GRA clerks forgery P

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM GRA clerks charged over $19M cheque forgery

Two clerks attached to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) were among four individuals charged on Friday over the discovery of two forged cheques from the tax agency – one of which was encashed at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI), Regent Street, Georgetown.

Facing charges are GRA clerks 25-year-old Tooqwan Clarke of West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, and 26-yearold Ivor Dowridge of Second Street, Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown; 38-year-old Randi Gladstone; and 26-year-old Leroy Green, an accountant of William Street Kitty, Georgetown.

The first charge stated that Gladstone, between October 28, 2020 and May 11, 2021, at Georgetown, conspired with Green, Dowridge, Clarke, Rameschand Singh, Komalram Persaud,

Leroy Green

Ivor Dowridge

Randi Gladstone

Devindra Moteeram, Anush Khan, and others to forge one Bank of Guyana cheque #08-251478, dated 2021-0409 amounting to $9,550,000, purporting to show that same was issued by the Guyana Revenue Authority, Internal Revenue Department, knowing same to be forged.

It is alleged that Gladstone, between October 28, 2020, and May 11, 2021, at Georgetown, conspired with Green, Dowridge, Clarke, Rameschand Singh, Komalram Persaud, Devindra Moteeram, Anush Khan, Shereesa Tappin, and other persons to forge one Bank of Guyana cheque #08-252760, dated 2021-0409 amounting to $9,875,000, in favour of Shareesa Tappin, purporting to show that same was issued by GRA’s, Internal Revenue Department, knowing same to be forged.

The quartet was not required to plead to the indictable charges. Each of them was granted bail to the tune of $600,000, except for Gladstone who was remanded to prison. They will make their next court appearance on July 2, 2021, before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

Others charged

On Tuesday, five persons including a woman were charged over forging and encashing GRA cheques at GBTI. Except for the woman, who was remanded to prison, the men were each granted $300,000 bail.

Everybody wants…

…electoral reform?

If you believe the rhetoric in the dailies, from the letters’ pages to their page 3 coverage, you’d think it’s the dawning of “the age of electoral reform”. Everybody and their uncle want it. Trouble is, the “it” isn’t singular, but multitudinous...and that’s where the “trouble” becomes real, not just a figure of speech!! Now, maybe you can’t blame folks for thinking like this after the stunt the PNC under Granger tried to pull over by Ashmin’s last year.

But, frankly, while your Eyewitness thinks electoral change may be necessary, he firmly believes it’s not sufficient to fix what ails our body politic. Take, for instance, GECOM itself, which consists of a Commission and a Secretariat. Some argue that the Carter Formula of having 3 Commissioners selected by the Govt and 3 by the Opposition guarantees deadlock. But what’s the alternative? Public Servants, like in India, thought not!! We pick folks from “Civil Society”.

Do the Guyanese people have any confidence in these self-selected and self-appointed folks who believe they know better than the rest of the masses? Who vets them? Who says they won’t be as biased as the political Commissioners? At least with THEM, we’re dealing with known quantities - plus the buy-in of the political parties who’re vying for power!

The Carter Formula, after all, does have a tiebreaker to the built-in deadlock in the form of the Chair. At least it should theoretically be easier for the parties to decide on the bona fides of one person, rather than seven!! Theoretically! Cause we saw the struggle over the selection of the last Chair, didn’t we? And we’re getting to the heart of the matter. The Heart of Darkness, so to speak!

Granger absolutely refused to acknowledge the spirit of the Carter Formula - which is to try to select someone who’s least objectionable to one’s partisan interest. And as such, hopefully, would best serve the national interest. But Granger showed that he is irremediably inflexible when it comes to compromises - it’s either the PNC way or the Highway! So, your Eyewitness doesn’t see any real resolution on the composition of the GECOM Commission.

So on to the Secretariat. Here we saw the same challenge posed above playing out at another level with the hired help. To wit, how to prevent bias in the said help performing their duties on Election Day and afterwards. In a country as polarised as Guyana, there’s no screening process that’s gonna separate the (PPP) wheat from the (PNC) chaff.

And we know that by the question in your mind, dear reader. Why did your Eyewitness write (PPP) wheat and not (PNC) wheat!!

The divisions go THAT deep!

…Justice?

Yeah, even more than electoral change, everyone wants Justice. But, also, like electoral change, everyone has their own idea of the Justice they want - the one that benefits THEM!! Take Granger’s statement that he doesn’t believe the CCJ should have final judicial review over our election-related disputes. Notice that he doesn’t mind all other matters - criminal and civil - over which the CCJ has appellate jurisdiction. They can decide, for instance, on the most arcane matter concerning our almost unique Roman Dutch law in land (only South Africa shares it with us!) but not elections?

So what’s unique about our electoral law that the CCJ can’t pass muster? That esoteric mathematical principle that insists 33 isn’t the majority of 65 as the PNC proposes? Ah…we’re getting to the nub of the matter, aren’t we? The PNC and their “Highway” rule!! But there’s another even more insidious implication to Granger’s declaration: that the Appellate Court of Guyana will see things electoral the PNC away!

And that’s not exactly an endorsement for our judiciary, is it?

…Fintech?

There’s gonna be a webinar on Fintech. So, what’s “Fintech”? Well, as a combination of “finance” and “technology”, you get the idea?

Maybe they’ll suggest Banks quit asking for envelopes as proof of address?

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM Guyanese companies to get exclusivity in certain local content sectors

As Guyana moves closer towards to establishing local content laws, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said that there will be strong carveouts that will see Guyanese companies exclusively benefiting from opportunities in specific sectors.

