Releasing Exxon contract would ensure accountability

Aug 18, 2017 News

– TT Economics Expert

It is the opinion of Trinidadian economics expert, Dr. Roger Hosein, that the contract signed between Guyana and ExxonMobil should be released on the premise that it would ensure accountability.

Dr. Hosein (seated) responding to questions on Wednesday evening.

Hosein expressed his position Wednesday evening during an event organised by the Guyana Oil and Gas Association at the Pegasus Hotel where he was asked to give a lecture on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in Small Oil Producing States”.
During his presentation, Hosein stressed that civil society plays an important role in guiding the transparency process forward. Based on this, the expert was asked how can Guyanese ensure transparency when there is difficulty accessing the contract.
According to Hosein, in this day and age, persons should be allowed to see the contract. He said that the state is acting as the agent on behalf of Guyana in the agreement. As such, Hosein explained that the agent should be instructed by the stakeholders to share the various documents that the state would have engaged on, on behalf of the citizens.
Using Trinidad and Tobago as an example, Dr. Hosein said that when the stakeholders wanted to see the various contracts signed with multinational companies, the country’s Freedom of Information Act was used successfully. He recommended that maybe those persons interested in seeing the Exxon contract can use the same route.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan said yesterday that the contract was signed under the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC). As such, the party’s Chairman said that the then PPP/C government made the contract secret as a result of an amendment made to the Petroleum Act and the way in which the contract itself was crafted.
Ramjattan said that this is an important point which must be understood. He said that during those early days the oil company would have demanded that the contract be made secret, and it was allowed by the PPP/C government.
However, Ramjattan said that it must also be understood that another administration would not go simply wrecking the agreement, since it has implications as to what ExxonMobil can do.
Further, he said that the government of Guyana would like ExxonMobil to proceed with its operations since it would be tremendously valuable for the country. He said that his government has recognised that there is a call from many stakeholders to release the contract.
However, he said that this request is cribbed and confined by the reality of the contract’s history, based on how it was written and the amendment to the law that does not allow for such disclosure.
Also speaking on the issue was AFC Executive Member and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson. He said that when the contract is revealed some time in the future, persons will be very disappointed as to the contents of the document.
He said that the distrusting nature of the public or the inquiring mind of the press, has created the impression that there are secret clauses in the contract. He said that Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman would have already disclosed the reasons why it would not be wise to disclose the contents of the contract now.
According to Patterson, there is the non-disclosure clause and secondly, Guyana is under review as it relates to the Guyana-Venezuela border dispute. He said that based on advice from legal persons and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is not the opportune time to put a contract in the public domain that was signed in 1999, before the review process has started.

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