Black Immigrant Daily News

An early morning fire, of so far unknown origin, has destroyed a building that housed the Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), Navindra Persaud, and his family.

At the time of this morning’s blaze, no one was at home.

The building, which was situated at lot 2 Strand and King Street, New Amsterdam, is owned by the Region Six Regional Democratic Council (RDC).

Reports are that when it was noticed that the building was on fire, one bedroom was already engulfed and the fire had spread to other parts of the wooden building.

Divisional Commander of Region Six, Senior Superintendent of Police Shivpersaud Bacchus, who lived next door said he saw smoke coming from the building and raised an alarm.

According to Bacchus, he initially had difficulty getting on to the Fire Service in New Amsterdam but was able to make contact with authorities out of the region for them to use internal communication to get on to the local fire department.

The guard who was on duty at the REO’s residence said he did not know what number to use to call the fire service and so, he called Persaud who was at the time at his private residence in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).

Region Six REO Navindra Persaud

Early arrivers at the scene related that the firefighters took some time after arriving before they got into action to put out the blaze.

Public-spirited citizens were forced to break the window of a car that was on the premises and put it into neutral to push the vehicle out of the yard.

REO Persaud, who arrived on the scent after the fire was extinguished, told this publication that despite it being a government build, his losses were huge.

He said he left the building at about 9:30h on Saturday and then received a call this morning that the building was on fire.

“The building is a government building but everything that was inside was owned by me including the stove, music set… The only thing they had was a sofa but every other thing was mine. I brought all my things from Georgetown,” the REO noted.

He said it was too early for him to estimate his damages.

“I can tell you that it is a lot because all my children have computers, laptops and other gadgets; they have quite a lot of gadgets, I can’t put a price on it and my wife’s jewellery,” he noted.

Persaud said about two weeks now, he has been experiencing a voltage fluctuation and called in Guyana Power and Light (GPL) together with electricians from the RDC and the problem was rectified.

“They came and tightened some stuff but I am not too certain if that could have triggered anything,” Persaud stated.

Meanwhile, Divisional Fire Officer, Clive McDonald, said the call was received at 7:45h at the operations room of the New Amsterdam Fire Service and within a few minutes two units were at the scene.

He said when the firefighters arrived the entire building was engulfed in flames.

“Immediately, they went into action to stop and suppress the spread of the fire. Subsequently, another vehicle was dispatched, that is the browser that carries 3000 over gallons of water and firefighting activity commenced.”

McDonald said initial investigations indicate that the fire was initially seen sometime between 7:20 -7:30h but the fire department received the call at 7:45h.

A probe has been launched into the origin of the fire.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

– Gas-to-Shore Project Manager says tie-ins being designed

While the plan is to pump in gas from the Liza Phase 1 field for the Gas-to-Shore project, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) is catering for the possibility of future gas coming from beyond the current sources.

ExxonMobil’s Gas-to-Shore Manager Friedrich Krispin made this disclosure when he delivered remarks during the Guyana Basin Summit (GBS) that concluded last week. He noted that the company is catering for another floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel supplying gas for the project in the future.

Currently, the Liza Destiny FPSO is producing oil and gas in the Liza Phase 1, while the Liza Unity FPSO is producing in the Liza Phase 2. He explained that a tie-in, which is a connection between a pipeline and an existing pipeline system or facility, would have to be done offshore.

ExxonMobil’s Gas-to-Shore Manager, Friedrich Krispin

“There are no tie-ins on shore. So, if there is a tie-in to be made, it has to be done at the well’s district. So, if there is any other potential opportunity for users of the gas, it will have to be at the well’s district. Or someone will have to take that gas from there and run it somewhere else,” Krispin said.

“The reason I said tie-ins is we’re actually designing one or two tie-ins offshore in deep water. The reason we’re doing that is that there might be a potential in the future where, beyond Destiny and Unity, there may be another FPSO’s gas that needs to be tied in with that line. Or there may be another block in the area that wants to tie into that line. So, there are inlet tie-ins, but no offtake tie-ins at this point,” Krispin explained.

Procurement for the Gas-to-Shore project has already been started by the Government of Guyana. With a timetable to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024 and the Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant to be online by 2025, works are progressing on getting the project off the ground. During the first half of this year, Exxon was expected to source the materials and pipelines, so that they are available for when construction starts later this year.

The project, which will have a 25-year lifespan, is expected to employ up to 800 workers during the peak construction stage, some 40 full-time workers during the operational stage, and another 50 workers during the decommissioning stage.

The Gas-to-Shore project would include a power plant and an NGL plant, all of which would be constructed within the Wales Development Zone (WDZ). When it comes to the construction of a combined cycle power plant, this will generate up to 300 megawatts (MW) of power, with a net 250MW delivered into the Guyana Power and Light Grid at a sub-station located on the East Bank of Demerara.

