MANAGING Director of BK International Inc., Mr. Brian Tiwarie, is of the view that President Donald Ramotar has been wrongly advised relative to the present situation regarding availability of stone in Guyana,  hence his government’s considering the possibility of importing that commodity.

This publication reported in last Sunday’s edition that President Ramotar told Region 5 residents that completion of a lot of current and impending infrastructural works in Guyana is being delayed by the inability of local stone producers to satisfy current demand for the commodity.
Contacted yesterday afternoon, Public Works Minister Robeson Benn confirmed there is a stone shortage, and said if the President says stone is in short supply, that is indeed the case.
Minister Benn said one reason why trucks daily line the East Bank Demerara corridor is to acquire stone, which is not produced in sufficient quantity to supply local demand.
He said the combined quarry companies’ rate of production is still not sufficient to meet the needs of the construction and infrastructure boom, and what they produce is only about 60 percent of the overall need for the commodity. The minister said the percentage arrived at reflects studies conducted on the situation.
Meanwhile, seated with his most senior managers representing all facets of the BK Inc, during a press conference yesterday morning at his company’s Kingston Headquarters in Georgetown, Mr Brian Tiwarie said the perception of a shortage of stone is false, and could be linked to a bigger problem contractors are facing with regard to acquiring stone from the quarry companies, including BK Quarries.
BK’s Geologist, Mr. Omar Persaud, expressed the view that the stone being touted for importation is of an inferior quality, which could spell disaster for the projects in which they are used; but already, a local leading hardware store is importing stone, which is being used to do several major projects.
The company availed the media of a copy of the results of the summery test done on the crushed stones produced by BK Quarries and those imported by the hardware store, which showed that the imported stones are inferior to those produced by BK International.
A very vocal Brian Tiwarie said his company is at a loss to understand why Government would want to import stone when his company currently produces stone at a rate in excess of what has been indicated as necessary by contractors.
There are ten thousand tonnes of stone currently stockpiled at BK’s Kingston operation, Tiwarie disclosed, and a similar amount is currently stockpiled at the company’s Essequibo quarry.
Tiwarie said the Essequibo operations are currently producing between thirty and forty thousand tonnes of stone per month. “At the moment, we are producing more than is needed for the market,” he said.
Despite claims of a shortage of stone on the local market and contentions that the quarries lack sufficiency of the commodity, the Managing Director of BK International has said his company presently has no outstanding order for stone placed by any contractor.
Moreover, he has pointed to the more than twenty thousand tonnes of stone which his company presently has stockpiled and readily available for sale.
BK International made it clear that when it comes to stone, they have capacity to supply any amount that the local market demands.
Asked why the company has not sought other avenues to sell the stone produced, Brian Tiwarie explained that he has been reluctant to export the commodity because he feels that Guyana should be given first preference. However, he said, if by the end of September local contractors have not purchased the stone produced by BK International at an acceptable rate, the company would be forced to sell stone to the several foreign interested parties from outside Guyana.
Tiwarie said what has been happening, and the perception about the shortage of stone could have resulted from false impressions given by contractors, many of whom have been receiving materials for their construction works on credit.
He said his company, lately, put a freeze on all credit, since the credit bill is now somewhere in the vicinity of $50M and contractors have not been paying up. He said only yesterday morning a contractor came to purchase stone with the claim that he did not have money to pay for it immediately. So he informed the contractor that the credit arrangement could not be facilitated, because he needed to come with cash. Within half of an hour, that same contractor returned with his purchase cheque, when he had earlier claimed he had had no money to pay.
Tiwarie suggested that contractors may be telling their clients that stone is not available whenever they, the contractors, cannot secure the stone on a credit basis. Conversely, the contractors’ inability to pay cash for stone could very likely be due to their inability to receive timely payment from their clients for work done.

CONTRADICTIONS
Tiwarie said that while his company is not producing below its self-regulated stockpile quota, efforts to get permission to expand its quarry facilities or acquire a new site have been unsuccessful for months.
In a December 19 letter addressed to acting Commissioner of the Geology and Mines Commission, Mr. Rickford Vieira, BK International had requested a quarry licence, pointing to the rapidly dwindling reserves at its existing quarry, and pointing out that the factors responsible for the reserves dwindling were the massive infrastructural developments ongoing in the country, sharp increases in housing and commercial construction, and export demand for crushed aggregates from this country.
To this date, Tiwari said, he has not received from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission even an acknowledgement of receipt of his letter.
He said he has in hand the money needed for expansion, and the human, machinery and other resources to facilitate that situation; all he needs is that approval be granted.
Contacted yesterday, acting GGMC Commissioner Rickford Vieira said Mr. Tiwarie’s claims are false, in that, since 2007, he has been issued a new quarry licence for the establishment of a Linden operation; and based on Vieira’s knowledge of the present situation, there is nothing ongoing at that location.
Vieira said that in respect to the extension of the present operation at Mazaruni, the land that Brian Tiwarie wanted to use for the expansion of his operation is already leased to someone, and it would be improper for the GGMC to permit Tiwarie to commence any operation on that land.
Moreover, Vieira said that a meeting was held with Tiwarie at which officials of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) were present. The GLSC objected to Tiwarie’s request for the land which he wanted for expansion at Mazaruni; and once the GLSC objects, there is nothing the GGMC can do, Vieira pointed out.