Hastings-Williams secures tenure for scores in presidential sector ahead of elections declaration

The Guyanese caretaker Government has renewed contracts for scores of standing members of a number of environmental boards, including Dr Patrick Williams, as the Chair of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The renewal of contracts was signed off by de facto Minister of State, Dawn Hastings-Williams and include members of the Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission (GWC&MC); the Protected Areas Commission; the Wildlife Scientific Committee and the Environmental Assessment Board in addition to the EPA.

The EPA is the government body responsible for the issuance of permits for large developments and projects that could pose an impact to the environment or society such as the development of the offshore oilfields in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone and in the mining communities, among others.
EPA Head, Dr Vincent Adams has since been retained as a board member with others including Martin Cheong, Godfrey Scott, Carlos Todd, and Denise Simmons.

Dr Raquel Thomas has been given approval to be appointed as Chair of the Protected Areas Commission for a year while other board members will include Sean Hamer, Naseem Nasir, Shanomoe Rose and Denise Fraser while other members would come from statutory organisations such as the National Toshaos Council and the Tourism Authority.
Karen Pilgrim will head up the GWC&MC with Rawle Lewis, Odacy Davis, Karen Small, and Alona Sankar among the board members.
The appointments were made by de facto Minister Hastings-Williams a week ago on June 22 – more than four months after elections were held with a declaration still to be made.
The information has since been published in the Official Gazette.