Authorities issue ultimatum to over 350 ‘offenders’

Aug 20, 2010 News

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Illegal mining in Omai backdam…

An estimated 350 persons said to be mining and operating illegally in the Omai backdam have reportedly been ordered from the area.
While authorities yesterday said that they are unaware of any operations ongoing in the areas known more popularly as “No Man’s Land” and “Four Corners”, at least one miner has given a statement to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), accusing police ranks and mining officials of harassment.
On Tuesday, a number of miners claimed that their camps were being wantonly destroyed, leaving them without any form of livelihood.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who has direct responsibility for the mining sector, said that he is unaware of any operations by GGMC and will be seeking answers today.
Calls to GGMC’s Commissioner (ag), William Woolford, were not immediately returned yesterday.
However, Calvin Benn, a resident of Bushlot, Essequibo Coast, yesterday claimed that he was one of the persons in the area evicted by police and mining officials on Wednesday last.
“How would they, the government, see 350 porkknockers and their families, knowing that the place we were hustling at…that we were not destroying the environment neither creating environmental hazard, because Omai has done that already…. how would they see us on the road?”
According to Benn, an estimated 350 persons, including porkknockers and “hustlers”, are attempting to make a living in the area which still has some remnants of gold.
Government had been attempting to bring control to the area for a number of years with reports of environment degradation and pollution of key creeks in the area. There were also a number of reports of violence and shootings with roadside shops and heavy drinking and prostitution taking place.
Benn, a father of three, who has been operating a portable 4″ dredge for nine months now, claimed that he was escorted out of the backdam by police after he resisted to talks of offering bribes to be allowed to stay.
He recalled that a female mining officer told him last week Thursday that he would no longer be allowed to work the dredge since the property is a private one.
“I obeyed and started working along with the porkknockers since I have children.”
On Tuesday, a meeting was held at “Four Corners” with police and mining officials.
During the meeting, the officials told the persons “everybody has to stop working”. They were reportedly given until Wednesday last to leave the area.
According to Benn, after hearing talks by the officers of allowing them to stay in exchange for gold, he became upset. “I stood up and said for me and others, if we have to go today or tomorrow or the end of the week, I for one would have to return sometime or the other because I have to find a place to work. “
Benn claimed that he was immediately accosted by a police and told he “would be made an example of”.
A phone and the sim card belonging to his 14-year-old son were seized but returned later.
Another miner who was in his kitchen was also ordered to leave immediately or be shot.
“I came out Wednesday and met the Chief Mines Officer and gave a statement. I did not get to see the Commissioner.”
While there were reports of the miners clearing out of the area yesterday, up to press time, it was unclear whether all had complied.
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Restructuring at City Hall must start at the top

– GLU’s Duncan

“The problem with the City Council is Hamilton Green,” said General Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), Carvil Duncan even as he commented on recent municipal talks about a need to cut the wage bill – a move which may entail massive restructuring. The GLU represents about 75 percent of municipal staffers.
According to Duncan, “the union’s position is clear. We have nothing against restructuring…Our problem is that restructuring cannot be a piecemeal thing, there needs to be total restructuring from the top to the bottom.”
“If you are going to restructure you have to start from the top. People have a tendency of cutting at the bottom, but when you cut at the bottom the whole house will fall down because there is no foundation.
You have to look at restructuring as a general thing…not pulling a 20 persons here or a 10 persons there, and say I have succeeded in reducing staff. That is not the way to go…”
Duncan alluded to a municipal analysis, which was completed at a cost of millions of dollars, as the basis on which the move of restructuring should be premised.
“Has the report gone adrift…Is it every time that somebody awakens and they had a dream they say there must be restructuring? This cannot be accepted.”
The GLU General Secretary related that there is an urgent need for the municipality to examine closely its municipal clinics and possibly seek to put in place payment rates for various classes of members in society. As it is both the “ordinary man” and “the celebrities” are subjected to the same rate of payment, a situation Duncan said must be dealt with urgently.
“If they are desirous of turning this council around, I don’t think we can do any better than to start from the top. The top has got a preconceived idea, believing that they are still ministers and Prime Ministers and they know how to run the country, but this is not the country they are running this is the council, and this is being run off of revenue coming from the tax payers…”
But even before the process of restructuring commences, Duncan noted that the first move must entail the submission of a list of the total workforce to the respective unions.
In addition he revealed that there must be clarity on the part of the municipality as to what percentage of the workforce should be reduced and from which department the reduced persons should be drawn.
“There have been a lot of sayings that the persons in the cleansing department have not been performing as they ought to but nobody has been saying that the people in the cleansing department don’t have the tools to perform.”
Already the cleansing department is being depleted by the rate of attrition, Duncan asserted.
He related that the workforce has been reducing rapidly, revealing that the council had approximately 1,500 workers in the cleansing department, a figure which has since been reduced to an approximate 700.
“How can you reduce that amount when there is still a lot of work to be done? Am I to understand that you are reducing for reducing sake and at the same time the city will still be suffering from uncleanliness?”
In order to address this problem, Duncan noted that there is a need to design a constructive plan to deal with the city and its operation. And among the first factors that must be addressed if cost must be cut is to “send the contractors home.”
It is Duncan’s belief that with the assistance of the private sector, the municipality could secure about two or three trucks which it could use to clean generated waste at a cheaper cost. “Contractors are another major problem that the city faces. They are utilising the greater part of the tax payers’ revenue,” Duncan added

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