Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Banditry, failed policing force businessmen to contemplate migration
Sarwant Tapsie
By Rabindra RooplallTwo businessmen are contemplating liquidating their assets and migrating after losing millions of dollars in cash, supplies and machinery over a prolonged period. They say that their decision has been helped by the apparent reluctance of the police to arrest and prosecute known suspects.
Business proprietors Muneshwer Persaud of Muneshwer’s Hardware store and Sarwant Tapsie of Kishan’s Aluminium Windows and doors showroom, both of Lot “E” Good Hope, East Coast Demerara who employ scores of people are frustrated with the robberies that are hurting their businesses.
Businessman Sarwant Tapsie, who is also a Canadian citizen, said that his frustration was peaked after another burglary in the wee hours of Monday night.
He explained that robbers on this occasion cut the grill work on the lower flat of his business workshop and carted of millions of dollars in valuables.
“They carried away my transformers, generators, drill guns, saws, window fittings and security DVR system that records footage from the cameras! I can’t even account for all of the items missing as yet in the 300-foot building, but what I know is missing is valued over $3M,” he lamented.
Adding that he operated his business in Good-Hope over a five-year period, Tapsie said being the proprietor of a business in Guyana takes lots of toughness because other than the constant banditry, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is a major humbug to speedy business transactions and actual evaluations.
“When you are a businessman, they (GRA) feel that they have a right to assess you and send you notifications to pay various amounts of cash based on their belief amongst other harassments. These people don’t care if you make money or don’t make money, but once they know you own a business they find a way for you to keep paying them,” the businessman noted.
Another stressful fact he underscored was the snail’s pace at which the applications for gun licences are being processed. Tapsie said that in 2006 he applied for such a licence. “Every time I have a break-in then I remember that I applied for a gun licence; every time they thief is millions.”
“I am a permanent resident in Canada, why should I take this harassment in Guyana to create jobs for Guyanese and no help from the Government when it comes to bandits and frustration with GRA with containers taking months to be cleared?
“They always know that you fraud your invoice, and just find a way for you to pay. Frustrate you as a businessman living in Guyana. I have another business in Barbados and from the time the document meets the customs broker in less than one hour we can get the documents out and nothing is different or strange in having the right one there and the wrong one here. Something is wrong with the systems here!”
Muneshwer Persaud
He added that the present status of the country causes business proprietors who employ a large section of society, to become frustrated. “The opposition is fighting on one hand, the government on the other, for power, but they forget those who have to put them there.”
Adding that over the years he lost over $25M in supplies, the businessman said that with a lackadaisical Police Force and politicians who only think about themselves Guyana has no major development to experience.
Muneshwar Persaud said that from January 13, to February 4, last, bandits have plagued his life even more.
He explained that on January 13, the bandits clipped several locks on the rear entrance to his business and carted off $2M in cash from a cabinet, 48 rolls of electrical cables from the upper flat, 11 brand name power saws, 21 boxes containing circuit breaker, and emptied the cash registers of $76,000 in change amongst other items.
Some of the thieves were caught on surveillance cameras; the businessman explained that the police reviewed the video. The men were masked and had on gloves, but one of them had a known tattoo and the police had known suspects whom they could have apprehended, but to date no arrests have been made.
Underscoring that on February 2, 2013 there was another break-in, he explained that the security guard was alerted and the bandits fled the scene. However, two days later a suspect was identified by a resident in the area and the police were notified, but to date no arrests have been made.
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