Dear Editor,
It has been a well-known fact that weak systems do bread corruption, and the corruption index is directly linked to the quality of the leadership. If the leader is strong, corruption will be low and vice versa. Due to the weak system at the GGMC, Corruption is striving and if the leadership continues to ignore our exposure to the corrupt practices at this organization, the situation will only get worst.
Even though many of the staff in the decision-making body possess an unblemished character, they are caught up in a vicious circle of covering-up the atrocities of their colleagues. Often times nature leads us into a vicious circle of being protective through religion, race, villagers, colleagues etc. It must be clearly understood, that those who collaborated in the covering-up of the wrongdoings of their colleagues, are as guilty as the ones who have committed the act. Often times, these acts are committed against the poor and vulnerable for the wealthy, just to satisfy those involved insatiable appetite for money.
There is a group of officials within the Commission who are bent on sabotaging the system in order for the Government to look bad, in the hope for a change of governance at the 2020 poll, so that they could return to the level of corruption they were operating under before the 2015 poll. I am saying categorically that there are deliberate attempts by some officials at the high echelon of the GGMC, to sabotage the system in the form of stalling the processes through delays and cover-ups.
For instance, there are letters sitting at the Commission for over four (4) years which were written by Hon. Minister, Mr. Joseph Harmon as our then lawyer, but were never addressed. They are also many letters that were written and delivered to the Commission by me, seeking resolution to matters of grave concern to us the bona fide residents of Kurupung and in my individual capacity; which the commission blatantly refuses to address.
I met Hon. Minister Harmon at a meeting at the Clonbrook School Compound last October at which the Hon. Minister Semona Broomes was present, has her birth anniversary was announced. The Minister had reiterated his commitment to address our situation at Kurupung, through the relevant authorities. I have no reason to doubt him and believe he will stand to his word. That was the first time I met him after he had first made this promised to me in 2015, that he will address our situation at Kurupung.
I have been writing many follow-up letters on these matters, though no attempt was made to seriously address these concerns. A matter of grave concern is the closing date for the THIRD DISPOSAL of MINERAL PROPERTIES 2009.This information is still not being made available because it will expose the callousness and the atrocious acts of their colleagues, they have decided to shelve the findings and never address the matter. There are many matters of great magnitude which the Commission has still refused to address.
The worse-case scenario is the perception of collusion among some top officials and those highly organized crooks. My concerns stem from:(1). Even though we were never issued with a notice to cease our operations in locating claims within those allotted boundaries, the commission has chosen to rescind six (6) of the twenty-one(21) Mining Permits that were allotted to us after the discovery of workable mineral deposits were found within some of them. This had been done against the Mining (Amendment) Regulations, 2007. Section 27B (2) of the Regulations which clearly states ‘’the areas previously held under the cancelled prospecting permit, mining permit and special mining permit areas, shall be held in reserve for disposal by a process of bidding or lottery.’’ This also came as a back-drop to the promise of expanding the areas exponentially into a five-mile radius(2). The granting of mining permits to a wealthy foreign company by the name of Spectrum Investment Inc. which covers a huge swath of land, of our allotted twenty-one (21) mining permits. Those allotments are known as the THIRD DISPOSAL of MINERAL PROPERTIES, 2009 and the promise of granting of the five-mile radius to the residents of Kurupung which was made in 2011.
Those above mention scenarios are just a few of the many request by me and the Kurupung residents that the GGMC Commission has chosen not to address; yet they chose to address an August 14, 2017 letter which was delivered almost four years after the first letters were dispatched to the commission requesting answers.
I am of the firm view that some persons within the Commission have their ulterior motives to discredit me in the eyes of the public and especially to those persons that I had laid my complaints to, so as to continue hiding their wrong doings while lying to their authorities to save their positions.
I was a witness to a conversation between two senior officials at the GGMC and two different Ministers of government, when they both had seriously lied to the authorities.
And due to the Ministers not micro-managing the organization, those unscrupulous characters got away with their wrongdoings with impunity, but I have decided to expose the practices of the commission for the world to see and be the judge for themselves.
Mr. Robeson Benn was arguably the best Commissioner the GGMC has ever had due to the strong leadership quality he demonstrated during his command at the organization. He had those who were bent on wrong doings in “straight- jacket” but after he left they rebounded like a re-coiled spring. That’s how the credibility of a Commissioner will be judged.
I am also taking this opportunity to sincerely thank all those who are participating in getting the Commission to start looking into the various matters affecting the residents of Kurupung. It’s the beginning of a long journey with those at the GGMC who are bent on sabotaging the process through delays and the peddling of misinformation. I promise to publicize an update on the progress made at various intervals to sensitize the public.
Yours Truly,
Suffering Miner