The Guyana Government has already invited interested parties to make investments in the WDZ, which would be heavily industrialised, and for which approximately 150 acres of land have been allocated. Those lands were previously used by the Wales Sugar Estate.

Head of the Gas-to-Shore Task Force, Winston Brassington, had previously stated that ExxonMobil Guyana, which is funding the pipeline aspect of the project out of cost oil, has found that there would be substantial savings from combining these two facilities.

The scope of the approximately US$900 million Gas-to-Shore project also consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil. It features approximately 220 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that would run from Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.

The pipeline would be 12 inches wide, and is expected to transport per day some 50 million standard cubic feet (mscfpd) of dry gas to the NGL plant, but it has the capacity to push as much as 120 mscfpd.

The pipeline’s route onshore would follow the same path as the fibre optic cables, and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the WDZ which will house the Gas-to-Shore project.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

If you read the recent publications of Cabinet meeting summaries, you will notice that Cabinet approved cost of living adjustments for certain government owned entities or public authorities. If you are asking why these entities can’t do so on their own, the answer is set out in the Public Authorities Act.

What the Public Authorities Act says

According to the Public Authorities Act, a public authority shall not award cost of living adjustment for staff of a public authority unless permitted to do so by the Cabinet.

In addition, no bonus or performance payment scheme may be introduced by the public authority unless the public authority is permitted to do so by the Cabinet.

What remains to be done

While civil servants and public servants appreciate these one-time cost of living adjustments or honorarium payments, for some, it is unclear whether they will ever catch up with rising inflation rates. This is especially the case for those civil servants and public servants in lower salary grades.

For example, if low salary earners in government are awarded a one-time, 2 per cent cost of living payment in one month, the question is how they will manage the cost of living that may continue to increase for the following 11 months (the below data from the Economics & Statistics Office shows that prices have steadily increased for the first half of 2022).

Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation (source: Economics & Statistics Office)

If finances are available, perhaps the current government may correct the imbalance created when a previous administration gave salary increases to the highest earning civil servants in salary grades A to D, but not those in lower brackets in salary grades E and below. This may give civil servants and public servants in lower brackets a chance to cope with the escalating cost of living rather than just simply trying to survive.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

A strong warning this week by Police Commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson, for motorists to desist from attempting to mow down police officers, has rehashed some sordid moments in the past where the island’s law enforcers have been left nursing injuries while on traffic duties.

In fact, some officers have lost their lives to the very act that the commissioner has given notice for motorists to resist the dangerous practice.

In referring to such acts as attempts to “kill” a police officer, Anderson, while addressing a police press conference on Tuesday, used the scenario to hammer home the point about attempts by motorists to resist arrest.

Several videos have gone viral on social media over recent weeks which showed the police and motorists in heated exchanges, some of which became physical.

The commissioner has since put the country on notice that in the face of what he cited as attempts to interfere with the law enforcers’ efforts to bring order to the streets, the cops would not be deterred in conducting their lawful duties.

At that point, he implored motorists to resist the urge to mow down police officers.

“This idea that the police are stopping somebody and you are going to drive your car having (been) stopped, and drive your car away and hit down a police officer; as far as I am concerned, you’re attempting to kill the police officer and he can respond in a manner of stopping himself from being killed,” declared Anderson.

“So, when you’re being stopped, stop!” the commissioner insisted.

“I am not talking about somebody going at speeds and he can’t stop in time. I am talking about the person who is in a discussion with the police officer, the police officer is in front of the car, and they decide to drive and mow them down.

“That is not acceptable and the police officer or the police team that is there have to respond appropriately,” Anderson stated.

Over the years there have been such incidents where motorists have ignored the lawful commands of officers to stop, and have instead opted to mow down the cops on duty.

For example, on January 10, 2022 a police constable was hospitalised with a broken leg after he was mowed down by a motorcyclist in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth.

The incident happened during an operation involving the police and personnel from the Transport Authority (TA) at about 11am near the Horizon Park Housing Scheme in Santa Cruz.

Then head of the St Elizabeth police, Superintendent Dwight Daley, said the cop and the TA personnel were conducting duties when the lawman was hit down by a motorcycle.

The cop was admitted to the hospital for treatment for the broken leg.

At the time, the motorcyclist fled the scene, but a pillion was arrested.

Similarly, on January 23, 2020, a police constable was conducting duties at the intersection of Worthington Avenue and Trafalgar Road in New Kingston at approximately 7:45 am, when a driver who he signalled to stop, sped up and hit him (the cop), who fell to the ground, and the vehicle ran over his leg.

The cop underwent surgery and cops launched a manhunt for the driver of the black Toyota Wish motorcar that was subsequently found in the Mountain View Avenue area in St Andrew.

Six months later, the suspect, said to be a taxi operator, was held in St Elizabeth following his reported involvement in another hit-and-run incident.

