The Week-in-Review - November 14 to 20

Labour

Public servants to get 7% hike retroactive to January 1st: Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh last Thursday announced a 7 per cent salary increase for public servants and government pensioners, which was swiftly criticised by the Guyana Public Service Union, which called for its members to work to rule. “….I am pleased to announce now that your Government will be paying an across-theboard increase of seven per cent to public servants, teachers, members of the Disciplined Services, constitutional office holders, as well as government pensioners,” Singh said during an address to the nation. The increase which will not be tax free, will be retroactive to January 1, 2021 and will be paid with salaries for the month of December. The announcement reflects the customary yearend imposition on public servants as there had been no collective bargaining with its union, the GPSU. “Work will start immediately to ensure that it is processed and paid to eligible employees together with their December salary and in time for the festive Christmas season,” Singh assured. In addition, Singh also announced that frontline workers in the health sector are expected to benefit from a $400 million special 2021 payout. According to Singh, the payout will be done before the end of the year and details about the process will be announced “shortly”. The union has since urged President Irfaan Ali to rectify the ‘autocratic’ imposition of the pay hike and direct that government engage the union in negotiations on wages and salaries and conditions.

Elections

Battle lines drawn in search for Chief Election Officer: Opposition-nominated GECOM commissioners have shortlisted only three overseas applicants for the post of Chief Election Officer (CEO) while the government side has selected these persons in addition to three Guyanese, including two currently working in the electoral system. When deliberations begin next week on the candidates, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh SC will likely have a key say on who will be on the final list for consideration. Director-General of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and Regional Manager at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, Leslie Oliver Harrow; St Kitts Election Official Eugene Godfrey Petty and Dr Kurt Clarke from Texas were among the initial 20 persons who applied for the post. They are now among the six names shortlisted as GECOM gets the process of interviewing underway. At Tuesday’s statutory meeting, GECOM decided that the government-nominated Commissioners and Oppositionnominated Commissioners would submit lists of names for the seven advertised posts – CEO, Deputy CEO, Assistant CEO, Chief Accountant, Legal Officer, Logistics Manager, Civic and Voter Education Manager – following which a final list would be compiled with names receiving bipartisan support and the other names debated before adding to the final lists. In addition to the three foreigners, the government-nominated Commissioners submitted the names of former GECOM Public Relations Officer Vishnu Persaud, GECOM Assistant Registration Officer and former Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) Commissioner Deodat Persaud and GECOM’s Information Technology Manager Aneal Giddings for CEO. The Opposition-nominated Commissioners – Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman – only submitted the names of the foreigners.

Oil & Gas

President says audit of Exxon’s US$9.5B will be done: Sixteen days after it had been revealed that the statutory period for the auditing of US$9.5billion in ExxonMobil’s expenses had expired without an audit firm being hired, President Irfaan Ali last Wednesday said that the forensic scrutiny of this massive figure will be done. The President’s response to Stabroek News via his spokesperson came after his government had been pilloried for allowing the two-year period to expire without the appointment of a firm. The announcement of the lapse was made by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on November 1st at a press conference. It was not until Wednesday that both Ali and Jagdeo sought to assure that auditing will still be done. Neither of the two said whether ExxonMobil and its partners had been approached to extend the period to allow the auditing to be done. In response to questions from the Stabroek News on Jagdeo’s announcement on November 1st that postcontract costs from 2017 have not been audited because a local firm was not found and the evaluation of a tender to find a company was discontinued, Ali said he was reiterating all that his Vice President stated, as he dismissed talk of not auditing the oil majors here as “a fairytale.” “The President reiterated what the Vice President has said and he said that VP has made the government’s position very clear; that unlike the APNU+AFC government that had no interest in conducting the audit, this government is committed to getting it done and it will be so,” Ali’s Press and Communications Officer, Suelle Findlay-Williams told Stabroek News. “The Vice President had also said that the government is looking at the composition of local experts and technical persons in keeping with his commitment to local content policy and he [the President] said that process is ongoing. The idea that the government is not pursuing the audit is a fairy tale and the President is committed. The audits will take place and that the process is ongoing,” she added, while explaining that Ali’s response to the questions came between meetings in his hectic schedule. Ali’s statement did not acknowledge that the statutory period had expired without the government appointing an auditing firm.

COVID-19

COVID-19 booster shots available for persons 50 years and older from Monday: Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Friday announced that COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will be made available from Monday for persons 50 years and older and persons with comorbidities. During his daily COVID-19 update, Anthony noted that the ministry has long been contemplating how to move forward with the distribution of COVID-19 booster shots. Anthony stated that based on data and recommendations from more stringent authorities, it was noted that a booster shot is necessary. This, he said, comes as data shows that after six months of being administered a second dose of a two-dose vaccine, the immunity begins to wane. According to the health minister, the waning immunity can see breakthrough infections occurring. “Out of an abundance of caution what we are going to do from next week is that we want to make booster shots available to persons 50 years and above,” he said. Further he noted that those persons can go to any one of the vaccination sites in the new week and they will be able to get a booster dose. Additionally, he mentioned that anyone 18 years and older that has some a comorbidity would also be eligible for a booster dose.

