Jagdeo says no corruption involved in seabob trawler licensing deal

Declaring that the PPP/C government will not contribute to “monopoly behaviour,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Tuesday said he was assured by the Minister of Agriculture that the holder of the controversial trawler licences does exist.

Asked to comment on the identity of the individual at his press conference yesterday, Jagdeo said, “This person actually met with the ministry and is not a ghost individual, it is a Guyanese.”

Weighing in on the matter, Jagdeo said while they agree that sustainable fishing in the sector should not be jeopardised, there must be equity in the industry and everyone be given a chance.

“We should periodically review this, it should not contribute to monopoly behaviour because a few guys have this, and they feel there should be no new entrants. One and two of those guys feel if they have a licence from government they should have it forever. It should not be, we should look at equity in this issue too… if a few big guys have everything no new person can break into the sector with one licences or two licences, you can’t have fifty licences… and a man gets two and you complaining he will destroy the sector,” Jagdeo countered.

He also stressed that there is no corruption involved in the licensing deal.

Mustapha on Monday told Stabroek News that all unanswered questions surrounding the issuance of the licences will be addressed by the special committee he put together to review the approval of the licenses.

He had made the comments in response to questions surrounding the identity of the mystery holder of the licences.

“I want to respect the committee’s rights. We have set up a committee to look at this issue so it will be premature for me to answer. Let us allow the committee to look at this matter,” Mustapha said when asked by this newspaper to address the uncertainty surrounding the identity of the individual.

Additionally, Mustapha said that the committee will meet soon and will address the concerns as they are currently drafting the terms of reference to guide the committee on its mandate.

Meanwhile, operators in the seabob trawlers sector remain clueless as to the individual who was granted the licences.

Unfamiliar with the name Rampersaud Sookhdeo, the name of the licensee provided by the Ministry, the Guyana Association of Trawler Operators and Seafood Processors (GATOSP) says it is making enquiries to determine who exactly is the holder of the licences issued secretly by the PPP/C government.

President of the Association, Ruben Charles, when contacted had told Stabroek News, “The association wants to know who this person is. We have never heard of him and no one in the fishing industry seems to know who it is.”

After two months of being secretive about the deal, the Ministry of Agriculture last week Monday, finally released the name of the owner of two trawling licences. The Ministry named Sookhdeo of La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara – a re-migrant who it said ran fishing operations in Trinidad and Tobago – as the holder of the licences.

It is unclear why a recent re-migrant from Trinidad would be given licences in breach of an agreement with GATOSP, thereby jeopardising its international certification on sustainable fishing.

Persons within the Trinidad fishing sector also told this newspaper that they were unacquainted with the name.

President of the Carli Bay Fishing Association, and member of Fisherman and Friends of the Sea, Imtiaz Khan told Stabroek News “We are not aware of any operator under that name or even the name Haseed Enterprise. It just doesn’t ring a bell to us,” in response to a query from this newspaper last week.

“I even checked with our Director of Fisheries Nerisa Lucky but the name doesn’t ring a bell to her. We have 128 trawlers registered and operating in different levels but the name doesn’t ring a bell,” Khan iterated.

When this newspaper made enquiries in the West Coast community, villagers were unsure of the person being referred to. Stabroek News during its visit was directed to an address where a person with that name resides but verification efforts were unsuccessful as the man was not at home and his wife who spoke to the reporter via phone said her husband was out of the country and she was in no position to comment.