My Buck brothers are in serious need of honest advice. As is well known the LCDS is funded out of the money from Norway, not from the government budget. So the budget cuts will have no impact on the LCDS commitments.

The one laptop per family was an election con from the beginning, starting from the con of calling a netbook a laptop. The order for those laptops has already been placed and money paid to the Chinese. So the suggestion that it could have a likely impact is once again a ploy from the PPP to secretly embezzle money, or use this as an excuse to justify the disappearance of the money that is supposed to have been spent on this project.

The Guyanese People are already fed up of Snakeoil Salesmen. Mr President, play your hand NOW and call a NEW Election!!!!!!!!!!

The GC’s criticisms of named Amerindian MPs are misdirected and technically incorrect
By Stabroek staff  |  0 Comments  |  Letters | Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Dear Editor,

The government-owned Guyana Chronicle carried one article and one letter on April 30, 2012 criticising Amerindian members of the National Assembly who voted to reduce those components of the appropriations bill which linked to former President Jagdeo’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).  The Chronicle’s items referred in particular to Sidney Allicock of Surama Village, also an APNU Member of Parliament.  Both Khemraj Ramjattan of the AFC and independent accountant Chris Ram pointed out the error of the Minister of Finance in the inclusion of LCDS projects into the main appropriations bill instead of placing them as conditional appropriations in accordance with Article 21 in the Financial Management and Accountability Act (‘The $18.3B which was cut from the LCDS needed to be covered by a conditional appropriation,’ Stabroek News, April 30).  It was thus entirely correct for members of the National Assembly to vote down the error of the Minister of Finance and to call for use of the proper procedure.

The Guyana Chronicle also failed to notice that the Joint Concept Note (JCN) attached to the Norway-Guyana MoU and revised in March 2011 is explicit concerning the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) that “Transfer of funds takes place on approval by the GRIF Steering Committee, which consists of Guyana and Norway, with observers from Partner Entities [UNDP and the Inter-American Development Bank], and Guyanese and Norwegian civil society” (section 4, page 13, in the revised JCN). This Steering Committee cannot approve money transfers from the GRIF until the Government of Guyana presents proposals of acceptable quality which derive from the sketchy LCDS project outlines and which comply with the Partner Entities’ “own globally accepted operational procedures and safeguards” (also on page 13 of the JCN).  Both Partner Entities have accepted the Combined Approach to environmental and social safeguards in the context of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and UN-REDD.  In his statement about the GRIF to the National Assembly on July 15, 2010, the Minister of Finance said “Individual Government agencies are now moving to translate these outlines into detailed project plans.”  That was 21 months ago.

As the Government of Guyana, including the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the President’s Office of Climate Change, have produced only a few concept notes and proposals since then, and those mostly of abysmal quality and relevance, only one project has so far been funded and that for the benefit of the Guyana Forestry Commission (US$ 3.6 million) and the Office of the President (US$ 3.3 million).  This project was approved by the GRIF Steering Committee on  November 7, 2011.

Two concept notes have been submitted to the GRIF in relation to Amerindian development.  Land titling and demarcation was submitted by UNDP and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and UNDP in January 2011.  The concept note for the Amerindian Development Fund was prepared by the Office of the President and/or the Meridian Institute, apparently not by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, recently in March 2012.

The criticisms in the Guyana Chronicle of the named Amerindian MPs are misdirected and technically incorrect.  Can we expect a retraction by the Guyana Chronicle?

Yours faithfully,
Janette Bulkan

Attach this or make up one that clearly identify that you are against those creeps in the PPP

Amerindians cheated of billions
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER LETTERS 

Dear Editor,

A GINA release in early March 2008, reported that the new Amerindian Act, 2006, passed on February 16, 2006 and assented to by the President on March 14, 2006 had “paved the way for Amerindians to empower themselves socially, economically and politically.” Further, and A as a measure of its pride in the Act, under Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, under Ms Carolyn Rodrigues, expended considerable sums on the publication of user-friendliness (user friendly??) booklets for distribution to Amerindian communities.

