SEVERAL senior officers of the Land Management Division of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) are now the subject of an investigation that is likely to see them facing strong disciplinary action.A miner named Wallace Daniels has reported what he alleges to be corruption at the hands of these senior officers at an ‘Open Day’ held by the Ministry of Natural Resources. Daniels had applied for a plot of land that was, in fact, available, but the officers allegedly informed him that it was not.

He told reporters he had applied for the land in 2012 with the intention of prospecting and thereafter mining, but despite having no objections to his application coupled with the alleged availability of the land, he was told the land was unavailable.

At the intervention of Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, Daniels’s application for the land is currently being processed.

Minister Broomes told reporters yesterday that an investigation, which was started immediately after the matter was brought to her attention, has proven that what Daniels has complained of was in fact true.

“We did an investigation, and the investigation proved that he was right; he did have the application,” the minister said, adding: “After careful examination of the matter — and this was done by Land Management and reported to me — we found that the area he had applied for was open and available, and there was no other application other than his; so it should have been processed.”

Daniels received a letter from the Land Management Department last December on the matter. That letter stated that the land applied for was unavailable. Strangely, the letter was delivered by hand to Daniels, and was backdated to September 2015.

According to Minister Broomes, the letter given to Daniels was inaccurate. “That letter stated that he was unable to receive the property because it fell within a prospecting licence,” she said.

Given the findings of the investigation, a decision was taken to rescind the letter issued to the miner. “We had to make a decision to rescind the letter that we had sent him, and allow for his application to go through. As a minister, I had to apologise to him for what had happened,” the Minister told reporters.

She said that, over the years, there were many allegations of corruption, but under the APNU-AFC coalition government, corruption will be stamped out.

“We have been righting several wrongs,” she said, “but we may not be able to do all,” she confessed.

She noted that it was because of the “fresh approach” of the new leadership that the opportunity existed for Daniels to have his application for the land processed.

“I am happy that we are able to settle this matter once and for all, and get it over with,” Minister Broomes, who has vast experience in mining, said. The minister anticipates that, within the next two months, the process would be completed; and thereafter, Daniels should have access to the land.

“The processing has already started. I have received the letter from Mr. Dennison (acting Commissioner GGMC) and I have responded to that letter,” she said, adding: “It doesn’t take that long. It was delayed for over two years…. I asked that they expedite it; it would have to be published…I would anticipate that within the next six weeks to two months, because it will be published in the Official Gazette for about three weeks.”

Minister Broomes stressed that she and Minister Raphael Trotman will not sit idly by and allow corruption to grow under their watch.

“I did make it clear in my budget presentation that one of the things we are going to be stamping out is corruption,” she said. She noted that the laws, rules and regulations relating to the GGMC must be followed at all times.

Daniels, who also has experience as a Land Surveyor, said it is his experience that helped him realise that he was deliberately being denied the land. He thanked the Ministers of Natural Resources for their intervention, while expressing satisfaction at the outcome.

“I had to put up with this for a long time. I would say that somebody had something especially against me, because I have heard of the same thing happening to other people, but in my case I know the process. I am a professional in the same field, so the trivial excuses couldn’t get by me,” Daniels stated.

The relieved man said he had been pushed around by Head of the Land Management Division, and is happy that action would be taken, so that others don’t have to experience what he has experienced.