Weekend Mirror 19-20 June, 2021

APNU+AFC’s characteristic ‘negativity’ puts Guyanese at risk – Nandlall 19-20 June, 2021 / Vol. 11 ‒ No. 77 / Price: $100

Internet: http: //www.mirrornewsgy.com / e-mail: mirror2018.gy@gmail.com

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Teixeira rubbishes Ferguson’s ‘fiction’ ‒ Says it is intended to ‘spread fear’

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Crucial GECOM meeting cancelled PAGE 17

‒ Absence of Coalition-nominated Commissioners results in lack of quorum

Patterson removed as PAC Chairman after National Assembly vote

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SEE INSIDE

National Emergency Operating Centre activated PAGE 10

‒ for better coordination, response to flooding

Wales Development Authority to be ‘industrial centre of PAGE 2 Caribbean’ Coalition called out for causing loss of billions owing to bad deal PAGE 7

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$1.2B contract signed to rebuild Lusignan Prison T

he Ministry of Home Affairs, on Wednesday (June 16, 2021), signed contracts to an estimated $1.2B GYD for the reconstruction of the Lusignan Prison Lots 1-3 Guyana Prison Service Region No. 4.

Home Affairs Minister,

Robeson Benn said that the signing ceremony will aid in the successful rehabilitation and education of offenders, and enhance the prison system so as to ensure offenders are not a risk to public security and safety.

The contract awardees are Mohamed Enterprise, M&P Investment in joint venture Construtora Cobra Eireli, and Nabi Construction Inc. Signing on behalf of the Ministry was Permanent Secretary, Ms. Mae Toussaint Jr. Thomas.

350 new house lots for Charity M

inister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, this week, announced that 350 new house lots will be distributed in Charity, Pomeroon-Supenaam (Region Two), as the Government seeks to fulfil its promise of providing 50,000 house lots over five years.

“We will be in Region

number two next week on the 25th to allocate 350 lots in Charity,” Minister Croal said, noting that it is part of a robust initiative of empowering people through land ownership.

The Minister said the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) will continue executing works to meet the PPP/C

Government’s manifesto target of allocating a minimum of 10,000 house lots per year.

The Government, mere months after being elected to office has distributed 4000 house lots. It is expected to continue along this progressive path to achieve the goal of homeownership for Guyanese.

WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

FPSO Liza Unity to arrive in Guyana by year end – Minister Bharrat

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he Liza Unity Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel will arrive in Guyana by year end, according to Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat He made this announcement on Saturday at Cara Lodge during a dedication ceremony for the vessel.

“We welcome the Liza Unity which is scheduled to set sail some time in August, September, and should be in Guyana before the ending of the year. With Liza Unity, we know that our production, our daily production will go to 340,000 barrels of oil per day. It means more jobs for Guyanese,” he said.

The vessel is expected to operate in the Stabroek

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overnment will be amending the Combating Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Act 2005, which will see stiffer penalties instituted against perpetrators.

An amendment to the Act is expected to be laid before the National Assembly soon and it will address fines, among other issues. The Amendment contemplates a fine of $500,000 on persons bringing children into Guyana without parental authority. Prior to the amendment, the fine was a mere $50,000.

Between January and May, the agency received 14 reports

of trafficking and screened 49 victims; 42 women and seven men. Some 13 suspects have also been apprehended. A total of 34 victims were Venezuelans, eight Guyanese, six Jamaicans and one from India.

Further, 11 persons from across the country are before the courts facing multiple charges for trafficking. One person has already been convicted.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs will soon launch its 2021-2023 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Action Plan aimed at combating TIP in Guyana through awareness,

training and policy formulation.

In 2020, Guyana retained its Tier 1 ranking in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report of the United States Department of State. It was the fourth consecutive year Guyana received Tier 1 ranking.

This is credited to the efforts of the Ministries of Home Affairs and Human Services and Social Security’s regular awareness and training exercises countrywide.

Guyana and The Bahamas are the only two Caribbean countries with a Tier 1 ranking.

content growth, meaning more jobs for Guyanese and more opportunities for local businesses and increased revenues, which, when prudently managed, will certainly help us to achieve many of the aspirational goals which have been outlined by the Government of Guyana,” Ali said.

The Liza Unity’s hull was built in the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding yard in China, and its topside modules were constructed and added at the Keppel shipyard in Singapore. It is expected to sail from Singapore to Guyana. The FPSO is designed to produce 220,000 barrels of oil per day. It boasts a storage capacity of two million barrels.

Wales Development Authority to be ‘industrial centre of Caribbean’

Gov’t to amend Combatting TIP he Wales Development T Authority (WDA) will Act 2005 ‒ $500,000 fine per child trafficked be recognised as the “industrial centre of the Caribbean” ‒ 11 cases before the court, one conviction for 2021

block.

Minister Bharrat said he is optimistic that the project could start production earlier than expected, and has been encouraging ExxonMobil Guyana to work towards realising this goal.

The Liza Unity will be the second FPSO to produce oil offshore Guyana, alongside the Liza Destiny, which produced first oil in December 2019.

Meanwhile, First Lady, Mrs. Arya Ali was named ‘Godmother’ of the vessel at the ceremony. IN comments, she lauded the collective effort to develop the Liza Phase Two project, which the Liza Unity will operate.

“This project will materialise in the form of local

according to President Dr. Irfaan Ali. The project, which will be established at Wales, West Bank Demerara, is set to employ more than 3000 people and would bolster the manufacturing and services sector.

President Ali made those statements in his keynote address at the 10th Caribbean Urban Forum on Wednesday (June 16, 2021). He said, “In Guyana, we have the vision of the transformation of depressed rural areas into new, urban growth centres, through the attraction of investment, and aided by a facility like the Wales Development Authority. The oil and gas sector will bring with it many opportunities in

industrialisation and in manufacturing – two areas that are critical in job creation, but two areas that also bring with it tremendous challenge in planning in terms of the environment, in terms of settlements, and access to waterfront areas.”

The President said the Wales community will serve as the district for industrial development and manufacturing, and would be the zone where the gas pipeline will terminate and the gas-powered energy plant built. “This offers tremendous opportunity for regional planners, a new area of development,” he said.

Further to that, President Ali pointed out that the WDA will not only generate much-needed employment across the different enterprises that will fall within its purview, but indirect employ-

ment as well. He said, “And when I speak of employment here, I am not only speaking of employment within Guyana, but employment opportunities for citizens of CARICOM itself and further afield of course.”

The Head of State encouraged the University of Guyana and the University of the West Indies to be part of the transformational agenda.

The establishment of the WDA is coupled with the planned gas-to-shore mega project set to be completed in 2023 along the West Bank Demerara. With the project on stream, Guyana will be able to expand its manufacturing opportunities with a low-cost source of energy. The forum was themed, ‘Urbanisation: Processes, Policies and Emerging Challenges.’

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WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

APNU+AFC’s characteristic Another PNCR Executive ‘negativity’ puts Guyanese challenges Granger at risk – Nandlall T “The particular vaccine to which Mr. C Harmon refers is Sputnik, the very one omments by Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon, on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines have resulted in him being put on blast by Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.

Nandlall on Thursday (June 17, 2021), said, “No doubt, it has already been recognized that the main opposition in Guyana, APNU+AFC, has moved from a position of utter incompetence and absolute irrelevance to being outrageous, malicious and in some cases even comical.

“The Government of Guyana is recognized in the Caribbean for its stellar smooth and expeditious procurement of an adequate supply of vaccines against the COVID-19 virus. Indeed, Guyana, has thus far, procured the largest quantity of vaccines among countries in the Region.

“In any normal society, the procurement of an adequate supply of suitable medication in a public health pandemic will receive the

which he chose to take. Now that he is immunized, he castigates the very vaccine, implicitly encouraging others not to take it.”

– Attorney General, Anil Nandlall

commendation of every leader in that society. Expectedly, the APNU/AFC leadership is incapable of such gesture.

Instead, with characteristic negativity, they have begun to undermine the Government’s efforts, even fabricating and concocting in their attempts to denigrate.”

According to him, the Coalition first started with the price of the vaccines, failing to recognize the distinction between the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended prices and the prices generated by the global market demands. “Now they have commenced a campaign to denigrate the quality of the vaccines. Joseph Harmon

now demands an explanation of the vaccines’ ‘chain of custody’ from the time it leaves the factory, to its arrival in Guyana,” the Attorney General said.

He charged that while Harmon makes specific reference to the Sputnik V vaccine, it is the very vaccines he chose to take. “The particular vaccine to which Mr. Harmon refers is Sputnik, the very one which he chose to take.

Now that he is immunized, he castigates the very vaccine, implicitly encouraging others not to take it.”

Such actions, according to him, puts Guyanese at risk.

[SEE RELATED REPORTING ON PAGE 22]

PNCR Chairperson, others to go on trial from August 27th C hairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Volda Lawrence, as well as APNU+AFC activist, Carol Joseph, and the embattled Region 4 Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, are set to face trial on August 27, 2021.

Accused of electoral fraud, the trio will appear before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

In April 2021, the Chief Magistrate ruled in favour of submissions by the prosecution for the charges against the trio to be disposed of summarily. The prosecution has already made full disclosure of statements to the defendants.

The first charge alleged that on March 5, 2020, with intent to defraud, Lawrence and Mingo uttered a report purporting to be a true declaration of all votes cast in District Four for the March 2, 2020 General and Re-

gional Elections, knowing same to be forged.

It is further alleged that on March 13, 2020, Mingo and Joseph uttered a forged document purporting to be a true report of all votes cast in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, knowing that the report was forged. It is also alleged that on the said date, Joseph conspired with Mingo and others to declare a fraudulent count of votes for District Four.

MORE CHARGES FOR MINGO, OTHERS The Guyana Police Force has since filed an additional charge against Mingo, Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, and Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers.

The case will be called again on June 29, 2021, before Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

The charge states that

between March 2, 2020, and August 2, 2020, at Georgetown, Lowenfield, Mingo, and Myers conspired with each other and together with Lawrence; Smith-Joseph; GECOM’s Sherfern February; GECOM’s Information Technology Officer Enrique Livan and GECOM clerks Denise Bobb-Cummings and Michelle Miller, as well as others, to defraud the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes cast for the Regional Elections of March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.

Already, Lowenfield is facing three counts of misconduct in public office and three counts of forgery concerning the National Elections. Myers, on the other hand, has been slapped with two charges for misconduct in public office. Mingo is facing three counts of misconduct in public office. All those charged have been released on monetary bail pending their trial.

he People’s National Congress Reform’s (PNCR), Richard Van West-Charles, son-in-law of the Party’s founder Forbes Burnham, is the latest PNRC Executive to challenge David Granger for leadership of the Party.

On a recently broadcast programme, he said, “Let me answer this way. Am I prepared? Yes. Am I willing? Yes. The only thing I would say to you in accordance with the constitution of the PNC. It is in the hands of the membership of the PNC, in terms of the nominations….as we prepare for a congress, once there are nominations in my favor, I am prepared and I am willing to play a significant role in the leadership of the party.”

Van West-Charles’ most recent appointment was as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the former Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) under the former APNU+AFC Coalition Government.

He joins PNCR Executive, Aubrey Norton, in challenging Granger. Last month, Norton had said, “I believe I have the requisite skills to give leadership. I

have said to people I believe that even while we served in Government I cannot be accused of corruption or anything of that kind, and I believe that I am one among the viable candidates. The direct answer to that is once the congress of the People’s National Congress reform is called, I intend to run for the leadership of the party.”

Granger has been coming under increasing pressure for the current state of the party.

Only recently, Con gress Place was picketed by members of Granger’s own party, who demanded that he hold the Congress so that the party could choose a leader. One placard, aimed at Granger and Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon, read ‘David and Joe, stop denying democracy in the PNC. Time for congress’.

