An undisclosed quantity of letters for Guyana from England were discovered dumped off a highway near the Santa Rosa Racetrack in Trinidad on November 5 last year, according to a Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) release.

The mail had been transported on BWIA flights from London and had been waylaid after arrival in Trinidad and Tobago. Attempts to contact the BWIA office in Georgetown on Monday and yesterday for a comment on the discovery failed.

The local post office expects to receive the damaged mail soon so that an assessment can be done and the addressees informed.

Some of the letters were scattered in the bushes while the remainder were in BWIA Jet Pack bags, according to a report submitted to the GPOC by the Trinidad Postal Administration (TPA).

Sources say that preliminary investigations suggest that based on the date stamp on the torn mail the pieces were stolen over a period from BWIA 901 flights at the Trinidad airport.

GPO's Assistant Postmaster General, Marketing & Customer Relations, Leon Dickson stated in the release that according to the TPA report, the letters and packets all originated from England and were posted between July and October, 2001.

The statement noted that during the latter half of last year many persons were complaining of outstanding mail from the United Kingdom. To solve this problem the post office was in constant contact with London to ascertain the reasons for the delay or non-receipt of mail dispatches, the GPOC said.

"The post office corporation repeatedly sought the co-operation of the UK postal authorities not to send mail destined for Guyana through Trinidad since there were numerous instances of mail tampering," the statement said.

According to the statement, the recent discovery validates Guyana's claim of malpractices with the mail whenever it transited Trinidad via BWIA.

The GPOC said that recently the UK postal authorities agreed to bypass BWIA and utilise another airline to convey the mail to Barbados, then onward to Guyana. According to the statement since this arrangement was introduced on February 4 of this year the English mail has been arriving intact five times weekly.

The GPOC has also been successful in persuading the Canada postal authorities to use Barbados as the transit point and to also utilise another airline to convey its mail.

According to the TPA report, the rifled mail included medicine and parcels which had been emptied, also legal letters of administration, banker's cheques, money orders, examination results and personal mails and photographs.

From the date stamped, the majority of mails were posted on October 29, 2001.

Trinidad police and BWIA security officials are said to be investigating the matter.