Deal with 'legal' illegal quarrying

THE EDITOR: On Thursday November 28, the police issued a statement that officers of the Illegal Quarrying Unit arrested 22 people and seized several excavators. Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) congratulates this unit, but asks, where have they been for all these years?

Why has there been no updated legislation for the confiscation of equipment, powers of arrest without warrant and swift conviction of individuals involved in the growing crime of illegal quarrying? How can we ever progress without transparency and accountability? What exactly is our government's legislative agenda?

According to the Ministry of Energy, as of August 2019, only eight quarries have valid licenses. Some 82 have expired licenses and 72 have new applications pending but no license. Is it good public administration that 90 per cent of registered quarries are currently operating illegally as they do not have a license?

Every licensed entity knows there is no such thing as being allowed to continue operations while an application for renewal of a license is being processed. It's common sense right? Is this not a licensing discrimination?

The fact is that government is bending over backwards to permit this lucrative, unsustainable activity without the relevant, legislated licensing approval. This is an outrage, a disgrace, an abuse of the public purse and a far cry from the good governance we thought we were getting after the elections.

Interestingly, former government ministers and even former prime ministers have been awarded “honorary” lifetime membership in a group of quarry owners and operators. A member of the current government is a member of this group and we respectfully call on government to explain this “licensing discrimination” which members in this association currently enjoys.

We submit that it is a gross conflict of interest for a government member to be an honorary member of this quarry group which ought to be regulated by the State, but whose members currently benefit from government turning a blind eye and allow them to operate illegally.

It is now known that extractors pay royalties based on a “good faith basis” without any Government verification of the volumes extracted. For four years, the Auditor General in his annual report, complained of this tax leakage yet nothing was done. Why? We call on the Prime Minister to address these known tax leakages and on the Attorney General to stop the talk and get down to work.

GARY ABOUD

Secretary, FFOS

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"Deal with 'legal' illegal quarrying"

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