…Min. Greenidge deplores security lapse at Ogle Airport
…maintains diplomat, Ramsaroop were out of line

A DIPLOMATIC Identification Card (ID) issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not a ‘passport’ to restricted areas at the country’s airports, nor is it a pass, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge.

Confirming earlier reports by the Guyana Chronicle that there was a breach in protocol at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport on the morning of December 22, 2018, Minister Greenidge said the Foreign Affairs Ministry does not issue protocol passes but Diplomatic IDs.

See related story: ‘Clear breach of security’

“That ID does not grant you access to restricted areas,” he told this newspaper on Friday, while adding that protocol passes should only be given on the instructions of his ministry.
Last weekend it was revealed that security protocol at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport was breached to allow People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member Peter Ramsaroop and Canadian Diplomat Richard Beliveau access to the tarmac to escort now recalled Member of Parliament and expelled Alliance For Change (AFC) member, Charrandass Persaud, to his departing flight.

Persaud was a passenger on LIAT flight #LI 392 which departed the Eugene F. Correia International Airport at 6:17hrs on December 22, 2018 for Barbados.

Based on a report submitted by Nadira Persaud, who was the Airport Duty Officer (ADO) at the time, Peter Ramsaroop in the company of Canadian Diplomat Richard Beliveau requested a protocol pass to access the tarmac.

In her report to the airport’s Director of Security Harold Hopkinson, Persaud said she was on the “4am shift” when she was approached by the diplomat and civilian. “At approximately 4:25[am], Mr. Richard Beliveau entered the ADO office and requested a protocol pass to see someone off. He lodged his Ministry of Foreign Affairs ID#100863 and was issued Protocol Pass #3. Mr. Peter Ramsaroop, who was accompanying Mr. Beliveau, also requested a pass, he lodged his national ID card and was issued Protocol Pass #2,” the ADO officer stated in her report dated December 28, 2018.

Ogle Airport Inc. (OAI), while denying that there was a breach in security, said Ramsaroop in requesting the protocol pass stated that he was with the Canadian officer. “The airport duty officer, in accordance with an established courtesy practice as is requested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs extended to diplomatic personnel, granted a protocol pass to both persons,” OAI said.

But Beliveau, when contacted by the Guyana Chronicle, cleared himself of ever requesting a protocol pass for Ramsaroop. “As far as I know, I requested a pass just for myself,” he said. Ramsaroop has also denied having stated that he was in the company of Beliveau although video recording shows him arriving at the airport in the company of Persaud and Beliveau.

Adding clarity to the issue, the minister said though a diplomat may have an ID, a special approval letter is required from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. “Members of diplomatic missions, if they have official business to do at the airport, they will be issued with diplomatic IDs, but if they have specific official business at the airport, they have to get a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he explained.
On Friday, he confirmed that no such letter was requested by Beliveau or the Canadian High Commission.

REMOVAL OF PLANES
The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has since ordered the OAI to suspend the issuance of protocol passes. GGAA conducted a security assessment; however, a further review of the system is being done.

The security breach comes approximately two years after two pilots escaped from the very airport with two planes. That incident occurred in June 2016.

Two Cessna 206 model aircraft bearing registration 8R-GMP and 8R-GTP left the Eugene F Correia Airport before sunrise (5:30 am) without the relevant air traffic clearances for departure. The pilots, who passed through the airport shortly after 04:00hrs, had also breached immigration and customs regulations in the process. At Ogle, the pilots presented their airport passes to security, boarded the planes and took off and aviation sources reported that the planes’ departure went undetected until a party in a court matter involving Oxford Aviation raised an alarm during the day on Saturday.