—order assigns monitoring roles to GEA, GNBS after earlier concerns over regulatory gap

Compulsory standards governing cooking-gas cylinders and low-pressure regulators will be enforced from April 1, 2027, under an order assigning monitoring responsibilities to the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) and the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS).

Order No. 189 of 2026, signed by Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Susan Rodrigues on October 15 and published in the October 24 Official Gazette, declares the two standards compulsory.

Its schedule assigns the GEA responsibility for monitoring GYS 264, covering LPG cylinders and their storage, handling and transportation. The GNBS will monitor **GYS 523**, covering low-pressure regulators used with liquefied petroleum gas.

The order expressly directs the two agencies to commence enforcement on April 1, 2027. It was made under the Guyana National Bureau of Standards Act, on the recommendation of the National Standards Council and following consultation with the minister responsible for the GEA. 

The assignment of monitoring responsibilities follows earlier public concern about an apparent gap in the enforcement of standards for cooking-gas cylinders.

In a February 4, 2025 editorial, Stabroek News highlighted correspondence from Romain Khan, who had questioned which agency regulated cylinder storage. According to the correspondence reproduced by the newspaper, the GNBS had developed GYS 264 but said it did not enforce the standard and did not know which agency had that responsibility. 

Those concerns arose amid investigations into a series of fires and suspected cooking-gas-related explosions.

Stabroek News reported on January 25, 2025, that officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, GEA, Guyana Fire Service and GNBS had met to coordinate inspections and investigations. They agreed to share findings and prepare an action plan incorporating safety measures for suppliers, vendors and consumers. 

By February, the investigation involved the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission and the Labour Ministry’s Occupational Safety and Health Department as well.

The newspaper reported on February 9 that the agencies had agreed to undertake further investigations at retailer and consumer levels, including examining the transportation, storage and use of cylinders. Each incident was to be reviewed separately to determine its most probable cause. 

Among the incidents under scrutiny was the January 2025 explosion at Foulis, East Coast Demerara, following which Basmatie Ganpat and her husband, Manoo Sookoo, died. 

The consumer commission had separately announced an investigation in January 2025 after receiving complaints involving serious injuries and property damage. It reminded suppliers of their obligations under the Consumer Affairs Act to provide safe goods and services. 

The GNBS subsequently publicised the newly approved compulsory LPG standards in a notice published by DPI on October 28.

Source: Kiskadee Watch

The Alliance For Change (AFC) has backed the High Court challenge over alleged underpayments of minimum National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pensions, saying any arrears found to be owed should be transparently calculated and paid, including to the estates of deceased pensioners.

In a statement issued yesterday, the party urged the National Insurance Board and the government to cooperate fully with the proceedings, preserve relevant records and provide the information needed for a timely determination.

The application, brought by Christopher Ram, pensioner Kalicharan Heera and three unions, seeks a ruling on the requirement that the minimum NIS old-age pension be no less than half the Public Service minimum wage.

“The AFC’s position is straightforward: the rule of law must be upheld. Public authorities must act within the Constitution and the laws made under it,” the party stated.

“Where a law establishes a benefit or a minimum payment, that requirement cannot be set aside, delayed or treated as optional through administrative practice.”

The applicants contend that, based on the 2026 Public Service minimum wage of $102,346, the minimum monthly pension should be $51,173. They put the published NIS minimum pension at $43,075, representing an alleged monthly shortfall of $8,098.

Their calculation suggests that pensioners who received the minimum throughout the period since 2021 could each be owed approximately $510,300. 

The AFC said the proceedings must establish the correct interpretation of the law, which pensioners are affected and what sums, if any, are due.

It also rejected any suggestion that responsibility rested solely with the National Insurance Board.

“Government cannot avoid responsibility by simply pointing to the National Insurance Board,” the party said.

The AFC pointed to the Finance Ministry’s oversight of the scheme and the statutory provision for Parliament to advance funds where the National Insurance Fund temporarily lacks sufficient assets to meet its liabilities. It acknowledged that the precise responsibilities of the parties were matters for the court.

“Pensioners contributed to the Scheme and depend on its benefits in later life. They are entitled to know whether the payments they receive comply with the law,” the statement added.

The party said that if the Board disputed the claim, it should present its legal and factual basis through the proceedings. It also called for the court to be allowed to decide the matter independently and without political interference.

Kiskadee Watch reported on October 10 that the judicial review application had been filed the previous day. Alongside Ram and Heera, the applicants are the Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers, the United Minibus Union and the Guyana Market Vendors Union.

They are seeking declarations that the 50 per cent pension floor is mandatory, an order requiring payment at that rate, and an account and payment of arrears since 2021, with interest, including sums owed to deceased pensioners’ estates. 

The proceedings followed an October 1 letter from Ram and representatives of 10 unions giving the Board seven days to state its position and account for the alleged underpayments.

The letter said Regulation 4(b) of the Benefit Regulations was amended in 2015 to raise the minimum pension from 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the Public Service minimum wage.

The signatories maintained that the requirement was last met in 2020, when the minimum wage was $70,000 and the minimum NIS pension was $35,000. They argued that later pension increases would not extinguish arrears already accrued, and questioned why retroactive wage increases had not produced corresponding pension adjustments. 

NIS Chairman Ramesh Persaud declined to comment when Kiskadee Watch contacted him on October 5 about the allegations and the demand letter. He said he had no comment on the matter at that time.

Source: Kiskadee Watch

The wife of a fish vendor who was seriously injured in a road accident at Beehive, East Coast Demerara, on September 20, 2026, is appealing for assistance, saying repeated visits to the Cove and John Police Station have yielded no clear explanation about the investigation.