Also, Granger has also been denounced by individual members of the party, like former PNCR Parliamentarian, James Bond.

Bond had labelled Granger’s leadership as “ineffective” and “mediocre”.

Meanwhile, a PNCR diaspora group on May 16, 2021 had called for Granger

to step down from leading the party. The letter, published by the local press, signed by Connie McGuire, Michael Bramford, George E Lewis and the PNCR New York Diaspora group.

They appealed to all PNC Executives, members and supporters to demand the resignations of Granger and other party leaders. They noted that after working tirelessly to get Granger elected in 2015, the party made a series of missteps, failed to connect to supporters, and sidelined young and dynamic leadership like that offered by former Region 10 Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon. “It will be a colossal mistake for (us) the members of the PNCR groups in the New York Diaspora and the executive members of the PNCR to allow them to remain at the helm of the PNCR. This will no doubt do irreparable damage to the party…it is time for them to pass the baton on to the younger leadership of the likes of Sharma Solomon, Vanessa Kissoon, Thandi McAllister and others,” the NYC group said.

The PNCR’s last biennial congress was in 2018.

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WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

EDITORIAL

Reprioritizing spending to ensure effective delivery of critically needed goods, services

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he PPP/C administration continues to make efforts to reprioritize public spending, to ensure that critically need good and services are delivered to Guyanese people.

This has been seen in the restructuring of the public service, the restructuring of several state-owned organisations and in the PPP/C government’s response to the national crises affecting Guyanese – namely the flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the issue of the public service, prior to 1992, the then People’s National Congress (PNC) regime overstaffed the public service, mainly for the sake of political patrimony, at a time when an oversized bureaucracy could not be afforded. On its assumption of office in 2015, the now PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition returned to its habit of overstaffing the public service and this resulted in an unsustainable drain on the treasury. While, the PPP/C left 14,905 public servants in central government, this number ballooned to 26,354 by 2018 – an increase of over 11,000. By August 2020, when the PPP/C was returned to office, this numbers in the public service was much higher.

As it relates to state-owned organisations, the need for restructuring was critical to the financial survival of those agencies. In the last weeks, Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has been in the news for such efforts. What must be recognised, however, is the fact that GWI was on the verge of financial collapse. The company owed over $900M to suppliers and its other debts were staggering – a whopping $7B to the Guyana Power Company Limited (GPL) alone. But how did GWI get here? The answer is simple – mismanagement by the former APNU+AFC Coalition. Under the Coalition’s stewardship, wasteful expenditure was a norm: $26.8M on overseas travel in 2018; another $26M on overseas travel in 2019; $55M on an Old Year’s night party on 2019; and $50M on meals.

Additionally, almost $2B was spent on a questionable water treatment chemical called ‘SeaQuest’. GWI is also battling fraud, with some $29.8M being deducted from the company’s account and transferred to two accounts in the United States.

In a statement, GWI said the fraud was unearthed by its Finance Department. On the employment front, the company’s employment numbers moved from about 600 in 2015 to 1,300

by August 2020. This caused employment costs to increase by a staggering 140 per cent – moving from $96M in 2015 to $240M by 2020. Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shaik Baksh, had said: “This was not sustainable at GWI and, therefore, the staffing establishment rationalisation was important.”

The need of financial sustainability cannot be overstated, more so when it comes to the public purse and when considering the need for critical interventions in the response to national crises.

That said, the response by the PPP/C government to the national crises affecting thousands of Guyanese has been laudable.

This week, the Government’s $23 billion supplementary budget was passed to tackle critical issues.

Government Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, highlighted that new situations facing our nation demands a response. She had said: “We have to respond to newer situations that have arrived, and of course, in the supplementary, there is additional money for the vaccines. These are all critical issues.

These are not frivolous issues, but issues that our country is confronting post budget.”

Part of the supplementary budget will be used for flood relief interventions, including repairs to infrastructure and supporting recovery in the productive sector. It will also facilitate payments of vaccine supplies and vaccine roll-out activities to mitigate transmission of COVID-19. The supplementary budget will finance key projects in the Ministries of Home Affairs, Agriculture, Public Works, Culture, Youth and Sports and Housing and Water.

In the meantime, the APNU+AFC Coalition has proven its willingness to embrace an anti-national position, even as the current Administration is working to bring relief of those suffering from national crises.

The Coalition must understand that all Guyanese demand effective representation – a fact that the PPP/C Government is, demonstrably, aware of.

Economic projections inspires hope for prosperous future Dear Editor,

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uyana’s economy will remain resilient against the effects of COVID-19, maintaining its growth trajectory as the petroleum sector picks up steam.

The World Bank has revised its earlier projection of economic growth for Guyana, now projecting that the local economy will grow by 20.9 per cent in 2021, the highest growth rate in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region this year.

This is the latest assessment of the World Bank on the country’s performance last year, and projections for this year. Guyana grew at an extraordinary rate of 43.5 per cent in 2020, having completed a year of oil production.

However, the positive spillover effects have been dampened by a deep contraction in the non-oil economy, triggered by COVID-19 mitigation measures. Despite the lingering adversities, projections remain positive, with the country set to record economic growth of 20.9 per cent at the end of 2021.

This revision was reported in the World Bank’s June 2021 report on ‘Global Economic Prospects’, released recently. It is, however, unlikely that these local figures include the impact of the ongoing nationwide flooding.

The projections are for a growth of 26.0 per cent in 2022 and 23.0 per cent in construction activities ongoing in Providence, East Bank Demerara. Based on the latest estimates, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Latin America and Caribbean Region will be 2.6 per cent lower at the end of 2021 than it was at the end of 2019.

In the January 2021 edition of the Global Economic Prospects, the World Bank had projected that Guyana’s real

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would increase by 7.8 per cent in 2021. The new figure in the June report is a 13.1 per cent upward revision of the earlier projection.

For context, real GDP is an inflation-adjusted measure that reflects the value of all goods and services produced by an economy (in this case, Guyana’s economy) in a given year. In simpler terms, the real GDP measures a country’s total economic output, adjusted for price changes.

The World Bank, in its semi-annual report on the region, said while most of the region should be enjoying strong economic rebound in 2021, Haiti and Suriname are expected to experience negative growth. On the other hand, Guyana’s growth rate will remain in the double digits, as the country’s GDP of about US$6.8 billion is expected to more than double by 2025, reaching over US$14 billion.

Guyana, being a middle-income developing country, is home to fertile agricultural lands and abundant natural resources. Gold, bauxite, sugar, rice, timber and shrimp are among its leading exports.

The World Bank noted that the global economy is expected to expand by 5.6 per cent this year, which is the fastest post-recession pace in 80 years.

For context, there was a global recession (or temporary economic decline) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, despite this recovery, the World Bank noted that this global output is still about two per cent less than the pre-pandemic projections. The LAC region is now expected to grow by 5.2 per cent in 2021, and some 3.9 per cent in 2022.

Guyana’s positive growth is primarily hinged upon developments in our burgeoning oil and gas sector. The

economic growth, however, has been constrained by the enduring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, prior to the pandemic, Guyana expected economic growth of 86 per cent in 2020. After the pandemic was declared and the first set of cases were recorded in Guyana, that growth rate was later revised to 52.8 per cent.

However, in January, the World Bank estimated that Guyana’s economy grew by 43.5 per cent in 2020. Importantly, the World Bank lists Guyana as a commodity exporter and a country part of the ‘emerging market and developing economies’ grouping.

Generally, the emerging market and developing economies collectively are expected to expand by six per cent in 2021. But the World Bank highlighted that recovery in many countries has been stymied by a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, lagging vaccination progress, and, in some cases, the withdrawal of policy support.

The World Bank also noted that rising food prices and accelerating aggregate inflation may also compound challenges associated with food insecurity in low-income countries.

Considering our country’s oil revenue and other lucrative sources of income, our President, Dr Irfaan Ali, has said the standard of living and the quality of life must be lifted for all Guyanese.

“Work will be rewarded; hard work will be rewarded even more,” our President indicated. According to our President, he is confident that the steps which our Government have taken in 2021 would continue to lift our economy, and improve the fortunes of every citizen within our nation.

Sincerely, David Adams

Revitalization of the sugar industry is a must Dear Editor,

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o one can argue with what was recently reported in the press, that is, the findings of the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO), that “… has pointed to an increase in the rates of suicide, crime, and alcohol consumption in communities that relied heavily on the sugar estates for their livelihood that were closed by the Coalition government.” In fact, the day before, I did read a letter in one of the dailies, that the planned reopening of the Enmore Sugar Estate will redound into a better society.

It is universally accepted that “Being unemployed is associated with a two-fold to three-fold increased relative risk of death by suicide, compared with being employed.”

Locally, the ILO stated that “Entire communities were sent into depression.”

This was the emphatic conclusion of local economist, Dr. Thomas B. Singh, who authored the socio-economic impact study, which was sponsored by the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO).

I need to emphasize that this is not some whimsical ‘guess work.’ The findings cover at least 5,000 sugar workers, their families, and their communities.

These workers, as we all recall, in 2016 and 2017, were callously dismissed by the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government, when they closed the sugar estates at Wales, Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon. This widespread closure, as the report pointed out, “… was also so disruptive to those economies, that the households of many of the affected workers could have been driven into poverty traps.”

The actual money stats read quite frightening: “… weekly household income had fallen by 64 per cent, from an average of G$32,238 to G$18,450.” Let us bear in mind that “… the majority of dismissed workers were fathers, who were the sole breadwinners of their families.”

So, the APNU+AFC, without a doubt, wrecked not only the daily lives of these workers in a financial way, but made negative inroads in the student children population, whose education, at a young age, had to be seriously compromised, and maybe permanently so.

I need not belabour the point, but suffice it to say that a Crudele report states that in the United States, “Every one per cent rise in unemployment leads to 40,000 deaths.” These deaths, it was pointed out, had nothing to do with (Turn to page 5)

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WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

Coalition persists with unsubstantiated claims Dear Editor,

T

he Opposition, A Partnership For National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) form a group of ‘unbelievers.’

It is indeed most repugnant to hear and read that the Leader of the said Opposition, Hon. Joseph Harmon said that: “It has been revealed that mere weeks after Budget 2021 was approved, the PPP secretly swiped almost $2Billion from the Contingency Fund.” He adds that: “These monies have already been expended without any oversight or accountability by the National Assembly (and) which the PPP is now seeking approval for after the fact.”

First, let me quickly recap a piece of recent bona fide history for the public. In December 2020, APNU+AFC’s withdrawals from Guyana’s Contingencies Fund for 2019 amounted to $4.150 billion. However, according to the Auditor General (AG), these funds did not meet the criteria set out in Section 41(3) of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act. The AG’s carefully audited report explained “… that Section 220(1) of the Constitution explicitly states that “Parliament may make provision for the establishment of a Contingencies Fund and for authorising the Minister responsible for finance to make

advances from that Fund if he is satisfied that there is an urgent need for expenditure for which no other provision exists.”

I ask, who was the man in charge then? It was APNU+AFC’s Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan. So, by virtue of moral rectitude alone, Joseph Harmon should be mute on this matter. The APNU+AFC amount was staggering, and the illegality of it was most obvious.

The Auditor General further detailed that “… for the period under review, all the advances granted from the Contingencies Fund were to meet routine (not emergency) expenditure and did not meet the criteria defined in Section 41(3) of the FMA Act.” So, Harmon is now deliberately forgetting this.

Let me now remind him and his cronies that what is currently ongoing in Guyana is almost unprecedented.

Just last week, President Irfaan Ali had to officially declare a disaster in Guyana because of the ongoing flooding. Details have revealed that “… as of June 7, 2021, a total of 28,228 households were affected by flooding, some with water entering their homes, domestic animals, and livestock in distress or farmlands inundated.”

