President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday disclosed that recent alleged breaches of forestry procedures involve collusion between Barama Company Limited, some concessionaires and staffers at the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).
It is the first time since a probe was launched into the fraud that the name of a logging company has been mentioned publicly. Jagdeo warned that there will be consequences for the company and the other parties, noting that based upon preliminary investigations it seems as though there was a system among the three groups to defraud the government. Contacted for a comment last evening, Girwar Lalram, Chairman of Barama said it was premature for his organization to make a comment on the issue at this time.
Restraining himself from speaking at length on the issue at a press conference at his office yesterday the Head of State said there needs to be serious penalties for companies involved in false declaration. He also noted that at present forestry still falls under his portfolio and serious steps will be taken to regularize concessions owned by Guyanese for decades. According to the President some of these logging concessions are being exploited jointly by Guyanese concessionaires and Barama, with the former collecting huge sums of money. “A lot of people are collecting rent for concessions that they don’t maintain, the acreage fees are low and they have an arrangement with Barama who come in and do all the heavy work.”
The GFC two weeks ago announced that it was in the process of conducting an investigation into several logging companies after instances of under declaration of forest produce and false declarations as to the origin of those produce were unearthed.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud had told a press conference that he was advised about the breaches in a letter from the GFC. According to Persaud on the basis of monitoring activities and further investigation by the GFC’s Internal Audit Unit, there is preliminary evidence to suggest that several forest companies may be guilty of the breaches. Persaud said that the breaches, if verified by the investigation, will have implications for the GFC’s revenue, tax concessions issued to companies by the Government, and the GFC staff members at the locations.
The GFC is expected to provide the minister with an update on the status of the investigation by tomorrow. Commissioner of Forests James Singh said too at the press conference that depending on the severity of the offences, the penalties may include revocation of licences, suspension or a fine. Persaud said that the maximum penalties will be applied upon the conclusion of the investigation. The Minister said too that the GFC has looked at about three months of evidence to arrive at its preliminary conclusions. The Minister and the Forestry Commissioner had both agreed that the breaches were outside of the allowable arrangement where one company is allowed to harvest from another’s concession.
Meanwhile, in a statement last week the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) said the announcement by the Agriculture Ministry that an internal probe by the (GFC) into under-pricing and false declarations of timber is an inadequate response to allegations of irregularities taking place in the sector. According to the human rights body, two minimum conditions for the credibility of the investigation are the temporary suspension of Forestry Commissioner Singh and the appointment of independent investigators. In addition to under-pricing, the release said, the past decade has seen a catalogue of dubious and illegal mismanagement, including over-logging of prime species, ‘land-lording’ of concessions, non-payment of revenues, labour exploitation of indigenous people, reverse buy-outs disguising true ownership, preference for foreign over Guyanese labour, and destruction of national and Amerindian forest assets. The human rights body said that Singh has presided over a key statutory body over the period of years this catalogue of accusations has accumulated, while the announced probe is not the result of internal GFC zeal but external pressure from national and international agencies and activists “outraged by the plundering of Guyana’s forests.
Social activist Janette Bulkan and others have been highlighting in numerous letters to the media what they described as illegal land-lording by Barama on concessions held by others who are not gainfully utilizing them and a host of other issues.
