Our professionals and academics have to take up the challenge

Sep 15, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Patrick Davis (KN 09/14/18) takes it upon himself to deride Jan Mangal’s efforts to ensure that Guyana’s oil resources receive the appropriate international expert supervision necessary to secure the best returns from these resources.
Jan Mangal stands as probably one of only two Guyanese who are qualified, with international experience in the oil and gas industry, who have joined the public discourse on the coalition’s inept handling of virtually all aspects of our emerging Oil and Gas Sector.
As recent as Sept 13, for example, Granger was firmly convinced that moving ahead with efforts to establish an Energy Ministry, after all these years, is premature. The man and his administration are obviously not aware that one of the reasons for the underperformance of our economy is a lack of cheap, stable energy supply.
What more does the coalition administration have to do to convince Guyanese that they are clueless about our priorities as these relate to creating and maintaining an environment to facilitate the utilization of probably hundreds of billions of dollars in underutilized resources, much less those pushing to come on stream to meet our changing economic landscape?
Do these folks understand ‘environment’ used in this context?
GRA would in all honesty admit that the audit of Exxon’s financial affairs be best conducted by international experts in the field, but Government has the responsibility of deciding that this indeed is the best approach.
One gets the impression that Exxon is digging a well every hundred yards or so from the previous one. One of the things that Exxon could do is state unequivocally that all of these nine or twelve wells are indeed from separate, independent oil reserves and not from one large oil reserve table.
All of these ‘wells’ drastically alter the cost of bringing oil to the surface and obviously impacts on Guyana’s returns. We need to understand that Exxon has been in the business of buying and conning governments, probably much longer than Guyana has been an independent state.
There is definitely a need for the tapping international expertise in the field, preferably from more than one firm or independent consultant, with no underhand ‘hanky panky’ relationships with Exxon.
Our future seems to be unfolding before us at an increasing rate as we continue to labor under the incompetence offered by our recent administrations. I wish to reiterate that fixing our future requires putting the right persons in the right places, more precisely, in government. It took us 24 years, with much international assistance, and at much economic cost, to rid ourselves of the earlier incompetent, election-rigging PNC administration.
Some of those in positions of power then who may have been instrumental in rigging elections then, now hold much higher offices in the current administration. It took us another 23 years to realize that the PPP administration under Jagdeo had made Guyana its personal fiefdom and had ingrained corruption within its administration to such an extent that many of its own supporters were pulverized by their government.
These are definitely folks we don’t want running our affairs post 2020.
The coalition administration has done an excellent job of smashing whatever hopes Indian Guyanese might have had of getting fair treatment under its government. As of December last year, administration has lost the confidence also of both the population and business community regarding its intentions at the next general elections.
The PNC record is not one any Guyanese could seriously consider in providing a ‘fit and proper’ government, post-2020, and the coalition administration’s likelihood of winning a second term fairly seems clearly out the window.
Respectfully,
Craig Sylvester,
Democratic National Congress.

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