Dear Editor,
It was quite shocking, sad and worrying to read about the corruption, or alleged corruption, by GFC monitoring unit and land allocation unit staffers, with possible collusion with the respective supervising officers (Guyana Times). This type of illicit or nefarious behaviour by staffers who are put in position of enforcement is quite common in a lot of revenue agencies, like customs, police, mines commission etc. We have not started producing oil, so this should be a wake-up call for the authorities to carefully select the best staff to work with the agency which will be monitoring and managing the oil-and-gas sector.
At a minimum, I would like to see the institution of polygraph testing for all staffers (staff and supervising officers) of the land administration and forest monitoring departments of the GFC. As a matter of fact, all revenue and enforcement agencies (CANU, police, customs, mines, oil-and-gas, and of course forestry) should adopt polygraph testing as a standard means to gain employment, and perhaps it should be done annually. This will, I believe, weed out corrupt officers, like what we are being told of at GFC over time. I have been told it is so easy to get a load of wood passed at any of the stations, particularly at night. It’s all part of a racket to defraud the state of revenue and enrich the pockets of the few cabals in the enforcement section. These systematic breaches are evidence of a weak monitoring system.
My other worry is this: Remember, the Government signed the EU pact for Forest Law Government Transparency Trade Program (EU FLEGT). This is a like a Standard Operating Procedure programme to do business with the EU. It all rests on good forest systems. What we are seeing here now in Guyana is a weak forest monitoring system, and hence it puts the entire EU FLEGT programme under serious treat and jeopardy. The EU is serious business, and hefty fines are imposed for non-compliance. One need just look at Brexit and see how challenging it is to get out of the EU system. Our weak monitoring system is a recipe for disaster, and we should pause for a while and reflect on whether we are ready for the EU. After all, Guyanese are no wiser on the EU programme, there has not been a single national public education awareness conference on EU FLEGT.
Who is really in charge of the programme? The public is in the dark. A miserly text message on the programme was received a few weeks ago, and that’s all the public has been informed of.
We need an overhaul of the FLEGT programme, and have people with the right skills and expertise to take it forward. Otherwise we will be shooting ourselves in the foot. Why not get our own Dr Janet Bulkan, a respectable international expert, to lead it off? It’s an international programme, so Dr Bulkan can also give advice on how to overhaul and strengthen our forest monitoring and allocation department and systems. I am sure she would be more than happy to contribute to Dear Guyana.
Finally, like the other writer, I heard the GFC board is in the capable hands of an environmental and social activist. Madam Chairperson, we call on you to bring sanity to this lawlessness that is taking place in monitoring systems, lands management, and is spreading to the FLEGT programme. Why don’t we have a national workshop to get ideas on best practice, and also form a national steering body to give advice? The stakeholders are your friends, and this is the best way to get on-the-ground information. Otherwise, sitting in offices in Georgetown will get us nowhere; only issues like what have been mentioned by Mr Williams in last week’s media will crop up.
P. Wong
Forestry Expert/
Consultant
