Calls grow for urgent reform of GGMC

Oct 23, 2025 News

---

…Policy Forum Guyana says Puruni dispute lifts lid on systemic rot in gold sector

(Kaieteur News) – What began as a local property dispute in the Puruni mining district has exploded into a national scandal exposing what Policy Forum Guyana (PFG) describes as the “deep-rooted institutional failures” at the heart of Guyana’s gold-mining industry. And the body has called for a comprehensive reform of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), although acknowledging that the mammoth nature of such as a task.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, PFG said the unfolding saga between medium-scale miner Marvis Halliman, who acts on behalf of his uncle Wallace Daniels, and the GGMC, underscores a pattern of administrative bias, corruption, and financial impunity that has long plagued the sector.

Kaieteur News has reported that the issue dates back to December 2012, when Daniels discovered a strip of unclaimed land located near property owned by the Alphonso family, well-known players in the local gold industry. After confirming the land was available, Daniels applied to the GGMC and was granted the claim with no legal challenges or objections at the time. Notably, the Alphonso’s own river claims filed for in 2009, covering 34 claims along the Puruni River, one mile upstream and 300-feet inland on both sides, while Daniels’ application, was for the 300-feet north and south of the river, adjacent to the Alphonso property. A tribunal chaired by Magistrate Allan Wilson heard the matter and in May 2024, ruled in Daniels’ favour, stating that Daniels’ actions were neither injurious to Alphonso nor illegal. However, the mining property became the center of legal battles and threats.

In a statement, Halliman called for immediate ministerial intervention into the conduct of GGMC. The miner said that for months, his operations have been facing injustice from GGMC over the mining property located on the left bank of the Mazaruni River, Toroparu Mining Area, in Mining District #3. He stated, “Even after Magistrate Allan Wilson gave a final decision in favour of Mr. Daniels, GGMC has refused to enforce that ruling. Instead, they have turned around and issued an ‘order to remove’ dated October 16, 2025, falsely claiming that we violated Regulation 98, with no evidence whatsoever.”

Halliman noted that Regulation 95 of the Mining Regulations (Cap. 65:01) says that once a decision or order is made by the commissioner or a magistrate, it must be enforced immediately, even if someone plans to appeal, unless the high court orders otherwise. He pointed out that GGMC did not appeal the magistrate’s ruling and must therefore comply with it.

He contended, “It is not Mr. Daniels who breached Regulation 98, it is GGMC who breached Regulations 95, 97, and 98 by ignoring a lawful magistrate’s decision, failing to enforce that decision as required by law, acting unlawfully by issuing a removal order without evidence, and showing clear bias in favour of another miner…” The miner alleged that the situation represents “a clear case of administrative bias and corruption within the system.” Halliman said, “GGMC officers have ignored the constitution, which protects property rights under Article 142; disobeyed a court ruling; tried to use their authority to pressure Mr. Daniels off his lawful claim.”

Meanwhile, Policy Forum Guyana pointed to successive Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) reports which document how the GGMC has operated “as a law unto itself,” free from normal government financial controls and without submitting audited accounts to Parliament since 2016. The organisation said the 6th GYEITI Report (2024) revealed that as of December 31, 2022, GGMC’s cash balances stood at GYD 16.75 billion, money which should be remitted to the Consolidated Fund but remains under the agency’s control. The report also flagged GYD 1.88 billion in unexplained variances and missing documentation for GYD 1.72 billion in payables, PFG stated. It quoted the 6th GYEITI Report (2024) stating “In the interests of improving transparency of government finances, the government may wish to consider setting out its policy on remittance of funds collected by its agencies from the extractive sector to the Consolidated Fund.”

PFG noted that beyond the accounting failures, the Puruni dispute illustrates how the system has been manipulated to benefit politically connected gold magnates. In this case, Halliman claims GGMC ignored a magistrate’s ruling in favour of Daniels and instead issued a removal order, a move he says is unlawful and biased toward another powerful miner.

The contested Puruni claim spans five contiguous medium-scale licences totalling 5,772 acres, each just below the 1,200-acre threshold for large-scale operations, PFG said. According to PFG, such manipulation with GGMC’s knowledge allows wealthy operators to avoid higher rental fees while poor miners are forced into illegal subleases under exploitative conditions. “This is not an isolated case,” PFG said, citing the 4th GYEITI Report (2020), which found that one miner alone held more than 400 medium-scale licences covering 380,000 acres. The Forum said such abuse has created a “shadow system” enforced by private armed guards, marginalising small miners and Amerindian communities, who face intimidation and restricted access to their lands.

The organisation warned that if these patterns continue unchecked, incidents like the recent gunfire confrontation in Puruni could become more frequent. “Institutional decay within the mining sector can escalate into violence when justice and transparency collapse,” PFG cautioned. Beyond corruption, the group said, gold mining continues to wreak havoc on Guyana’s rivers and forests through mercury pollution, biodiversity destruction, and gold smuggling, all with little official oversight.

PFG emphasised that the six GYEITI reports (2017–2022) collectively provide thousands of pages of official evidence confirming these systemic failures. “Transparent financial management, enforcement of existing laws, and clear policies on the remittance of extractive revenues to the Consolidated Fund are essential to restoring public trust,” the statement declared.

---

• dispute, GGMC, gold sector, Newell Dennison, Puruni, Reform, scandal

---