Guyana Post (2024)

14/08/2024

Adam’s notebook for August 14, 2024

Something must be horribly wrong with the planning process in Guyana. Generally, people plan because they want to see that works go as expected.
A man sets out to build a house so he gets an estimated cost. He gets estimates of the material and every other factor that goes into the construction process. He knows where his house would be located; he knows its boundaries and every other factor.
When the government set out to build Heroes Highway one would have assumed that it did a study. It knew the road alignment and the impact the road would have on communities.
Along the way, the government contended that some of the houses at Mocha Arcadia would be in the path of the road. There were offers to the settlers for them to be relocated. Some had been living there for decades, had livestock and had really settled in.
Early last year, it would seem that some of the residents refused the offer of resettlement on the grounds that the money offered could not rebuild a home. Some said that the government had not taken into consideration their livestock.
The result was that the government sent in heavy duty equipment to smash the homes. There were reports that livestock were killed. One man who operated a small shop saw his equipment and his stock destroyed.
People representing the evicted people claimed that the land was not government property. The government ignored the claim. They demonstrated that the buildings were not in the path of the roadway. The government said nothing.
The road was completed. It turned out that the homes were never in the path of the roadway. Then something strange happened. The government set about allocating the very lands to people closely connected to the People’s Progressive Party or were people of Indian ancestry.
The people whose homes were demolished were of African ancestry. Needless to say, the government was accused of blatant racism.
The government has refused to answer questions about this new development. No one can recall bids for the land, neither was there any notice of the allocations. No one knows how the new occupiers were selected, how much they paid for the land or who they are.
All people know is that constructions began to appear on the land. Some people have gone to court but the matter seems to be going nowhere in the courts.
The discrimination continues. There is the lingering question of whether the government is specifically targeting Black people for discrimination and punishment.
It is already known that Black contractors are largely ignored. In one instance a contractor recruited out of Trinidad was awarded a contract for a road leading from Conversation Tree to Heaven knows where.
The contractor failed to deliver despite numerous extensions of the deadline. In the end, one can only assume that the contractor felt that he has had enough money to walk away. The government took back the contract and claimed that it had seized $115 million worth of equipment. There is no evidence of such seizure.
It is the same with the Cemetery Road contract. That programme has been granted countless extensions, the last expiring this week. The contractor has not been removed. Instead, the government has added new contractors to the job.
There are other such unfinished contracts.
The International Monetary Fund has concluded that some 60 per cent of the budget is wasted. It merely means that for every $100 spent, sixty dollars end up in some unknown corner.
In the National Assembly on Friday, the government was grilled on the expenditure on the electricity sector. Prime Minister Mark Phillips told the House that Guyana Power and Light was buying foreign currency at the road rate.
The Bank of Guyana is the reservoir of foreign currency in Guyana. And Guyana has been earning a lot from oil. The Bank of Guyana is trading the US dollar at $208 for the dollar.
One would have expected Guyana Power and Light to requisition money through the Bank of Guyana. Instead, somehow and from some source, the power company is paying $215 for a US dollar. How is this possible? How is the government allowing this travesty?
A lot of money that could have gone toward reducing the cost of living is being siphoned off to some cambio dealer.
When asked about this Prime Minister Mark Phillips said that it is above his pay grade to question the purchasing methods adopted by the power company. And he is the person who holds responsibility for the power company.
A similar situation exists in the sugar industry. For the year the Guyana Sugar Corporation has produced a mere six per cent of its anticipated annual target. However, it had gone back to the National Assembly for more money.
And the Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, has the audacity to say that the corporation would be close to producing the remaining 94,000 tonnes during the remaining four months of the year. Guyana must be a nation of fools.
Minister Juan Edghill said on Friday that Transport and Harbours Department has added more vessels to the riverine service. These vessels are playing a major role in bringing out crops from the hinterland region, he told the House.
The reality is that food prices are higher than they were. And no relief is in sight. Money is disappearing and people are getting immensely rich by the day.
A long time I read a book that featured an article by a Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. It was captioned ‘How much land does a man need?’
It tells the story of a man who was taken to the top of a hill and told to measure as much land as he could before the sun went down.
He started running. The more he ran the richer the land was. He then turned in another direction and kept running. He noticed the sun slowly going down so he turned again not bothering to measure a square.
Then he turned the final corner because he could see the sun was still shining on the hill top. He sprinted to make it to the top before the sun went down. He collapsed before he could complete the plot of land he had marked. He died.
Then came the question “How much land does a man need?” The answer was simple. Six feet from head to toe.
For those who are grabbing money there is the question, “How much money does a man need?” All the money grabbing while the people are suffering will be meaningless. They can’t take it with them.

