Crackdown on gold smuggling yielded positive results but more to be done – Jagdeo

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo says the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) government has focused heavily on stamping out gold smuggling and will continue to do so.

Jagdeo spoke about the government’s focus on stamping out this issue during an episode of the ‘Starting Point’ podcast, aired on Monday night. He said several foreign nationals, including Chinese, were apprehended and charged with gold smuggling locally.

“The problem is that when you charge people for smuggling, they get bail for smuggling gold, and it’s harder to charge them for money laundering offences.

“So, we know have to strengthen the charges we place on those people,” the Vice President said.

Many of the recent busts, he said, were intelligence-led operations. And he noted that when the government got hold of the information, several actions were taken almost immediately to begin to uncover the major players in the illegal activities.

But he lamented that there are individuals who want to place the country at risk. Jagdeo condemned those individuals.

“If we were sanctioned globally for our gold sector, all our gold miners would be put at risk.

“If we don’t export our gold, or it comes under a whole range of paperwork, who do you think it would affect? It would affect the people who mine gold, etc,” Jagdeo lamented.

Last year, Jagdeo emphasised the need for the strengthening of the gold exportation system as well as the ramping up of charges and penalties to tackle gold smuggling. He noted that concerted efforts have enabled local authorities to pinpoint new tactics being used by gold smugglers.

Some of these efforts include the establishment of a task force and a rigorous assessment of gold declarations being made from time to time. The task force, which is comprised of the Attorney-General, the Minister of Finance, the Commissioner-General of the GRA, the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Governor of the Central Bank and representatives of the Guyana Gold Board, have already found loopholes in the existing regulations and have begun work to tighten the loose ends.