As the mystery deepens like an unputdownable paperback, seems like the GOG is lying to save their neck.

GFC Commissioner, James Singh, last week, following the publications of damning photos of Bai Shan Lin operations, claimed that the Chinese company had only exported 375 containers between January and June. This translated to an average of two containers per day.
However, industry insiders and residents alike have refuted this saying it is more like 20 per day.

Chinese firms to undergo regular and intense scrutiny – Greenidge

Since the appalling revelations made by this publication about the destruction of Guyana’s forestry sector by Bai Shan Lin, the political opposition believes that the firm’s abusive actions underscore the need for most if not all foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to be subjected to intense routine scrutiny.

Carl Greenidge, Chairman of the Economics Services Committee

One politician posited that it is important to know whether these firms are operating within the boundaries of the law and whether they are abusing their privileges. “If they are found to be doing so, we need to hold them accountable and ensure that their concessionary benefits which they enjoy are taken away.”
Apart from making this assertion, A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Shadow Minster of Finance, Carl Greenidge insisted that the “abusive” behaviour of some foreign companies which are operating on Guyana’s shores, calls attention to the weaknesses of various agencies and ministries.
Greenidge, who also serves as the Chairman of the Economics Services Committee of the Parliament, expressed that apart from conducting these routine checks, foreign companies should also be subjected to detailed background checks.
“There are certain foreign companies which seem to only have one motive, and that is to grab all that it can from Guyana’s soil. Our country is being exploited in several areas and government is not doing much to put controls in place to prevent this.
It is imperative that certain companies, particularly those Chinese investors be subjected to regular examinations.”
We cannot allow these companies to get comfortable and think that they can just abuse our systems without feeling the squeeze. GO-Invest and the relevant ministries need to take responsibility and play their part in this regard,” the politician asserted.
Many financial analysts have opined that a country’s inability to carry out proper screening on the type of companies investing in Guyana and the ‘kind’ of money” being invested in the economy can have dangerous implications.
They believe that it is important to have proper screening on all investment proposals to determine if companies are “high risk” or corrupt. The results of this screening should be one of the requirements before handing out “like candy, tax holidays,” they stressed.
However, CEO of Go-Invest (Guyana office for Investment), Keith Burrowes who is also the acting Chairman, had expressed that the company currently lacks the capacity to conduct a due diligence report on all the investors it sees, thereby making it unable to identify high risk or corrupt companies.
In a previous interview, Burrowes had stated that Go-Invest lacks the necessary resources to even monitor in many cases, how the concessions granted to some of the companies will benefit the country.
Burrowes said, “To check for all these things you need the physical and human resources to do so and we don’t have that. If a company comes from overseas and they want to invest in Guyana, they would first have to bring their financial statements before us and we would investigate, but the truth is, for all the companies coming into Guyana, we don’t have the capacity to identify the high risk companies or the corrupt ones, because these complex things require financial analysts and you can’t do these things with only two or three financial officers. We lack the capacity to carry out the economic analysis on companies to determine what they are really coming with much less to carry out routine checks on the company.”
“However, we are hoping to collaborate with the Credit Bureau, CreditInfo Guyana, in hopes that they would be able to provide information on companies that are registered with them. We currently don’t have a partnership with them. We want to know what is being done also with the concessions being granted and the tax holidays and how the country is really benefitting from this, but this is a technical monitoring process and we don’t have that. We don’t know as well, how we are doing in terms of our contribution to the development of the economy.”
The Chairman had said that it is important for Guyana to understand that while we are looking at areas of deficiencies, GO-Invest is looking to implement a modernization plan.
“We do have a plan to take us forward and once this is done, we will definitely see a major change in the way services are carried out and an overall improvement in several areas.”
With particular reference to Bai Shan Lin, APNU’s Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon is of the opinion that citizens have a right to know what the firm’s programme for reforestation is.
In his capacity as a member of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources, Harmon said, “Based on the evidence which came to the fore by the publication, the response has been overwhelming. The public is very concerned and they want answers. I was written to by several persons who have submitted their questions and they have called on us to make the necessary adjustments to the legislation so that we can hold these companies accountable.”

