Local scrap metal dealers have reacted angrily to the charge made in a recent statement issued by the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) asserting that the industry “seems to “thrive on buying stolen property,” asserting that the Corporation needs to look more closely at the role being played by some of its own employees in corrupting the scrap trade.
The clash between the GPL and scrap dealers comes in the wake of last week’s report that ten stolen GPL transformers had been recovered from a scrap metal dealer. The Corporation is calling for tougher action against what its statement described as “barefaced acts of vandalism.”
But officials of the Guyana Scrap Metal Dealers Association (GSMDA) who contacted Stabroek Business are challenging the power company to conduct a transparent enquiry into the theft of the transformers. “I don’t think that GPL will be pleased about what they will find,” one official told Stabroek Business.
The official said that the newly formed Association had done much to support initiatives taken by the utility companies and the government to curb the incidence of metal theft. He pointed out, however, that since many of the persons who buy and sell scrap are in fact “unlicensed pirates” and since the volume of illegal scrap exports across the country’s borders was growing, there was no way that the Association could control metal theft.
According to the GSMDA official it had become easy to criminalize the scrap metal industry since it was common knowledge that some persons who are part of the trade run unlicensed and illegal operations. Stabroek Business has been given the name of the ‘dealer’ on whose Sussex street Charlestown premises the GPL transformers were allegedly found and the officials with whom this newspaper spoke said that the man was not a licensed dealer and was in fact “fronting” for another operator in the industry.
One of the industry sources told Stabroek Business that while it was no secret that some of the persons dealing in scrap had links with stolen metals, it was also common knowledge that the regime of metal theft “thrived on inside jobs.” He insisted that there was “no way” that persons who had access to “large consignments” of metal belonging to utility companies could secure such access without the complicity of “insiders” in those companies.
The industry asserted said that recent theft of the transformers that were reportedly housed in a warehouse at Sophia was, “quite possibly an inside hob with outside buyers.” In response to the GPL’s assertion in its statement that whoever entered the Sophia warehouse seemed to know exactly what they were looking for the industry source said that it may be truer to say that whoever went into the warehouse knew exactly where to find what they were looking for.”
Last year scrap industry officials also leveled similar charges against employees of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, (GT&T). Those charges were denied by the Company’s Deputy General Manager (Public Communications) Terry Holder in a letter to the Stabroek News.
Meanwhile, the Association has disclosed that last week it provided the authorities with information that led to police intercepting a vehicle laden with ten tonnes of copper on the East Bank Highway. It is believed that the copper was being illegally exported from the country through Brazil. Stabroek Business understands that the vehicle was intercepted at Providence and that both the occupants and the truck are in police custody.
Meanwhile, the GSMDA officials say that during engagements with government officials information relating to persons believed to be involved in the purchase of stolen metal was handed over to the authorities but that as far as the Association was aware no follow up action was taken to investigate the activities.
Alleged links between scrap metal dealers and the theft of equipment from utility companies have led to the banning of exports and to talks between the dealers and government officials that have led to a relaxation of the export ban. Stabroek Business understands that late last year approval was granted for the export of 9,000 tonnes of ferrous metal and that some of that metal is currently being loaded onto ships in Georgetown. However, government has been much more cautious in dealing with the more expensive non-ferrous metals which include copper and brass and which have been the real target of the metal thieves.
