Guyana News

By Dacia Whaul Sections of five communities in Agricola; Princes, Victor and Norton streets in Lodge; Alexander Village; Ramp Road, Riverview and First to Sixth streets, Cummings Lodge have been targeted in a Ministry of Local Government clean-up programme for Georgetown, which started last week Wednesday.

  The Police Force last evening said  that permission has been given to the Guyana Public Service Union to hold a march around the streets of Georgetown today, Friday December 20, 2013, commencing at 1100h.

A construction worker was shot dead at Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara on Wednesday evening, minutes after a heated argument with his neighbour and his family is alleging that he was killed by a group of neighbourhood police.

The National Assembly last night took the decision to defer the second reading of the Procurement (Amendment) Bill for up to six months so as to give time for the parties to reach agreement on a number of points including the setting up of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC).

While acknowledging the country’s fiscal progress over the years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on Government to ensure that hydro power remains financially and economically viable as a means of more stable and reliable energy and to address the remaining gaps in the anti-money laundering regime.

Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud says that 32 applications were received in 2010 for Prospecting Permits (Medium Scale) in the New River Triangle but none was granted.

The contract for the construction of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded US$24 million Sheriff Street- Mandela Avenue Expansion Project is likely to be tendered by August next year.

The Bureau of Statistics has implemented a new web-based information portal that allows users to access and share up-to-date human development national statistics that play a key role in planning and policy making.

Aniki Jones was yesterday charged with the murder of his fiancé’s ex, who went to his home to confront him with fatal results.

Prime Minister Sam Hinds yesterday informed the National Assembly that the government has no current plans to establish a parliamentary committee to specifically address border issues.

While the Ministry of Labour has been unable to establish actual unemployment levels in Guyana, Labour Minister Nanda Gopaul says that whatever unemployment levels exist is a result of persons not possessing the skill sets that are in high demand.

Information on actions and procedures put in place by the government in the wake of a visit to Eteringbang by members of the Venezuela opposition is restricted, Prime Minister Sam Hinds told the National Assembly yesterday.

A key outcome of a recently completed three-day training workshop was the recommendation from participants that Guyana should accede to the Nagoya Protocol, an international legal instrument which covers access to genetic resources and fair and equitable benefit sharing.

The re-tabled Anti Money Laundering/ Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill was last night sent to a select committee of Parliament which will begin deliberating in detail on its contents in the new year.

The Government of Guyana has said that it is attempting to improve the level of transparency and accountability in the extractive industries, particularly in mining by eventually adopting the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) that involves the disclosure of payments to the government from private companies, and the disclosure of receipts from the government.

Six educational establishments are now the beneficiaries of five million dollars thanks to the contributions of CGX Energy Inc.

A resident of the East La Penitence Night Shelter was yesterday fined by a city magistrate after assaulting another resident in what he claimed was an attempt to wake the man up.

A realtor was yesterday brought to a city court after she allegedly converted the funds given to her for rent to her own use.

Twenty-one-year-old Keron Perreira, accused of the knifepoint hold-up of a teacher of the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre, was remanded to prison yesterday Perreira was not required to plead when he was brought to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts yesterday.

At about 1155h today,  police say that a female Assistant Accountant and a female Accounts Clerk of the Ministry of Public Works, Fort Street, Kingston, accompanied by an armed Private Security Guard, were attacked and robbed of $7.7M by two men armed with handguns.