Local miners who attended last Wednesday’s meeting with Natural Resources Minister Robert Persaud and Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee say that while they are supportive of government’s efforts to enforce the country’s mining regulations they believe the issue of work permits for foreigners in the industry, specifically Brazilians, should be expedited.
“We are not attempting to dictate how the work permits issue should be decided. What we are saying is that the matter should be settled quickly,” miners said.
Several weeks ago, the authorities here launched ‘Operation El Dorado’, which saw the eviction of several foreign miners who did not have work permits to operate in Guyana and local miners say there are instances where the evictions have impacted on the industry as a whole. Brazilian miners affected by the clampdown have since formed an association and last Wednesday a meeting was convened with Persaud and Rohee to discuss the issue.
The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) has told this newspaper that involvement of Brazilians in mining operations here can be an asset to the industry, though regulations relating to foreigners living and working in Guyana must be adhered to. Government has pronounced on what it says is the incidence of smuggling gold across the country’s borders, one of the issues which, local miners say, would have triggered the clampdown.
At last Wednesday’s meeting, Rohee told the Brazilian miners seeking to secure work permits not to deal with brokers and sponsors, a reference to the role that locals play in expediting same.
Persaud said he was determined to eradicate corruption in the industry. However, one of the miners with whom Stabroek Business spoke said, “some of these middlemen to whom Rohee referred are people who are ‘officially connected’ to the gold mining industry. Some of these people are well known to the authorities.” The miner said that the proliferation of “local go-betweens” was the result of the lengthy delays in the issuance of work permits for the foreigners and the expeditors were persons who have connections inside the GGMC and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Asked about Persaud’s comment on corrupt practices in the sector, one miner said it was “an open secret” that there are irregularities in the sector. He said the authorities were “living in a dream world if they believe that they can just wake up one morning and stop those practices,” since, among other things, they lack the oversight capacity.
“Mining gold is not like selling groceries in a supermarket. For many people operating in the industry it is a hustle. People do what they do to run their operations. You need to understand that sometimes the laws of the land extend to the interior in theory. That is the reality.”
Meanwhile, miners say ‘Operation El Dorado’ would have brought an end to some of the questionable arrangements which allowed foreign miners to work without permits. These questionable arrangements refer to payoffs to officials including policemen, the miners said. They contend that the eviction of the foreigners could backfire, since tighter bureaucratic procedures associated with the acquisition of work permits will probably open up new doors to corruption.