And as recent as August 19, 2010, PPP/C MP Norman Whittaker boasted that the PPP/C government has consistently followed the provisions of the 2006 Amerindian Act. When all things are considered, maybe Mr. Whittaker was being more careful than anyone at that time thought. Because there is one small - to some significant - problem: Four years after its assent, the Act is yet to be brought into force. Effectively then, the 1951 Amerindian Act Cap: 29:01 described by Minister Rodrigues in 2005 as “outdated and [does] not address the needs of Amerindian communities” remains in force.

I find it hard to believe that this was any innocent oversight by the Amerindian-loving Government, if there is such a thing. After all, for more than three years, there were three Amerindian MP’s in the Cabinet. At every opportunity, whether it is in the “Cabinet Outreaches”, in the National Assembly, in national and international press conferences, and to the Norwegians, the government never ceased to showcase the Act as evidence of the progressive legislation it has passed to cater for the rights/needs of our indigenous peoples. Now it seems that is all a deception, a sham, a façade, propaganda cynically disguised.

The reason why the Act has not been brought into force is that it creates an obligation on the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to “transfer 20% of the royalties from mining activities to a fund designated by the Minister for the benefit of the Amerindian villages”. The financial statements of the GGMC show that mining activities has garnered more than eight and one half billion dollars since June 2006. The failure to bring the Act into force has, therefore, deprived Amerindian communities of approximately one point seven billion dollars ($1,700,000,000).

Maybe this is all innocent. Maybe it is a mere co-incidence that during the same period, the GGMC has transferred one point eight billion dollars ($1,800,000,000), to the national slush fund – NICIL – whose mis-spending, if ever it were ever to become known, would be more interesting than the financial shenanigans of ENRON.

This is Amerindian Month this is a test of the sincerity of the Government. The onus is on it to prove that it does not consider the Amerindians as naïve and gullible, ready to give up their legal right to $1.7 billion dollars in return for a few outboard engines here, some chain saws here and there, and trips for its leaders to come to Georgetown to perform for the modern day Caesars, or to go on window-dressing trips to Norway. This is a test, too, of the multiplicity of Amerindian organisations, politicians across parties and civil society activists.

They should stand up and let the Amerindians know where they are on this latest blatant example of official pillage and plunder; and deception, too. Silence is not an option.

Christopher Ram

AFC MP Sydney Allicock

A partnership for National Unity APNU) member of Parliament for the region eight constituency Sydney Allicock, at the last weekend lost his position as Toshao of the North Rupunnui community of Surama.

Allicock after the November 28 General and regional elections was selected as a member of parliament after the APNU.

However INews Guyana was reliably informed that the villagers of Surama were “peeved” at Allicock’s “betrayal” when he voted in favour of the recent GY$20.9B cuts to the 2012 national Budget, which affected a number of government programmes including three which Amerindian communities were to benefit from.

Sources in Surama said that the community lost confidence in Allicock in representing their rights after he “colluded ” with the other opposition parliamentarians to “deprived ” Amerindians of significant development opportunities.

The sources said that the community became upset after they realized that the budgetary cuts which Allicock voted in favour of will has plunged among other programmes the Low carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

The cuts are likely to impact the distribution of the 11,000 domestic solar panels to Amerindian communities, the micro-enterprise scheme for Amerindians, the Amerindian land titling and demarcation and the One Laptop Per family (OLPF) initiative which Amerindian communities were stand to benefit from.

 

source: Inews Guyana

Read another post by Al regarding this very point about the PPP winning by 55 percent in the next election. Politicians for the opposition will pay the ultimate price for cuts to the budget which traditionally is done by the government.

In this case the opposition called for the cuts.

Most of the cuts were justified but some were vindictive and it is the vindictive cuts that people will remember and that is where the PPP cashes in on the votes.

The opposition failed to act correctly in not reaching out to the people in explaining their cuts that were justified.

Politics is a harsh game and it definitely not for the faint hearted.