The people need to know

Aug 14, 2014 Editorial

Governments provide leadership; leaders provide answers to questions by the populace; and politicians always try to keep people as well informed as possible about their every action, unless those actions may run counter to what the people actually walk.
Many have seen the effect of a government that refused to deal with issues close to the people who support it. Even in the United States, when people discover that one of the leaders is operating outside the best interest of the people they make so much ruckus that the head of the government has no option to act.
More often than not, because the courts are independent they act to the exclusion of the national leaders. More than a few senior leaders have found themselves in jail, to the extent that people are aware that no one is above the law.
Should one examine the Guyana situation, one would conclude that the government is less than accountable to the people who put it there. As far back as one could remember, one heard people criticizing the government for certain decisions. These criticisms ranged from ignoring basic requests for the people to blatant corruption and nepotism.
A reporter found that the wife of a government employee purchased a $60 million house on a salary of $40,000 a month. This was bound to raise eyebrows. Approaches to senior people in the administration for an investigation got nowhere.
One senior official promised an investigation while another sought to justify the purchase on the grounds that money was sent to Guyana to effect the house purchase. In any other country there would have been an examination of the income tax status.
Guyana shares a taxation policy with some countries. If one pays taxes in another country then Guyana will not tax that money. In the case of the house purchase, there should have been a declaration of the money. There was none. Instead there was total silence on the issue, to the point that it is all but forgotten.
Today there is the expose of Bai Shan Lin, a Chinese logging company that is shipping tons of logs out of the country although the company does not have an export licence to export logs in such quantities. There must be some collusion with Government entities because the exports continue.
The evidence is clear that the company has been able to either lease or acquire holdings that other logging companies owned. Having done that, Bai Shan Lin then operates as the owner of these new leases, contrary to the permit granted to it.
The Guyana Forestry Commission has attempted to address the issue while ignoring some key facts, one of which is the right to export logs in such large quantities. The forestry commission insists that it monitors the logs cut, but what it does not say is who is cutting the logs and under what conditions.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still to approve requests from Bai Shan Lin, but the way things are the company does not need any approval from the EPA. The system has been circumvented, something that the forestry commission is denying.
One can understand that the law allows for any entity, local or foreign, to engage in joint ventures, but in this case there is no evidence that the other companies are part of the arrangement. They may be landlords, but the law still specifies the extent of exports that Bai Shan Lin can make.
It may be wise for the authorities to reveal the extent of royalty the country gets, the extent of taxes paid to the public treasury and the extent of deforestation. Reporters are unable to have a chance to interview the officials which suggests that they, the officials, are uncomfortable facing the press.
The Minister of Natural Resources is remarkably quiet, fuelling the view that he might not want to offend the Chinese. Indeed Guyana needs investment but the onus is on the government to let the people know what they are getting. Until the Bai Shan Lin expose, no one knew what was happening in the forestry sector.

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