As authorities and stakeholders continue to deal with the aftermath of the massive fire that destroyed a bond at the Laparkan Shipping complex, a number of questions abound about what happens next.
In a brief interview with media operatives this morning, Comptroller of Customs Excise & Trade Operations at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Rohan Beekhoo explained that the inferno was beyond anyone’s control. But he assured that authorities are working to ensure business is not impeded.
“This is unfortunate to me. It is beyond our control; I think it’s beyond the control of the company as well but we are now working with them to ensure that the business is not impeded. So, we just had discussions with them where we can work them to install or implement temporary measures,” he indicated.
Beekhoo also expressed that the GRA is concerned about revenue losses.
“Of course, we’re concerned also about the revenue and the losses to the revenue, but inventory is something that we’re going to work on very quickly and as soon as they get their act together, we’re ready to implement the temporary measures,” he explained.
INews was informed that the representatives of various insurance companies are currently on the ground and some have already launched their independent investigations into the situation. Investigations by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) are also ongoing.
“The fire investigative team, they’re on the ground and they are doing the investigation work to come up with the cause of the fire and as soon as their completed with that we will give a release to the public,” Gregory Wickham, a representative of the GFS indicated.
“We still have little smoke coming out of the some of the containers, so that’s the reason why the tender has returned,” the representative explained.
The inferno started at around 11:45h on Sunday and quickly spread across the building. Millions of dollars’ worth of items was destroyed, including vehicles.
This publication understands that many ordinary customers had uninsured goods at the bond. This morning, scores of persons flocked the Lombard Street, Georgetown headquarters in a desperate bid to find out the status of their cargoes.