In a post published on the Facebook page “Rishi Tahir Ramroop,” the woman described social media as her “last hope,” saying her husband remains bedridden more than a month after the accident.

According to her account, he suffered a broken arm, two broken ribs, a Grade Three liver injury and a spinal cord injury. She said he is still awaiting surgery on his arm.

The woman said her husband was the sole breadwinner for herself and their four-year-old son, and that his injuries have left the family struggling.

“I have been going back and forth to Cove and John Police Station seeking answers,” she wrote, adding that she had not received a proper explanation of the status of the matter.

The post identified the other driver as  a police officer stationed at Eve Leary. She also claimed that his vehicle remains in police custody at Cove and John. 

She identified the officers handling the investigation as Corporal Beharry and another officer whose name was written in the post as “Mr Clab.”

Expressing frustration, the woman appealed to senior government officials and the relevant authorities for assistance with her family’s situation and answers about the investigation.

Source: Kiskadee Watch

Dear Editor,

Guyana’s welcome for King Charles III presents a troubling contradiction: elaborate courtesies for a visiting monarch while fellow Guyanese face confrontation when seeking to make their grievances heard. Our national dignity must be measured by how we treat our own people. The red carpet must never become more important than the rights of the Guyanese people deprived of walking on it. Mahatma Gandhi has exhorted us that, “But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.”

Our ancestors endured enslavement, indentureship and colonial domination. Honouring their struggles requires a united demand for reparatory justice and an unwavering commitment to the rights they were denied.

President Irfaan Ali publicly called for an apology and a reparations framework before the visit. The Government must now explain what commitments it sought and secured. Royal ceremony cannot substitute for meaningful progress toward acknowledgment, accountability and repair.

That same commitment to justice must govern our conduct at home. Reports of Hana Mohamed’s clothing being pulled open and injuries sustained during police attempts to restrain and arrest her demand independent investigation. MP Sherod Duncan’s arrest and confrontations involving opposition parliamentarians and grieving relatives of MV Barima victims require transparent explanations. Bereaved families deserve compassion and answers. They have a right to be angry, and to protest.

Articles 146 and 147 of our Constitution protect expression, assembly and association, subject to constitutionally permitted restrictions. Security and public-order responsibilities must be exercised lawfully, fairly and with restraint. Pending proceedings against Azruddin Mohamed must likewise respect due process and the presumption of innocence. Defending these protections requires no endorsement of anyone’s politics.

Martin Luther King Jr. expressed our shared obligation in his Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963): “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Guyanese must make that principle a national commitment. We weaken everyone’s freedom when we target or excuse another person’s humiliation because of race, party or political disagreement. The rights we tolerate being denied to an opponent today may be the rights we need ourselves tomorrow.

I call on President Ali and all parliamentary leaders to convene an urgent national dialogue, involving civil society, religious leaders, Indigenous representatives, trade unions, youth and affected families. Its immediate purposes should be to reduce tensions, protect peaceful protest, establish credible accountability for alleged abuses and build a common position on reparatory justice.

The Government must listen without treating criticism as disloyalty. Opposition leaders must insist on peaceful conduct. Police must protect citizens impartially. All sides must reject intimidation and commit to resolving disagreements through dialogue and lawful institutions.

National unity requires a willingness to listen, compromise and defend one another’s dignity. Love of country must extend to the neighbour whose views differ from our own.

We dishonour our ancestors when we demand justice for their suffering while suppressing each other’s rights. 

Let the lasting achievement of this moment be a Guyana where every citizen is heard, every person’s dignity matters and justice and fairness unites us. Where is our national conscience? 

Yours faithfully,

Hon. Albert Baldeo

Community Leader and Judicial Delegate (NY, USA)

Former Magistrate, Senior State Counsel and Police Legal Adviser (Guyana)

Source: Kiskadee Watch

Efforts are underway to establish Guyana’s first biobank to support genomic research and predictive medicine, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony told the 19th Guyana Medical Research Conference on Saturday.

According to a report posted by the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Anthony also outlined plans to connect public healthcare services digitally within four to five years and provide approximately 300 physicians with access to an artificial intelligence-powered medical research platform.

The conference, held at the Pegasus Suites in Georgetown, brought together healthcare professionals, researchers and policymakers under the theme “The Evolution of Medicine Through Technological Advancements and Beyond the Stethoscope.”

Delivering the feature address, Anthony said healthcare must increasingly focus on predicting and preventing disease, detecting conditions early, tailoring treatment to individual patients and continuously monitoring their health.

He identified precision medicine as an important part of that transition, saying the traditional approach of applying the same treatment broadly must increasingly give way to interventions suited to individual patients.

The proposed biobank would support research in genomics and predictive medicine. GPHC’s account did not provide a timetable for its establishment, its cost or details of how it would operate.

Anthony also outlined the intended transition from paper-based public healthcare records to a digital system, with GPHC expected to lead the process.

Plans include electronic health records, digital laboratory systems and electronic medical imaging. The wider objective is to link hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories and other services, allowing the public healthcare system to operate in a fully digital environment within four to five years.

The minister said artificial intelligence was being introduced into clinical practice, including the interpretation of medical images. He announced plans to give approximately 300 physicians access to OpenEvidence, an AI-powered medical research platform intended to support clinical decision-making.

Anthony also highlighted the expansion of diagnostic services, including CT scanners at regional hospitals, additional MRI facilities, plans for PET scanning and expanded cardiac catheterisation services. 

Telemedicine, telepathology and teleophthalmology were among the approaches he identified for improving access to specialist care, particularly in remote communities.

Discussions at the conference also covered advanced HIV care and antimicrobial resistance, alongside artificial intelligence, precision medicine and the application of research to clinical practice, GPHC said.

Source: Kiskadee Watch