GFC report on Bai Shan Lin operations …Report is a gross insult to citizens – Harmon

During his perusal of the documents sent to him by the Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), James

Joseph Harmon, APNU Parliamentarian

Singh, A Partnership for National Unity’ s (APNU) Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon, discovered the Commission’s report on the compliance and assessment of Bai Shan Lin’s forest operations. After examining the content of the report, the politician concluded that it can only be seen as a clear sign of disrespect not only to him and his party but to all Guyanese. He said that that report is a gross insult to the intelligence of citizens since the details of the report are far from what is expected in a compliance report. Harmon had accepted a challenge by Singh for a public debate on Bai Shan Lin’s operations and its effective management of the Chinese firm. Since the citizens are going to be the ultimate judges of the debate, as a condition, the APNU Parliamentarian had said that he wanted the Commission to provide certain documents on the Chinese company. But Singh did not even meet the minimum amount of information requested by the politician. Instead, the GFC provided Harmon with a report on the assessment of Bai Shan Lin’s forest operations and compliance with GFC’s forest monitoring requirements. In the 20-page report, the Commission explained its role, enforcement guidelines and some of their key monitoring tools.  The report added that the GFC’s monitoring approach focused on a range of areas, systems of allocation of timber permits and concessions, trade in forest products and the collection and distribution of taxes , fines and other payments. Six pages of the report consisted of blank forms for large concession management while another seven were dedicated to explaining the compliance indicators for forest monitoring, most of which were not put into context to show how they were used on the Chinese firm. Another three pages were used to show pictures of a monitoring exercise. The pictures showed logs being checked, the removal of a permit being verified and tagged lumber which was being checked. An additional part of the report showed the criteria and indicators to assess directional felling. One page which made direct reference to Bai Shan Lin, spoke to the scope of audit of Bai Shan Lin and the associated joint venture partners. This section said that as part of the routine monitoring system of the GFC, its Legality Monitoring and Extension Unit conducted audits for the following companies over the period April 2013 to July 2014; Bai Shan Lin, Haimorkabra Logging Company, Kwabanna Wood Products Inc., Puruni Wood Products Ltd. and Wood Associated Industries company Ltd.

James Singh, Forest Commissioner

The report also noted that based on the inspection of the records, the company, Bai Shan Lin, has valid agreements with their joint venture partners. The monitoring exercises also concluded that Kwebanna Wood Product Inc. had not commenced harvesting over the period January to July 2014. The report also read that the log tag requisition procedure has been complied with and explained what the field application of log tracking and tagging entailed. It said that inspections showed that the company complied with the proximity stipulations and that the company was in general compliance with export procedure of the GFC. With the aforementioned in mind, Harmon said that the report could only be seen as misleading. He said that the report is supposed to be an assessment of Bai Shan Lin’s operations and its compliance with the GFC forest management indicators but it is a far cry from what it was supposed to be. The APNU Parliamentarian said that the report did not reflect a true and proper assessment of the compliance of the operations with the GFC requirements. He said, “What we are basically seeing in the report is a lot of general statements and no proof. We don’t even get to see some of the comments from the auditors and they did make reference to auditors with the pictures. “Why wasn’t this included in the report? More than 90 percent of the report was basic information on the GFC and some concession forms. What is this all about? Why (are) they sending this to me? I am not applying for anything. This compliance report clearly shows or proves rather that the GFC is not on top of its game.” “There is nothing there that says what work was done by the forestry commission to determine whether these standards have been met effectively by Bai Shan Lin, so even with the information they provided they are clearly trying to hoodwink the people of this nation.” The politician said that the documents provided to him by the GFC will be on display at the library for all Guyanese to read. “I want the nation to see what I am talking about. This is the kind of disrespect which they have for the Guyanese people and it is disrespectful to even submit such misleading information to me.”

.