Black Immigrant Daily News

Plusieurs perquisitions ont été lancées mardi dans des établissements du groupe privé Orpea, dans le cadre d’une enquête préliminaire pour “maltraitance institutionnelle” menée à Nanterre, a indiqué le…

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Ministry of Education has confirmed that several schools across the island closed early, while some were affected by low attendance as a result of the ongoing strike by taxi and bus operators.

According to the ministry, only Region 5, which comprises the parishes of St Elizabeth and Manchester, reported “no adverse impact of the withdrawal of services by the transport operators on schools”, with all having “normal operations”.

The ministry, in a statement Monday evening, pointed to reports from its regional offices, which indicate that while some students were late and a number of teachers were absent, most classes were conducted in the face-to-face modality.

In Region 1, which covers Kingston and St Andrew, the ministry said 95 per cent of the schools operated the face-to-face modality, with the remaining five per cent using remote and mixed modalities.

It said two schools — Tivoli High and Kingston High — dismissed classes at midday due to staff shortage.

In Region 2, which comprises St Thomas, Portland and St Mary, one school reported early closure at 1pm because four teachers were unable to get to the school. The region also reported lower-than-normal attendance and late arrivals.

A St Mary High School teacher told Loop News that once she got wind that transport operators were withdrawing their services, she made preparations for online class.

“I take my safety very seriously, so I was not about to attempt to get to school. Last week we had a protest in St Mary [over bad roads], and the attendance was significantly affected. We have students coming from St Andrew, Portland and St Catherine. How will they get to school?” she reasoned.

In St Thomas, Principal of Yallahs High Mark Malabver said most of his staff turned up to school, however, not many students were present. He had planned to use the school bus to transport students, however, that plan was shelved as the bus had to be serviced.

In Region 3, comprising St Ann and Trelawny, Cedric Titus High in Trelawny dismissed classes at 12:30pm because the taxis had stopped moving by then, and Bounty Hall Primary, also in Trelawny, operated remotely. Otherwise, there were no disruptions reported, the ministry said.

In Region 4 — St James, Hanover and Westmoreland — 22 of the 25 schools were open for face-to-face instruction.

Three high schools — Merlene Ottey, Spot Valley and Mannings — engaged their students using the virtual modality. Two primary schools also engaged students virtually, while the other 138 operated normally.

Region 6, which is the entire parish of St Catherine, reported that all schools operated using the mixed modality approach, except one which had a broken sewerage system. Most schools in the urban centres dismissed classes early, while those in the rural interior operated in person with no disruption.

In Clarendon, which is Region 7, all schools in the town areas were affected by low attendance. They employed the mixed modality.

The rural schools were not affected and operated as per usual. The affected schools were dismissed early, the ministry said.

Earlier in the day, Education Minister Fayval Williams urged school administrators not to lock out students or send them home randomly where they turned up for classes late and where there was an inadequate number of teachers.

“The safety of the students and leadership are critical at this time,” the minister said.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

In the wake of coalition partner Alliance For Change’s (AFC) decision to boycott the Local Government Elections (LGE), Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton has said that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) will make its own position on contesting the election known at the right time.

In an interview with this publication, Norton noted that if the AFC came to a decision that it was not in their best interest to run for LGE 2023, then they have all rights to take the course of action they have taken.

According to Norton, the smaller party is a separate entity. When it comes to APNU and whether they will come to a similar decision, Norton said that this will be made known when the time is “right”.

“The AFC is a separate entity. And it can make a decision to not participate. That is their right… this is not something for me to have thoughts on. The AFC as a political party, they are a part of the coalition, but they are a party by themselves,” Norton said.

“Our party will declare our decision at the right time. We continue to protest for a new voters’ list. But we also have constituents. We are consulting with them. And the decision will be made at the right time,” Norton further explained.

On Sunday, the AFC announced its decision to bow out of contesting the upcoming LGE, a decision the party supposedly arrived at due to its concerns over the list of electors and after much debate. It added the caveat that it would not contest unless there are changes to the list of electors.

The party claimed that the list of electors is ‘bloated’, an often-repeated claim of its coalition partner, APNU. The party also echoed concerns of its partner, which is yet to confirm if it will participate in LGE, that the list contains the names of Guyanese who migrated.

According to the Constitution of Guyana and previous court cases, however, Guyanese who have migrated cannot be removed from the list of electors since residency of Guyanese citizens is not a requirement to vote.

This was demonstrated since 2019, when Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George ruled that the removal of the names of persons from the list of registrants, who were not resident in Guyana and could not participate in the House-to-House Registration exercise, would be unconstitutional. Her decision was subsequently upheld in the Court of Appeal.

The requirements for a person to vote, as set out in Articles 59 and 159 of the Constitution, are that that person must be 18 years or older, and must be a Guyanese citizen or a Commonwealth citizen resident and domiciled in Guyana.

