TPL forest operations suspended by minister

The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) yesterday confirmed that the Timber Sales Agree-ment (TSA) of Toolsie Persaud Limited (TPL) has been suspended by Minister of Agriculture with responsibility for forestry, Robert Persaud. 

Managing Director of TPL, David Persaud yesterday told Stabroek News when contacted that the company had been informed of the suspension via a letter signed by the Agriculture Minister last Wednesday.

The GFC in a press release yesterday said that last Wednesday, in accordance with the forestry legislation, Minister Persaud formally issued a letter to TPL, suspending the forest concession issued to the company.

“This suspension was with immediate effect and prevented the company from carrying out any forest related activities in the specified concession, until such time that His Excellency The President makes a final pronouncement upon the matter”, the release said. It stated that a detailed report of the breaches has been compiled and submitted to President Bharrat Jagdeo for consideration.

TPL’s managing director said that the company was surprised to get a letter informing them to stop working and that the TSA was suspended since the matter had been in court. The managing director declared that the suspension was another way of stopping the company outside of court. He noted that since mid-April, 300 persons have been out of jobs due to the company’s forestry operations being curtailed.

On April 23, 2008 the GFC closed the harvesting operations of TPL over the alleged breaches which had been detected during a routine post-harvest audit in November 2007 and a fine of $80M was assessed. According to the GFC, the company then moved to the court on April 28 for an order of Mandamus and the court granted an order nisi.
The GFC said it them pointed out defects in the TPL application after which an oral application was made by the company to include certiorari and prohibition. The application was granted and the court ruled in favour of TPL on June 30. The GFC however said that the order had defects “rendering it un-enforceable”. The GFC said that TPL then approached the courts ex-parte and again moved for the amending of the order even after the GFC had filed an appeal and for a stay of execution. The GFC said it was then handed a second order on July 8 overturning the GFC decision of April 23rd.
The letter of suspension followed on July 23rd, 2008. 

The GFC had previously said that after receiving the second order, the commission immediately commenced discussions with TPL’s management in an effort to comply with the court order.

Shortly after, TPL announced the closure of its Georgetown sawmill and Manaka logging operations and the Forest Products Association declared in a statement that it had learnt that in spite of the court’s ruling, the Commissioner of Forests, had prevented the company from resuming harvesting of its concession by delaying inspection of the company’s inventory enumeration for over a week. It said that this had forced the company to demobilize over 150 of its workers, close its operations and shut down its sawmilling facilities.

The commission denied being responsible for the closure of the company’s operations. It had said that TPL’s TSA had expired on December 31 last year and the company has not been formally issued with a renewed TSA “by the appropriate authority in accordance with the law”.

Yesterday’s GFC statement said that Guyana’s forest resources are the patrimony of all Guyanese, and also provide immeasurable benefits to the global community. “Utilization of these resources must therefore always be in compliance with the collaboratively established standards for responsible stewardship. Any effort to do otherwise will be met with the full force of the law”, the statement declared.