EPA Director, Parsram

Oct 18, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard truths…

(Kaieteur News) – My good friend, Mr. Khemraj Parsram is at it again. Trying his hand at being a jester. He should stick to his role as Guyana’s EPA Director, which is proving to be more than a handful for him. The man should collect war pay for his heroic efforts to protect Guyana’s environment from the invading hordes. They may not remind of Genghis Khan’s marauders out of the wilds of Manchuria, but there’s an awfully uncanny resemblance to Americans and Canadians and Australians, among others of that happy brigade.

Mr. Parsram, in a streak of brilliance, offered what glowed with confidence and conviction: nothing moves forward with the uranium project until the EAB rules on non-EIA appeals. Dr. Vincent Adams wrote. Dr. Parsram responded indirectly. “The EAB will review and determine if to agree or disagree with our decision…nothing moves forward until the EAB makes its decision.” Recall what I said about Executive Director Parsram having a go at being a comedian? Well, he just proved it, didn’t he? When has the EAB (Environmental Assessment Board) gone against Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency? When has the EAB summoned the nerve, found the guts, to give the thumbs down to a project favored by a foreign entity? To foreign entities favored by PPP powers, who get superstars to do shovel work?

Wherever they come from, and from the moment they work out their arrangements with the political gatekeepers (especially family related ones), the foreign explorers and operators are good to go. I hate to differ with a Guyanese saddled with such a huge role on his head and in his hands, as Mr. Parsram, but I must. What makes this public service harder is that Executive Director Parsram is of such immaculate reputation. It’s more incentivizing, why I must register my difference publicly.

Mr. Parsram could be forgiven for forgetting, not making the connection. Did he forget Justice Gino Persaud, and how he was pilloried from post to post, for being honest? Which EPA with any sense left would not read the signs sent, and get in line? Which EAB is desirous of singling itself out-through objection, through disagreement, and through reversal-and opening itself for the mark of a subversive? The Justice Gino Persaud development (a case of rotten Guyanese and American eggs [official ones]) was and is more than about some stupid ass visa revision. It was intended as a warning. And a line drawn: those who lack a certain kind of understanding, those short of the required degree of local wisdom, ways will be found to beat both understanding and wisdom into their stubborn heads.

For fairness, and for the record, this acknowledgement is published. The EAB in its membership is made up of Guyanese who know the stakes, who know how the system works, who know how the game is played. C’mon, Mr. Parsram, those stalwarts are not going to rock any boats. What and have another Barima, a bloodless, boatless, one! Mr. Parsram should know better. He knows enough to know not to make speeches that fall apart, even under the friendliest scrutiny. I appreciate that he is under pressure, has to say something if only to sound authoritative, as if he knows of that which he speaks. Remember also, that he has to find ways to earn his war pay.

He knows of the political wars declared against Guyana’s public servants. Which Police commander will be a hero and sacrifice himself to save a damsel in distress? Which High Court judge (or magistrate) will go against the sensitive, deciding, showstopping ones? And last, for Mr. Parsram’s continuing education: which EAB will pull the trigger and detonate that uranium setup? The EPA boss serves his own interests better when he keeps the rubberstamp and stamp pad close. He must leave the funny stuff to those who can be both funny and deadly serious simultaneously.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

EPA, Genghis Khan, GHK Lall, Khemraj Parsram

Latest News