The AFC also said in their statement that the electoral system is not perfect and that they were not willing to “perpetuate a deception”. They further said that they would support postponing LGE until their definition of a “clean” voters’ list is arrived at.

AFC’s pull-out from contesting LGE comes at a time when the smaller party is already receiving diminished returns whenever it goes to the polls. Such was the case in 2018, when the party, then part of the APNU/AFC coalition Government, was forced to contest LGE on its own. It ended up securing just four per cent of the total votes cast.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has already designated December 12, 2022, as nomination day for the upcoming LGE, which are set to be held next year March.

On nomination day, parties make their way to a designated location, where their representatives are usually required to submit their list of candidates to the Chief Election Officer, as well as sign on to the required documents, such as a code of conduct, to contest the elections.

These representatives are usually accompanied by a large retinue of their supporters, dressed in party colours, although all the parties who submit symbols do not always make a grand entrance or even go at all.

Parties, voluntary groups and individuals are meanwhile required to submit their symbols in accordance with Section 48 (1) of the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, Cap 28:03. The law requires that these symbols be submitted at least 21 days before nomination day.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), has already signalled its readiness to contest the upcoming LGE. As far back as August, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who is the General Secretary of the PPP/C, had said that the party is in preparation mode for LGE.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) collected over $240 billion in revenue in 2021, but the Auditor General has flagged the fact that some 76 per cent of self-employed persons did not file tax returns.

According to the Auditor General report of 2021, 87,267 self-employed persons did not file their income tax returns, out of 114,838. This means that only 27,211 persons, or 24 per cent, filed their tax returns, which totalled $4 billion.

In total, GRA collected $242 billion for 2021 as revenue. Additionally, $255 billion in total was collected and paid over to the Consolidated Fund, which holds Government funds and is housed at the Bank of Guyana.

The Auditor General noted that there were substantial shortfalls in income tax on the self-employed. Also falling short were personal and corporate tax, the environmental levy, liquor licence, travel tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) on imported goods and domestic supply.

The excise tax on petroleum products also showed a shortfall in revenue collection. In the audit report, however, GRA explained that for 2021, the revenue target was revised from $242 billion to $254.9 billion.

As pertains the fuel tax, Government has been slashing the excise tax on fuel for a while now, lowering the excise tax rate on both gasoline and diesel, from 50 per cent to 35 per cent in February 2021, then from 35 per cent to 20 per cent in October 2021. This is in keeping with Government’s policy to adjust the taxes on fuel, to mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices on the world market.

In October, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh had said that gas prices at the pump charged by GuyOil would be reduced from $269 per litre to $215 per litre.

Additionally, diesel prices were reduced by 15 per cent from $265 per litre to $225 per litre. These changes took effect from October 2, 2022.

Dr Singh had explained that during the first half of 2022, global oil prices surged more than 50 per cent, increasing from US$77 per barrel at the end December 2021 to US$120 in June of this year. In fact, oil prices rose as high as US$137 per barrel primarily as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The impact of the dramatic increases in oil prices were significant and given the interconnected nature of the global economy, translated into higher cost of landing fuel in Guyana. In order to mitigate the impact of rising global fuel prices on domestic consumers and the productive sectors to which fuel is a key input, the Government lowered the excise tax rate on both gasoline and diesel from 10 per cent to 0 per cent in March of this year.”

“It would be recalled that, previously, during the Budget 2022 presentation, the Government lowered the excise tax on both gasoline and diesel from 20 per cent to 10 per cent so as to minimise the impact of rising global oil prices,” the Minister had further explained.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

A handful of days remain until the 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Al Khor, Qatar.

Host nation Qatar will face Group A opponents Ecuador after the highly anticipated opening ceremony, which is usually one of the greatest entertainment spectacles in world sports and each of the 60,000 seats are expected to be filled.

Switzerland is arriving at their fifth successive World Cup, and they have done so in quite some style as they won their qualification group which included European champions Italy, scoring fifteen goals and allowing just two in eight matches.

The Swiss are known for their very stingy defending and this characteristic will need to be ever-present and consistent if they are to advance from the group and surpass the Round of 16 for the first time since 1954.

Country: Switzerland

Capital: Bern

Population: 8.6 million

Confederation: UEFA (Europe)

Group: G

Professional League: Swiss Super League

World Cup appearances: 12 (2022)

Qualification status: UEFA Group C winners

Key players: Yann Sommer (Borussia Monchengladbach, Germany), Manuel Akanji (Manchester City, England), Xherdan Shaqiri (Chicago Fire, USA), Granit Xhaka (Arsenal, England), Denis Zakaria (Chelsea, England), Haris Seferovic (Galatassaray, Turkey)

Coach: Marrat Yakin (Swiss)

Group mates: Brazil, Cameroon, Serbia

Predictions: Considering history, the Swiss should advance from the group stage, but they will face tough competition for that runners-up spot.

I expect Switzerland to progress to the Round of 16.

NewsAmericasNow.com