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Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency launches Interactive Online Website
– aimed at ensuring employers access vacancies hassle free
Georgetown, GINA, November 23, 2010
To ensure that jobseekers have an opportunity to access available vacancies, the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA), an arm of the Labour Ministry today launched an Interactive Online Programme at the Social Impact Amelioration Programme (SIMAP) Building, Camp Street.
The website www.crma-gy.com will enable employers to register their business, and employers to access vacancies online without the hassle of going directly to an organisation.
Minister of Labour Minzoor Nadir, addressing the gathering during the launch of the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency’s Interactive Online Programme.
Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir, while giving a background of the CRMA, said that today’s activity which may seem small in stature by many, is indeed big in its worth; since it would allow persons to access vacancies online.
“Now persons can go on our website and if there is a vacancy they can register their businesses right online without even coming out of their offices. Persons from anywhere across the world and parts of Guyana who have access to the internet can now access this programme,” he stated.
Four years prior, the budget for the Board of Industrial Training was at a staggering $11M, but a United Nations Development Programme contribution of $50M; a single parent fund of $25M, coupled with a recent increase of $30M to support the Barama workers’ programme, the board now exists on a $210M budget, he said.
The administration is looking at creating greater connectivity for the benefit of every Guyanese in keeping with President Bharrat Jagdeo’s vision of promoting the use of enhanced technology.
Similar branches will be established in Anna Regina- Region Two; New Amsterdam- Region 6; Eccles and at the Ministry’s Office Stabroek- Region 4.
Minister of Public Service Dr. Jennifer Westford addressing attendees during the launch of the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency’s Interactive Online Programme.
To ensure that the Ministry’s staffers operate in a comfortable environment, $5M was allocated by Central Government for the upgrade of the Camp Street building, which will house staffers to man the Interactive Online Website. This is a collaborative effort between government and the donor community.
Minister of Public Service Dr. Jennifer Westford while delivering the feature address, congratulated the Ministry of Labour for ensuring that public servants have suitable working environment.
This, she said, is necessary if effective and efficient performance is to be assured. She charged the staffers to be dedicated and to work effectively on the tasks they are mandated to perform.
According to Minister Westford, Guyana currently boasts one of the largest public service in the world with 16,000 public servants.
“We have been trying to maintain this because we are aware that the private sector is not capable of employing most of our young persons coming out of University and we have many such persons out there,” she said.
Minister Westford alluded that the software will assist in deciding on the most important areas for training; since everyone cannot become managers or social workers.
On the issue of employees being victimised, the Minister stated that the matter is of great importance; since people can have the best of environment, but the attitude of persons is what makes a difference.
The initiative was also highly welcomed and lauded by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Trevor Thomas; UNDP’s Project Manager, Trevor Clark and President of the Guyana Manufacturing Association Clinton Williams.
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Minister Nadir condemns strike actions by GPL and Linden Municipality workers
– says action breaches Essential Services Act
Georgetown, GINA, November 23, 2010
Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir has come out against workers of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) and the Linden Municipality, who took industrial actions yesterday, deeming their actions a breach of the Constitution’s Essential Services Act, under which a number of entities fall.
The amended laws state that before strike action is taken, a Union must give notice of its intention to strike.
Minister Nadir pointed out that while workers in the essential services areas are allowed to embark on industrial actions, there are however, procedures that are to be followed. These include:-
- The dispute must be reported to the subject Minister
- One month has elapsed after the report was made and that
- the dispute has not been referred to a tribunal
According to Minister Nadir the two issues are alarming ones and as such, his office will be moving to condignly deal with the issue to ensure that there is respect for the country’s laws. Due to their actions the workers are opened to be terminated from their services or lose benefits.
The law also provides for persons who fail to comply with the amended laws to either be fined $30,000 and imprisonment for two months or $1000 for every day the offence is continued.
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Over 220 lots distributed at ninth One Stop Shop
- For Tuschen Phase 11
Georgetown, GINA, November 23, 2010
The dream of homeownership, of over 220 persons was today achieved as the Housing Ministry distributed the remaining houselots for the Tuschen Phase Two development at its One Stop Shop exercise at Uitvlugt Community Centre, Region Three.
