Dear Editor,
Recently, several of our daily newspapers carried a story of Larceny of Fuel from the Region Two Drainage and Irrigation Department where a drum containing about fifty gallons of diesel was dropped off at a rice farmer’s yard by two employees. One of them was an overseer and the other a driver of the tractor/trailer on which it was transported. This fuel was either sold or intended to be sold to the rice farmer.
My understanding is that a report was made to the Regional Administration which investigated, and recovered the fuel from the farmer’s yard after the two employees from the D&I Department admitted to selling the farmer the fuel. They were both dismissed.
I as a member of the Regional Democratic Council representing the Alliance For Change at the last meeting of the Council held on March 13, 2012, asked why this matter of simple larceny and receiving stolen property knowing same to be stolen, was not reported to the Police so that all three persons could face the full force of the law. From what was told or said to us the councillors at that meeting, I, having served as a member of the Guyana Police Force during the seventies, believe that if this report was made to the Police, after diligent investigations conducted, the employees would have been charged for simple larceny, contrary to Section 66 of the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act Chapter 8:02, and the receiver, charged under Section 236 (1) of the Criminal Law Offences Act Chapter 8:01, because the act of receiving is always a more serious crime than stealing.
As it turned out the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman are of the view that by dismissing the two employees, they have taken the right decision. Both of these gentlemen have also refused to disclose the name of the rice farmer in whose yard this drum of fuel was found, although I asked that this farmer’s name and address be mentioned to us.
However, the man in the street is now saying that this rice farmer, whose name and address is a heavily guarded secret, is a close relative of a senior regional official.
It is difficult or maybe even impossible to convince not only me, but many others out there that the regional administration took the best action.
It is totally unfair for three persons to have conspired together and committed a crime and you punish two and protect the other.
Yours faithfully,
Archie W. Cordis
AFC Councilor
Region Two