14/08/2024

Cemetery Road project fails another deadline
Despite the promise to have the $475 million Cemetery Road project complete by yesterday, contractors have failed yet again to meet the deadline. As such, a new date has been set to complete the work.
The road construction which stands at 95 per cent complete is one year behind schedule, despite the Government’s efforts to help Avinash Construction fast-track its completion.
Just two weeks ago, several sub-contractors were hired by the Public Works Ministry to work simultaneously to complete three sections of the project while Avinash Construction takes over paving and the building of the bridge at Princes Street.
Works on the Cemetery Road project include the construction of two bridges, installation of culverts at Sussex Street, and widening of the road to four lanes.
During a site inspection last Saturday, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill had expressed that he is satisfied with the quality of work and effort of the sub-contractors but the same view was not expressed for Avinash Construction and Metal Works.
The contract for the Cemetery Road Project was awarded in 2022 and caters to a two-lane carriageway being extended into four lanes. However, the project suffered significant delays.
Back in April, the government terminated the contract of Kalco Guyana Inc. after it failed to complete Lot 8B of the Conversation Tree to Dennis Street Road project.

14/08/2024

Priya Manickchand turns sod for Diamond school extension

Education minister Priya Manickchand has officially turned the Sod to mark the commencement of the construction of an exterior block at Diamond Secondary School.
This project, valued at G$74.1 million is set to benefit 750 students from the catchment areas of Diamond and the Soesdyke Linden Highway.
The project, undertaken by Simcon Engineering Inc., will be led by Mr. A. Simon, Managing Director of the company. The contractor has been mobilized with an initial payment of G$18.5 million to ensure the timely completion of the project within the projected duration of seven months.
This development is part of the Ministry of Education's ongoing efforts to enhance educational facilities and provide better learning environments for students across the country.

09/08/2024

Adam’s notebook for Aug 7,2024
Out of nothing comes nothing

The Olympics are in progress in Paris. Already some Caribbean countries with fewer resources than Guyana, with much smaller populations and more clout on the international stage, have been securing Olympic medals.
It is not rocket science to understand why Olympic medals seem so elusive to Guyana. There was the time when Cuba was the regional powerhouse. The reason was that the country spent money on sports. The athletes had pride of place in the society.
Cuba funded them to participate in overseas competitions on a regular basis. They went to the Soviet Union where some of the top athletes could have been found. The Cubans were always exposed to international competition.
Guyana, through Forbes Burnham, had a lot of exposure to the Cuban boxers. In the end the local boxers were the best in the English-speaking Caribbean. Because of this programme Guyana secured its only Olympic medal, a bronze.
There is the widely held belief that Guyana could have had more Olympic medals through the United States-based athletes James Wren-Gilkes and former clerk at the Guyana National Cooperative Bank, June Griffith.
In soccer, again Burnham ensured that the local footballers got a lot of exposure to foreign competition. It was the same with the cyclists and with table tennis. Local tennis players won numerous championships.
Guyana was the regional leader. Burnham was learning from the other regional leaders like Michael Manley and Eric Williams.
Jamaica had already secured Olympic gold through Arthur Wint, the first Jamaican to win a gold medal. Herb McKenley was also a household name at the Olympics. He won a ton of medals but no gold.
Jamaica had already won Olympic medals going as far back as the 1940s. Had Guyana been an independent country it would have had more medals since then.
Dr Phil Edwards, a former Queen’s College student who moved to Canada because he could not represent the United States since he was from a British colony, secured five Olympic medals.
He ran the 800 metres and the 1,500 metres. He medalled in them on five occasions to remain Canada’s most decorated athlete.
There were other Guyanese on the Olympic stage to win medals but not for the country of their birth. The Burnham government permitted the athletes ample time to train.
Their employers were told to allow them to train so they did not have to worry about going to work all day and being given token time off for training.
Guyana’s athletic exploits declined post 1992. The country was no longer the best regional boxing powerhouse behind Cuba. Its soccer team that could beat every team in the English speaking Caribbean suddenly found itself losing to Antigua, Grenada, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Some enterprising Guyanese, having spotted the potential in their children, dug into their pockets to ensure that they got proper coaching and training.
Oil came but sadly the government has not changed its approach to sports. To participate in overseas competitions parents and associations have to beg strangers and businesses.
Jamaica, having recognized the importance of sports, built its first international stadium in 1974. Don’t ask about the results.
Tiny Grenada has built one. Today it has secured two Olympic gold medals. St Lucia just won an Olympic gold and a silver in the sprints.
Dominica, one of the smallest countries in the world, has also won an Olympic gold medal.
Guyana does not even have a proper athletic track. And we say we are building two more but not in locations where the athletes reside.
The one being constructed at Linden is going nowhere. But when questioned at the recent Caricom heads of government forum, in the presence of regional leaders and others, President Irfaan Ali, announced that the track at Linden was fully surfaced. He was so insistent that one of the people in the audience decided against challenging him.
The truth is that the track is nowhere near completion after four years. It is also being constructed in a location where the government is not comfortable, for political reasons.
Synthetic tracks are nothing new. However, they seem to be rocket science for the government. And this is because the government hasn’t the slightest interest in sport. However, when the athletes do well the government is the first to push itself to the forefront.
Who can forget the reception cricketer Shamar Joseph got when he returned after a successful tour of Australia? Who can forget the reaction for the athletes who returned from the Carifta Games a few months ago? There was talk but to date none has been given any assistance.
Aliann Pompey had to make her name in the United States. She also had to raise funds for an annual top class athletic event in this country with money garnered from foreign supporters.
A Linden-born Guyanese is on the tennis circuit. Her mother has been funding her progress. This woman was also called on to help a Guyana delegation to a table tennis competition in one of the Latin American countries.
Indeed, sports can be a way out of poverty and poverty is rampant in Guyana. Yet the government is doing nothing in this regard. There is no distribution of sports equipment to the underprivileged.
There are no sports centres with coaches funded by the government as was the case when Forbes Burnham was the head of the country.
There was no oil money then but coaches were among the lists of public servants. And to think there is a Ministry of Sports. It would be interesting to find out how much the government spent to get the few athletes to Paris. Three, including two swimmers, are based in the United States.
For the records, Guyana has abundant talent. The other day, a regional chairman put Usain Bolt to shame.
He was said to beat his live-in lover constantly. One day the beating proved too much and the lover picked up a knife.
Eyewitnesses are still left in awe. The regional chairman is by no means athletic, but with a knife behind him he left his chaser breathing dust. The people said that even Bolt could not catch him. Perhaps he is the reason why money is not going to sports.

09/08/2024

Bartica still without power after three days

The Guyana power and Light INC is reporting that despite the team’s best efforts, it was unable to bring the Caterpillar engine online last evening at Bartica.
This was due to unexpected alignment issues with an alternator. The result is that GPL has not been able to bring relief to the people of Bartica who have been without electricity for some time.
The Residents were on Monday afternoon left without electricity for approximately 8 hours following the shutdown of three of the four Bartica power plant generators.
GPL Inc. on Monday apologised to customers in Bartica for the recent interruptions. The Bartica Power Plant has four engines: two are required to meet the demand, while two serve as a standby unit. Unfortunately, a release stated that there was only one operational engine in conjunction with the solar farm.
The unavailability of the three critical units significantly reduced the plant’s power producing capabilities, which resulted in a ripple effect leaving communities across Bartica without electricity. Moreover, GPL had assured the residents of Bartica that power will be restored in all communities by yesterday.
However, the power company reported today that the team worked until 2:00 AM today. It said that there has been substantial progress.
Additionally, there is a contractor on site to support the team in completing repairs on the other offline engines, which will provide reserve generation capacity.

05/08/2024

The finals of UG got Talent is on

The University of Guyana Got Talent (UGGT) competition will be announced in a highly anticipated event scheduled for 18:30 hrs today August 2, 2024, at the Theatre Guild in Kingston, Georgetown.
According to a press release, among other highlights, the event will feature top performances from some of the past winners of the competition.
The final showdown of UGGT was held on 20 June 2024, at the Theatre Guild. It was a spectacular display of creativity and skill, during which contestants showcased their extraordinary talents in their quest to become Talent Ambassadors for the University of Guyana.
In the final round of the competition, the judges and audience will have an equal say in who the winners and newest Talent Ambassadors of UG will be.
This year’s live competition began on May 8 with 19 hopefuls following the auditions on April 26 and April 27.
The finalists are: Joel Weekes, Rani Goberdhan, Lilian Rege, Jiavon Weekes, Asiyan Kayum, Roshauna Fraser, Serena Hope, Nathania Hamilton-Samad, Kezia Nunes, Tirishatha Semple, and Cherise Roberts. The first place winner will receive $300,000, while the second and third place winners will be awarded G$250,000 and G$200,000 respectively.
Fourth and fifth place winners are also set to win $150,000 and $100,000 respectively.
Additionally, the top five persons will have the unique opportunity to star in an original UG’s Got Talent production, further showcasing their talents and potentially launching their artistic careers. All contestants will receive a prize including prizes for original work.

05/08/2024

Adams notebook for July 31, 2024

Wasteful spending

There is a saying that willful waste makes for woeful want. And there have been many examples of this. There is also the Biblical saying about casting pearls before swine. And who can forget the saying that a fool and his money are soon parted.
These statements need no explanation. And life is full of examples of people wasting what they had. There was an American who won two lotto jackpots but who is broke today. In Guyana, a gardener won $100 million from the lotto some years ago.
He suddenly found so many advisors and people who were willing to sell him property. The property sellers charged him much more than the actual value of the property. Before long his money was gone.
The Man Above provided Guyana with oil wealth, a lot of it. The custodian of this wealth is the government. Immediately it embarked on a programme that could be considered nothing but wastage.
The first thing that it did was to create a new breed of contractors. None of this breed had even built a kennel or a pig pen. The excuse was that these men all had financial resources. The government also cast its net in Trinidad.
Guyana has had issues with Trinidad contractors in the past but Jagdeo and the PPP were not daunted. It was back to Trinidad for contractors to build roads in Guyana. Money was paid but the roads were never completed. To satisfy Guyanese, the government began to talk about liquidated damages.
But the worst were these new contractors created by the PPP Government. They got billions of dollars but failed to complete any project. The list of failed projects and their cost are astounding.
On Friday, former Minister David Patterson detailed some of them. The Cemetery Road project is more than a year behind schedule. Despite threats or supposed threats from Minister Juan Edghill the project remains stalled.
Then came word that jumbie, or as the Minister said, spirits, prevented the men from working. That would have been the third road being constructed along that stretch. There was the first road, then the other carriageway that necessitated that tombs be removed.
The late Claude Merriman, a Minister of Works, was entrusted with removing the tombs in the path of the second roadway, the one to the west of the two-lane carriageway through the cemetery.
There were tombs containing embalmed bodies. Some had bones that the contractors put into bags to be placed elsewhere.
At no time did jumbies or spirits affect either the tomb removal or the road construction. Needless to say, this was before the PPP era.
The government has now added two additional contractors to the project without terminating the original contract. Friends and families have privileges.
There is the road from Conversation Tree to nowhere. After collecting huge sums, the contractor simply refused to complete the project. The headlines subsequently read that the government had rescinded the contract.
The Railway Embankment is another project that seems to be going nowhere. At the start, heavy equipment dug large ditches. Then the large trucks came with tons of sand and loam to stockpile along the ditches. That is as far as the project has gone.
Judging from the pace that the government was trying to remove establishments along the embankment one was led to believe that the road would have reached Mahaica by now. The West Demerara road project is similarly in a state of incompletion.
Nearly $400 million was allocated for the construction of a primary school at Bamia. That school should have been completed two years ago. Again, the contractor is a friend. The school may be completed in the new year.
Those are not the only projects that beg to be completed. There are other projects that are in the same state. Take the new Demerara Harbour Bridge. That project should have been completed two years ago.
Again there was great haste to remove the people at Herstelling. That bridge is now only 20 percent complete. The amount of money spent is mindboggling.
It is the same with the drive to reopen the sugar estates closed by the Granger administration. Four years on and despite the promise to have the Rose Hall Canje estate begin sugar production a year ago, the government has failed to deliver on this promise.
Contracts have been awarded for the construction of a 12-storey building aback of Eccles, East Bank Demerara to house the Ministry of Works. The contractor has been given $6 billion. Nothing has been done at the site. The contractor has received a $6 billion windfall.
He can bank that money and make a handsome profit by way of interest if he so desires. There is no pressure for him to get started.
This matter was raised in the National Assembly and the answer given by Minister Juan Edghill left me bemused.
He spoke of the site being changed as if that was a reason for the delay. He could not explain the contractor working on another major project to the exclusion of the Ministry’s 12-storey building.
Another wasteful project has to be the gas to shore project. To hear David Patterson talk about this project, one can only conclude that the government does not care how much money it is spending provided the project is different from the original design fashioned by the Coalition administration.
The length of the pipeline has been changed; money is being paid for the acquisition of property; and there is payment for the gas, which according to Patterson, was initially being brought to shore free of cost.
The government has more money than any government has ever had. Perhaps there is the belief that the money is so much that it cannot be spent in this lifetime.
But the saying that a fool and his money are soon parted still holds true.

01/08/2024

Government signs another contract with Chinese firm for gas to energy project

The government signed a US$8.6 million contract with Power China to construct a building to house the National Control Centre of the Gas-to-Energy project.
At the signing, Prime Minister, Mark Phillips, fulfilling the functions of President, emphasized the crucial role of the building in the gas to energy project. He stated that the government tis working to reduce electricity cost by 50 percent by 2025.
The building, set to be constructed near Beterverwagting, East Coast of Demerara, has a 13-month completion timeline.
Kalpataru Projects International Limited (KPIL) from India had previously secured a US$159 million contract to develop transmission lines and substations, essential for the project. This transmission infrastructure is expected to be completed this year.
Additionally, the US-based partnership CH4/Lindsayca is building an integrated power plant and natural gas liquids plant for US$759 million. The control centre’s scope includes all necessary engineering and procuring activities to complete the control center building and install all systems.
This includes designing, procuring, constructing, commissioning, and maintaining the building to meet specific performance standards.
The GtE project, considered the most transformational in Guyana’s history, involves building a pipeline to transport 50 million cubic feet of natural gas from the Liza field, operated by ExxonMobil, to the processing facility at Wales. Construction and pipe laying are already progressing at the Wales site.

01/08/2024

𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥

Alleged chicken smuggler Naresh Ramjattan, a 36-year-old from Greenfield, East Coast Demerara, is still hospitalised in a stable condition, nursing two gunshot wounds.
Ramjattan claimed that he was standing on a boat when suddenly he heard several loud explosions and felt he was shot in his leg and shoulder. The incident occurred Saturday night at the Enmore seawall, East Coast Demerara.
Three Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) enforcement officers have since submitted written statements, and their hands were also swabbed for gunshot residue.
Around 07:05 hrs the following morning (Sunday July 28), Police arrested Ganesh Ramcharran, called Brian, a 22-year-old Porter of Bee Hive, East Coast Demerara, who was caught hiding in a clump of bushes along the seawall at Enmore, East Coast Demerara.
He was questioned about his purpose at the seawalls, and he claimed that he was there to catch crabs. Subsequently, he admitted that he was hired by people from Bee Hive to fetch chicken from a boat and put it onto buses. He was arrested and escorted to the Cove and John Police Station.
He was placed in custody and is assisting with the ongoing investigation.

