Written By Peter Persaud, Wednesday, 12 February 2014, Source

I WISH to refer to an article in the Stabroek News of Tuesday, February 4, 2014 under the caption, “No Parliamentary sanction over Persaud’s presentation to Natural Resources Committee; no major violation seen, says Roopnaraine”. Permit me to state the following in your Newspaper:Let me commend Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, Chairman of the Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources for being fair and frank when he said that there was “no perceived major violation” regarding the granting of Permission for Geological and Geophysical Survey (PGGS) to Muri Brazil ventures Inc. to conduct surveys in the New River Triangle . This clearly shows that the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources Mr. Robert Persaud was always being truthful to the Sectoral Committee. But at least the Sectoral Committee showed a level of being fair and credible.

In the said article, Joseph Harmon of the Sectoral Committee said that the Hon. Minister will be recalled to answer questions on matters raised by Janette Bulkan and John Palmer in their five-part series on the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) 2005-2012 Annual Reports (ARs) which were submitted to the Parliament under the title, “Why the National Assembly should hold public hearings on the Guyana Forestry Commission.”

In like manner of being fair and credible, the Sectoral Committee needs to demonstrate a sequential approach in its business by firstly addressing the GFC’s 1979-1991 Annual Reports rather than Bulkan and Palmer’s selection for the 2005-2012 Reports, which will be a departure from professional accounting, resulting in flawed analysis of the forestry sector.

But if the Sectoral Committee is giving credence to the claims made in Bulkan and Palmer’s five-part series of the GFC’s report, it will definitely be a reflection of gross incompetence and barefaced political bias, since Bulkan’s brother, Ronald Bulkan, is a PNC/APNU Member of Parliament.

In this regard, the follow-up meeting of the Sectoral Committee, which the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources is likely to attend, will merely be a Kangaroo Court.

The Sectoral Committee claimed that they were concerned that the PGGS granted to Muri Brazil Ventures Inc. was in the New River Triangle area, since it is an “Ecological-Sensitive Area”, yet the Sectoral Committee’s Chairman, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, is giving credence to Bulkan, who raised no objection when Suriname wanted to illegally claim the said New River Triangle area as part of its territory, and placed it on their maps in front of her eyes when that country was preparing its readiness plans to achieve REDD Readiness.

What hyprocisy is this? Bulkan at the time was an operative in the ad hoc Technical Advisory Panels (TAP) to advise the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) governance bodies on specific issues, such as the review of readiness plans and to provide technical assistance in REDD-related fields.

This was, however, not the case with Suriname and Bulkan was subsequently removed. So Dr. Roopnaraine, I am urging that you be consistent with professional behaviour and not political motivation in relation to the Bulkan and Palmer matter before the Sectoral Committee at its next meeting.

Finally, Bulkan and Palmer are not Guyanese citizens since they are currently living in Miami, Florida, USA. Palmer is a British citizen. Therefore they cannot be deemed to be “Guyanese Stakeholders.” Therefore giving credence to Bulkan and Palmer is setting a bad precedent, since any Tom, Dick and Jane from a foreign country can send trash to either the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News for publishing that, when published, can mislead the Sectoral Committee of Guyana.