Gold Board to close Charity office by month end

Jun 11, 2014 News

The Guyana Gold Board is expected to close its Charity, Essequibo Coast office by the end of the month due to the lack of technical staff. Kaieteur News understands that presently the location is operating from Tuesdays to Thursdays, but this is apparently not sitting well with miners, since the peak business days are Mondays and Fridays.
It has been noted that the agency has been working towards facilitating those wanting to conduct business, but the office is not operating a regular working hours.
Executive Director of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), Tony Shields, told Kaieteur News yesterday that he was aware that moves are being made to close the office at month end. He related that the reason for this has been noted as the shortage of technical staff.
He said further that this has been against persons wanting to transact business given the days by which the community operates. It was noted however, that the closure of the office will see measures being put in place for banks to make gold purchases.
Presently, the Bartica branch of the Gold Board remains closed, while investigations are ongoing into a racket which saw a huge quantity of gold recording poor purity levels. Several hundred million dollars were said to have been siphoned off.
Shields registered his concern over the Bartica office being closed, since he felt that an investigation into the racket does not necessitate the closure of the office and inconveniencing customers. He said that the Bartica branch purchases almost 50 percent of the gold recorded and it is unclear why the office should be closed, instead of replacing the staffers.
However, government has registered concerns that gold declaration has dropped by 20 percent for the year so far. Currently data trends for the first five months of this year have shown a significant decrease in gold output, when compared to the same period for last year. For January to May, total gold declaration amounted to 165,595 ounces as compared to 204,970.42 ounces for the same period last year.
Miners might now have to head to Georgetown to get their gold sold once certain avenues are not put in place. This has however, raised serious security and convenience concerns which some say will soon have to be addressed.

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