Class bias in the mining industry continues with the APNU+AFC regime

Apr 16, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Two years into this administration double standards and questions still persist at GGMC. Small miners wonder why the commission does not adhere to one policy for all miners. When a small miner has a land dispute the GGMC takes at minimum two years to resolve it; the Commissioner’s excuse being that the GGMC does not have the resources or the personnel to promptly investigate.
However, as was the case recently, when a large-scale miner had a land dispute, his matter was immediately ‘investigated’ by two of the most senior officials at the GGMC and resolved in a matter of days. On the orders of the same senior(s), two top GGMC officials travelled to the backdam, ‘investigated’ the matter, amended documented data to suit the desired outcome of the large miner and resolved that land dispute in less than a week. Some staff members quietly complained that the senior officials were pressured to arrive at the desired conclusion in this matter.
Secondly, if a small miner does not pay the GGMC for the block he owns at the end of the year, he loses that block. However, large miners routinely do not pay for the hundreds of blocks they keep, but instead receive waivers annually for both rental and penalties. In effect they are allowed to keep these hundreds of mining blocks without paying the GGMC for it. This is a blatant form of unprofessional conduct that happens annually at GGMC and has continued under this government.
These blocks are valued at billions of dollars, so why are they being held by these large miners who are not even paying the government for them? If these large miners are not paying the government to keep these thousands of mining blocks, then who are they paying to keep them? It is instructive to know that decision on waivers of this magnitude, which amounts to billions of dollars, can only be made at the level of the Government of Guyana
These are just two of the many questionable practices continuing at the GGMC and while we concede that they did not start under this administration, they have had two years to correct them. When will the change that Guyanese voted for in 2015 reach the GGMC?
Small Miner

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