26/07/2024

Adam’s notebook—July 24-24
Keeping everyone uninformed

Just over a year ago Guyana’s worst dormitory disaster occurred at Mahdia. Twenty children died in what was said to be a blaze set by a resident of the dormitory. There was an arrest and detention of the alleged arsonist.
She was a minor so she was held in a juvenile detention centre. Following the fire President Irfaan Ali set up a commission of inquiry. Headed by retired Chief of Staff Major General Joe Singh, the commission noted many things.
Some of the findings were strange. Blame was apportioned to the David Granger administration that had demitted office two years earlier. The Commission claimed that it had failed to implement the findings of a report done by former Chief Education Officer Ed Caesar.
The present government was in no way responsible for the fire and the loss of life.
The Commission continued, “We find the fact that no action was taken in relation to dormitory facilities was a grave neglect of duty bordering on recklessness by the persons vested with power during that period for the care and welfare of the country’s children residing in dormitories.”
It continued, “The magnitude of neglect which was inherited rendered full rectification a time-consuming exercise.”
The inquiry found that the perpetrator had given ample notice of the intention to burn the dorm. However, the authorities never sought to keep a close watch on the child. Instead they chose to lock her in the heavily grilled dorm with the other children, unsupervised. No blame was apportioned here.
With that being said, the nation is in the dark about the prosecution of the child charged with 20 counts of murder. There is no word about any further court appearance.
There was another dormitory fire. Again, there is a profound silence.
In fact, those incidents appear to be dead. And these are not the only dead incidents. Orin Boston was shot dead in his bed on the Essequibo Coast. There was an initial investigation. Someone was placed under close arrest.
Months have passed and a silence surrounds this issue. The killing of the Henry brothers and one of their friends is similarly receiving the silent treatment.
In one sense, reporters may be responsible for the silence. They have not been making these issues a matter of public interest.
Perhaps there are more important interests. And indeed, each day something eye-catching happens. For example, there was a fire at Swan, East Bank Demerara, at what is used as a storage area for cars. Many did not know of this storage location.
However, soon after the news broke, names of the people owning the area began to surface. Sometimes, people are wrongfully accused and if given a chance they would clear their names. In this case, one of the people named is the acting Police Commissioner.’
He was hostile to the reporter who called him to ascertain whether the information about his ownership was accurate.
He queried, “Is everything people seh y’all gun publish?” He became angry, according to the reporter, and disconnected the call without answering any question.
An individual claimed that my children have distanced themselves from me. He certainly doesn’t know my children. He, unlike the reporter who called to check on a report of owner of the vehicle storage location at Swan, East Bank Demerara, never tried to talk to anyone who knows both me or my children.
If someone were to call me to verify that statement, I would never ask if it is that everything that is said people would want to run with. I would answer the query. I would go further. I would direct the person to others in the know to seek verification.
Suffice it to say that a major fire occurred at Swan, East Bank Demerara, at this storage facility. There has been no report by the Guyana Fire Service which reports on minor things like grass fires that it is called to fight. Why this silence?
Photographs have been released of the scene. Someone used a drone to capture the destruction which was widespread. The Guyana Fire Service did respond to the conflagration. It has said not a word.
The extent of secrecy is mindboggling. When the former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour returned from the United States after being grilled by the federal authorities and the news broke locally, people in the government would only say that it was a routine affair. At the time she was the Permanent Secretary of the Home Affairs Ministry.
Then there was a promise to release any information that would become available. Nothing was done or has been done since. After the United States announced sanctions against this woman there was a statement that she had resigned from the Central Committee of the People’s Progressive Party.
A news report stated while the woman Mae Toussaint-Thomas has resigned from the Central Committee of the PPP, she remains a Permanent Secretary in the Government.
She was sent on leave as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, following the US Department of Treasury report, which implicated her in a bribery scheme.
While describing Mae Toussaint-Thomas as a “hard worker” in the PPP, Vice President Jagdeo has said she is still maintaining her innocence.
“She indicated that she did not want to bring the party into disrepute… and she says that she maintains her innocence and is available for any investigation”, Jagdeo said.
Resigning from the party for not wanting to bring the party into disrepute but remaining as a Permanent Secretary should be seen as not considering the Ministry and by extension, the government, capable of being brought into disrepute.
But such is life in Guyana. A list of police promotions that was supposed to be confidential has gained more publicity than any of the issues that have been mentioned here.
Everyone but the Police Service Commission which is the entity to pronounce on it, has seen it.
What is supposed to be secret is not secret in Guyana.