The Tuschen Phase Two development has 600 houselots and in October, approximately over 370 houselots were distributed. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Emile Mc Garrel emphasised that the Ministry plans on allocating 5,500 houselots for 2010 and this is its ninth One Stop Shop exercise.
Mc Garrel highlighted that the exercise brings services closer to prospective homeowners as they are given the opportunity to interact with financial institutions, private home developers, hardware stores and furniture companies.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Water, Emile Mc Garrel addresses prospective homeowners at the Ministry’s One Stop Shop at Uitvlugt Community Centre
He posited that the Ministry wants to help families develop their own homes as the construction of homes will lead to the further development of Guyana and provide a sense of security for citizens.
Region Three Chairman Julius Faerber indicated that the development of housing schemes has been leading to the growth and development of the Region.
“As the Chairman I am very thankful for what the Government is doing for Region Three. There are many large schemes that are opening up in Region Three, Tuschen, Parfait Harmonie, Cornelia Ida, Belle West and Zeelugt,” he said.
Scores of prospective homeowners in attendance at the Housing Ministry’s One Stop Shop at Uitvlugt Community Centre
Faerber emphasised that Government has been providing social institutions such as schools and health centres to meet the demands of residents of the new housing schemes.
He noted that many persons from other parts of the country are now residing in Region Three and job opportunities are needed. As such, many of them will benefit from the technical institute that is being constructed at Leonora where skills will be acquired.
The Ministry recently held its One-Stop-Shop at the Chateau Margot Primary school, East Coast Demerara, where residents from surrounding communities were able to make payments on their plot of land and make queries on obtaining land titles. Most of the residents have been occupying the plots for over 20 years without the legal documents.
Staff of the Housing Ministry assisting allottees
Other areas that the One Stop Shop exercises were executed include the Housing Ministry for Onderneeming Phase 11, West Bank Demerara and Section EE Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara, Parfait Harmonie for Schoonord, West Bank Demerara, and Hope Secondary School Region Four.
Expansion work is expected to commence in Eccles on the East Bank of Demerara by next April which would make available a further 1500 house lots. In addition, plans are already underway for the expansion of Zeelugt to facilitate another 500 lots and also in other areas such are Bartica, Region Seven and Mahdia, Region Eight.
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Guyana Fire Service receives rescue equipment from French Fire Brigade
Georgetown, GINA, November 23, 2010
The French Fire Brigade today presented several pieces of rescue equipment to the Guyana Fire Service which include emergency aid kits, resuscitation equipment, stretchers, burn treatment kits and disinfectant.
Chief Fire Officer, Marlon Gentle stated that the items will aid the building of skills and capacity of the fire service since over the past few years the GFS has been called out to assist in the removal of persons involved in vehicular accidents.
He emphasised that the GFS values its level of cooperation with the French Guiana Fire Brigade. These two entities have been engaging in several conferences, workshops and training sessions, both in Guyana and French Guiana in an effort to enhance skills.
Honorary Consul General for France, Pierre Saint-Arroman noted the level of cooperation between the French Army, Guyana Defence Force and Guyana Police Force, where officers have been participating in defence and computer training.
With regard to the fire brigades’ partnership, Arroman noted that the sharing of information is critical since in the two countries’ infrastructure is different.
Police Attache of the French Embassy- Suriname and Guyana, George Marceau indicated that over the last two years the French Embassy in Guyana and Suriname has been developing cooperation in civil security, an indication of increased integration between the Guianas.
Officers of the French Fire Brigade and the Guyana Fire Service are currently engaged in a workshop where knowledge is being shared in the use of various equipment including those presented to GFS.
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GUYSUCO is appalled at GAWU’s hypocritical stance
The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. is appalled at the disclosure made by the President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Mr. Komal Chand on a recent BBC Caribbean news programme on the damage the current strike can cause to the Industry while laying the blame on lack of finances to the industry on the government’s part as the reason for the workers to proceed on strike.