Parliament will have to wait until October to discuss Bai Shan Lin issue

Parliament will have to wait until October for any discussion on the activities of the Chinese Company Bai Shan Lin.

Parliamentarian
Joseph Harmon

Parliamentarian Joseph Harmon of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Monday, sought the intervention of the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, to call an “extraordinary sector committee meeting” to have Bai Shan Lin officials come to Parliament and explain their operations in Guyana.
Harmon told Kaieteur News last evening, that he has received correspondence from the Speaker which indicates that they would have to wait until October for any meeting to be called.
He said that this new development is nothing short of unfortunate, knowing the seriousness of the matter.
Harmon has insisted that he does not believe that the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) is showing the type of energy to facilitate an investigation of this magnitude.
He had expressed that all operations of logging should be halted immediately and Parliament should have been given a full explanation about what the company is doing.
Over the weekend, the (EPA) denied ever giving the Chinese company, Bai Shan Lin International Forest Development Inc. any permission to do logging. However, a senior official at the EPA said that as it stands right now, Bai Shan Lin is having meetings with them regarding “scoping”.
It was explained that “scoping” is another aspect of its Environmental Assessment which Bai Shan Lin needs to complete.
The official further told Kaieteur News that the EPA, once everything is done in accordance with the formal requirements, would grant Bai Shan Lin an “Environmental Authorization Permit” which gives the right to log and harvest timber.
But the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has denied that Bai Shan Lin was logging without a licence.
Bai Shan Lin International Forest Development Inc. is yet to receive a logging licence, but the company has teamed up with four others in joint ventures to export billions of dollars in timber monthly. Forestry officials explained that Bai Shan Lin International Forest Development does not have an actual licence for the exportation of logs. What the company has is a State Forest Exploration Permit.
That document allows the Chinese company to do an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. The company is also required to do a forestry inventory and business plan which is to be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
To circumvent the requirements, Bai Shan Lin has opted for joint venture deals with Karbana Wood, Wiacho, Haimorakabra and Paruni Wood Inc. The official said that at present, the company should only be engaging in limited exploration logging.
In June, Bai Shan Lin submitted an application to the EPA seeking environmental authorization to undertake a large scale logging and sawmill operation. That application is still pending.
According to the public notice which was published in June, the company asked for the authorization for several areas, including the Left Bank Essequibo River, Right Bank Berbice River, Right Bank Essequibo River, Left Bank Corentyne River, Left Bank Lysles River, River Bank Berbice River and Right Bank Powis River, including Regions Nine and Six.
It was noted that the project would entail felling, extraction of timber and transporting the commodity to a processing facility. The company would also be doing grading, construction of roads, skid trails, bridges, culverts and camps with other ancillary facilities within the concession.
Bai Shan Lin has been granted a forestry concession that amounts to close on one million hectares of rainforest, from which it plans to extract logs and ship them out of Guyana. The company estimates that it will make US$1,800 from each hectare of land, giving it profits totaling US$1.7 billion, according to redd-monitor.org.

Norway not giving any money. Norway know Mr Jagdeo trick

So that will now be a foregone conclusion, despite the People of Guyana are starving with slave wages and Pensioners are dying of starvations, the Corrupt PPP/C seems to be continuing with their immoral behavior

Bai Shan Lin’s “kickbacks” seem to have silenced Govt. – MP Harmon

 
“The government is silent about this immoral and abusive act and there can only be one logical conclusion for that—they are benefitting financially in exchange for allowing the rape to continue. Citizens need to understand the corrupt beast that it (Govt.) is dealing with. It is only a win-win deal for the parties involved and Bai Shan Lin’s kickbacks seem to have silenced the government.”
This is the contention of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) member on the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources, Joseph Harmon.

