NEGOTIATORS for the Government of Guyana and the Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice)  administration failed to affix their signatures to the Terms of Reference (TOR) that will see the issues of Linden being totally resolved and the community returning to normalcy. Yesterday afternoon when the two sides met in the Cabinet Room in the Office of the President in Georgetown what should have been a 17.15 hrs signing of the agreement by the two sides under the lens of media operatives turned out to be an apology to the media by the Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Luncheon who indicated that he “regretted to advise that we are cancelling today’s signing activity.”
Yesterday the HPS said that over the past two days a minor matter among the TOR for the Commission of Inquiry has remained unresolved. He added that the understanding of signing an agreement has not been reached. Dr. Luncheon said that it is the understanding and expectation by both sides that the minor matter will be resolved by today thus facilitating the signing later this afternoon.
Dr. Roger Luncheon told the members of the media that the two sides feel that the outstanding matter of the TOR will be addressed to mutual satisfaction and the signing ceremony will the live up to its fullest intent. The sides are expected to reach at 15.00 hrs today to address the issues that prevented yesterday’s signing and remedy those to facilitate the signing for this afternoon at 17.00 hrs.
Meanwhile, Regional Chairman of Region Ten, Sharma Solomon said that the issues that prevented the signing is the understanding that the total package of agreement to deal with the Linden issues of July 18 and the matters with regards to the Linden issues including those of the TOR would have been dealt with since August 2 but those have not yet been resolved.
Solomon said his team is hoping that those issues will be resolved at the 15.00 hrs meeting today. He added that while they would like that to be a part of the agreement they would like it to be a part of the understanding as it relates to dealing with the issues of Linden and Region Ten over the past month.
Solomon said that they are at a position where some outstanding issues have been resolved and they as a region would not be proceeding with those since it is being handled by the political opposition parties. He said that they intend to see the terms of reference put together in such a manner that they can take back to the people of Region Ten as part of the complete package and which represents the agreement that the two sides are expected to sign.