Stabroek News
May 27, 2001

The committee on bauxite resuscitation is scheduled to meet the management of the Berbice Mining Enterprise (Bermine) this week and the residents of Everton after that meeting.

The committee, chaired by UG Economics Professor, Dr Clive Thomas, and Guyana Geology and Mines Commission Chairman, Robeson Benn, was appointed to look at the options for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the industry and the bauxite communities among other things.

Among the items on the committee's terms of reference is giving priority consideration to the proposal by Alcoa, to run Bermine. Alcoa operates the Aroaima Mining Company whose bauxite reserves will run out in the next two to three years. The committee is to report back to President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC REFORM leader, Desmond Hoyte in a month.

Some of the committee members want to have the advice of experts who reside outside Guyana as well as to develop criteria against which it could assess the various proposals. Others, Stabroek News understands, wanted to have open sessions at which it would hear proposals from persons with appropriate knowledge and expertise.

Stabroek News understands that some members felt that the timeframe was too tight and had sought guidance from President Jagdeo and Hoyte.

Alcoa proposes, Stabroek News understands, to take over the Berbice Mining Company operations and to reduce the workforce at Bermine. Government is a 50 per cent partner in Aroaima but has received no dividends as the company is said to have racked up substantial losses.

While this proposal is unacceptable in some quarters, the alternative is the closure of Aroaima when the reserves run out and that would mean the loss of about 900 jobs. It would also mean the Berbice River not being dredged, which Aroaima now does on a regular basis.

The other terms of reference of the committee require it to examine the present state of the bauxite industry, including the bauxite communities, in Guyana (within the context of the past, present and probable future position of the industry) and the options for whatever resuscitation may be necessary and to make recommendations designed to ensure the optimal sustainable viability of the industry, including its contribution to the well-being of the Guyanese people, within the shortest possible time.

Meanwhile, consideration is being given to the paper prepared by former Public Service Commission chairman, Harold Sahadeo and former Public Service Ministry permanent secretary, Joyce Sinclair, on the formal appointment of a head of the public service, the functions of that post and the attributes of the person to be appointed to that post.

President Jagdeo and Hoyte have agreed that the public service should be politically neutral and that the post of head of the public service should be distinct from that of head of the Presidential Secretariat, which they now consider a political appointment. Until now, the head of the Presidential Secretariat was the acknowledged head of the Public Service. And before the appointment of the present incumbent, Dr Roger Luncheon, in 1992, the holder did not participate in any political campaigns overtly. Dr Luncheon has twice resigned the post in 1997 and 2001 to campaign for the government's re-election.