-after complaints of ‘prevalent’ corruption
With miners complaining that corruption is “quite prevalent” among police officers in the interior regions, police chief of criminal investigations Seelall Persaud on Thursday urged them to report such cases and follow through to ensure that guilty ranks are caught and prosecuted.
Persaud was the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association’s (GGDMA) bi-guest at its bi-monthly meeting on Thursday and several miners took the opportunity to raise issues of concern with regards to policing in the interior regions.
One miner, from the Eteringbang region in western Guyana, told Persaud about the “corruption” of ranks attached to the Eteringbang Police Station and explained that the officers would go to mining camps, especially those operated by Brazilians and demand “kickbacks” or else would threaten them. “It needs to be stamped out,” he said. “It is quite prevalent.”
Persaud said that the police have been prosecuting those caught in unlawful acts and urged the miners to report and follow through on the reports made, since this is vital for the successful prosecution of those involved. He cited several instances of charges being laid against ranks of both the police force and the army. “There is a big drive at the head of these organisations to keep the officers professional,” he said.
In addition, Persaud urged the miners to be more involved and spoke of the challenges involved in policing the vast interior districts, saying that with the remote locations and difficult terrain “there is a challenge with supervising.” He acknowledged that there have been several reports of “unprofessional” behaviour of ranks not only in the interior but on the coast as well. He said that with the boom in mining and the attendant increase in the population in the interior, the police force has been constantly revisiting its operations there.
He also said that sometimes complaints are made but at the policy level of the police force, they are not aware of it because these reports are not brought to them and he urged the miners to access the offices of senior officials.
The crime chief also pointed out that there have been committees set up to look at issues faced by miners including security issues. Corruption, he noted, is a “two way crime” and both parties would have committed an unlawful act.
“There are several challenges that we have and the only way to resolve this is to work with each other,” he said. Persaud urged the miners to “work with us to develop the mechanism for information flow.” When one miner said that they had often raised issues with the police officials before, Persaud responded that “the hierarchy of the force now is structurally different.”
‘Stretched thin’
Several other issues were also raised at the meeting and it was disclosed that gold declarations to date amounted to approximately 331,000 ounces and miners are well on their way to achieving the 400,000 ounces target for the year.
In light of mining accidents, particularly one at Aranka earlier this month that claimed the lives of three miners, they were also urged to follow occupational health and safety regulations and it was observed that new rules are to be enacted shortly.
“As miners we have to have better mining practices,” said President of the GGDMA, Patrick Harding. “We’re not porkknocking anymore,” he said. “We have to upgrade our act.”
Meanwhile, deputy commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission Rickford Vieira said that there is an urgent need for more mines officers. He said that with the current complement, the regulatory agency is stretched thin and there is “sporadic enforcement” of current regulations. “We need to employ more persons, have them properly trained and deploy them to the various mining districts,” he said.
Harding, meantime, also said that over the past three months, the Guyana Gold Board have been unable to grant foreign currency to miners. He noted that the protocol enables the operator to pay for foreign inputs in their mining operations.
He said that the association has been urging miners to sell their gold to the Board and the miners have cooperated but the Board has failed to fulfil its part of the agreement. “If this is not urgently resolved, miners may be forced to obtain foreign currency elsewhere,” he asserted.
GGDMA official Dabria Marcus, who also sits on the Gold Board, said that the entity is engaging government on making foreign currencies available to it, since it has none to offer to the miners at present.
He also urged miners to diversify, warning that Guyana could be suffering from a “resource curse,” since the booming gold industry is pulling persons away from every sector, severely depleting these sectors in the process.
His warning is one that has been sounded previously by others, including some conservationists.
