Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to a letter published on 13 November 2025 by Annette Ferguson, which highlights that the APNU-AFC Government should receive credit for Guyana’s recent aviation success, particularly regarding Guyana scoring 80.12% in the 2025 ICAO Aviation Security Audit. Please extend the same courtesy to publish my response to Annette Ferguson.
To provide context for my letter, Ferguson’s reaction arose from Guyana achieving an impressive score of 80.12% in the recent International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Aviation Security Audit, significantly exceeding the global average of 72%. This marks a remarkable achievement and a substantial increase from the country’s previous score of 62.90% in 2016 under the same audit. This was a press release issued by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority on 5 November 2025.
I am appalled that Annette Ferguson, a former Minister of Government who oversaw the GCAA, did not take the time to understand the basic distinction between aviation safety and aviation security, as her letter clearly shows. She spent her entire letter discussing safety compliance when the GCAA Press Release is about Guyana’s achievements in aviation security.
Ferguson did not mention the 2016 aviation security audit result under the APNU-AFC Coalition Government, which she is free to claim credit for; instead, she seeks praise or recognition for the 80% score in aviation security. The score of 80% reflects PPP/C’s outstanding, impressive, and transformative work.
Her appeal that
“𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑃𝑃𝑃/𝐶 𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦’𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 80 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑙𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐺𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡.” is dishonest at best.
Unsatisfied with her limited understanding of the subject, she thoroughly enjoyed herself by highlighting a series of unrelated projects related to aviation security regulatory oversight, sometimes confusing service-provision areas with regulatory matters.
From her letter, I inferred that Ferguson does not understand the type of ‘audits’ conducted by the ICAO under the Coalition Government, for which Guyana scored 64.4% in 2016 and 76.54% in 2020, respectively. Those ‘audits’ were ICAO Coordinated Validation Missions. An ICVM is designed to address corrected deficiencies identified in previous audits, in this case the 2007 audit. In other words, the scores in 2016 and 2020 were based on the 44.4% which Ferguson is seeking to discredit. Both of these ICVMs were also conducted at Guyana’s request.
I oversaw Guyana’s preparations for the ICAO Safety Audit of 2024. As Minister, I took the time to understand the scope and requirements of the audit. I also made an effort to understand the two types of ‘audits’ conducted by ICAO for States’ Safety Oversight System. Here is the difference:
“𝑎𝑛 𝐼𝐶𝐴𝑂 𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒, 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦’𝑠 𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝐼𝐶𝑉𝑀 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤-𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑡…𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑢𝑡, 𝑎𝑛 𝐼𝐶𝑉𝑀 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑡, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑢𝑝 𝑜𝑛-𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑀𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑡” (𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒: https://www.icao.int/usoap/frequently-asked-questions-about-usoap).
I wish to inform Ferguson that this distinction was presented in the National Assembly in May 2024 during the debate on the amendments to the Civil Aviation Act 2018.
The May/June 2024 ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Programme (USOAP) audit was a comprehensive safety audit of Guyana’s entire safety oversight system. Starting from zero, Guyana scored 63.41% in the audit, surpassing its 2007 audit result 44.4%. And at that time, Guyana’s score also surpassed the last four ICAO audits conducted in the South American region.
With her usual misinformation, Ferguson stated in her letter that
“𝑖𝑛 2018, 𝐼𝐶𝐴𝑂 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝐺𝑢𝑦𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑒…” etc.
Ferguson misled the editor and the public by claiming that Guyana received an award at the ICAO’s 75th Anniversary Regional Safety Oversight Awards in Toronto, Canada. The fact is that Annette Ferguson, as Minister, personally collected the award on behalf of Guyana, but it was not at this imaginary event. Instead, the award was given in 2017 at the ICAO World Aviation Forum in Abuja, Nigeria, from 20 to 22 November (source Guyana Chronicle online edition of December 20, 2017: https://guyanachronicle.com/2017/12/20/guyana-awarded-strides-aviation-sector/).
In conclusion, Ferguson and the opposition operatives must be informed that the investments in aviation made by the PPP/C administration from 2021–2025 surpass those of the APNU-AFC Coalition during 2015–2020 by a considerable margin. The results at the GCAA and the aviation industry are directly linked to these investments.
And indeed, the record speaks for itself, but Annette Ferguson and team are checking the wrong records!
Yours sincerely,
Hon. Deodat Indar, M.P.
Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation