…provides $350M for cash-strapped entity
…employees still owed 2018 bonus
The Dr Irfaan Ali-led Government has approved $350 million to support the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) after it was left bankrupt by the A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change Administration.
Guyana Forestry Commission
According to the Government, the money is to pay salaries to staff and utility services. It noted that the new Administration is currently saddled with the burden of bailing out the Commission due to the mismanagement of the sector under the previous Administration.
Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat during his engagement with the staff of the Commission had committed to seeking the President’s intervention to obtain financial support for the agency, which has been struggling to pay staff on time and fund other critical operational costs for several months.
Employees owed
Additionally, the Government on Monday said that workers have not been paid their $25,000 bonus in 2018, which was announced and not honoured by the APNU/AFC Government. “Hence, the current Government is committed to paying this outstanding bonus to all eligible staff before the end of 2020,” the Government said in a statement.
Minister Bharrat has already commenced discussions with the Commission and other stakeholders within the forestry sector to examine strategies to enhance the financial performance and management capabilities of the very important sector.
After taking office, Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister Gail Teixeira confirmed that GFC is in a state of bankruptcy. The Minister related that when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had demitted office in 2015, the Commission had over $4 billion in its coffers. Now, the agency does not even have sufficient funds to pay salaries. This is topped with high debts.
During Bharrat’s first engagement at the Ministry just over two weeks ago, he was informed that the Commission was unable to pay salaries for July to its staff and more so, millions of dollars are owed to utility companies. In response, Bharrat had suggested major restructuring at the various agencies to ensure that they function in a more effective manner.
Guyana has an area of 214,970 km2, of which nearly seventy-five per cent is covered with natural vegetation. Of this area, approximately four-fifths is classified as State Forests under the jurisdiction of the GFC.
The deficit balance comes as a surprise, given that the 2019 Mid-Year Report had shown that the sector was one of the few economic success stories. The report had said that the forestry subsector was estimated to have grown at the half-year.
This growth had encompassed the production of timber, including logs, round wood, primary lumber, split wood and fuelwood. According to the report, the production of these commodities rose by 7.8 per cent above the level achieved at the end of June 2018.
“This pushed growth in the sector to 8.5 per cent in the first half of 2019. The improvements to interior roads in the latter half of 2018 saw community loggers, particularly in Region 10, realising higher production levels in the first quarter of 2019. Production continued to surge, driven by small-scale concessions and community forestry operators,” the report had indicated.
“At the end of the first half, log production grew by 6.8 per cent, mainly on account of the increased extraction of greenheart logs to meet local demand. On the other hand, weaker international demand for round wood resulted in a contraction of this category in the second quarter, which resulted in a 2.6 per cent decline relative to the previous half-year,” the report adds.
According to the document, primary lumber producers recorded gains of 32.4 per cent in the first half, which was attributed to them capitalising on local demand for construction. The report also projects a positive outlook for the remainder of the year for the sector. (G2)
