By Suraj Narine

Logging company Vaitarna Holdings Private Inc (VHPI) is yet to begin operations at a long-delayed wood processing facility and company officials are tight-lipped on its status, though one official said that they would start operations within two weeks.

Vaitarna’s Chief Execu-tive Officer (CEO) Chetan Narayan refused to speak on the matter during a   visit by Stabroek News to the Indian company’s Wineperu concession on the Essequibo River on Thursday. He demanded that no pictures be taken and said that visits to the facility site were prohibited.

Asked about the progress of the facility, Narayan declined to speak of it saying that it was not up to him to decide if the information was to be shared. After being pressed on the matter, another individual who was standing close to Narayan blurted out, “the plant is finished and we will start operations by next week or the other week.”

When asked to provide more information, the individual asserted that he does not have the authority to speak and that was all he had to say and would not say anything further.

Stabroek News could not ascertain the veracity of the man’s claim as access was denied to the compound. During a visit to the concession in August, Stabroek News had observed that the company had cleared land to set up the facility but no construction had begun. It was observed that grading and filling was also done but was incomplete. No work was being done and there was no machinery at the site.

A pile of logs in Vaitarna’s compound on Thursday.

This was despite Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud saying in January last year that Vaitarna was in an “advanced” stage of setting up the promised wood processing facility.

Subsequently, the company in response to the Stabroek News report, said that it “tentatively” expects that the sawmill will be “near completion” by the end of last year. Persaud could not be reached for comment on the matter.

Exports of logs rather than processing the timber locally has long been a concern since numerous promises have been made by the government and foreign investors about value-added operations. The promise of value-added has been seen as sugar coating to enable the export of large quantities of logs, particularly to China and India, even though there is little job creation here or value enhancement. Foreign companies including Vaitarna and China’s Bai Shan Lin have been exporting logs on a large scale even though Persaud and other officials have said that logging companies are encouraged to process wood here.

During the visit on Thursday by Stabroek News, there were huge piles of freshly cut logs in the compound and no sign of any processing.

Narayan was at the location and when asked why information was being denied, he said that in the past, there were several imposters with guns who would come uninvited onto the premises claiming to be attached to the government.

Despite police media passes being exhibited     by the SN journalists, Narayan insisted that permission was needed from the company’s office in Georgetown or the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), before any information on the processing plant is passed on to the media.

“These men with big guns came and said that they were from (a government agency) and since then, we have hired security guards…we are willing to help but let’s us go through the right channel, get permission from the office first…or from the GFC,” Narayan said.

He added that all statistics are submitted to the GFC and while he is aware of importance of transparency he said that, Stabroek News should speak with the “bigger heads.”

When Stabroek News subsequently visited Vaitarna’s office at Lance Gibbs Street, the security guard said that the “bossman” who has his office in the lower flat of the building, had not come down as yet. One hour after, the office was revisited and the guard said that he had explained everything to the official but he indicated that he did not wish to speak with Stabroek News.

Narayan had disclosed that about 106 workers are employed at Wineperu, of which 9o% are Guyanese. “We have about 18 staff houses, (which includes) logies and about eight buildings where we stay, we have a kitchen and a guest house…” he said. When asked about safety measures, the official related that MACORP services the machines and train the machine operators, while safety gear which includes safety boots, helmets, gloves and earmuffs are handed out to the staff.

A view of the Vaitarna site from the river

“We also do a lot for the community, we maintain the medical buildings and the education facilities. Last Christmas we shared gifts, we lend them our sound systems for their entertainment, like school sports activities,” Narayan said.

The Vaitarna deal had not been known locally until an article surfaced in the Times of India in 2011. Subsequently, at a press conference in April 2011, Persaud said that there would be no large scale exportation of logs since Vaitarna has committed to getting involved in downstream activities. VHPI is not here as a logging company but will be involved in value-added, the minister had emphasized.

In 2012, V G Siddhartha, owner of the Coffee Day group which owns VHPI said that a processing centre for logs would be set up here but the main facility would be in India.

VHPI is a subsidiary of the India-based Coffee Day Group. Coffee Day, through its Dark Forest subsidiary, in 2010 it acquired the State Forest Exploratory Permit for 391,853 hectares of forest originally awarded in 2007 to US-based Simon and Shock International Logging Incorporated (SSILI), after buying out SSILI. The company has since been granted a Timber Sales Agreement for this concession and can now harvest logs.

After the acquisition, the company registered in Guyana as SSILI. Subsequently, Dark Forest acquired the 345,961 hectares concession which was originally assigned to Caribbean Resources Limited (CRL). The government accepted an offer of $600M for the TSA. The company registered as VHPI and had been harvesting and exporting logs from this concession.

The total area held by Coffee Day is 737,814 hectares of forest.