The magnitude of this catastrophe is such that Guyana is now in overdrive mode,

Time to rebuild, reform Dear Editor,

I

am glad that parliament passed the $10B dollars supplementary spending Bill and once the President affixes his signature, its law.

Then it’s expected that the government will do much more for the poor people in this country like myself. Firstly, the government will have to focus its priority on the residents in flood-hit communities which are affected gravely by the natural disaster we have all witnessed over the past weeks. I want to urge that the government waste no time in getting the communities the relief supplies and necessary assistance to get back on their feet.

Secondly, I am concerned about this coronavirus and the vaccine hesitancy. As a poor and ordinary Guyanese, I want to encourage the government to push for more people to get vaccinated. I don’t care about the cost. We are

saving people and protecting their lives. Also, cost could be looked at by another Committee that is charged with looking at the financial arrangements in place to make sure we are not getting short changed and is affordable. I say continue with the government led vaccination project and do it on a larger scale. Every life lost must be a reminder of the need to be effective, efficient and compassionate in the approach.

Thirdly, this money I hope will work towards getting Guyana back on its two feet.

We need to be resilient and strong to cope with the changing world, regional, and national agenda around us.

Now it’s time for us to pick up the pieces and start a process that will rebuild and reform our economy.

Regards, Attiya Baksh

Revitalization of the...

Covid 19 virus and a distressed economy.”

I add that unemployment has both individual and social consequences that require public policy interventions. For the individual, unemployment can cause psychological distress, which can lead to a decline in life satisfaction. It can also lead to mood disorders and substance abuse.

(From page 4)

I must commend the Government for its immediate intervention, in revitalizing sugar and estate employment, on assuming office.

This must be pursued until all the estates are fully operating.

Yours truly, A. Baksh

as it seeks to combat the rising crisis. The word is that the country is one step closer to securing assistance from the European Union (EU) to boost its flood-relief efforts.

Director-General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig, said two applications have already been completed for assistance under the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism (CPM). We need to take note that the EU Chargé d’Affaires, Ms. Evelina Melbarzde, became very proactive, actually inviting the CDC to seek assistance. The official said: “One application is to provide real-time flooding mapping and GIS support that would be able to give us a better understanding of the impact across the country.

The second is to provide priority support.”

If what I aforesaid is not enough to hush Harmon, I now point to his verbal attack, which is childish and lacks substantiation.

He says that the PPP/C, in utilising funds and seeking for more prove that there is a vulgar mismanagement of “… the economy at an unprecedented level, and is symptomatic of extraordinarily poor economic planning, incompetence and the sort of ‘adhocracy’ which is characteristic of the PPP, under Bharrat Jagdeo, and latterly, his eager collaborator, Dr. Ashni Singh.” He cannot prove squandering, as he uses the term; and secondly, he cannot show illegality, as the right procedures are being followed by the Government.

This is normal in these attacks from APNU+AFC as a whole. There was the call for ‘proof of discrimination’ during the COVID-19 $25,000 Cash Grant exercise,

yet none came. This is not dissimilar to the hiding of Statements of Polls (SoPs) for Region Four.

Here are some statistics to upend the verbose garbage, constituting Harmon’s unmerited harangue.

In 2014, the last full year of the PPP/C in office, Guyana’s total international reserves were US$668 million. By March of last year, that amount fell to US$518.5 million. At the end of 2014, gold reserves in the Bank of Guyana totaled $25 Billion.

In June 2018 this amount was reduced to $3.1 Billion, and by mid-2019, this further dwindled to a disturbingly low $589 million.

In 2014, the last year that the PPP produced a Budget, the total tax taken by the GRA was $135 Billion. During the Granger Administration, over 200 new tax measures were placed on the backs of ordinary Guyanese, raking in $223 Billion in taxes, which is $88 Billion more in tax revenue on an annual basis. Yet, no national good became of it.

At the end of 2014, the total assets held at commercial banks were $421.8 billion.

Commercial banks were therefore in a position to provide substantial credit to the private sector. Interest rates in 1992 were 35%. By the end of 2014, Interest rates had reduced to 10.8%.

I hope the issue is settled and that the Government simply goes ahead and does its mandated work.

Yours truly, Brian Azore

Clutching at straws Dear Editor,

V

incent Alexander’s “GWI terminations exemplify duplicitous policies,” dated June 11, 2021, is a classic continuation of the demise of the mind. Alexander has taken ‘death’ to the extreme, and at every level.

Let me demonstrate in this short missive.

This man still posits that the Opposition did not lose the Guyana March 2, 2020 elections. He cannot bring himself, against incontrovertible evidence, to admit that the Opposition was engaged in repeated attempts to rig the said elections – and I can go on, but these two cases more than suffice for my argument.

Now let me get to his fallacious reasons for saying that “GWI terminations exemplify duplicitous policies.”

He posits, in a general way, that “These (170) terminations will impact the lives of far more than 170 persons and exemplify the duplicity of policies that are applied to different constituencies of our society.”

I ask Mr Alexander to read the following: “The manner in which the previous Government went about shutting down four of Guyana’s sugar estates was a bad decision from any perspective,” said Dr Thomas B Singh, Director of the University of Guyana’s GREEN Institute, who presented this finding of a socio-economic impact study sponsored by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of the United Nations (UN).

This study revolved around the “sustainable livelihoods framework”, and focused on examining the impact that the estate closures had on the lives of some 7000 sugar workers and their families. It concluded that:

“As a result, the closures compromised the livelihoods of scores of dismissed workers, exposing many and their families to the “poverty trap.”

Then Alexander self-debunked when he stated that “GuySuCo’s workers work in a company that is profit oriented, while the GWI workers work in the service sector that is not profit, but service oriented.” The obvious question then is why did the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) close the Skeldon, Rose Hall, and West Demerara Estates? Why now is he admitting to the viability of these estates?

Dr Clive Thomas, the coalition’s economic point man was the Chairman of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), even though the then Opposition PPP/C objected, stating that Thomas was a notorious head, having presided over the failure of the Globe Trust and Investments Company Ltd. Let me state that it is quite normal public policy for countries to subsidise agriculture, including sugar. For instance, the European Union and the USA subsidise agriculture in the sum of €59 billion and US$22 billion respectively. In India, the annual subsidy on sugar is US$1.7 billion. These countries rightfully view subsidies as investment.

So, by virtue of size, numbers and economic contribution, Vincent Alexander’s opposition to GWI’s laying off of redundant workers falls woefully short and unconvincing. He is clutching at straws, and it is only a matter of time before he becomes self-extinct.

Sincerely, Alvin Hamilton

6

GECOM must be decisive in order to restore public trust Dear Editor,

T

he reactions to the elections fiasco of 2020 and the role and approach of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are under the highest level of scrutiny. The cocksure position of the Commission raises many questions.

These unanswered questions signal that continued failure to act objectively would further hasten the organisation’s impact as an impediment rather than a democratic solution.

This our nation simply cannot afford, given the almost catastrophic outcome of the last General and Regional Elections.

GECOM must be decisive going forward if it wants to regain the confidence of our citizens in the execution of its constitutional mandate. One has to be brutal and frankly condemn the snail’s pace or, rather, the inaction of the Chairwoman and Commission to cleanse the organisation. It is more than a year since Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield and his cohorts openly defied the directions of Chairwoman Madam

Justice (retired) Claudette Singh, after both the Courts and the Commission had ruled on related matters brought before them.

It is inexplicable that GECOM has been so indolent although an abundance of public evidence exists which underscores and highlights the outlandish thievery attempts executed by the Lone Ranger CEO, along with Chief Rigger Clairmont Mingo and Roxanne Myers.

The trio have proved that they are unsuitable to be around the preparation machinery for the holding of any election. Consequent to their surreptitious manoeuvres, the Guyanese people were humiliated, and suffered day after day as we were held to ransom for five long months, with the riggers’ numerous attempts to derail the elections.

These unfit senior members of the GECOM Secretariat are presently before the Courts for fraud and misconduct in public office, but there is certainly no need to await the court’s decision in these matters. The Commission itself has the legal authority to hire and fire staff, and these corrupt staff members must be dismissed immediately for GECOM

WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021 to proceed with preparations for the holding of Local Government Elections this year.

Related in this regard, the Constitution states: “The Commission – (a) shall exercise general direction and supervision over the registration of electors and the administrative conduct of all elections of members of the National Assembly; and (b) shall issue such instructions and take such action as appear to it necessary or expedient to ensure impartiality, fairness, and compliance with the provisions of this Constitution or of any Act of Parliament on the part of persons exercising powers or performing duties connected with or relating to the matters aforesaid…”

It therefore defies logic and rationality that the Commission’s lack of action and slothful disposition have not yet confronted a vigilant approach to the necessary review of its staff.

While the trio hold the dominant leadership positions, it has to be acknowledged that the corruption in GECOM is intrusive and far deeper.

Senior staff members Michelle Miller and Denise Cummings are also before the courts.

In addition, Election Officer Shefern February and Information Technology Officer Enrique Livan are also accused, and are facing charges related to inflating the results of Region #4 elections in favour of the APNU/AFC. Further, there are serious accusations against others for allegedly giving wrong advice and directions to the Presiding Officers in Region #4. This network of vipers, who are still currently on GECOM’s payroll, must certainly be screened going forward.

It is recalled that the APNU big bosses Joseph Harmon and Granger announced that the Elections were free and fair on March 02, 2020. As the reality dawned on March 03 that they were rejected by the Guyanese people, backdoor manoeuvres were activated. They were, however, caught red-handed trying to

rig the elections by using the “fraudulent” spreadsheet. They then tried to derail the elections!

For too long, the PNC was allowed to manipulate the Election machinery and rig elections, and this must be halted now. As a consequence, we need to have Electoral Reforms, so that we would never again have rigged elections to address the establishment of a system that would not be easily manipulated.

For those in the PNC who are conveniently talking about shared governance, there is a need for you to win the trust and confidence of the nation. Who would want to partner with cheaters and riggers?

The PNC’s track record clearly shows that it is all about using and abusing other parties for the assumption of power, and subsequently kick them, once power is attained.

In 1964 the United Force suffered this fate, and then in 2015 the AFC was used and kicked to the curb. Of note is that the PNC ruled this country for 33 years and never consider shared governance.

Conversely, one must not ignore the increasing role and inclusivity of the Civic component as an approach of the PPP to shared Governance, as a starting point for discussions.

We must have free and fair elections, and develop trust and confidence in parties advocating for governing roles in our nation-building. An undecisive GECOM would not be able to establish the clear lines that are needed going forward.

In context, the Chairwoman and Commissioners must get their act together. GECOM must be prepared to have Local Government Elections this year.

Sincerely, Neil Kumar

7

WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

PARLIAMENT HAPPENINGS UNDER REVIEW

Coalition called out for causing loss of billions owing to bad deal Q

uestions from Opposition Parliamentarian, Annette Ferguson, also featured an attempt by the Coalition to argue that it had a track record on working for the sugar industry – arguments that were rubbished

by Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.

Ferguson, during the sitting on Monday (June 14, 2021), used the issue of the $30B bond, secured under the former APNU+AFC Coalition government, by National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), to address the issue of the sugar sector.

The bond, secured by NICIL for financing the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) long term project and capital expenditure.

A Special Purposes Unit (SPU) was set up under NICIL to oversee the divestment of assets of four of the sugar estates that were closed by the APNU+AFC Coalition. The Wales, Region 3, Sugar Estate was

closed in December 2016.

The Skeldon, Rose Hall and East Demerara (Enmore) Estates were closed in December of 2017. Once closed, the assets of the estates, including lands, were transferred from GuySuCo to the SPU, under NICIL. Using those assets, the SPU secured a $30 billion bond.

