Could Mr Ram lead the DDL shareholders in taking the matter of dividend size further forward?

Dear Editor,

I had intended to comment on the letter from Mr Christopher Ram, ‘Insensitive gift at DDL’s AGM’ that had appeared in SN on April 11, but I got caught up with other things.

Mr Ram seems concerned that the gift of what he calls “a bottle of cheap white rum which has failed to attract the market” was insensitive because we were being given it during the Christian season of Lent. I will not presume to speak for others, but many Christian persons that I know merely cut down on their consumption of alcohol during Lent, and abstain from other things.

From the standpoint of religion, though, the matter may not really be as major as Mr Ram may seem to think. I recall one year when, at the request/suggestion of Mr Burnham, the Roman Catholic Bishop decreed that the ceremony of the distribution

indicate whether there are any active investigations relating to home builders and renovation contractors. Of similar importance, consumers should be informed on how government’s consumer protection agenda is widening to include online commerce.

Globally, focus on consumer protection is shifting towards developing digital awareness for consumers given the rapid growth and advancement happening in the digital age. This government must now also turn its attention to consumer protection in a digital age.

At the E-commerce week 2017 held from 24-28 April in Geneva, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Associate Legal Officer Arnau Izaguerri emphasised the need for governments to provide education for and raise awareness among consumers and businesses on their rights and obligations when they engage in online transactions, through the dissemination of the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP).

“Consumers must be empowered, protected and educated about their rights in order to enhance their trust in digital trade, as they play an important role in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular goals 8, 9, 10, 12, 16 and 17,” said Izaguerri.

During a session, themed ‘E-commerce and Consumer protection’, UNCTAD stressed the importance of consumer protection in creating an enabling environment for inclusive e-commerce. Key stakeholders identified areas where national and regional consumer protection frameworks and institutional capacities should be strengthened.

Discussions also centred on the fact that today’s digital consumers have access to an unprecedented choice of goods and services. But as great as the potential benefits of e-commerce are, there are still several challenges including consumer protection, protection against cybercrime, protection from data breaches, unsafe products, unfair business practices, inadequate online dispute resolution, breaches of consumer privacy, and lack of coordinated action among governments.

The regulatory mechanisms to prevent fraud and monitor markets online are not keeping pace here in Guyana. In the banking sector where credit card transactions have increased tremendously, customers are merely advised to ‘beware’ and to exercise caution. Clearly, more can and should be

of ashes, (traditionally placed on the forehead of the faithful on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent), was postponed to the next day because Ash Wednesday that year fell on February 23, the same day as Republic Day. For quite some time after that, I was teased over how Mr Burnham was so powerful, he made Ash Wednesday fall on a Thursday. As regards Mr Ram’s concern about Muslims, I merely wonder why a Muslim would, in the first place, buy shares in a company whose principal business is rum-making and rum-selling.

Mr Ram says: “As a shareholder, I feel strongly that the CEO and the Board of DDL owe an unqualified apology to all shareholders of the company . . .” I trust that he will follow up this matter eventually by

done by the commercial banks to protect consumers, but in the absence of any advocacy surrounding this issue, the banks have seemingly adopted a leave-alone approach.

Overall a greater effort is required from government to recognise and empower consumer rights in Guyana. As US President John F Kennedy said, “Consumers by definition, include us all” and the rights of consumers, when adequately recognized and institutionalized will drive changes in the way business is done by individuals, firms, corporations, and even the government itself.

The consumer rights organizations in Guyana include the Consumer Affairs Division of the Ministry of Trade, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards, the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission, and the advocacy body the Guyana Consumers Association – a member of Consumer International.

One of the most important – the Guyana National Bureau of Standards – which sets the minimum standards by which a determination can be made of most infractions against consumers, does not have the mandate to enforce or demand compliance for its own standards. This makes this most important of consumer protection agencies no more threatening than a toothless poodle.

It might be instructive that successive governments have so far only paid lip service to consumer protection issues when we consider the waste of resources that characterize many government projects. Current examples include the Marriott and the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, both of which are said to be in need of comprehensive repairs costing billions of dollars each, while no enforcement of standards is affecting the new construction going forward.

It is obvious that Guyanese taxpayers too, as consumers, need all the protection that they can get, and that the government needs to be invested in the issue of consumer protection at a more fundamental level.

submitting an appropriate motion to the AGM.

Mr Ram points out: “At December 31, 2016, the company had $13,123 million as profits available for distribution [but] it sees shareholders’ funds as cheap money and pays them a pittance as dividends, which in respect of 2016 was 1/27th of the profits available for distribution.” He also says: “This practice of companies paying sometimes less than one out of every four to five dollars of annual profits after tax is a measure of the intellectual laziness and sloppiness of those who manage our big companies . . .”

Now I do not know about such things as “modern financial analysis … [involving] matters of cost of various forms of capital, internal rates of return, discounted cash flow analysis and gearing.” Mr Ram does. Could I invite him to lead us, the shareholders, in taking this matter of dividend size further forward? There must be some forum and mechanism available to us, the shareholders, so that we are given as dividends a fairer share of the company’s profits after tax.

But I am cautious. I recall one year when, at the AGM held at the National Cultural Centre, Mr Ram led us in castigating the Directors on a certain matter. Speaker after speaker did the same. But when the matter was put to the vote, a sprinkling of shareholders present voted in favour, and Mr Ram and all the others who had spoken against did not vote. I voted against the motion and had to suffer the indignity of having the Chairman dismiss my vote as being “the only shareholder in this vast auditorium who voted against.” Fortunately for me, the front page report in the Sunday Stabroek the next day identified me by name as the person who voted against.

As an aside, although the AGM was held on Friday, April 7 and a final dividend was approved by the shareholders, up to this afternoon (Wednesday, May 17) some shareholders in Georgetown have not yet received their final dividend cheque for the year ended December 31, 2016. If you don’t get your dividend cheque, you can’t cash it, and so I suppose the company keeps getting interest on your dividend money.

Is this one way of paying us, in reality, even less in dividends? Is this another matter for Mr Ram to comment on?

Yours faithfully, George N Cave