Govt. crippled Unamco five years ago – Case

Jul 19, 2012 News

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In January 2007, when Unamco’s 15-year TSA forest lease expired, the then Minister responsible for forestry, Robert Persaud, took around 42 months to renew it.
The renewal, when it came was for a five-year period only and for a reduced size forest. It was tied to an additional US$5 Million investment in the company’s forest operations aimed mainly at replacing and upgrading equipment in the company’s logging division.
By the time the lease expired in 2007 Unamco had already invested in the region of $4 B, mainly on capital equipment including several machines for road building, forest operations, general transport, a tug and 1000 ton barge, a fixed sawmill, a new plymill etc.
In 1997 Unamco completed its initial 64km access road with 18 bridges from Kwakwani on the Berbice River to Marlissa at the northern boundary of its forest under the EPA and GFC guidelines. The north/south highway was inspected and declared open by the then President Samuel Hinds on December 4, 1997.
This access infrastructure was built over two years to international standards by Guyanese and Malaysian engineers and other road construction personnel at a cost of well over US$10 M and then extended to 118 km southerly to Kuyuwini in the Unamco forest around 40 miles north of Apoteri with a total of 44 bridges and 79 culverts. The 64-mile concession road was maintained solely by Unamco and was also being used free of charge by six other timber operators in addition to miners, chainsaw operators, hunters, bird watchers and other eco-tourists.
Once the 15-year, TSA expired Unamco ceased all forest, road maintenance, and sawmilling activity and over time laid off most of its personnel, keeping only its security employees. Most of the employees sent home were from Region Ten— Linden, Kwakwani, Ituni and the Berbice River areas.
During the three-year wait for the lease to be renewed the Unamco forest assets were raided by mobile patrols of heavily armed, well organized men whose leader claimed they were empowered to plunder Unamco and if necessary kill at will. It was an unrelentless ravaging of the company’s assets.
Whole pieces of equipment, including graders and compactors, dump trucks, front end loaders, skidders and other earth-moving equipment were stolen. What could not be driven away was cut up in the forest by a four-wheel truck mounted with an oxyacetylene cutting device and winch and sold as scrap. At one stage the police stopped a truck laden with Unamco body parts.
The driver was arrested and the loot stored in a Region Ten police station as evidence. This evidence disappeared into thin air before any Court proceedings were held.
Spare parts, tyres and tools were stolen from the company’s forest buildings. Even roofing sheets were removed along with other fixtures and fittings. Simply put Unamco was systematically gutted of its capital assets.
While the rape of Unamco assets was going, on and even before it started Unamco management and owners held repeated meetings with the Minister for Forestry who assured that the renewal matter was in hand.
Normally it should take no more than three months to review and decide on a forest lease renewal but in Unamco’s case it took close to 42 months from the time the application for renewal was submitted to the Guyana Forestry Commission in August 2006.
During discussions with the Minister he let it be known that were he to agree to a lease extension it would be for a reduced forest area and not all the 237,000 acres covered by the original lease. At the time he stated that he wanted to allocate some of the Unamco forest to Region Ten forest associations.
He seemed to have little working knowledge of the timber business and zero experience so he was advised of the financial realities of logging forest as remote as Unamco forest. He was told that the small R10 forest associations lacked the equipment and financial resources to even maintain the 40-mile access road with its 18 bridges and culverts not to mention over 30 miles of internal forest roads and bridges Unamco had carefully built over a five-year period.
Minister Persaud was even advised by Unamco that the R10 loggers would need significant and continuous government assistance to maintain the forest infrastructure and to eventually engage in value-added production for export. However, despite Unamco’s advice Government made no investment in maintaining, upgrading the Unamco road network with its many bridges and culverts.
It is not too late for Government to intervene on behalf of the hapless R10 logging associations but it will now be a more costly exercise.
After close to 42 months and by the time the Minister offered his five-year conditional lease renewal, the Malaysian investors had completely lost interest in Guyana.
Unamco’s sawmill which was operational until the forest lease expired is still at Jeep Landing, Kwakwani and can be purchased by Government for the R10 logging community as can the company’s US$30 Million Japanese plywood factory which was imported from Japan but never assembled.
Unamco was owned by Malaysians Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Dato Kanagalingam and Guyanese Hamley Case.

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