By Ariana Gordon

MEMBERS of the Guyana Scrap Metal Recyclers’ Association have picketed the Ministry of Business and have appealed to President Granger to intervene in lifting a suspension on their trade, which has been in place for now just over year. They contend that the suspension is causing them grave hardships.Last Friday, the scrap metal dealers, no more than thirty in number, staged a picketing exercise outside of the Ministry of Business.

Sean Pickering, a resident of Brickery, East Bank Demerara (EBD), detailing to Guyana Chronicle his plight, said he was protesting because he has twelve children to maintain but no money to do so.

“I want see if this trade could open back…if I could get some work to look after my family properly,” Pickering said. He disclosed that he has been out of work for approximately one year, six months. “The little work you’re doing outside, you’re being underpaid and you ain’t getting the kind of money to assist the children to go to school. Nuff day meh children can’t go to school, and it is very bad,” he lamented, with despair written all over his face.

He said life has been very difficult for him, but he has faith in President Granger, whom he described as “a fair and good man”. Pickering said he is optimistic that the scrap metal trade would resume in no time.

“School opening just now and I have to get money to send my children to school…I ain’t want them home, and they don’t want to be home…so I am hoping that this situation ends,” he disclosed.

Earlier this week, subject Minister Dominic Gaskin wrote the Scrap Metal Recyclers’ Association informing dealers that the new proposal to govern the trade would be taken before Cabinet within the next two weeks.

The minister, in his missive, said the Ministry is working towards November as the target date for completion of comprehensive reforms and resumption of the scrap metal trade. Minister Gaskin said the audit report into the trade, which was completed in December, advised that reforms be introduced into the system. Those reforms include legislative amendments, new regulations, and smarter monitoring of the trade.

“I do understand the hardships that metal dealers are facing, and my earlier commitment to resolve the matter still stands. However, we cannot resume under the same terms and conditions which previously prevailed and expect to achieve a different result,” Gaskin stated in the letter.

But even as the minister has committed to ensuring that all reforms are speedily done, Secretary of the Guyana Scrap Metal Recyclers’ Association, Michael Benjamin, believes that there is a lack of respect for the trade and its dealers.

He told Guyana Chronicle during the picketing exercise that he is disappointed with the way the process is being handled, and at this stage it is only President Granger who can intervene to assist scrap metal dealers.

“Reforms can be done…they can be done simultaneously… Reopen the trade and look at the reforms at the same time. There has always been a system in place…the problem has always been the enforcement of the law. Laws and rules are there, but the lack of enforcement is the problem,” Benjamin declared.

Benjamin said that while in December there was a waiver to have some metal exported, it is not enough. He argued that many in the scrap metal trade are unskilled persons who depend heavily on the trade to take care of their families.

“There are now broken families… these men can’t take care of their families, their children…it is hard. The exporters cannot get the shipments out…it is billions of dollars going down,” he added.

He said the storage cost is significantly high, and scrap metal dealers have entered into an arrangement with John Fernandes Limited to waive the storage fee until the re-opening of the trade.

He said that when containers were packed in June 2015, it was US$280 per ton, as compared to US$80 per ton when released in December.

“We have found ourselves indebted more to the buyers…we have not received any money.”

Benjamin believes that much more consideration should be given to the situation facing scrap metal dealers. He said the fraternity is plagued with lack of respect and is dissatisfied with the treatment meted out to it.

“We want it to be on the front burner, so people can understand what we are facing…it erodes our confidence. We are deemed unreliable by overseas suppliers… and we were the best in the Caribbean, and most of the suppliers look to us to do business with.”

With billions lost due to the suspension of the trade, Benjamin said, it would be difficult for dealers to obtain money from local banks to continue their trade.

The Ministry of Business developed a proposal which was taken to Cabinet for approval on April 5 this year. That proposal was deferred to facilitate wider consultations. But given the announcement by Minister Gaskin that the second proposal will go before Cabinet in two weeks, it is unclear when the resumption of the trade will take place.

In December 2015, some six months after the trade was suspended, Cabinet had approved exportation of all containers of scrap metal, packed and stored at city wharves prior to the suspension of the trade.

The trade was closed to facilitate a forensic audit, which concluded in December. The GMRA says more than 1500 persons are jobless as a result of the suspension of the trade. Since the suspension, the Association believes, lawlessness has become the order of the day.

He alleges that the trade in non-ferrous scrap metal has continued 100 per cent.