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Bulkans claim GFC harassment following Bai Shan Lin articles

Aug 12, 2014 News

A local timber company is protesting what it believes to be harassment by the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).
The company, Bulkan Timber Works Inc. which operates out of the old glass factory at Yarrowkabra, Soesdyke/Linden Highway, said that a flat-rack with its dressed, kiln-dried lumber destined for export, was stopped by GFC pickup en route to Port Georgetown even though all documentation was in order and had been filed.
It was only after the company persistently called the offices of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association, the Guyana National Industrial Co. Inc. and many senior officials of the GFC that the shipment was released.
The incident comes in the midst of revelations that a Chinese company, Bai Shan Lin, has been exporting large quantities of unprocessed logs, most of it premier species, under suspicious circumstances.
Bulkan Timber Works specializes in value-added wood products, including kiln-dried lumber, doors and mouldings.
A company official explained that the shipment of lumber was picked up by a truck belonging to the Guyana National Industrial Company (GNIC) around midday on Friday, August 8.
“This load of lumber had been duly inspected by the GFC and possessed the necessary hammer-mark stamps by officers of the GFC as well as an independent timber grader, and the export documents were certified by the GFC Head Office and Local Soesdyke Office, Customs and the GRA Scanning Department, which host the Goods Examination Unit and the Drug Enforcement Unit.”
The official said that certified copies of all the necessary documents were lodged with the respective agencies also.
The timber company said that on request for “documents,” the driver presented to GFC officials the GNIC Dispatch Note that serves as a transportation contract between shipper and carrier.
“The GFC officer demanded to see the export documents to which the truck driver replied that he has never collected any export documents from any shipper that GNIC serves.”
The truck and the timber produce were subsequently seized and taken to GFC Soesdyke Office for investigation.
Upon learning of the seizure, company officials hurried down to the GFC Soesdyke office.
“We learned that this GFC officer who seized the truck with our lumber was an auditor from the Georgetown Head Office. We have never before in the 16 years operating from Yarrowkabra had a situation like this where our value-added lumber was seized on route to the port.”
The official said that he found it coincidental that a GFC auditor was sent up on the very same day that Kaieteur News had a feature on the widespread export of unprocessed logs by Bai Shan Lin.
The company believes that letters to the editors from two relatives, Howard and Janette Bulkan, which appeared in Kaieteur News the same day, on the Bai Shan Lin issue, sparked the apparent retaliation by GFC.
“We believe that this is clear harassment and we wonder if the GFC is insinuating that we were trying to smuggle wood out of Guyana despite them knowing we have always complied and filed our required documents with the authorities. We are not surprised by this high-handed approach by the GFC.”
Bulkan Timber Works also said that coincidentally, a Bai Shan Lin truck with a 40-foot enclosed container pulled up at the GFC office but no apparent checks were done to verify what was inside.
“The GFC officer when asked said that he does not make the rules and I have to talk to Mr. Tasreef Khan, the Deputy Commissioner at GFC.”
“It is inexplicable why the GFC would seek to harass bona fide manufacturers and exporters, as well as small community and Amerindian loggers and chain-sawers with arbitrary and senseless impositions, sanctions, fines and fees when the Chinese, Malaysians and Indians are getting carte blanche approval and state-sponsored subsidies to export unprocessed logs.”

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