In the latter part of June 2018, a leaked document - ‘The Private Placement Memorandum’ – detailed the arrangements of the $30B fixed rate bond. The document explained that the move to issue the Bonds, at a 4.75 per cent interest rate, is a five-year agreement. Interest is payable semi-annually, starting October 2018. The Bonds will mature in April 2023. Also, the bonds have been issued “free and clear” of all corporate taxes.

QUESTIONS On the question on the amount of the bond secured

by NICIL for use by GuySuCo, the Finance Minister

stated that $30B was secured, of which $17.479B was drawn down by NICIL, net of trustee fees amounting to $121M. Asked about how much has been repaid by NICIL, Singh said a total of $5.152B has been repaid.

The Finance Minister decried the fact on assuming office, the PPP/C administration found that the bond was being serviced by its own proceeds. “When we came into office, we discovered that NICIL was servicing the bond out of the proceeds of the bond…they borrowed to repay,” he said.

Ferguson questioned whether the Government will continue to retain the balance of the bond for use

by GuySuCo and Singh indicated yes; reiterating the commitment of the PPP/C government to supporting the sugar industry and the thousands of Guyanese that depend, both directly and indirectly, on the sector.

Purchase of new off-shore patrol vessel for Coast Guard defended...

‘Alternative is that Guyana would have no vessel in our waters’ – Teixeira

G

uyana has on aged vessel, ‘The Essequibo’, and the need to purchase a new vessel for the Coast Guard was seen as urgent, according to Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister, Gail Teixeira.

Her comments came during a debate on an allocation of $618M to facilitate advance payment for the procurement of an Offshore Patrol Vessel to enhance the operational capabilities of the Guyana Defence Force.

The $618M was part of a supplementary financial paper, detailing Contingency Fund advanced that totaled $1.9B, which was tabled in the House last week and debated on Monday (June 14, 2021).

“This is a vessel to get to the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)….this is the first time, since Independent, that Guyana has purchased a brand new vehicle…it came after consultation with five reputable ship builders… the company is Metal Shark Boats,” she said, adding that the agreement for the purchase of the vessel is between the Guyana Defence Force and Metal Shark Boats.

Teixeira explained that the total cost of the vessel is US$11.5M and remaining payments will be made on an agreed schedule, while the final payment will not be made until the vessel arrives in Guyana. “We have paid the first payment. We will continue to pay, until 2022, since the vessel will take a

year to construct,” she said, adding that the vessel is purpose-built.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon, argued at the timing of the purchase, charging that decisions on major assets must be planned.

Teixeira, in response, referred to past questioning of Harmon, when he was in government. “If I am to go with Mr. Harmon’s expertise in dealing in old equipment… some of which are still not working….we would not be better off…the alternative is that Guyana would have no vessel in our waters,” the Minister stressed.

When put to a vote, the majority in the National Assembly approved the sum in question.

NO COMPETITIVE PROCESS Singh also noted that the best interest of the nation was not considered when the bond was secured. He pointed out that there was no competitive process.

According to him, the bond has a tenure of five years at an interest rate of 4.5 per cent, backed by a government guarantee, making it risk free lending and comparable to government borrowing. “There was no competitive process,” he said.

Singh underscored the fact that had Treasury Bills been used a whopping $2.1B could have been saved, since Treasury Bills attracted a one per cent interest rate.

Worryingly, the Minister noted that the bond includes a clause that prevents or penalizes early repayment of the instrument – meaning the government is stuck with a 4.5 per cent interest rate.

NOT PROPERLY ACCOUNTED FOR Notably, the controversial bond was audited by the Auditor General’s Office. And the 2019 Auditor General’s Report noted that billions are

not properly accounted for.

The Auditor General’s report noted that of the $30B borrowed, some 17.6B was spent by the end of December 2019, but not properly accounted for.

“Apart from the contract and the summary of the transactions, no other documentation for the disbursement and repayment were presented for audit; as a result, it could not be determined who is the recipient and how the amounts were accounted for. In view of the forgoing, the accuracy and validity of the amounts could not be determined,” the Report said.

The 2019 Auditor General’s Report added that according to a summary presented for audit by the Ministry of Finance, as at 31 December 2019: • Amounts totalling $17.600 billion were disbursed on the loan; whilst • Amounts totalling $1.760 billion representing Principal were repaid, resulting in an outstanding liability of $15.840 billion; and • Amounts totalling $1.256 billion in interest and other charges were accrued.

“It should be noted the

outstanding liability to the Government excludes the interest and other charges,” the report said.

NO RECORD Additionally, a heated exchange between Singh and Ferguson saw the APNU+AFC Parliamentarian arguing that the Coalition invested billions in the sugar sector.

An impassioned Finance Minister charged that it was the Coalition that advanced Commission of Inquiry into the operations of GuySuCo, an undertaking that cost the Guyanese taxpayers upwards of $50M. The CoI did not recommend closure of any sugar estate, yet the estates were closed.

Singh added that sugar workers, having been severed, had to take the Coalition to court, with the support of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), to ensure that the law was complied with and that severance was paid out.

The Finance Minister made clear that the Coalition has no track record to defend, when it comes to the sugar sector.

8

WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

PARLIAMENT HAPPENINGS UNDER REVIEW

$10B to cover flood relief, repairs, recovery O

ver 300 communities have been affected by the flooding, which has been declared as a national disaster, with 180 of these being hinterland communities, according to Prime Minister, Mark Phillips.

His comments were made in response to questions on the PPP/C government’s request for $10B to provide flood relief interventions, including repairs to infrastructure and supporting recovering in the productive and household sectors.

The $10B was part of a supplementary financial paper, detailing requests for $21.36B in current and capital expenditures, which was tabled in the House last week and debated on Monday (June 14, 2021).

The Prime Minister ex-

plained that assessments are ongoing countrywide and these reports will inform the interventions to be made. He assured that all affected by the floods will be supported based on the needs assessment being done by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC). “We will reach to every affected community in the shortest possible time,” he assured.

The equitable distribution of hampers was also questioned by Opposition Parliamentarian, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley. “We were faced with floods. The CDC went in and did an initial assessment that led to the distribution of hampers. There is an ongoing assessment…. the assessment is going on.

People have to live, so hampers will continue to be distributed,” he said.

Responding to questions on what infrastructure works are to be done, he said, “These are emergency works. We have to do this right away so people can get to their communities.

Bridges must be repaired and roads must be repaired.”

On queries about longterm interventions, Phillips explained that plans will be in place to address concerns, including flood plain analyses.

“The end result is that after the next few years, people will be better off, because less people will be along the river bank….the government will work during the disaster mitigation phase to ensure we have a more resilient population…these things take time,” he told the House.

Opposition Parliamentarian, Khemraj Ramjattan, questioned why the monies

in the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) is not being utilized. “This is why it is there,” Ramjattan said. The Prime Minister, in response, said, “We are following the procedures we have to, which is to come back to

this House to receive approval.”

Several questions by the APNU+AFC Coali tion Parliamentarians were repetitive, causing House Speaker, Manzoor Nadir, to repeatedly caution the Op-

position Parliamentarians.

The flooding has affected approximately 30,000 persons across the country.

When the vote was called, the $10B was approved by the majority in the National Assembly.

Support for sugar sector...

Ferguson’s comment about money thrown down a ‘black hole’ rubbished

H

aving attempted to argue that it had a track record of supporting the sugar sector, APNU+AFC Coalition Parliamentarians hotly debated the PPP/C government’s request for $1.5B, as additional resources to restructure the sugar sector.

The $1.5B was part of a supplementary financial paper, detailing requests for $21.36B in current and capital expenditures, which was tabled in the House last week and debated on Monday (June 14, 2021).

Leading the questioning the Coalition’s Khemraj Ramjattan and Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon.

In response to questions on why the additional sums were needed, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, said, “We have to continue with our commitment to the people to reopen those closed sugar estates….the money will also be used for capital works on the estates.”

The Minister detailed the allocation by estates: $40M for Skeldon Estate; $40M for Enmore Estate; $292 for the Rose Hall Estate; $718

for the Albion Estate; $149 for the Blairmont Estate; and $259 for the Uitvlugt Estate.

He explained that Rose Hall, with an allocation of $292M, will be the first sugar estate that will be opened.

“You can come here and ask when you will reopen a factory…you destroyed the factory, we have to rehabilitate it; you destroy the cultivation, we have to go back and do new planting….our targeted time for opening is sometime in 2022 during the second crop,” the Agriculture Minister said.

Mustapha added that 40 per cent about the works needed to restore the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) are completed.

Opposition Parliamentarian, Annette Ferguson, questioned when the PPP/C government will stop throwing money down a “black hole”.

The Agriculture Minister charged that investments in Guyanese and the economy is not monies wasted. “This is no wastage for us…we are not hiding information…the ILO (International Labour Organisation) report showed

that you increased poverty, you increased suicide…we want to end that,” Mustapha declared.

The ILO Report on the socioeconomic impact after the sugar estates closure has found that weekly household income had fallen by a startling 64 per cent, fueling an escalation of alcohol abuse, crime and suicide among affected communities. The ILO on June 10, 2021 launched its findings giving an in-depth analysis of the impact faced by sugar workers and thousands more in the secondary network. The move to downsize the sugar industry back in 2016 saw the dismissal of 5,160 workers; with 1,889 from Skeldon Estate and 1,531 from East Demerara Estate. Dismissals from the Wales and Rose Hall estates were both below 1,000.

Funded by the ILO’s Caribbean Resilience Project, the study on the socioeconomic impact to sugar workers was conducted by Director of the University of Guyana GREEN Institute, Dr Thomas Singh.

Patterson removed as PAC Chairman after National Assembly vote

T

he National Assembly, just after 5:00am on Tuesday (June 15, 2021), passed a motion to remove the former APNU+AFC Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The motion was tabled by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira. In her contribution, the Minister recalled that Mr. Patterson was nominated and declared PAC Chairperson on December 28, 2020.

During the sixth meeting of the committee on February 1, 2021, following the expo(Turn to page 9)

9

WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

PARLIAMENT HAPPENINGS UNDER REVIEW

$683M approved for $623M to further support Harbour Bridge extension of water service M

inister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill on Monday (June 14, 2021) explained that the additional $623M supplementary budget, which the Government sought from the National Assembly, will be used to further support the infrastructure of the Demerara Harbour Bridge.

The $623M was part of a supplementary financial paper, detailing requests for $21.36B in current and capital expenditures, which was tabled in the House last week and debated on Monday (June 14, 2021).

Defending his Ministry’s request, Minister Edghill recalled that upon assuming office last year, he discovered that the bridge was in a “dire” state of disrepair, which he pointed out warranted emergency intervention.

He said, “Evidence was provided by the way of correspondence that the then Minister was written to, making him aware of what needed to be done, but nothing was done.”

The Minister noted that

the $623M will support the “much-needed repairs” on retractor spans nine and ten of the Harbour Bridge. “We have made a policy decision not to allow trucks carrying more than 18 tonnes to cross the Demerara Harbour Bridge. The interventions have narrowed the span because we have had to insert a pontoon to prop up span nine,” Minister Edghill said.

Some $850M was allocated to the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) in the 2021 National Budget. Of that sum, $650M was spent on repairs to retractors nine and ten. Earlier this year, the Public Works Ministry tendered to repair those two retractors and proposals returned with a price tag of $1.2B. The Public Works Minister said the $623M will fill the shortfalls for the contract, which has been awarded.

He highlighted too that the additional funds will ensure the longevity of the Harbour Bridge until the new, fixed, high-span bridge is completed.

Meanwhile, General Manager of the DHBC, Mr. Wayne Watson said once all commuters work together, the life of the bridge could be prolonged. He said, “I think that we have the resources in terms of the knowledge and experience, to keep the existing bridge. Some of the other issues that we are trying to tackle is the speed of the loaded or laden trucks. We are going to be putting up signs and we will be monitoring. Once we have the intervention by the traffic units from both sides and once we are able to provide necessary education; once we understand and we work together, we can prolong the life of the bridge with adequate preventative maintenance.”

