Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 13, 2016 News
…new head pledges return to efficiency
By Jarryl Bryan
Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, has charged the newly ensconced Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Board of Directors to take charge and to ensure that the numerous problems
afflicting the mining industry are addressed.
Addressing the swearing in of the members yesterday, at the National Library, Minister Trotman mandated the Board to identify a new Commissioner, as well as to aid in identifying new land, improving existing technology used by miners and removing the use of mercury in mining operations.
Trotman added that the Board will be tasked with dealing with environmental issues. In addition, it will be looking at a review of the mining act and to manage the tensions between the miners and the Amerindians, acting as a mediator.
New Chairman of the GGMC, Stanley Ming, has made it clear that with the imposition of the new Board, employees will be given a level playing field to perform favourably.
According to Ming, the job of the Board will not be to run the day to day affairs of GGMC, and thus he urged interested parties not to get carried away.
“Our job will not be to run the GGMC. That is the Commissioner’s job,” Ming said. According to the Chairman, individuals have been “bludgeoned, shackled and silenced” for too long.
According to Ming, his Board’s role will be as a facilitator, to ensure that GGMC staff members have that freedom and breathing space to act in a responsible and ethical manner. One measure Ming identified as necessary to formulate that relationship was to cultivate trust.
He also noted that approaches will be made to the Minister of Natural Resources, in instances where there was a need for new legislation or equipment, in order to get the job done.
On the issue of seeking a new Commissioner, Ming intimated to Kaieteur News that a candidate can be identified in as little as two weeks. The last GGMC Commissioner, Rickford Vieira, fell afoul of the old GGMC board and was sent off on leave last December. The life of the previous Board came to an end that same month. Vieira was officially fired last month.
Trotman’s charges to the Board stem from commitments he made during the Small Miners’ Conference at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre last month. He had also decried the numerous complaints that he got from those involved in the mining industry. He said that this suggests staggering levels of inefficiency at the Commission.
“Because the system is so broken, people believe that it is only at the level of the Minister or the President that they can get redress,” Trotman had stated. “That has to change. When a Minister is appointed, that Minister has to ensure that (whatever) policy decisions are taken by Cabinet are implemented.”
The members of the board are Mark Waldron, Nageshwari Lochanprasad, Euliene Watson, Vanda Radzik, Briony Tiwari and representatives from GGMC and GFC, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners’ Association (GGDMA), the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO) and Parliamentary Opposition.
The observers will be Derrick Lawrence, Tom Dalgety, and representatives from the police, army, the Guyana Gold Board, the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), the Opposition political party and the Ministry of the Indigenous People’s Affairs.
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