Year: 2018

Citizenship Minister Winston Felix has announced that a plot of land in Mabaruma, Region One (Barima-Waini) has been identified for the establishment of a homestead settlement area or a humanitarian centre for registered Venezuelans who have fled to Guyana. According to the Minister, the land has been identified as a result of a collaborative effort of the Mayor and Town Council of Mabaruma and the Citizenship Ministry. The decision was taken during a multi-agency coordinating committee meeting on Tuesday. Felix said the resettlement area was currently privately owned and that…

…to push for better salaries on their behalf Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence said she would be lobbying for an improved salary scale for persons working for basic wages within the health sector. She was at the time speaking to staff members of the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre last Friday, during the closing ceremony of a two-week capacity-building programme for orthotic and prosthetic technicians. The technicians, most of them hailing from the Centre, were very instrumental in providing prosthetic limbs and orthotic devices for some 25 persons. Minister Lawrence said…

A member of Guyana’s national football team was on Tuesday remanded to prison by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts slapped with 10 counts of armed robbery. Omalla Williams, 26, of Lot 83 Leopold and Breda Streets, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown, was not required to plead to the indictable charges. It is alleged that on July 27, 2018 while in the vicinity of Breda Street and armed with a gun, he robbed Darlene Gaines, Joe Hughes, Christina Gaines-Sluss, Daisy Gaines-Sluss and Dennis Grant of one Samsung…

Sugar workers of the Wales Estate staged a protest outside the estate on Wednesday, demanding their redundancy pay after they were asked to move their operations to the Uitvlugt Estate. These workers were retained by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to be engaged mainly in the paddy experiment, which the Corporation was pursuing in the former cane fields of Wales. However, according to their union, they were instructed on Monday morning without any warning to report for work at the Uitvlugt Estate, which is located some 22 miles from their…

Days after the Government laid the Green Paper in the National Assembly, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo raised concerns over the total control of the Natural Resources Fund by the Finance Ministry. The Green Paper sets out preliminary plans on how the Government hopes to manage the revenue from oil and other natural resources, with clear objectives of the Natural Resources Fund. Jagdeo reminded that he had initial objections to Government’s plans for the Fund but now that the Green Paper has been made public, he finds the plans to be…

…projects G$22.8B deficit for public entities The 2018 Mid-Year report, which was laid in the National Assembly, is characterised by disturbing projections for important public enterprises. This is according to Opposition Member of Parliament Irfaan Ali. According to Ali in a statement following the document’s release, a number of such enterprises have had their projected income revised downwards, thus reflecting a worsened financial status than expected. His examples included the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), two of the agriculture sector’s most important public enterprises.…

… father of 5 drowns after saving daughter, grandson A family outing on Saturday at Bushy Park Beach, East Bank Essequibo turned tragic when 42-year-old Farook Bacchus perished by drowning after saving his daughter and grandson from being swept away by a “big wave” in the mighty Essequibo River. The dead man had been a goldsmith who resided at Lot 65 Old Road, La Grange, West Bank Demerara. At his home on Sunday, grieving family members were contemplating their next moves as they considered plans for burial. Bacchus’s wife of…