Further, the Public Work’s Minister told the House that an additional $412M, aside from the $623M, was being sought as it may be needed to repair the bridge’s anchorage system.

Minister Edghill said those anchors were neglected by management over the past five years.

$186M approved for Sport sector

T

he National Assembly approved $186.4M to facilitate more infrastructural works through the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s Ground Enhancement Programme.

The $186.4M was part of a supplementary financial paper, detailing requests for $21.36B in current and capital expenditures, which was tabled in the House last week and debated on Monday (June 14, 2021).

Subject Minister Charles Ramson Jr., told the House that the Ministry has already exhausted its budget to undertake several ground enhancements works across the country, hence the request for additional funds.

“Ground enhancement forms part of what commu-

nities do for their community grounds which includes playing of sports, but it is not only for the playing of sports. It is a community ground for which all kinds of activities occur there like social and training activities and even medical purposes,” he said.

Of this sum, $10M will be allocated for the development of community grounds in Region Ten. Responding to a question posed by the Opposition’s Jermaine Figueira, the Minister stated that while no specific ground has yet been identified, a decision would be made following a consultation with key stakeholders.

These include the Regional Administration and residents, among others.

He added that several grounds in the Region have already benefitted from the programme; however, there is more to be done to ensure sport men and women have a space to train and exercise.

“There are options there so when we go to Region 10, we will meet will the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) to identify the ground to start infrastructural works,” the Minister said.

The Ministry allocated some $1.5B towards sport development, of which, $915.5M will go towards the improvement of community grounds countrywide. The work will include the establishment of multi-purpose, sporting facilities of international standards in Regions Two, Six and Ten.

M

ore than 18, 000 residents will soon be able to access potable water after the National Assembly approved $683.5M for water service.

The $683.5M was part of a supplementary financial paper, detailing requests for $21.36B in current and capital expenditures, which was tabled in the House last week and debated on Monday (June 14, 2021).

Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal said residents in 35 communities in Regions Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten are set to benefit. He said, “At Yarowkabra and Grand Sand, 2000; La Parfaite Harmonie, Nismes, Sea View and Belle West, 2000; Vryheid’s Lust, Success, Montrose, Felicity, Bachelors Adventure, 2000; Alness, Crabwood Creek, Number 65, Number 59, another 2000.

Swan, Dora, Kuru Kuru, Kairuni, Long Creek, Loo

Creek, Moblissa, another 18,000.”

Some 2000 residents of Big Baiabu, Huntley, Good Faith, Number one, Number Three, Number Four, Number Eight, Number 11, Number 28, Number 29 and Number 30 villages will also access potable water when the mains are installed.

Another 6,000 residents in Moraikobai will also benefit from first-time access to clean water as the sums sought for this investment was also approved.

Minister Croal said major works must be executed to effectively serve the targeted communities.

He said there will be “installation of four-inch distribution main at Yarowkabra and Grand Sand at Soesdyke; extension of distribution networks at La Parfaite Harmonie, Nismes, Sea View and Belle West.

Installation of four-inch and six-inch distribution

Patterson removed as... sure of findings of the Auditor General’s Report of 2016, Minister Teixeira had moved a motion calling for Mr. Patterson to resign as the PAC Chairman. Cognizant of those findings, Minister Teixeira said it was “inappropriate” for Patterson to continue as the Chairman.

But despite numerous instances of guidance from Mr. Sherlock Issacs, the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Patterson refused to resign from the Committee. To compound matters, he had refused to allow the motion to be put to the vote and PAC meetings were cancelled as a result of the ensuing stalemate.

Minister Teixeira explained, “Mr. Speaker, worse yet, having not been satisfied that he hadn’t put the motion and we had to put another motion on the agenda, the Chairperson deliberately refused to deal with the motion and went to all the other issues, even though we kept trying for the motion to be put to the vote. “…no Chairperson is so entrenched and entitled to the point that he or she cannot be removed; just like a government. If a government can be

mains at Vryheid’s Lust, Success, Montrose, Felicity, Bachelors Adventure; installation of four-inch distribution mains in Region Six at Alness, Crabwood Creek, Number 65, Number 59.”

The Ministry would also be drilling wells and building distribution networks with photovoltaic systems at Swan, Dora, Kuru Kuru, Kairuni, Long Creek, Loo Creek and Moblissa.

The distribution network at St Cuthbert’s Mission will also be expanded with the installation of new distribution mains to better serve persons in Regions Five and Six. Minister Croal said the job will be executed by staff of the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) as well as hired contractors. He noted that GWI is capable of functioning effectively as there is no shortage of staff.

The sum was approved by a majority vote in the National Assembly.

(From page 8)

removed, why not a Chair of a committee? This is logical, isn’t it?”

A subsequent motion by Minister Teixeira for Mr. Patterson’s removal as Chairperson was asterisked by him meaning it was not to be dealt with.

Teixeira noted that Mr. Patterson was advised by both the Clerk and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Manzoor Nadir, that he did not possess the authority to asterisk a motion. In a letter to Mr. Patterson, the Speaker had also indicated to him that his actions were a “gross violation of the Standing Orders and tantamount to bullyism”.

She siad, “I have been around a while and I have never seen this behavior in any committee in any legislative assembly that I have been a part of over the years. I find this upsetting…from February 1 through the months of March, April and May, I saw no movement from the member, no acknowledgement, no attempt to call the meeting of the Committee to put the motion on the table. I felt as though it was a hopeless cause… I want people

to understand that it is not with delight that I bring this motion.”

During the debate on the motion before the House Opposition MP, Hon. Khemraj Ramjattan argued that since Patterson is before the courts in connection with a $160 million fraud charge, the proposed motion would be sub judice.

However, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall noted that the Parliament has the authority to regulate its own procedures and business. He further indicated that since the motion made no mention of the charges that are before the court, there was nothing stopping the Assembly from moving forward with it.

The motion was passed after contributions from more than a dozen Government and opposition MPs. The sitting, which started at 2:00pm on Monday (June 15, 2021) ended at 5:32am on Tuesday (June 15, 2021), with the vote to remove Patterson as the Chairman of the PAC being the last matter that the National Assembly addressed.

10

National Emergency Operating Centre activated ─ for better coordination, response to flooding

P

rime Minister Hon. Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips on Wednesday (June 16, 2021) activated the National Emergency Operating Centre (NEOC) to better coordinate and respond to the ongoing countrywide flooding.

Prime Minister Phillips, in his address to the first NEOC meeting, said the activation of the Centre has come at an opportune time. “The aim [is] to apprise stakeholders of their participation in the NEOC in response to the current flood situation. To document and consolidate all response actions to date, to determine immediate and medium term needs to maximise the use of resources of all agencies,” he said.

He added that agencies involved in the disaster response mechanism must continue their hard work of helping affected persons return to normality. He said, “I ask that we continue to work now, with the establishment of the National Emergency Operations Centre in a more informed, driven manner, as we seek to continue relief efforts and plan recovery efforts coming out of this unprecedented flood disaster that has affected all of Guy-

ana. I thank you all for your work so far and I urge that we continue to work together in a more informed manner, as we seek to bring relief to the people of Guyana and to get them back on their feet in terms of their economic activity and their livelihood.”

Further, Chief Hydrometeorological Officer at the National Weather Watch Centre, Dr. Garvin Cummings said the operationalisation of the NEOC is fitting as the wet season will persist until August. He disclosed that Guyana will be affected by a tropical wave from Wednesday to Friday evening, which will cause increased rain between two and four inches.

Meanwhile, Director General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig said the NEOC will be the repository of data on the flooding, which will be analysed before critical decisions are made. He said if decisions cannot be made at the level of the NEOC, the information will be submitted to the Prime Minister or the President for a pronouncement.

A team from the regional

disaster response agency will soon be deployed to Guyana to conduct a Detailed Damage Sector Assessment (DDSA). Lt. Col. Craig said the report from the DDSA will inform the social economic assessment.

The CDC has already requested assistance from the European Union under its Civil Protection Mechanism, to strengthen its flood relief efforts. As parts of Guyana continue to grapple with flooding, the Government is working feverishly to provide relief to flood-affected persons.

Minister of Public Works, Hon. Bishop Juan Edghill; Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Zulfikar Mustapha; Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Hon. Dr. Vindhya Persaud; and representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Local Government and Regional Development, Health, Amerindian Affairs, Finance, National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute, Guyana Livestock and Development Authority, Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Police Force and the National Data Management Authority also attended the meeting.

Heavy rainfall which could last until mid-July ‒ CDC says Guyana’s disaster levels vary across regions

G

uyana has been classified Level 2 Disaster under the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency’s (CDEMA) mechanism, which indicates that the national capacity to respond is not overwhelmed but external assistance is required.

The assistance can take the form of technical assistance, the provision of specialised equipment, support personnel and information sharing in order to respond and recover from the event.

Despite Guyana’s situation being classified as Level 2, the impact of the flood in the regions vary, with regions 1, 3, 4, 8 and 9 being at Level 2, given national capacity to manage the impact, while regions 2, 5, 7 and 10 are classified as Level 3, based on the magnitude of the flood.

It is for this reason that regional and international

support is needed to effectively mobilize resources in order to respond and recover from the impact of the floods.

A Tropical Wave embedded within the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is currently affecting Guyana, resulting in heavy rainfall which could last until mid-July.

Since May 18, 2021, the CDC has received reports of more than 29,000 households suffering from flooding in more than 300 communities countrywide.

To date, a total of 17,829 cleaning hampers and 21,735 food hampers have been distributed across the regions as a form of emergency relief.

The Commission continues to manage shelters set up in regions 2, 9 and 10, housing a total of 205 residents who have been displaced from their homes.

The declaration of Level

2 Disaster in Guyana President Dr. Irfaan Ali by virtue of flooding, has seen intensified efforts at the regional level to better coordinate response activities with the Civil Defence Commission.

The declaration was made on June 9, 2021and gazetted on Thursday, June 10, 2021 under Article 99 of the Constitution which vests the executive authority of Guyana in the President who has responsibility for disaster management. Under the Constitution, the President has been authorised to declare a disaster if he is satisfied that a disaster has happened and it has become necessary for the CDC to exercise disaster management powers, to prevent or minimise loss of human life, illness or injury to humans, property loss or damage to the environment.

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Guyana likely to get flood support under EU Civil Protection Mechanism

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uyana is likely to receive emergency support from the European Union (EU) under its Civil Protection Mechanism which aims to improve prevention, preparedness and response to disasters when an emergency overwhelms local response capabilities of the affected country.

Director General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Lieutenant Colonel, Kester Craig today updated Ms. Evelina Melbarzde, Chargé d’ Affaires of the Delegation of the European Union in Guyana, on the Level 2 Flood Disaster that has been declared in Guyana.

The meeting was also attended by CDC’s Senior Preparedness Officer, Captain Lakshman Persaud and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Olive Gopaul.

During the meeting, the EU Chargé d’ Affaires invited Guyana to request for the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (EU CPM) to be activated.

“Once the Mechanism is activated the assistance is coordinated amongst 34 countries who participate in the EU CPM… I would invite you to formulate your request and tell us what exactly would be needed”, the Chargé d’ Affaires said.

Ms. Melbarzde informed the CDC that if this mechanism would be launched it would not be linked to any EU projects that are currently being implemented in Guyana.

By pooling together civil protection capacities and capabilities, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism allows for a stronger and more coherent collective response.

In addition to the EU Member States, there are currently 6 Participating States to the Civil Protection Mechanism (Iceland, Norway, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Turkey).

US$1M from Japan to boost National Flood Early Warning System

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he Government of Japan has made approximately US$1 million available to boost Guyana’s National Flood Early Warning System.

