Chief Inspector to be appointed soon

Jan 27, 2018 News

For over 20 years, a Chief Inspector has not been in place. However, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, has indicated that someone will soon be appointed to that position soon.
On Thursday, the Minister was asked about the vacant position. He said “The government is looking to appoint all of the people needed.”
The Minister said that in the interim, Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Newell Dennison, will be carrying out the functions of the Chief Inspector.
“This has been the case for many years; it has always been so. The GGMC has been given the authority to represent me as Minister in all areas.”
The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that the Government of Guyana signed with ExxonMobil makes several references to duties that are to be carried out by the “Chief Inspector.”
For instance, under Article 21 of the contract, the Chief Inspector has a duty to certify fuel imports by ExxonMobil for the purpose of carrying out petroleum operations. The Chief Inspector is expected to monitor the imports.
Attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram, in his weekly column “Every man, woman and child should be oil-minded” had pointed out that that is the key requirement of the Petroleum Act which has been ignored for at least twenty years.
The Petroleum Act requires that the Minister designate a public officer or any employee of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission as Chief Inspector and such number of public officers or employees of that Commission, as may be considered necessary for the purposes of this Act, as Inspectors. Such appointments are required to be published in the Official Gazette.
Ram had pointed out “the last person who was so appointed was Mr. Brian Sucre who died several years ago.”
Ram said that the seriousness of the failure to appoint a Chief Inspector lies in the fact that the Chief Inspector is the person with direct responsibility for the administration of the sector, to manage the oil companies.
Ram noted that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration did not appoint the Inspector and cannot use as an excuse that oil was not a big deal then.
“After all, thousands of hectares of potentially mineral rich resources offshore were given out to oil companies, which by law should be supervised by the Chief Inspector and inspectors appointed by the Minister.
“The exploration phase is admittedly light on expenditure, but it does give operators exclusive right to carry out prospecting activities in the blocks for which they receive a prospecting licence.”
He said that it is therefore careless in the extreme that even after the establishment of a natural resources ministry, the PPP/C made no such appointment.
“Of course, that gave the Minister extensive influence over the oil operators, which was probably the objective; then came the APNU+AFC Coalition which has also failed to act a full two years after a significant oil discovery with the likelihood of more to come!”
Ram said, “In fairness, it does appear that the Commissioner of the Geology and Mines Commission carries out these functions in the absence of the Chief Inspector. The problem is what if a court matter arises and a litigant challenges the right of the Commissioner to exercise any of the functions or power of the Chief Inspector.”

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