Wardens to be deployed against gold smugglers next year – Finance Minister

Finance Minister Winston Jordan making his 2018 budget presentation in the National Assembly

The efforts of the Ministry of Natural Resources attended by external support notwithstanding, the Government of Guyana still considers the phenomenon of gold smuggling to be seriously injurious to the country’s economy and in his recent 2018 budget presentation to the National Assembly, Finance Minister Winston Jordan set out the APNU+AFC administration’s proposals for helping to address this problem.

Government, according to the Finance Minister, intends to deploy forty-one trained wardens/compliance officers into mining areas “vested with the powers of various categories of law enforcement” and tasked with enforcing mining regulations and other relevant laws.”

However, a well-placed functionary in the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) who agreed to provide a comment to this newspaper on condition of anonymity said that the deployment “would more likely than not be ineffective” since gold smuggling was a “sophisticated operation” that included elements of clandestineness, bribery and corruption. “I hate to say it but it definitely would not surprise me if some of these wardens are bought off.”