This is according to Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, who noted that he recent flooding has highlighted the need for an effective National Flood Early Warning System.

He said, “The handing over of this National Flood Early Warning System comes as a critical point for Guyana. The recent flooding which has been declared as a national disaster has highlighted the need for a well-developed and operational National Flood Early Warning System. Such a System would provide opportunities for climate change adaptation and resilience benefits while at the same time improving disaster preparedness, and reducing the costs associated with response/relief and reconstruction.”

Minister Mustapha also said Guyana is currently experiencing the worst flood on record, in terms of scale, and that recovering from this event will no doubt require the Government and the Agriculture Ministry to redirect resources to address the challenges, which are also affecting planned interventions. Added to that, he said developing a National Early Warning System is

crucial to the nation’s advancement.

“It is in this context that the development of a National Flood Early Warning System becomes extremely relevant to the development of Guyana. Early warning systems are an important component of a country’s disaster risk management strategy. Going beyond flood forecasting – which assesses flood risks, flood early warning systems, allows authorities (in this case the Hydromet Service) to issue warnings when a flood is imminent or already occurring,” Minister Mustapha said.

Guyana experiences an annual and or bi-annual cycle of flooding driven primarily by the May/June rains or in the secondary rainfall season at the end of the year either in the Coastal Regions or in the hinterland.

The multifunctional Early Warning System is expected to improve community preparedness for extreme weather events such as the current wide-scale floods, in terms of both warning and increasing understanding of the risks associated with the events, and the appropriate flood responses that have to be implemented.

Furthermore, Minster Mustapha emphasized that in order to develop a fullfledged Flood Early Warning System, significant hu-

man, technical and capital investments are required.

“The Government of Guyana recognises that today’s handing over does not represent the development and launch of a full-fledge Flood Early Warning System for every corner of Guyana. There is still a long road ahead that would require significant human, technical, and capital investments to ensure that we have a truly comprehensive system in place. While the current system still requires much more work beyond what has already been achieved, we believe that it sets a strong foundation upon which a comprehensive system can be built.

This system, when coupled with the current work being done under the Climate Risk and Early Warning System (CREWS) initiative for the development of a national Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS), will significantly advance Guyana’s climate resilience,” Minister Mustapha added.

The Minister expressed gratitude to the Government and People of Japan for their timely donation towards boosting Guyana’s Flood Early Warning System.

Officials from UNITAR, UNOSAT, CIMA Research Foundation, and the staff of the Ministry’s Hydrometeorological Service were also recognised for their contribution to the project.

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POSITIONS FROM THE PRESIDENT

Gov’t to expand range of E-Services in pursuit of urban development vision ‒ Ali says Single Window Approval System a vital step T he introduction of the Single Window Approval System will facilitate the expansion of a range of E-Services offered and aid the country’s urban development, according to President, Dr. Irfaan Ali. Having this system in place will allow for the electronic transmission of building permits, applications, approvals, and issuances.

This effort, he added, will be supplemented with investment in transport infrastructure to improve connectivity and support the agro-industrial, light manufacturing, commercial and tourism sectors.

The Head of State was at the time delivering the keynote address at the 10th Caribbean Urban Forum, held virtually on Wednesday (June 16, 2021). He said, “If I will give you the example of Guyana, we have the difficulty in delays of processing permits, building approvals that sometimes can take as long as eight months to one year. This cannot be healthy for a competitive environment.”

The President further explained that such a situation is also harmful to investors’ confidence, and therefore, the Government’s policies must reflect this reality. He said, “In urban planning, we have to also realise that our decision and our policies have a direct impact on the country’s competitiveness.”

Over the past several months, President Ali has continuously emphasised the importance of this process, given the country’s transformative agenda. He said that studies have pointed to a major deficiency in the length of time it takes to approve building permits.

STEPS TO URBAN TRANSFORMATION The Head of State further explained that the introduction of the Single Window Approval System is just one

of many examples of his administration’s “comprehensive vision” for urban transformation in Guyana.

“This urban transformation that we are all enthusiastic about does not happen independently; it requires visionary and transformational leadership, and that is what the Government, under my leadership as President is all about. That is what the governments of many of our Caribbean countries are pursuing, a new vision, a bold initiative, transformational thinking, and I am seeing this more and more from our practitioners,” Ali said.

CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGE Other key components of the urban transformation include; a modernised city with a vibrant waterfront; transformation of depressed rural areas into new urban growth centres, through the attraction of investment, and aided by a facility like the Wales Development Authority; the development of hinterland urban centres; improved infrastructure in newly emerging urban settlement nodes, like Parika and the Diamond/Grove districts; improved capacity and functional efficiency of urban transport corridors and the development of new, non-coastal, urban development like the planned Silica City along the Soesdyke-Linden highway.

He said, “…Silica City is not only going to be a new urban centre, but it is an important support to Georgetown because of the challenge climate change poses to us and the rising sea levels. This is an area that should be of great interest to planners all across the region.”

President Ali said too that as countries pursue different paths along the road of development, with sustainability as the overarching goal, it is imperative to con-

sider building urban resilience, which not only takes

into consideration a natural or physical environmental

construct but also a resilient policy environment, allied

to the right array of policies that guide decision-making.

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WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

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flood relief to all affected areas

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WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

COM M ENTARY

‘Sputnik V’ vaccines saving lives in 74 countries

By Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

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lobally, the use of COVID-19 vaccines became an emergency, an imperative. Individual countries considered clinical trials data and used their national registries to approve emergency use for vaccines. The UK and other European countries began using Astra Zeneca before World Health Organization (WHO) approval.

The US began using Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson before the WHO approval. Russia began using Sputnik V before WHO approval. India, China began using locally produced vaccines before WHO approval.

Given the data available to us and which were submitted to the WHO, Guyana made a decision that saving lives is more important than risking people's lives and approved Sputnik V, AZ, SinoPharm, Pfizer and other vaccines.

Guyana did not do so lightly.

Where we needed to, Guyana

utilized other independent scrutiny. For example, with SputnikV, we considered not only the data submitted from clinical trials by Russia, but also carefully considered the scrutiny of the clinical trials data done by the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world.

The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago is out of line. Reckless too. He insulted Guyana and the seventy-four countries that presently are using vaccines like Sputnik V. Guyana has utilized three vaccines in our program - Astra Zeneca, SinoPharm and Sputnik V. So far, more than 225,000 persons (48% of the adult population in Guyana) have received their first dose vaccines. Of these persons, 95,000 (20% of the adult population) are now fully vaccinated, having also received their second dose vaccines. President Irfaan Ali and his Government act-

ed in the best interest of our people and, globally and in CARICOM, Guyana's bold and decisive actions on COVID-19 vaccination is acknowledged and admired.

Already, Guyana is seeing the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination. Only a handful of persons who received their first dose (less than 0.1%) have tested positive for COVID-19 after they would have had their first dose vaccines. In terms of each of the vaccines, AZ, SinoPharm or Sputnik V , testing positive for COVID-19 after taking the vaccine, is less than 0.01%. But the majority of these persons who would have tested positive for COVID-19 are likely to have been infected prior to taking their vaccines. Of the persons who are fully vaccinated, not one has tested positive after their second dose. Not one person has been in the ICU after they were fully vaccinated. These are the facts.

In defending the vaccine fiasco in his country, Prime Minister Rowley, unwittingly or deliberately, implied that Guyana's successful vaccination program so far is an illusion because Guyana utilized vaccines not approved for use. He boasted that Trinidad and Tobago has the most vaccine doses already in country than any other country in CARICOM, except Guyana, but that Guyana's vaccines do not count since they are not approved. I will not comment on how Prime Minister Rowley has managed his country's vaccine program; how he has managed the Island's vaccine program is a matter his people have already pronounced on. The criticism from his own people must be stinging enough for Prime Minister Rowley to attempt changing the narrative. It is his right, if he chooses to change his country's narrative, but he should not seek to change his country's narrative at Guyana's expense. Let me set the record straight.

First of all, at the time the Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister stated that Trinidad and Tobago had within their country 234,000 doses of vaccines, Guyana had in our possession 465,000 doses of vaccines, twice the amount of doses that Prime Minister Rowley's country had.

But this is not the important point, it is his raising legitimacy issues with the vaccines Guyana has approved for use.

Let me make it clear - all the vaccines in use in Guyana were registered and approved for use by Guyana's Food and Drug Analyst Department.

Those registrations and approvals are not automatic.

They are based on a number of considerations and a process Guyana has used for decades. It is the same process that saved thousands of lives when we registered Indian-produced and locally-produced HIV medicines.

The following are vac-

cines and the amount administered and present in Guyana: Astra Zeneca (140,400 doses), Sinopharm (20,000 doses), Sputnik V (305,000 doses). In addition, Guyana expects to receive an additional 471,000 doses of vaccines between now and September, as follows: 38,000 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccines in July from COVAX, 183,000 doses of Sputnik V in June/July, 100,000 doses of SinoPharm from China within the next two weeks, 150,000 doses of vaccines, including the Johnson and Johnson vaccines by August from an arrangement with the African Union. With what Guyana has and what is coming, Guyana has secured enough vaccines to vaccinate all adults before the end of this year. We hope this would be true for all CARICOM countries.

The vaccines used in Guyana are all safe and effective. This includes Sputnik V. The largest amount of vaccine doses used in Guyana as of now is the Sputnik V vaccines. Millions of doses of this vaccine have been administered safely to persons around the world. Production of the vaccines are now global. Not only are these vaccines produced in Russia, but production has started in India, China, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt.

Production is also likely in a number of European countries.

Sputnik V vaccine effectiveness and safely have been scrutinized by the British Medical Journal, the Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious medical journal. Lancet studied the clinical trial results for this vaccine. They did not take anybody's word; they did their own scrutiny of the clinical trial data. As reported in the Lancet, Sputnik V has a 93% effective rate of preventing SARS-CoV 2 infection. This effectiveness in preventing COVID-19

infections is comparable to the Pfizer vaccines in the USA. But the most important data is that when persons are fully vaccinated with Sputnik V, these persons are 100% protected against serious COVID-19 illness.

The Gamaleya Research Institute, the developer of Sputnik V vaccine, is one of the most respected biomedical research labs in the world. The vaccine is in use in 74 countries around the world, in all continents, except in North America. Fully 33% of all counties in Latin America are using the Spunik V vaccine. More countries use Sputnik V today than use Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson because these are not yet available to most countries.

Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines are presently undergoing World Organization (WHO) approval process and is expected to receive WHO approval within months. So far, WHO has completed evaluation of the clinical trials data for and has approved Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna, SinoPharm, and SinoVac vaccines. Both Moderna and Sinopharm vaccines only obtained approval recently.

Sputnik V vaccine is also being evaluated by the EU Regulatory Authority and is expected to be approved within months.

Saving lives, rather than risking people's lives is the reason why more countries are turning to Russia for Sputnik V vaccines. Recently UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for children and adolescents, signed a contract with Russia to procure 220 million doses of Sputnik V. When availability of all vaccines no longer is an issue countries can pick and choose.

Right now the vaccine in front of us, as Dr. Tony Fauci puts it, is the best vaccine.

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PARLIAMENT HAPPENINGS UNDER REVIEW $619M approved to purchase more COVID-19 vaccines

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uyana is expected to procure several thousand doses more COVID-19 vaccines after some $619.2M was approved the National Assembly.

The $619.2M was part of a supplementary financial paper, detailing requests for $21.36B in current and capital expen-

ditures, which was tabled in the House last week and debated on Monday (June 14, 2021).

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony says the vaccines are necessary to inoculate the adult population against the deadly disease. “We are also procuring vaccines through the CARICOM-African

Union mechanism and we have allocated $341M under this heading to be able to procure those vaccines.

