GCCI preaches local content but fails to question Exxon on its performance

May 30, 2019 News

By Kiana Wilburg

The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) professes to be an advocate for ensuring locals are given priority in the oil sector. On several occasions, it has even called for there to be a policy that ensures Guyanese benefit the most from the industry. Yet, it has not

GCCI President, Nicholas Boyer

asked ExxonMobil, a member of the Chamber, about the details of its local content performance to date.
Further to this, it has never asked ExxonMobil for information to ascertain the extent to which its other members are able to access jobs from Exxon and its prime contractors.
This came to the fore yesterday after Kaieteur News posed several questions at a press conference that was held by the Chamber at its office located on Waterloo Street.
Chamber President Nicholas Boyer took several minutes to elaborate on the need for a Local Content Policy and an effective regulatory environment for the sector. Given his personal stance, as well as the Chamber’s unwavering position on the issue, Boyer was asked to disclose how many of his members are registered with Exxon’s Centre for Local Business Development on South Road, as well as how many of the Chamber members benefitted from contracts.
This was asked to determine if the Chamber is aware of the extent to which the absence of a policy was affecting its members from accessing jobs in the industry. But Boyer admitted that he does not have this information. He committed however to getting this data at a later date for the media.
Further to this, Boyer was reminded of the criticisms ExxonMobil faced regarding an aspect of its local content report which was made public last year. The company had listed several utility companies, restaurants, markets and taxi services, as beneficiaries of its local content efforts. Challenged to say if it has asked Exxon or the Energy Department to see if there has been a reporting improvement, Boyer once again, answered in the negative.
The GCCI President said, “We are probably guilty in terms of needing to do more of the research, because let’s be fair, Exxon will measure local content on their terms. If we want to see better reporting, that is on us…I would not blame Exxon. I would blame us…So if our Department of Energy wants to measure local content, we need to have our definition and metrics in order which we would ask them to use when reporting.”
He added, “The old report is their local spending and I blame the Department of Energy for not doing more. If I were running the department , I would have engaged with the operators, probably created a local content commission, ask for a certain type of reporting, do my own study that I own as the department …and see where the gaps were… So, I don’t fault the operator. It is on us.”
Boyer acknowledged that while ExxonMobil is a Chamber member, and it was not approached on such issues, he will do so going forward. He said that both Exxon and the Energy Department would be written to for discussions on the issue.
He reminded however that ExxonMobil is not obligated to provide the information to the Chamber. Boyer said that the government has far more latitude on this front, since the deal it signed with the operator specifically calls for annual local content reports.
In light of the fact that a number of oil companies are now GCCI members, Boyer told Kaieteur News that the Chamber will definitely ensure it calls for transparency and accountability in the new members’ operations.

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