Infrastructure

Region 4 holds off on ‘no-objection’ to new bridge over Demerara: The Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) has held off on granting its no-objection for the new Demerara River Bridge project due to the Ministry of Public Works’ nonconsultation with the residents of Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara. The new bridge is expected to land in the vicinity of Nandy Park on the eastern side of the Demerara River and at La Grange/Meer-Zorgen on the West Bank. According to the Ministry’s Chief Transport Planning Officer, Patrick Thompson, only a handful of residents would have to be relocated to facilitate the new bridge. On November 2nd, the Ministry wrote to Regional Chairman, Daniel Seeram seeking a no-objection from the RDC in relation to the project. Seeram and the members of the Region’s Works Committee conducted a site visit on November 8. They were joined on the visit by Thompson and another engineer from the Ministry. At the end of the visit, Seeram told Stabroek News that they were prepared to offer a no-objection since the project is needed to ease traffic congestion, but he held off to do some investigations. “Right here right now, I’d love to give the no-objection because the project is warranted for the Region but we have processes that we have to follow right. My governance strategy at the Region is meaningful consultation, thorough discussions, leading to informed decisions. So I’m leaning towards yes, giving that no-objection, however, I have to make sure that consultations were happening below me in terms at the local authorities level and I must check with the other stakeholders before I can give that final no objection on behalf of the Region,” the Regional Chair had said. However, in a letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Public Works Ministry, Vladim Persaud, the RDC indicated that it would be withholding its no-objection until it is satisfied that adequate public consultations were conducted.

Travel

Guyana-Brazil crossing now open from Mondays to Fridays:

The National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) has given the green light for the immediate reopening of the Guyana-Brazil crossing from Mondays to Fridays. A release from the NCTF Secretariat said the revised opening takes immediate effect and all international travel protocols are to be observed. At the start of October, government acting on a recommendation from the Region Nine Regional Democratic Council, reopened the borders to facilitate trade on Thursdays and Fridays. Brazilians who work and trade in Lethem first blocked the Bonfim highway in September preventing the delivery of essentials to the border town such as cooking gas in protest at their own lack of access to Guyana. When the border was reopened at the beginning of October, it was stated that on Thursdays it would be open from 7 am to 5 pm for the transportation of large and small- scale goods, while on Fridays at specific times individuals would be allowed across the bridge. The opening hours were from 8 am to 1 pm and 6 pm for a period of 15 minutes for residents of Bonfim and Guyana. Persons were required to present their vaccination cards at the port of entry or present a negative PCR COVID-19 test result before being allowed to enter the country. Daniel Gajie, President of the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry had previously stated that the limited reopening was the best news they had received in the past year and a half.

Crime

Affiance security guard strangled: A taxi driver from Reliance Village is currently in police custody assisting with investigations relating to the death of a female security guard. He was the last person seen with the female guard. Dead is Indira Lall, 52, a mother of two from Affiance, Pomeroon-Supenaam. Lall was with the taxi driver when she lost her life last Monday night. The driver told her daughter that the woman had called him to collect her and had stated that she was not feeling well. However, the autopsy conducted by government pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh revealed that she was strangled. Based on this information, investigators apprehended the taxi driver.

Accident

Linden couple perish in East Bank accident: A man and his wife died last Thursday after a vehicular collision on the East Bank Demerara. Dead are Nicholas Valcin and his wife, Olisa Valcin, both of Wisroc, Linden. The accident occurred in the vicinity of Caledonia. Regional Division 4 ‘C’ Commander, Senior Superintendent Mahendra Sewnarine confirmed to Stabroek News that the couple was travelling in a car with another passenger when they collided with a canter.

In the courts

Ex-BHS teacher wins defamation suit against writer Ruel Johnson:

Former Bishops’ High School teacher Coen Jackson has been awarded $5 million in damages after winning a defamation suit he brought against writer Ruel Johnson over statements made about him in Facebook posts. High Court Judge Navindra Singh, who presided over the action brought by Jackson, found on Friday that the statements he complained of were in fact defamatory

Jackson deposed in his claim that Johnson had made certain derogatory statements about him on Facebook that “have irrevocably damaged his reputation and has subjected him to public ridicule, contempt, hatred and embarrassment.” In the Statement of Defence, Johnson (the Defendant) pleaded the defences of justification and fair comment but the Court, however, found that neither was established and as a result he could not rely on them.