much as possible, and get some good camaraderie out of

it as well," Hetmyer explained.

The man who enjoys the luxury of playing in the Indian Premier League also had some advice for youngsters: "First of all, don't think about the money; that is the worst thing you can do. Just play the game for enjoyment, enjoy it as much as possible, and make friends along the way."

At 25 years old, Hetmyer has played 16 Test matches, with his last being played in November 2019. He has scored 838 runs, with five fifties and a high-score of 93, averaging 27.93. In his One Day International career, Hetmyer has scored 1447 runs at an average of 35.29. He has a stellar strike-rate of 106.39, with five centuries and four half-centuries.

In his T20I career, Hetmyer has scored 66 runs, with three fifties, averaging 21.48, with a high-score of 81. He was also the leading run-scorer for the West Indies at the 2021 T20 World Cup. In his Firstclass career, he has played 39 matches and accumulated 2125 runs at an average of 31.71. He has one First-class century and 12 fifties.

fter a comprehensive defeat to India on Sunday, South Africa Under-19s humbled West Indies by three wickets at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence. West Indies will have to turn the tide as the first official match of the tournament bowls off on Friday, January 14, against the might Australians.

Batting first in their second and final warm-up game before the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup bowls off in Guyana, West Indies posted 189 all out in 43.2 overs.

Captain Ackeem Auguste led from the front with a sparkling 52 from 47 balls, which were decorated with six fours and two sixes. In response, South Africa reached 191-7 in 35.3 overs.

Earlier, West Indies Under19s lost the steady Mattew Nandu for 19 from 39 balls, which included three fours. At one stage, West Indies were in deep trouble, reeling at 61-6.

Skipper Auguste and wicketkeeper Calon Bowen-Tuckett rebuilt the innings and added 63 runs, taking the score to 124-7 after 28.2 overs.

Bowen-Tuckett dropped anchor, but he was the final man dismissed for 45 from 85 balls, inclusive of five fours.

Matthew Boast had figures of 3-9 in four overs, while Aphiwe Mnyanda and Michael Copeland had two wickets each in a collective bowling effort.

In pursuit of 190, South Africa lost Valentine Kitime at 31-1 after 6.3 overs, but Ethan John-Cunningham and

Dewald Brevis added 44 runs for the second wicket. Brevis scored a composed 50 from 70 balls, which had four fours and two sixes. Cunningham made 36, but it was captain George Van Heerden who struck a match-winning 61.

His unbeaten innings came off 59 balls and had six fours and two sixes.

South Africa ended in the winning row at 191-7.

McKenny Clarke had 3-34 for West Indies, while Anderson Mahase had 2-31.

Shiva Sankar had 1-21, while Guyanese fast-bowler Isai Thorne had 0-30 in 3.3 overs.

West Indies and Australia will lock horns on Friday January 14 at Providence.

According to the International Cricket Council, the match will bowl off at 9:00h local time.

Daniels shortlists 18 boxers ahead of AMBC Elite Continental Championships

W

ith Guyana set to compete at the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) Elite Continental Championships in Ecuador, 18 boxers have been shortlisted by National Coach Lennox Daniels to begin preparation, according to the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA).

Olympian and Youth Commonwealth Games silver medalist Keevin Allicock will lead the bunch, which includes the Jackman sisters, Abiola and Alesha; Mark Crawford, Richard Howard, Patrick Harvey, Travis Inverary, Jamal Eastman, Joel Williamson, Desmond Amsterdam, Colin Lewis, Julius Kesney, Quacy Abrams, Emanuel Pompey, Delroy Fordyce, Renaldo Niles, Aluko Bess and Richard Subraty.

Daniels also met will several coaches from around the country on Tuesday at the Andrew Lewis Gym, with GBA President Steve Ninvalle noting “it was the largest meeting of coaches in a while, and all were in agreement that Daniels was the best man for the job.

“This is our structure that we’re going to be moving ahead with. The National Coach will have consultation with other coaches. (He will) name a national team that will be continuously training, but as it gets to tournaments, whether national or overseas, as it comes closer to that time, they will start meeting much more, and then lead to encampment,” Ninvalle said.

Ninvalle pointed out that, “from the executive level, we have confidence that this will bear fruit. We have confidence in our National Coach. He brings a different style to coaching, and we’ll start with this, because we’re preparing for our first major tournament, which is the AMBC Elite Championships.”

Ninvalle reasoned that the GBA expects Daniels to “bring his unique style of coaching towards the team’s preparation, and we at the Executive level expect to see a marked difference in the way in which our fighters are prepared.”

The AMBC Elite Continental Championships will take place in Guayaquil, Ecuador from March 22 to April 2.

The medalists in each of 13 male and 12 female weight categories, according to the AMBC, will receive prize money, US$10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second, and $2,500 for third place.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022

Sport is no longer our game, it’s our business

Hetmyer aims to end flashy innings and bat longer

Page 23 Hetmyer scored 149 last week (Brandon Corlette photo)

Crown Mining Golf Tourney to tee off this Saturday

West Indies cricket legend

Clive Lloyd receives knighthood See story on page 23

Page 22

“…Crown Mining Supplies is one of the major tournaments of the year,” says LGC VP

GUYANA TIMES - www.guyanatimesgy.com, email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, NEWS HOTLINE: 231-8063 EDITORIAL: 223-7230, 223-7231, 231-0544, 225-7761 SPORT: sport@guyanatimesgy.com SALES AND MARKETING: 231-8064 - marketing@guyanatimesgy.com - PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GUYANA TIMES INC.