A PPP Govt. will not allow BaiShanLin to return – Jagdeo

Jan 27, 2019 News

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Reports were that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government allowed an Asian company, BaiShanLin International Forest development Inc. to have its way.
BaiShanLin was given concession agreements to bring in many and almost everything under the sun. It gained control over very large portions of land, all under the PPP/C.
When the APNU+AFC government took office, things got tough for the company. A Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) with a new Board, took a stern hand with the company and it was now expected to follow the rules.
After not fulfilling some very key obligations, and in accordance with the recommendation of a forensic audit, GFC repossessed all of BaiShanLin’s concessions. Also, the company had to enter into an agreement with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to pay billions owed but never lived up to its end of the bargain.
In the face of looming elections, PPP has been speaking of many of the actions of the APNU+AFC government that it will overturn. For instance, PPP said that it will reopen all the GuySuCo estates that APNU+AFC closed despite the lack of any plan to stop the financial haemorrhage.
At a recent press conference, PPP’s General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo was asked if repossession of BaiShanLin concessions would be reversed if his party regains political power.
Jagdeo said, “I gather they have already lost the lease and stuff like that. It is with new people and once that is transparently done we do not have a problem with it.”
Jagdeo also recalled BaiShanLin “had a contract with GRA that they did not honor. So if the actions were taken consistently with that contract, they have to face the consequences.”
Jagdeo continued, “We had a contract with BaiShanLin…they were supposed to fulfill some deliverables if they did not fulfill those deliverables this government stands to do what it did.”
While officially BaiShanLin is supposed to have aborted all operations in Guyana, reports are that some officials in the company continued small scale operations even after the concessions were repossessed.
Up to last year, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, denied that the company is behind the continued logging on the former concessions.
“BiShanLin is not doing anything, but from time to time people raid the concessions and you may see a truck or so coming out from one of them, but the company itself is not operating,” Trotman stated.
An investigation was launched after reports surfaced in February that employees of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) had stopped trucks that bore the company’s logo, transporting logs.
They found Wamara logs on the trucks.
Checks reportedly found some discrepancies in the paperwork. The tags on the logs reportedly came from the Kwakwani Natural Resource Organisation (KNRO) but the logs were later traced to a concession that used to be controlled by the Chinese company.
Trotman who appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources said that there are plans to redistribute the concessions to local loggers. Since, half of the concessions were redistributed and half went to conservation purposes.

BaiShanLin grew in prominence after 2010, with its forestry company said to be co-owned by the Government of China.
With its original intentions to capitalize on forestry activities, BaiShanLin received unlimited concessions on vehicles, equipment, building materials and other tax breaks from the then Government.
In return, the company promised to open a large wood processing plant on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway. It received almost US$70M from the China Development Bank.
However, the company appeared to have got too ambitious. There was talk that it was protected.
It went into housing, buying 100 acres of prime housing lands at Providence, East Bank Demerara, and paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the incomplete Cacique Hotel in the same area.
BaiShanLin opened several companies signaling interest in shipbuilding, auto repairs, river transportation and a host of other activities.
A showroom at Providence remains incomplete and there were accusations that the company was using materials imported under its duty free concessions to supply the local market. Steel was one such commodity.
The company was even accused of burning up a large patch of forest in Berbice and attempting to cover it up.
There were also accusations that it was logging in areas that were for exploration.
Shortly after taking office, the Coalition Government appointed a new board at GFC, chaired by Jocelyn Dow. The board seized the forest concessions of BaiShanLin, including some it had acquired under questionable joint venture means.
In all, BaiShanLin had grown to be one of the biggest holders of State forests in Guyana.
There was evidence that little was done to curtail its activities here, many of them illegal.
Just recently, BaiShanLin again hit the news, after it was discovered that despite its forestry concessions being taken away by GFC, the company was illegally working its trucks and equipment in Berbice.
GFC seized a truck of logs reportedly illegally harvested from a Berbice concession once under the control of BaiShanLin. That matter is under investigation.
Authorities like GFC and the Guyana Revenue Authority have been attempting to collect millions of dollars from the company in taxes and royalties. However, there are few assets that can be found. It appears that some of the equipment, including excavators and trucks, was shifted to gold mining concessions now controlled by principals of the company.
BaiShanLin owes some $80M to the commission, but also has a larger debt to settle with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

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