Joseph Harmon, APNU Parliamentarian

After seeing the aerial view pictures of huge piles of hundreds of Guyana’s precious logs stocked and waiting to be shipped from one of Bai Shan Lin’s Kwakwani areas, Harmon believes that the evidence showcased by Kaieteur News yesterday is simply “horrendous.”
“It is sickening to come to grips with the reality that former President Bharrat Jagdeo invited Bai Shan Lin to this country under the pretext that it was going to foster good developments, and all along the true intention was to rape this country of its resources. This underscores the need for the Ramotar administration to resign en bloc.
“They have no interest in protecting the people. They have fooled this country. It seems that this Government is being paid to shut its mouth.”
The MP pointed out that at a meeting of the Natural Resources Committee in the Parliament Office, Head of the Guyana Forestry Commission, James Singh, was requested to provide information in relation to the contractual arrangements that Government has with Bai Shan Lin, a Chinese company that has been in the spotlight for several months now, for its questionable activities.
Singh, according to Harmon, said that the Commission does not have a copy of the contract.
The Parliamentary Committee was referred to the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) for more information. But when contacted, GO-Invest was not even aware of the agreements.
“This is a most serious matter, because we have a Government that is so greedy and selfish that it is incapable of understanding that it has the responsibilities to protect the natural resources of this country.”
Commissioner Singh had defended GFC saying that Bai Shan Lin is not operating in an illegal manner, but Harmon contends that he does not trust what the nation is being told about what is legal and what isn’t in this matter.

Workers at the log pond site, east of Kwakwani bauxite mines, Berbice River.

“These companies are just being encouraged to gut this country, and indicators show that Guyana is slipping further into the abyss of poverty.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had made it clear that Bai Shan Lin does not have permission to cut or log.  In fact, EPA denied ever giving the Chinese company any permission to do logging. A senior official at the EPA explained it is currently in discussions with the company in relation to “scoping”.
“Scoping” is another aspect of its Environmental Assessment which Bai Shan Lin needs to complete.
This publication understands that once everything is done in accordance with the prescribed requirements, the EPA would grant Bai Shan Lin an “Environmental Authorization Permit.” This would give the company the right to log and harvest timber.
Though it is currently without a logging licence, Bai Shan Lin has teamed up with four others in joint ventures to export billions of dollars in logs.

GFC stamped logs awaiting pickup by Bai Shan Lin.

It is in possession of a State Forest Exploration Permit (SFEP) which allows for an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, not large-scale logging. A Forestry official said that at present, the company should only be engaging in limited exploration logging.
In June, Bai Shan Lin submitted an application to the EPA seeking environmental authorization to undertake a large-scale logging and sawmill operation for several areas, including on the left bank of the Essequibo River, along the Berbice River and in Regions Nine and Six. That application is still pending.
The Environmental Protections Act of 1996 says that an “Environmental Impact Assessment” is required before any decision is taken to approve or reject a project of this magnitude. EPA had invited members of the public to submit, within 28 days of the notice, questions or objections. It is not clear whether this process is completed.
Bai Shan Lin has claimed access to forestry concessions that amount to close to one million hectares of rainforest, from which it plans to extract logs and ship them out of Guyana. However, Government has denied it was that much.
The company estimates that it will make US$1,800 from each hectare of land, giving it profits totaling US$1.7 billion, according to redd-monitor.org.
Additionally, the company sought permission to dig up a 20-kilometre stretch of river to look for gold. Other plans include setting up what it is called a Guyana-China Timber Industry Economic and Trading Corporation Park, plus a 400-acre real estate development.
The plans were announced in 2012 by Chu Wenze, Chairman of Bai Shan Lin, at the Second World Congress on Timber and Wood Products Trade in Taicang, China.

These logs were but part of several piles along the Kwakwani/Ituni trail

Those plans were announced even before Guyana knew of it. The country became aware of what was happening only when Bai Shan Lin officials visited Guyana and held discussions with President Donald Ramotar and other government officials.
Redd-monitor.org stated that in November 2012, Chu Wenze’s plans have threatened Guyana’s proposals to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.
Bai Shan Lin is part of a group of 11 companies operating in Guyana. They are all part of the China Forest Industry Group (Hong Kong).