Edward Rochester, 43, of Jarrett Lane, Kingston was charged days later with assault occasioning grevious bodily harm and dangerous driving relative to mowing down the lawman.

But not all cops were left nursing serious injuries during such incidents. At least two have lost their lives while on active duty over recent years.

File photo of a physical engagement between a policeman and a public passenger vehicle (PPV) operator on a public thoroughfare.

In Westmoreland, 21-year-old Police Constable Curtis Lewis died from injuries he sustained after being mowed down while on duty in the parish in July of 2015.

It was reported that Lewis and a colleague were on Bowens Road in Sheffield, Westmoreland, when they signalled a motorcyclist to stop. The motorcyclist disobeyed, mowing down the officer, whose leg was severed due to the impact, and it fell some distance away.

The motorcycle eventually crashed into an embankment, and both the driver and the pillion fled the scene.

However, the police later searched the area and found the motorcyclist, Roneil Murray, who was slapped with a charge of manslaughter.

Additionally, he was charged with having no insurance for the motorcycle, no fitness, wearing no helmet, having no rear view mirror, no registration plate, operating an unlicenced moto bike; operating contrary to the terms of his driver’s licence; failing to stop at an accident, and conveying a pillion.

The status of that case is now unknown.

A year later, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) was again in mourning, as another policeman died after being hit by a motor vehicle on the nation’s road.

Inspector Mark Gibbs, who was a sub-officer in charge of the Clarke’s Town Police Station in Trelawny, was conducting traffic duties along the Clarke’s Town main road when tragedy struck on August 19, 2016.

Gibbs had reportedly signalled the driver of a motorcar to stop, but the driver disobeyed and mowed down the inspector on the side of the roadway before speeding away. Gibbs later succumbed to his injuries.

In reacting to Gibbs’ death at the time, Prime Minister Andrew Holness called for the police to use all their investigative powers to bring the person responsible to justice.

Holness also encouraged the members of the JCF, especially those assigned to the Traffic Division, to remain resolute in the pursuit of their duties.

He said at the time that the loss of any life, particularly that of a police officer carrying out his duty, is not only sad for the JCF, but also for the citizens who depend on them to serve and protect the nation.

A day after that directive, Andre Brown, the driver of the car that hit down Gibbs, turned himself over to the police. He was subsequently charged with manslaughter, failing to stop at an accident, and failing to report an accident.

Gibbs’s death came a week after Police Constable Mark Rose died from injuries he sustained when he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver as he attempted to cross a roadway in Spanish Town St Catherine.

Rose, who was then assigned to the now disbanded Mobile Reserve Division of the JCF, was not on duty at the time he was hit.

The lawman was mowed down by a speeding burgundy van while crossing the road along Job Lane. Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred at about 10:30 am on Friday, August 12, 2016.

It is not clear if anyone was charged relative to that incident, as Rose succumbed to his injuries at the Spanish Town Hospital.

Police at the time theorised that the incident was deliberate, media reports said.

A year later, a police officer escaped serious injuries after being struck by a motor vehicle while on duty along the North South Highway. That incident occurred in April 2017.

Loop News reported at the time that the constable was conducting spot checks along the highway in the vicinity of the Linstead exit ramp, when he was hit by a car.

He reportedly suffered injuries to his head, face, arm and neck, and was rushed to the Linstead Hospital, where he was treated and released.

It is not clear if the driver who injured the cop was ever arrested and charged.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Laws (or Acts, as they are now called) are passed to establish government owned entities and authorities. Upon review of these Acts, one will discover that they set out the responsibilities of these entities, including power and authority of boards of directors and chief executive officers. Unfortunately, some of the provisions of these Acts are inconsistent with the Public Authorities Act, and they must now be aligned with the Public Authorities Act to avoid inadvertent breaches by boards of the Public Authorities Act.

To give a real-life example of this happening, the Act establishing one agency states that the board of directors has the power to appoint a deputy managing director. However, a legal opinion recently issued to the agency states that the power to appoint a deputy managing director does not lie with the board of directors, but, instead with the chief executive officer (CEO) of the agency. This is because, under the Public Authorities Act, the CEO has the power to appoint any staff the CEO needs to assist with the carrying out of the agency’s operational plan. This includes someone to act as the CEO’s deputy.

When there are inconsistencies like this, specifically where a provision of an Act relevant to an agency is inconsistent with the Public Authorities Act, the Public Authorities Act will prevail with respect to the inconsistency.

If any board of directors of a government agency is unaware of this principle, it may be that the relevant board thinks that it is carry out its functions properly, but is actually falling foul of the Public Authorities Act.

To avoid what could otherwise become a murky, convoluted legal quagmire for a board of directors of a government agency, the Acts that established government owned companies or agencies should be reviewed and corrected immediately for inconsistencies with the Public Authorities Act.

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