Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha has had plenty of exposure in the state media as he traverses around the country on his outreaches, and speaks on a whole range of issues affecting the agriculture sector. Except one. And that exception is the circumstances surrounding the issuance of two new sea-bob licences. The full details of how this came about are still as obscure as they were on November 19 last year, when the Guyana Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors first wrote him on the issue. The authorities can attempt to burnish the Minister’s image as much as they please, but as long as he withholds information and engages in dissimulation his reputation will lose whatever modest lustre it might otherwise have had.
The matter has been extensively covered by this newspaper in particular, but that, it appears, has been insufficient to nudge Mr Mustapha or his Ministry or the government he serves into a mode of greater transparency. As we have reported, Guyana is the number one exporter in the world of seabob shrimp, shipping 21,000 metric tonnes in 2019, and 22,000 in 2018, mostly to the EU and the US. Under an agreement between a previous PPP/C government and GATOSP, only 87 vessels are allowed to operate in the industry. The reason for this is to ensure sustainability, so it would be given certification by the Maritime Stewardship Council, an international body. The Coalition government did not interfere with this arrangement.
At some point between August and November last year the Ministry of Agriculture issued two new seabob licences – it has never said exactly when − informing no one of what it had done, least of all the trawler owners and seafood processors who had the biggest stake in the industry. It came to light because one of the seafood processors was approached by the new licensee about processing his catch. As mentioned above, GATOSP then wrote the Minister on the issue in November, pointing out that the addition of any vessel under the existing licensing dispensation contravened the agreement between it and the Ministry’s Fishing Department. The WWF Guianas’ office had added its voice the following month, asking if the context in which the licences had been granted could be clarified since it could have “deep implications” for the trade’s MSC certification.
Minister Mustapha’s response was that the number of trawlers engaged in the trade at present was only 80, not the 87 which was specified, so the new licences did not contravene the agreement or put in jeopardy the MSC certification. He also said that his Ministry had launched an in-depth investigation into the trade in order to have an understanding of the issues and challenges involved, but did not explain why this would be undertaken after the new licences had been granted, rather than before. As to what the outcome of this investigation is, no one is any the wiser.
What he did not tell anyone was precisely who had been granted these licences, other than to say that they had gone to a reputable Guyanese company which had been in the fisherfolk business – whatever that means. Vice President and PPP Leader Bharrat Jagdeo was equally unhelpful, apart from saying the holder was a Guyanese and “not a ghost individual”. Three months after the issue had first come to public attention, it was left to the APNU+AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan to table a question to the Minister in Parliament about the identity of the licensee. In what amounted to a disgraceful refusal to answer a parliamentary question, Mr Mustapha just gave the House a wordier version of what he had been telling the public.
In the end he had to relent and the public learnt that the beneficiary of the licence was Mr Rampersaud Sookhdeo who said he had been in the fisheries business for 20 years. No one in GATOSP had ever heard of him, however, and the public was told that he had been operating in Trinidad & Tobago, under the name of Hassid Enterprise Ltd. As we reported, we had no success with a Google search of the company’s name. However, the holder himself said he had owned and operated shrimp trawlers, among other fishing boats, and owing to the challenges in the T&T fishing sector he had approached the government here for trawler licences as he already had the vessels required. Well if it was that simple why wasn’t this all out in the open from the beginning, and discussions held with stakeholders? Why the secrecy? And why when it did come out did no one want to reveal Mr Sookhdeo’s name?
For some reason key members of government have in effect given Mr Mustapha their backing. Vice President Jagdeo digressed into irrelevancies about avoiding ‘monopoly behaviour’, which does not apply to this issue, while President Irfaan Ali said he had asked the Agriculture Minister to furnish him with a comprehensive report on the fisheries sector, not the seabob section alone. This too could hardly be described as being on point.
After questions had first been raised Mr Mustapha said he had set up a committee which would include members of GATOSP to review matters surrounding the licences. As of earlier this month, that committee was still to meet. It is not evidence of any anxiety to resolve the matter.
As we said in our leader of February 22, at the time the administration was confronted with queries about the licences last November, it should have done what good governance requires of it and suspended them pending an independent investigation. Instead it followed a path of concealment, procrastination, evasion and subterfuge. It should not come as any surprise to the government, therefore, that finally someone has said what many are thinking: “It is only possible that this is an act of corruption.”
These were the words of Mr Timothy Jonas, Chairman of ANUG, whom we quoted as going on to say: “Whether [the corruption] is on a personal level where someone got a kickback or at a party level where a member was rewarded for their support, no one knows.” The government had failed to provide a clear rationale for the approval of the licences, he further remarked, and it was obvious that it had no intention of correcting the matter. As for the new licensee, his view was that, “It doesn’t help that no one knows this person in the fishing industry and we haven’t even seen the trawlers owned by this man to justify that he had operations in Trinidad.”
Leader of the TNM Dr Asha Kissoon told this newspaper that the approval of the licences should have been done transparently. “There should be some investigation [to justify what was done]. It should have never been a secret deal. It is on this same basis the PPP failed (in the past) and it seems as if it is the same practices they are returning with. We urge them to fix it,” she said.
Those two parties are part of a joinder seat in Parliament with the LJP, whereby they take turns occupying the seat. It is presently held by the LJP, which is represented by its leader Mr Lenox Shuman. He told this newspaper he could not comment on the licences because he had not been following the matter, hardly a testimony to his diligence.
The case for Minister Mustapha to revoke the licences is incontrovertible, and if he doesn’t do that he will not be able to dispel the corruption allegations. If the Ministry and the government think that if they continue to say nothing, and when pressed, temporise, then everyone will get tired and the issue will fade away, they are mistaken. This time it will continue to come back to haunt them.