We’ve also allocated approximately $278M to buy an additional 58,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccines,” he said.

Some 148,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are being procured through the

CARICOM-African Union partnership.

Anthony gave assurances that although enough vaccines were acquired to ensure inoculation, it was only due to the Government’s efforts. He noted that the Government actively sought to secure the vaccines through various mechanisms, which has

enabled over 44 per cent of Guyana’s adult population to receive their first dose of a vaccine.

He explained that had the Government depended solely on the COVAX mechanism, only 10 per cent of the country’s adult population would have been vaccinated.

The procurement of

the additional vaccines will boost the Ministry of Health’s immunisation campaign.

The campaign which began in March 2021 has seen more than 221,000 persons receiving their first dose of a COVID vaccine, while over 87,000 persons have been fully vaccinated.

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President instructs review of all drainage, infrastructure contracts P

resident Irfaan Ali on Wednesday (June 16, 2021) instructed the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, to “immediately review all service and maintenance contracts within the sphere of the Government of Guyana and the entire State structure”, in relation to drainage pumps, sluices, kokers and drainage and irrigation.

A statement from the Office of the President added that Nandlall has also been called on to enforce any penalty clause against contractors who are in breach

of their obligations under their contracts. “I have also instructed the Attorney General that where such penalty clauses are absent that these contracts be renegotiated for the purpose of inserting penalty clauses, which can be activated when contractors fail to discharge their duties under such contracts”, the statement said.

The move comes as several Regions across the country continue to battle with flooding, due to adverse weather conditions.

Responsible action Meanwhile, in the City,

Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, has called on the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to implement better mechanisms to properly manage flooding in the capital city.

The Minister made this appeal on Wednesday (June 16, 2021), after visiting several pump stations and sluices across in Georgetown. He made checks at the Ruimveldt, Riverview, La Penitence South, Sussex Street and Cowan Street, Kingston drainage sites. “Last night, when our engineers were checking to see those pumps

and sluices that are operable, what they found was that the Ruimveldt sluice was not operating because the operator was not there,” he said.

Mustapha added that while his Ministry is doing its best to ensure the pumps are functioning well, the municipality must also honour its responsibility, especially since a callous approach could affect the people. He said, “There was no one from the City Council to check to see if the operators are operating these pumps or sluices…I spoke to the Town Clerk this morning and I told

her that they have to have a mechanism to check on these pumps and sluices. We are not getting the cooperation from the City Council.”

Further, he noted that there were several cases where pumps stations were inoperable and unattended.

He also said attempts to contact the mayor about the matter proved futile. “I have asked both the CEO and the Chairman of NDIA to launch an investigation to find out what’s the issue; why are we having these kinds of problems. I want to urge the City Council,

let us don’t play politics with the lives of people in the city,” the Agriculture Minister said.

He disclosed too that engineers from National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) will be assigned to properly monitor the pumps, noting that the three pumps which are inoperable will be functioning by this afternoon.

NDIA’s Chairman, Mr. Lionel Wordsworth and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Fredrick Flatts accompanied the Minster during the checks.

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Crucial GECOM meeting cancelled - Absence of Coalition-nominated Commissioners results in lack of quorum

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he weekly statutory meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), scheduled for Tuesday (June 15, 2021), was cancelled due to a lack of quorum.

The crucial meeting could not take place after two APNU+AFC Coalition nominated Commissioners – Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin – were absent. The duo cited attendance at a funeral as their excuse for being absent.

Tuesday’s meeting was expected to address a debate on the three motions on the removal of the Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield; Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers; and Region Four Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo.

All three are currently before the courts facing charges related to misconduct in public office.

The motions were supported by government-nominated GECOM Commissioners, Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shaddick and Manoj Narayan.

The motion to dismiss Lowenfield was tabled by Gunraj and Shadick and listed 20 grounds on which he should be dismissed. The Commissioners said that Lowenfield breached his functions, duties, responsibilities and obligations when he neglected to ensure due adherence and compliance with the statutory process outlined in Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA), Chapter 1:03 by Mingo, who was under his direct supervision. Mingo, according to the Commissioners, failed to follow the stipulated process of adding up the Statements of Poll (SoPs) for his District and Lowenfield

aided in his noncompliance.

Lowenfield is accused of also breaching his functions when he neglected to provide proper and lawful directions, instructions and guidance to the officers and employees of the Secretariat in the performance of their statutory duties during the process of the adding up of the votes recorded in the SoPs for Electoral District Four.

Myers is accused of aiding and abetting Lowenfield’s actions. In her case, the motion was submitted in the names of Shadick and Narayan. They argued that she also went out of her way to facilitate a meeting in a GECOM facility by then Foreign Affairs Minister Karen Cummings where she threatened to revoke the accreditation of international observers. Myers’ order to have the Guyana Police Force remove Commissioner Gunraj

Appeal filed...

Nandlall says Parliamentary Secretaries’ appointments remain valid

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he appointments of Parliamentary Secretaries, Sarah Brown and Vikash Ramkissoon remain valid and effective, according to Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.

The Government has appealed the decision by Chief Justice (Ag.) Roxane George to prevent Ms. Brown and Mr. Ramkissoon from participating in the proceedings of the National Assembly, although they are Parliamentary Secretaries.

“Remember they are assigned to two ministries and they will continue to function in those ministries. The only thing is that they have been

advised not to attend the National Assembly and not to participate in the proceedings of the National Assembly,” Nandlall has said.

Ms. Brown and Mr. Ramkissoon were appointed by President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali to sit as Members of the National Assembly. The Opposition had however, challenged the appointments, claiming that they were unlawful.

Subsequently, the Attorney General filed a Notice of Appeal in the Court of Appeal against the decision, on the grounds that the Chief Justice misconstrued and

misinterpreted the law. An application was also filed seeking a stay of the effect of the Chief Justice’s order.

Nandlall said, “That matter is pending before the Court of Appeal and we are awaiting a date for hearing. I am also asking in that application that the Court fix the Appeal so that we can hear the case quickly and either way, if one is aggrieved, one goes to the Caribbean Court of Justice.”

The AG said the proceedings are good since they settle very important constitutional and legal issues regarding the country’s democracy.

and political party representatives from the GECOM Command Centre during the tabulation of the SOPs is also listed as one of the reasons she should be dismissed from her substantive post as DCEO. Meanwhile, Mingo is accused of discarding his oath of office and failing to act fairly and impartially or legally in the discharge of his duties. The grounds for Mingo’s dismissal surround

his tabulation of the SOPs in which he clearly manufactured numbers to reflect a win by the APNU+AFC Coalition. It also concerns his conduct and defiance of the court orders mandating that he follow the outlined statutory process to acquire his final tally of the SOPs. The three were informed of the motions by GECOM Chair, retired Justice Claudette Singh, and were given until June 15, 2021 to respond to the allegations.

Meanwhile, Commis-

sioner Gunraj indicated that he was unaware that the trio had submitted any responses on the matter. Commenting on GECOM’s authority to sanction the trio, Gunraj had said, “The law specifically states that they are subject to the direction and control of the Commission. As a consequence, we are not constrained from engaging in any process that we see fit.”

The GECOM Chair has not commented on this development.

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Teixeira rubbishes Ferguson’s 'fiction' ‒ Says it is intended to ‘spread fear’

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he APNU+AFC Coalition’s Annette Ferguson has come in for criticism over a social media post that has been dubbed as “malicious and deluded” by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira.

Ferguson, in her social media post, accused the PPP/C Government of “setting up of Death Squad and Black Clothes groups.”

Teixeira, “This is totally untrue. It is malicious both

on the part of the MP (Member of Parliament) and the news agency that published it. On Monday (June 14, 2021), the Parliament looked at two financial papers. The second financial paper dealt with a number of agencies.

“One of those agencies was the Guyana Defence Force…the majority items had to do with the Regional Joint Support teams. This is a decision of the Defence Board and the implemen-

tation commenced in April 2021. The Regional Joint Support teams are made up of the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force.

This is an operational issue to enhance our capabilities to fight crime, all types of crime. “…this has nothing to do with any Black Clothes Group. This is not a resuscitation of anything. This is a new initiative by the Government through the Guyana Defence Board to be able to reduce the level of crime, to be able to have better

access to information and intelligence sharing between agencies in order to make our society safer and to be able to make our people live in a safer environment.

The approved supplementary provision for the GDF included $394,391,923 for current and $318,662,251 for capital expenditures.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister said neither the line of questioning from the Opposition’s side on the supplementary provision for the GDF, nor the response by the Government side, made mention of ‘black clothes’ or ‘death squad.’ “This fiction that is being created by Annette Ferguson…this is an attempt to drive fear amongst people…Ms. Ferguson is deliberately misinforming the people of our country

and this is unacceptable,” she charged.

Minister Teixeira also supported the statement from the Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, which also condemned Ferguson’s post.

Benn in his statement said, “The Ministry of Home Affairs notes with serious concern the contents of a Facebook post by Ms. Annette Ferguson, Member of the Parliament of Guyana, wherein she refers to “setting up of Death Squad and Black Clothes groups” arriving out of the considerations of Financial paper 2/2021 during the parliamentary session on Monday 14th, June 2021. Appended to her post is an article from “Guyana News Today” which headlines “Exclusive: PPP secures @250million budget to resus-

citation Black Clothes Death Squad”.

“It is apt to note that none of the deliberately malicious and incendiary statements were made during the consideration of the matter of the establishment of Regional Joint Support teams, either in presentations or even heckling from the benches.”

Benn condemned Ferguson’s actions in the “strongest possible terms” and described it as a “malicious, deliberate, incendiary and delusional attempts to: bring the security forces into disrepute; to target individuals in those services; and to foment mischief and misrepresentations” with respect to the policies and programs of the PPP/C government in its efforts to improve safety and security throughout Guyana.

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POSITIONS FROM FREEDOM HOUSE

Sacrifices of Enmore Martyrs remain relevant today T he selfless sacrifices of the five slain sugar workers, Rambarran, Pooran, Lallabagee, Surajballi and Harry remain relevant today, said the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in a statement to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs shooting.

The party reminded that in 1948, having been strangled by social and economic hardships, the burdensome “cut and load” cane harvesting system, and being deprived of having a union of choice to represent them, sugar workers were forced to mount protest actions after their fair demands were continually being ignored by the sugar producers.

“Instead of their demands being met, riot police fired on the poor, simple workers, killing five in the process.

They died in their quest for a better life for all the workers and their struggles and horrific deaths significantly impacted Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

“On that unforgettable day of their funerals, he silently pledged to dedicate his life to the cause of the Guyanese people and to free them from bondage and exploitation.

Fortified in his belief and determination, he was unrelenting in his struggles for the advancement of Guyana and Guyanese,” the PPP said.

Dr Jagan founded the PPP in 1950 and despite being

incarcerated and deprived of his rights during the decades of his unremitting struggles; he never succumbed to the atrocities meted out to him and his followers by the oppressive forces.

The struggles of the Enmore Martyrs and Dr. Jagan, the PPP said, were guiding forces during the ominous period when thousands of sugar workers were coldheartedly fired and plunged into economic despair through the politically motivated closure of estates by the APNU+AFC Coalition.

“It was also a source of inspiration when the APNU+AFC government, through its visionless and

inept leadership, strangled our people through harsh and unjustified economic policies and when in full view of the world, they shamelessly tried to steal the March 2, 2020 elections in defiance of the will of the Guyanese people.

Their efforts have imbued in us that profound sense of value of our freedoms

and the need for them to be safeguarded from those with a penchant for totalitarianism and constitutional transgression. In the end, truth triumphed and democracy prevailed. Our people and country, despite being challenged, remain resolute and fortified having endured that recent assault on our free-

doms. It further exemplifies the relevance of the struggles of the Enmore Martyrs in today’s world. The PPP will continue to honour the memory of those martyrs so as to ensure their sacrifices will not be forgotten,” the statement from the party concluded.

