…hundreds of pensioners affected
…RDC steps in to fund emergency repairs

THE Wismar Post Office in Linden is now an empty shell as bandits completely torched the inside of the lower flat in what is considered a spiteful act, since they were unable to successfully gain entry into a safe in which millions of dollars were being kept.
Ranks from the Wismar Police Station, which is in close proximity to the post office, said they noticed smoke emanating from the building around 04:00hrs on Thursday and on investigating the circumstances, realised that the post office was burglarised. The Guyana Fire Service was immediately notified and successfully put out the blaze, which had threatened to burn down the entire building. While media representatives were not allowed inside of the compound, Regional Chairman Renis Morian said that everything inside of the building has been destroyed. The equipment, furniture, and documents are all lost to the fire and documents that were not burnt, were waterlogged by water from the fire tenders, Morian reported. The only thing that remains is the safe that the bandits were unable to break in to.

The criminals apparently gained entry into the building by breaking the grillwork with a crow bar. They then broke away a concrete wall where the safe was kept behind. “What they didn’t know is that the safe is within a safe, so they cut through the first layer, but the other layer is pure iron, so they couldn’t get through that, then the other thing is, the safe is so heavy so they couldn’t get it through the window,” Morian related. The bandits are aware that armed police are normally stationed at the post office before 08:00hrs when its pension day and so they made sure they had sufficient time to execute their act. Commander of ‘E’ Division, Anthony Vanderhyden, said that his ranks responded promptly to the scene and investigations are ongoing in an effort to catch the perpetrators.

No security
Thursday’s attack on the post office is the fourth in recent years, yet no security mechanism has been implemented to properly secure the premises. There are no cameras, no security guards stationed at the building and no modern reinforced security barriers at the entry points. Morian said that for a facility where millions of dollars are being kept, there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way the post office is secured. “The Post Office Corporation needs to move to have security huts like the bank, NBS and other agencies. It is too much of vital service to the community for every time persons doing things to bring this service down, we depend on the services that this post office is rendering to the community,” he said.

As a result of the event, hundreds of pensioners living on the Wismar shore have been inconvenienced as Thursday was pension day. Many were turned away, and had to journey to Mackenzie to uplift their pension while others were not even able to do so because of not having the transportation fare to travel.

One pensioner, Thomas Tudor, who was turned away, expressed his disappointment that after so many burglaries, the post office is not properly secured. “I came to uplift my pension and they told me about the robbery and so I can’t get my pension. I have to go till across to Mackenzie, I might be able to do it, but what about the many persons who can’t move around or don’t have money to go across, what will happen to them,” Tudor told the Guyana Chronicle.

Unfortunately too, the pensioners would have pooled their very pensions together, as little as it may be, to purchase fans to be used in the section where they sit in and often have to wait long hours. Today was the day the fans were to be presented to them, but they (fans) were also torched by the fire.

Emergency repairs

In light of this major inconvenience, Morian said that the RDC will be intervening to commence emergency repairs, so that the Wismar Post Office can be up and running in a short while. The regional engineer visited the building to prepare a bill of quantities. Morian said that the RDC will have to appropriate emergency funds to have the repairs done and he will be writing the Minister of State and the Minister of Finance concerning the issue, since the Mackenzie Post Office cannot accommodate the amount of pensioners and other services assigned to the Wismar Post Office. “We are looking to get the service of the post office entity up and running at the shortest possible time,” Morian said.
Chairman of the Regional Welfare Committee, Denise Belgrave, described the incident as an unfortunate one and said that her major concern is the many senior citizens who have been adversely affected. Belgrave visited the Mackenzie Post Office to render support to the staff. “I trust that with the intervention of the RDC, even the welfare that we are a part of, that we will be able to accommodate them in some way and even on a wider aspect to see how best we can support them, offer them other forms of having this service that is disrupted there.”