“Well, there are some sectors that we are putting in the law that you’d have Guyanese businesses only competing against each other. There’ll be no foreigners to compete against because that carve-out will be made entirely for Guyanese in things like landscaping, logistics, transportation, food supplies, cleaning services… rentals – huge market for rentals,” Jagdeo said during a press conference on Friday.

He outlined that this will see tens of billions of dollars going directly towards locals in a vast list of sectors that will benefit fully-owned Guyanese businesses.

Apart from these exclusive areas, the Vice President noted too that the laws will also contain provisions for Guyanese companies to get a percentage of opportunities from the other sectors.

However, Jagdeo noted that there will have to be specific provisions in the legislation to define what constitutes a “Guyanese company” especially since more local entities are entering into joint ventures with foreign companies to tap into opportunities coming out of not just the oil and gas sector but from the development activities that are ongoing in other industries.

“We have several proposals including the issue of naturalisation and how we deal with that because once you naturalised, you get conferred all the rights of a citizen. So, that is a tricky issue but that means we’d have to control who we naturalised if we do decide to allow people who are naturalised because you can’t discriminate by law. So that issue has to be settled before (passing local content laws),” the Vice President stated.

Jagdeo further highlighted that they will also have to ascertain the composition of Guyanese companies, that is, determine whether they will have to be a fully-owned Guyanese company in order to benefit from these exclusive opportunities or at least 75 per cent Guyaneseowned.

“Are you gonna say only companies 100 per cent or you say companies that are at least 75 per cent owned by Guyanese because you also want them to get some capital and input too from abroad, you know, technology capital and stuff… Do you do that or do you say 100 per cent? These are the issues that are worked out before,” he stated.

However, the Vice President explained that there will be some time before these provisions are effected. As such, Guyanese companies will be allowed to get themselves ready to tap into these highly specialised areas.

Meanwhile, during Friday’s press conference, VP Jagdeo also criticised the former APNU/AFC Administration for failing to put the necessary local content infrastructure in place.

“So, you had foreign companies taking over every sector… [But now] the companies know what’s coming – local content with strong crave-outs for Guyanese,” he posited.

After assuming office in August last year, President Dr Irfaan Ali established a High-Level Local Content Panel to review policy initiatives on local content in the petroleum sector and provide guidance for the development of Guyana’s Local Content Policy and Legislation.

The panel, chaired by Shyam Nokta, compiled and submitted the Local Content Report. Also on the panel were Carl Greenidge, Carvil Duncan, Anthony Paul, Kevin Ramnarine, Floyd Haynes, and the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Legal Officer Sasha RajkumarBudhan. The end product was a list of recommendations and subsequently, a draft Local Content Policy that the Government had released in February of this year.

The stakeholders’ consultation on Guyana’s draft Local Content Policy for its petroleum sector started in February and President Dr Ali himself opened the discussion from which authorities were expected to receive feedback and comments for the finalisation of the critical document.

Approximately 140 stakeholders were engaged by the panel on the compilation of the report. The report outlines several recommendations to improve the country’s policies and legislation.

It was previously reported that Government is likely to hire experts to examine and incorporate comments and suggestions emanating from these stakeholder consultations into the final policy document that will be presented in the National Assembly.

However, even as the Guyana Government pushes to have a Local Content Policy that will see Guyanese to play a greater role in the advancement of the petroleum sector, United States oil major ExxonMobil – which is Guyana’s biggest foreign investor – had cautioned last month unrealistic local content targets can have negative consequences.

This was acknowledged by Haynes, who is a financial analyst. He told Guyana Times in a previous interview that a balance has to be struck to achieve deliverable local content.

“There has to be a balance that has to be struck. We cannot come out and force the companies to implement or embrace these policies 100 per cent immediately. There has to be a gradual process. And the reason is because we have to make sure that our businesses and our people are sufficiently trained and have the necessary qualifications and those types of things,” the local content panellist explained. (G8)

Draft ROPA Amendment...FROM PAGE 3

Currently, GECOM is composed of three Commissioners from the Government and three from the parliamentary Opposition along with a Chairperson, who is selected following consultations between the President and the Opposition Leader.

But during Friday’s press conference, VP Jagdeo pointed out this position of the international community to de-politicise GECOM would have to be reconsidered given last year’s events.

“For a very long time, the international community, after we had enshrined The Carter Center formula into the Constitution, had been advocating for a technical body – one that is devoid of political representation at GECOM. Given the experience recently of what had taken place at GECOM, I think there is a big reconsideration of this view because what happened at GECOM. It was the technical body – the machinery – that tried to rig the elections on behalf of APNU/ AFC. The Chief Elections Officer (Keith Lowenfield), the Deputy Chief (Elections Officer Roxanne Myers) and (Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont) Mingo.”

“And so, had it not been for the Commission being constituted as the type (presently) enshrined in the Constitution, we would’ve probably had a result very different from what we have today. And so, given that experience, there will be a huge rethinking of this position,” Jagdeo stated.

Electoral fraud

Several GECOM officials and staff including CEO Lowenfield, Deputy CEO Myers and embattled RO Mingo have since been charged for electoral fraud.

Additionally, PNCR Chairperson Volda Lawrence has also been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud after she was the lone political party representative who signed the fraudulent declaration made by Mingo in which he inflated the figures in favour of the coalition.

Meanwhile, the Opposition coalition has lost both election petitions filed to challenge the outcome of the 2020 elections which saw the PPP/C securing a victory with 233,336 votes – some 15,416 more votes than the APNU/AFC. (G8)