The leader of the largest workers’ union in the sugar industry in the interview admitted that both his union and the workers recognize that their current strike action will seriously affect sugar production and went further to disclose that they were well aware of how necessary increased production was to alleviate the present financial circumstances of the industry.
To engage in such a deliberate plan to cripple the industry is both hypocritical and outmoded. The Corporation is left pondering how the union and workers expect it will find the necessary resources to sustain its operations and even more so offer any wage increase. Mr. Chand in his interview lashed out at the Government and Corporation for “having nothing coming forward which is why the workers felt that they at least must engage in some protest”.
Such a statement could only be described as extremely ill-conceived, emotive and lacks empiric substance as it is already public knowledge that the workers were offered up to 5% in wages and salaries increases once specific targets were met. The Corporation even offered to extend the current crop into the New Year to ensure the target was met as it was already confirmed even by Mr. Chand that enough canes were available. The Corporation’s offer was frowned upon by the union fully aware that the industry was not capable of paying beyond this point but it still kept demanding more. Now that this ill advised action was taken the entire issue of any increase must now be revisited and hangs in doubt.
The Corporation also wishes to point out that contrary to Mr. Chand’s assertions; the Government which is the principal shareholder has made every effort to assist the industry in overcoming its current challenges. From the first indication of the impending economic challenges internationally and the moves by large nations to protect their markets and industries; it was realized that the direct impact on the relatively small sugar industry in Guyana would be severe and prolonged, hence numerous interventions were made.
In July 2003, the Government successfully piloted legislation in the National Assembly to abolish the Sugar Levy Act. During this period, GuySuCo was in arrears to the tune of 2.9 billion dollars which the Government waived, enabling the industry much needed resources to embark on its plan to modernize its operations in light of the impending challenges.
The Administration was also instrumental in arranging concessional financing terms for the establishment of the Skeldon Modernization Project in the largest sugar producing region in the country at a cost of nearly 200 million United States dollars. It also invested 12 million US dollars in the realization of project Gold at Enmore in Region 4 to spearhead the industry’s focus toward the more lucrative value added production of its sugar.
The capital expenditure for 2010 which was critical towards the industry producing enough canes to push production closer to the 400,000 tonnes mark in the coming years was only made possible after Government provided 4 billion dollars through a land sale agreement. The Administration has also assisted in a number of other areas, such as financing critical drainage and irrigation projects and most recently providing material support to aid the industry when its cultivation was under threat during the ‘El Nino’ phenomenon from mid 2009 into this year.
Further, GuySuCo informed the unions that Government was committed to our request for an advance of 2 billion dollars to urgently address our backlog of creditors. Based on these facts it is clear that without the intervention and support of the Government, the sugar industry would have ceased its operation a few years ago.
SKELDON FACTORY.
Based on the admission of the GAWU President it is clear that all stakeholders including, himself, were fully aware that the industry was heavily depending on the production of as much sugar as possible. Thus, Mr. Chand’s call for a complete closure of the Skeldon factory to address all its technical problems at this point in time is clearly out of tune with reality, unsound, and not an option that makes any sense. The factory has to be operational to measure the extent of the faults and have these remedied - a process which has been ongoing and which has helped both the contractors and GuySuCo in formulating a programme and time line for this exercise. It is our expectation that the defects will be corrected by January 2011, with the exception of the number 1 boiler which is scheduled for completion by June 30th next year.
Additionally, between our private cane farmers and the Corporation at Skeldon, approximately 229,834 tonnes of canes; equivalent to 18,000 tonnes of sugar is still to be harvested for this crop. In fact, Skeldon is the only factory that has been in operation throughout the current strike action by workers. Maybe the union leader was concerned with this aspect when he made the call to shut down the factory.
If this senseless strike action were to continue, it will not only cause harm to the industry and the nation but to the workers and the unions alike. We would like to emphasized that the strike action by the union, now partly joined by NAACIE, is in breach of the collective agreement existing between the parties and this has been the case for the over 200 strike activities by the unions throughout this year. The industry can ill afford these unwarranted actions which on every occasion resulted in considerable loss in revenue and production to the industry. At this juncture unlike the previous four years there are still nearly 900,000 tons of canes to be harvested. If they are not harvested on time considerable loss in sugar will be inflicted on the industry. The time is therefore opportune, regrettably to review our relations with the unions.
At this critical juncture, the sugar industry needs all the support it can garner to survive this current period as it looks forward to its many investments beginning to generate the desired results and to move it out of its current predicament to a position of financial stability and profitability in the not too distant future. We therefore call on the union leaders to let good sense prevail and restore normalcy to the industry.
November 23, 2010
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Democratic clause to reiterate UNASUR’s commitment to democracy high on Council of Ministers Meeting
…appointment of Secretary General, establishment of secretariat also on agenda
Georgetown, GINA, November 23, 2010
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will meet on November 25, at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) to discuss a number of issues in preparation for the meeting of the Heads of Government on November 26.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett in an interview with the National Communications Network (NCN) on November 22 disclosed that among the issues to be discussed at the meeting would be an additional protocol which involves a democratic clause emerging from the attempted coup in Ecuador.
The democratic clause would reiterate UNASUR’s commitment to democracy and its abhorrence of any unconstitutional means of taking government. This, she said, would be discussed and finalized by the Council of Foreign Ministers.
The appointment of the Secretary General is also on the agenda Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said, since the passing of the former Secretary General and President of Argentina Dr. Nestor Kircher.
Chairmanship of the councils would also be addressed, the Minister said as there are seven councils in UNASUR including health, education, defence and drugs.
“There is nothing written in terms of who should chair and when, so what has been happening is that the country that chairs the conference or the summit will also be chairing those councils. However, this is not necessarily the best way to proceed,” she added.
Guyana has indicated that it will chair the social council and whether or not the chairmanship of councils will be done in alphabetical order will also be discussed in addition to the general secretariat for which Ecuador has been identified as the headquarters.
With regards the ratifications required for the treaty to come into force, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett stated that so far Colombia has made significant progress in its ratification process. The council expects that Suriname will also complete the process.
In the area of security in South America, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said that the meeting will be examining a draft decision on confidence building measures where work has already been done by the defence council.
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UNASUR Preparatory sessions commence – for 4th Regular Summit on Friday
Georgetown, GINA, November 23, 2010
The Meeting of the Council of Delegates of the twelve- nation Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) commenced today at the Guyana International Conference Centre in preparation for the Foreign Ministers Meeting on Thursday at the same venue.
The meeting today examined the Declaration that would be issued by the Heads of Government and State at the end of the IV Regular Summit on Friday and the functions of the various Councils of UNASUR. The meeting continues tomorrow.
Ministers of Foreign Affairs will examine several issues in preparation for the meeting of the Heads of Government on November 26 including an additional protocol which involves a democratic clause emerging from the attempted coup in Ecuador.
The democratic clause would reiterate UNASUR’s commitment to democracy and its abhorrence of any unconstitutional means of taking government, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said.
The appointment of the Secretary General is also on the agenda.
Chairmanship of the councils would also be addressed, the Minister said as there are seven councils in UNASUR including health, education, defence and drugs.
Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guyana Ms Elizabeth Harper among delegates at the preparatory meeting of UNASUR, November 23
With respect to security Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said that the meeting will be examining a draft decision on confidence building measures where work has already been done by the defence council.
At Friday’s Summit, Guyana will take over the prestigious rotating Chairmanship from Ecuador which it will hold for one year.
Meanwhile on Thursday, outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva will be conferred with Guyana’s Highest National Award, the Order of Excellence after which there will be a cultural programme ‘Guyana! Landscape and Festivals’ also in his honour at the National Cultural Centre, Homestretch Avenue.
UNASUR is an intergovernmental union integrating two South American trade blocs -- Mercosur (a regional trade agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the Andean Community of Nations (a trade bloc comprising countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru).
It is comprised of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and Chile.
The value and importance of UNASUR as a mechanism for consensus and an effective political space to solve the differences in South America were highlighted by both President Jagdeo and President Hugo Chavez during a visit by President Jagdeo to Venezuela in July.
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