IT seems as though the Kaieteur News in its misleading campaign against the Bai Shan Lin Logging Company and Forestry Sector had run out of misinformation when they mischievously republished Christopher Ram’s comments on Janette Bulkan and John Palmer’s criticisms of the Guyana Forestry Commissions (GFC) Annual reports for the years 2005-2012. (KN Sun Aug 24, 2014). 

Ram said that the GFC illegally paid over to NICIL $600M. Let me again advise Ram to familiarise himself with the GFC’s Act that allows the Commission to manage its own resources and to make payments being a statutorily incorporated entity.
I have noted as well that APNU’s MP Carl Greenidge is concerned about the Commissioner of Forests handling of Foreign Companies (KN Tues Aug 26, 2014). Greenidge was the finance minister in the illegal PNC Government when it was kicked out of office in 1992 leaving Guyana in Social and Economic ruins and misery. He should have been the last person to speak on the Forestry Sector’s management or the management of any productive sector in Guyana. Further, can Greenidge say if his illegal PNC Government ever provided Annual Reports of the Forestry Sector prior to 1992? And did the illegal PNC Government ever consulted with the Guyanese people when it issued the Barama Company 1.1 million hectares of Forest lands?
Back to Christopher Ram. He asks “in whose interest are GFC and Government acting …..Bai Shan Lin or Guyana? (KN Tues Aug 26, 2014). The problem with Ram is that he is anti-government and in this regard he is part of the misinformation campaign against the GFC and Bai Shan Lin. But can Ram say if he was a consultant to one of the joint venture arrangements that had connections to the Bulkans some years back and is he still benefitting from the arrangement?
Guyana’s so called “New Political Dispensation” has caused even the devil to become an apostle of transparency and anti-corruption. In this regard the devil or devils will have to be prepared for the boomerang effect which will only expose the hypocrisy of the political Opposition in their mischievous power-hungry campaign.
A few days ago it was alleged that a publisher of one of the newspapers in Guyana, who claims to be an advocate of anti-corruption is at the centre of a duty-free concession scam (Chronicle, Mon Aug 25, 2014). On this matter where are the other advocates of anti-corruption in the political Opposition- Christopher Ram, Goolsarrran and the others in the anti-government circle. It seems that on this alleged scam they are in total silence, but not silent to provide gross misinformation in the Opposition sections of the media about Guyana’s Forestry Sector.
The transparency Institute of Guyana (TIGI) column is an example (SN Tues Aug 26, 2014). In fact, all that this Opposition outfit does is provide transparency to the public on its unprofessional modus operandi. Did the TIGI sought clarification from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) before writing its columns on “transparency and accountability in the regulations of Guyana’s Forest Sector” before arriving at its absolutely unqualified assumptions and conclusions? By the way who is telling TIGI what to write in it SN columns on Forest matters? The inaccurate information presented is simply being recycled to the political Opposition and its lackeys.

PETER PERSAUD