Govt working with company to regularise project – GO-Invest CEO

Illegal concrete factory

…says directors’ instructions to leave Guyana a separate issue

Government is currently working along with Superior Concrete Incorporated, the company whose Directors were ordered to leave Guyana for flouting immigration policy, with Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) Chief Executive Officer, Dr Peter Ramsaroop saying the investment is still a viable one.

During Guyana’s first virtual diaspora conference on Saturday, Ramsaroop was questioned by a member of the diaspora about the signal being sent due to Directors of a company being booted out of the country. But Ramsaroop urged that the issues of the Directors and the investment not be conflated.
According to Ramsaroop, the main issue was an immigration one that saw two of the company’s Directors being instructed to leave Guyana. Ramsaroop noted that this was done based on Guyana’s immigration laws.

“From an investment perspective I did meet with the true investor of that company. They did not break any rules basically. They had just opened the container and were setting up the operation… it’s still a very good investment,” Ramsaroop said.
“We’re working with the true investor. His Directors who represented him, I think did him a disfavour. But I think our investment climate is non-board. We’re working through the requirements.”
In that vein, the CEO urged investors to not be discouraged but to come to Guyana, seek guidance from agencies such as GO-Invest and spend time familiarising themselves with the approvals they would need.

“I encourage all investors to ensure that they spend time on the regulatory permits that are necessary. Our office is there to help facilitate that. The response to the immigration issue should not be tied with the direct investment,” Ramsaroop said.

Illegal
It had previously been reported that foreign company Superior Concrete Inc had set up an illegal concrete plant at Houston Estates on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD). According to the reports, the company had set up operations at Houston without the requisite governmental approvals.
Richard Austin Shamlin, one of the Directors, was given 24 hours to leave Guyana earlier this month. Shamlin had overstayed his time on his visitor’s visa. He was the second Director ordered to leave Guyana.
Shamlin was hostile to Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal when he, along with officials from the CHPA, went to the location to serve a third contravention order. Further, Shamlin demanded that the Minister, CH&PA officials and the media leave the premises. However, the Minister ignored him and engaged the media.
Ian Jones was the other Director of Superior Concrete Inc who was instructed by the Immigration Department to depart Guyana by May 19. In Jones’s case, it was discovered that his service was terminated by his previous employer in the oil sector, but he remained in Guyana on the work permit.

He, too, got into an altercation with housing officials, and according to Croal in his interview with the media, it was Jones who took the first order to desist that was served by housing officials and threw it to the ground in front of them.

Cevons, Car Care settlements
Superior Concrete is not the only investor the Government has decided to work along with in order to regularise their investments. When the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) entered office in September of last year, it was to find that a number of companies had improperly acquired land from the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government following its loss of the No-Confidence Motion in the National Assembly.
These companies had included Cevons Waste Management, which used its land to build a new office on Mandela Avenue, Georgetown, as well as Car Care Enterprise, which acquired several acres of lands at Plantation Ruimveldt, Greater Georgetown, below the market price.
Another company, Courtney Benn Contracting Services, was slapped with two multimillion-dollar lawsuits by the PPP Government, due to its breach of contract on two projects – the construction of dormitories at the Linden Technical Institute and the reconstruction of the St Roses High School.
During a press conference on Friday, however, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had revealed that Government is settling with all these companies… though the Government still fully intends to prosecute public officials who broke the law.
“We have reached an agreement with Cevons with that project and we will move forward on that, and similarly with Car Care, we have reached an agreement with that entity so that they don’t have to face court matters…we also reached agreement with Courtney Benn,” Jagdeo had said.
In January 2021, the Government had instituted another lawsuit against Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited and Caricom General Insurance company, seeking in excess of $413 million in damages in relation to the St Roses High contract.