New problems for Samling in Guyana
Picture: In May 2007, indigenous leaders from Guyana visited Switzerland to inform investors on Samling's illegal activities in their country. (Picture: BMF)
Following the unprecedented plunge of Samling shares earlier this week, research undertaken by the Bruno Manser Fund has shown that Samling's wholly-owned subsidiary in Guyana, the Barama Company Limited, is facing new problems from the Guyanese authorities. Samling's repeated breaches of forest laws in Guyana increasingly remind of the timber giant's earlier engagements in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea. - Barama has two concessions for harvesting timber from tropical moist forest over 1.65 million hectares. The following article from Kaieteur News, one of Guyana's leading newspapers, provides interesting insight:
Audit launched into Barama investment programme
By Kaieteur News, Georgetown, 2 September 2008
The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) yesterday launched an audit into the investment programme of Barama Company Limited after it was reported that
the company has been misleading the commission about its investments in Guyana.
Kaieteur News has learnt that the commission, in conducting a review of all forestry investment plans, reportedly discovered that there are major slippages regarding the procurement, delivery and installation of a veneer plant in Guyana. It was also reportedly discovered that inaccurate documentation was submitted to the commission by a senior official of the company.
As such, this newspaper was told, the GFC has been tasked to conduct a total review of the company's investment programme, including the status of the veneer plant equipment. This equipment, Kaieteur News understands, was scheduled to have arrived in the country since mid last year, as was stated to the media during a tour to the Buck Hall facility in August 2007.
Kaieteur News has learnt that when Barama applied for tax and duty concessions for its Buck Hall project, these were granted on the basis that the company would establish a veneer plant. However, it was recently discovered that the slice veneer plant and rotary veneer plant have not yet been installed, despite giving assurances in an MOU which was signed in August 2006.
When contacted yesterday, Head of the Forestry Commission, James Singh, said that an audit has been launched into the company's investment programme.
Meanwhile, Neil Chand, an official from the company, yesterday told Kaieteur News that the major part of the plant is already in Guyana, and only minor aspects are yet to be imported. He pointed out that he is not aware of an audit, since he has just returned from leave, but he added that the company's Chief Executive Officer iscurrently out of the jurisdiction.
In 2007, the Barama concession was suspended because of dissatisfaction with the implementation of the planned investment. The suspension was subsequently removed after assurances were given by the now former Chairman Girwar Lalaram that the situation would be remedied.
The Veneer plant is used to peel wood, which is sliced into sheets of a given constant thickness and combined with glue to produce plywood. During a media tour of the Buck Hall facility last year August, former Chairman Lalaram had told the media that the company would be installing two more sawmills at the facility. He had added that the company had also installed a veneer plant at the Buck Hall facility in its bid to upscale operations into a complete wood processing complex.
(12 September 2008)