(People’s Progressive Party June 15, 2021)

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Harmon’s ‘malicious’ attempt to derail COVID vaccination programme rejected B

y any standards, the Guyana COVID-19 Vaccination program has been successful so far. As of June 15, 2021, Guyana has vaccinated 223,659 persons (46% of the adult population) with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines. Guyana has also fully vaccinated 92,157 persons (17% of the adult population) against COVID-19. At this moment, Guyana ranked as the country with the most vaccination in CARICOM, ahead of all countries in this region with populations above 600,000 people.

The President of Guyana, H.E Mohamed Irfaan Ali, has mandated that the Ministry of Health strive to vaccinate all adults by the end of 2021. In this regard, the Government of Guyana will not be distracted in its effort to ensure Guyana attains fully-vaccinated status for adults in 2021. The Government of Guyana has reiterated on many occasions that Guyana will not be deterred by vaccine price or other barriers.

The Government has declared that it will invest as necessary to protect the Guyanese people.

Guyana is on the path to securing adequate COVID-19 vaccines to immunize all adult persons living in Guyana in 2021. To ensure sufficient supplies, the Ministry of Health held bilateral discussions with countries, namely India, China, Russia, the US, the EU, Kuwait and the UAE.

In addition, Guyana had bilateral talks with manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, SinoPharm, Covaxin, Russian Direct Investment Fund.

We also discussed several multilateral organizations, including the Organization of the Islamic States, the African Union/Caricom initiative and COVAX. In all these engagements, it became clear that Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson were not in a position to supply vaccines to Guyana in 2021. However, Johnson and Johnson indicated that their timeline could be shifted to the 4th quarter of 2021. It became clear that any vaccine available will be from COVAX, India, China and Russia.

Guyana was not willing to wait on Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. Clearly, for immediate vaccination of the Guyanese people, our immediate reaction was to seek other options. Under these circumstances, Guyana approached countries like China, Russia, and India to seek direct procurement.

These discussions are still ongoing and resulted in an agreement with China for 100,000 doses. It was during these discussions that an opportunity to procure 400,000 doses of Sputnik through the UAE presented itself.

Guyana took the opportunity to procure Sputnik vaccines under this arrangement while

keeping our options open for procurement from other sources.

So far, Guyana has been able to secure vaccines from the following sources: • COVAX – Guyana is a signatory in the COVAX agreement and has received so far 62,400 doses of Astra Zeneca Vaccine • Barbados – Guyana received 3,000 doses of AstraZeneca as a donation from Barbados • China – Guyana received 20,000 Sinopharm doses of vaccines as a donation from China • India – Guyana received 80,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India. {Note that Guyana, in turn, donated 5,000 doses of this vaccine to Barbados].

• Guyana procured 400,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines from Dubai. [Note Guyana has received 305,000 doses of this so far. Guyana expects to receive 95,000 doses of Sputnik vaccines from this procurement to arrive in Guyana soon • China – Guyana has procured 100,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China and expect to receive this shipment within the next two weeks.

• African Union/CARICOM Agreement – Guyana is part of an AU/CARICOM Agreement to purchase vaccines from the AU. In this procurement arrangement, Guyana is procuring 148,000 doses

of vaccines. A portion of this will be made up of Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

Guyana opted to buy vaccines to complement the donations received and ensure that we have an adequate supply of vaccines for every adult. Guyana has purchased the following vaccines through direct procurement: • Sputnik V vaccines – the Office of Admed Dalmook Al Maktoum • Johnson and Johnson and other vaccines – African Union • SinoPharm vaccines – Sinopharm.

At no time did Guyana procure vaccines from any illegal entity or anyone in trouble with legal authorities anywhere. At no time did Guyana access vaccines secretly from anyone. In every instance, the Ministry of Health has followed the established process and has established legally binding contracts to ensure the timely delivery of these vaccines.

Guyana has always announced prices we have paid whenever we have procured vaccines. The Minister of Health has made pronouncements on prices in and out of Parliament. His Excellency President Irfaan Ali has also announced prices Guyana has paid. It has never been a secret that Guyana paid $US22 per dose of the Sputnik V vaccine and $US17 per dose of Sinopharm. These prices include all associated

cost, including ground and air transport.

The Ministry of Health rejects the Leader of the Opposition’s malicious statement, which is intended to add to the whisper campaign in communities to slow down the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. We note the Leader of the Opposition’s statement on June 15. We are disappointed that the Leader of the Opposition believes that the price Guyana paid for Sputnik V vaccines is overpriced. When he admitted in parliament that he could not get a better price, the Ministry of Health will never believe that saving the lives of our people is an overpriced option. Guyana has sought to procure directly from the Russian Sovereign Fund, but with no firm commitments on a delivery schedule, Guyana opted to utilize a supplier.

It was a good investment for our people at the time. It remains a good investment at this time. The Ministry of Health has no apologies in this regard.

This indicates what would have happened had the Leader of the Opposition still been in Government – our people would not have had access to vaccines. The Opposition Leader has openly declared that in vaccinating 223,659 persons with a first dose and the 92,157 fully vaccinated persons so far, the price paid was not worth it. No one that is fully vaccinated in Guyana

has ended up in the ICU; none has died. This investment in our people is entirely worth it.

The Ministry of Health has followed the SOPs for procurement, always obtaining NPTAB approval for procurement. In terms of the single-sourcing of vaccines, there is no availability from different sources that permit open tendering. Guyana has sought to procure from any of the entities or countries with vaccines approved for use in those countries. We will continue to do so and procure vaccines from sources with authentic availability.

Guyana has not procured vaccines from any illegal source as far as Mr Harmon’s claim that the Government procured vaccines from any international fraudster; this is blatantly false. We are not aware of, have not seen any evidence, and none was presented by the Leader of the Opposition, or any other person or entities, that show Sheik Al Maktoum is an international fraudster or wanted in any country.

The Ministry of Health rejects the Leader of the Opposition’s mischievous and malicious attempt to derail the COVID-19 vaccination program in Guyana. Instead, we will again encourage him, stop his divisiveness, stop undermining the vaccination drive, and ask that he encourage everyone to take their vaccines. (Ministry of Health)

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WEEKEND MIRROR 19-20 JUNE, 2021

Guyana considering COVID-19 vaccine passport G

Regions encouraged to tailor COVID-19 campaigns for efficacy

M

inister of Health,. Dr. Frank Anthony is encouraging administrative regions across Guyana to tailor their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns to suit their specific needs.

He made clear that he supports the efforts of the various regions in ensuring persons receive their jabs.

Dr. Anthony noted that the house-to-house vaccination campaign conducted by the Upper Demerara-Berbice (Region 10), has resulted in an increase in vaccinations.

“Region 10 has been from the onset, lagging in terms of the number of persons who have received their vaccines and I am happy that more and more, that the community leaders are now talking about getting people vaccinated. I was very pleased to see that

the Regional Chairman made a statement again, pertaining to vaccine that he and others in the Region will be working to ensure that people get vaccinated,” Minister Anthony said.

He said each Region is unique and must be dealt with accordingly for an effective outcome. “Each region, there is peculiarities in those regions and we don’t want a one-size-fit all campaign.

We want the health personnel and other people in the Region to customise their response that is most suitable to that Region. In Region Eight for example, they have challenges with the terrain; Region Seven, right now, because of the floods, they have challenges in the Upper Mazaruni. So, different regions will have different

challenges,” he said.

The Health Minister said the idea is to work with the people on the ground who have more local knowledge and information, and can contribute effectively to the campaign. He said, “If we work with the communities, we could get the best and optimum response.”

In the meantime, several regions will also host COVID-19 drive-through campaigns. Minister Anthony appealed to persons who have not yet taken their second dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine to do so as they vaccines are available.

To date, 222,370 persons over 18 years old have taken their first COVID-19 vaccine, with those fully vaccinated totalling over 90,000.

uyana is still considering implementing a COVID-19 travel certificate, as the country continues to work towards curbing transmission of the deadly disease here, according to Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony.

In comments on Friday (June 11, 2021), during a COVID update, he said while countries around the world have implemented the system, the World Health Organization has not taken a strong position on implementation due to vaccine hesitancy. “Many countries still don’t have access to vaccines and if you make that compulsory, and there aren’t enough vaccines, it can be problematic. For those countries who have vaccines, they’re starting to put measures in place such as this travel certificate,” he said.

As more persons receive their COVID-19 vaccines, Minister Anthony said the Government would have to consider the option moving forward. “Some of these types of considerations you have to take on board especially if countries to which the airlines here fly to, would be asking for such travel documents. So, if that becomes a requirement, then we probably will have to follow suit, but the way things are going, it looks like a lot

of countries are going to be implementing this vaccine passport or travel certificate, but there’s still that discussion that is ongoing,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister Anthony noted that investigations are ongoing into the alleged forgery of a COVID-19 vaccination certificate. Last week, police arrested a woman who allegedly forged a COVID-19 vaccination card to travel overseas. The Minister noted that there are serious consequences for falsifying documents. He said, “We are

going to take very stringent, serious actions against persons who try to forge these certificates because it’s a really serious matter. If you’re not vaccinated, and you then tender some document to pretend that you have been vaccinated, you should face the full brunt of the law because you’re putting yourself at risk and you’re putting others at risk.”

He said the Ministry will be “on the lookout” for any recurrence of such incidents as it risks putting the entire COVID-19 vaccination campaign into disrepute.

Each Guyanese must play their part, get vaccinated [Message from Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret'd) Mark Phillips]

A

s Prime Minister and Coordinator of the National Covid-19 Task Force, I am making a special appeal to workers in both the public and private sectors to get inoculated against Covid-19.

By taking the vaccine as quickly as possible, you will not only protect yourself, but your loved ones also.

Although COVID-19 vaccination is not mandatory, it has been proven as the best method in the fight against this novel disease.

Unfortunately, too many Guyanese have died while vaccines are available.

As a Government, we take the occupational safety and health of all workers seriously.

In a correspondence to the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), dated June 4, 2021, I advised the trade union to encourage all public servants to get vaccinated at the earliest opportunity.

The organisation had written to me regarding the safety of workers during the pandemic.

I responded to the 1st

Vice President of the GPSU, Ms. Dawn Gardner, saying, “We are now in phase two of our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Guyana. I am requesting that the Guyana Public Service Union encourage all public servants to take the vaccine at the earliest opportunity.”

It is equally important that private-sector employ-

ees protect themselves also.

Thus far, 45.4% of the Guyanese population have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Some 18.1% of adults are fully vaccinated. This number is expected to go up as more persons come forward to take their final shot.

Vaccinating the Guyanese population will save lives, and it remains my Government’s number one priority in these trying times.

As the Government pushes to achieve herd immunity within the fastest possible time, it is imperative that more persons come forward to get immunised against the virus.

The process is simple, and I encourage you to take the guidance of the professionals within the Ministry of Health and not be influenced by fear or rumours emanating from anti-vaccination campaigns.

Since the Ministry of Health commenced the vaccination process for members of the public 60-yearsand-older in March, my wife, Mrs. Mignon Bowen Phillips, and I were among the first to take it. We feel that we have done our civic duty to protect ourselves and others as well.

As a Government, we will continue to try our utmost to ensure that vaccines are available for the country’s entire adult population, and I appeal to you, play your part and please take the vaccine.

A pandemic, just like a disaster, brings challenges and disruption to the development process; however, you have chosen a caring government that will be with you throughout this time.

As we continue to take our nation forward, I urge you to play your part and get vaccinated against this deadly virus.

PUBLISHED BY NEW GUYANA Co. Ltd., Freedom House, Robb Street, Lacytown, Georgetown, Guyana. Tel: [592] 226-2042 / 227-2095 / 655-0459 / 627-7432