THE APNU+AFC HAS BETRAYED US

Dec 16, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Everywhere you go in Guyana, people openly talk of how royally APNU+AFC shafted Guyana, with the Oil and Gas story being just another example of the daily shafting Guyanese get from their own government. The other day I highlighted that one of the major election issues is SUGAR. The PPP is on the side of reopening sugar estates and continue with SUGAR as a major part of the economy. The other political parties, including APNU+AFC is on the side of ending SUGAR. A clear line has been drawn. But another equally important, prominent election issue is how APNU+AFC has victimised and shafted Guyana by giving away Guyana’s considerable OIL and GAS resources to EXXON and Tullow.
Every day, Guyanese are being conned, cheated, bamboozled when it comes to our Oil and Gas Resources. One newspaper columnists, Peeping Tom, said it right, Guyanese are being shafted by their own government. The vast majority of Guyanese get up every morning, go to bed every evening, feeling royally shafted by their government. It is the reason why the Guyanese people lost confidence in Granger and his APNU+AFC band of charlatans. This same band told Guyanese before the May 2015 elections the PPP lied that EXXON found Oil and that a new Oil and Gas industry will add to Guyana’s economic platform and bring prosperity. Yet, APNU+AFC has spent almost five years telling people that OIL prosperity is just around the corner.
APNU+AFC did not tell Guyanese we are being shafted with all EXXON’s expenses, real or fake, even before the first barrel of Oil is produced. We are told now that Guyana already owes EXXON US$10B and that Guyana must begin paying back EXXON from the get go. And this US$10B is only the expense so far. We have no idea if this is an honest account of what they spent so far and our government made no serious effort to determine if the US$10B is real or an inflated account. We also have no idea how much more will be imposed on us before first oil is produced. We have to begin payment of this accrued expense with the first barrels that are produced. Each year, after current expenses are deducted, 75% of the remaining revenues will have to go towards paying back EXXON for the accrued expenses. It is only then that profits will be calculated, meaning our share of profits become vastly diminished. If the global Oil price drops to US$50 per barrel, Guyana might see little to nothing in the first few years. Do you see why the vast majority of Guyanese agree we have been royally shafted?
Even as first Oil is days away, Guyanese now realize we have been royally shafted. We are now told that even if EXXON cheats on their accounting, inflating their expenses, they cannot be penalized. APNU+AFC has paid little attention to the forensic audit of EXXON’s expenses. But the PPP is vowing to hold EXXON accountable. Bharrat Jagdeo at his recent media-conference made it clear the expense bills that EXXON and other Oil companies have submitted so far and those that will be submitted in the future must be thoroughly examined before any payments are made and false submissions will be penalised in accordance with the laws of Guyana.
The royal shafting is worse than anyone could imagine. Even though this is already a shameless and repugnant story, it is just a small part of the shafting. EXXON now announces the first three-hundred thousand barrels will be kept on the drilling platform to help stabilize it. Every turn, we see that Guyana’s miniscule share is being eaten into. Already, we know that Guyana will only have a 2% royalty from EXXON (it is even worse, being 1%, with Tullow), compared to 5 to 30% EXXON has with other oil-producing countries. Guyana is now officially the country with the lowest royalty agreement in the world, even though we are the newest Oil-producing country. We did not learn from the others. Talk about being royally shafted.
We are even being shafted with our profits. Initially, Guyanese were told, we would get 50% of the profits after royalty were shared and after current and pre-production expenses were deducted. The current and pre-production expenses before profit is determined will be allowed for up to 75% of the total revenue earnings. After that Guyana gets 50% of anything determined to be profits. Given, that Guyana must also pay all the accrued taxes, both company and income taxes and other taxes, like VAT, Guyana’s share is not really 50%. It is more like 34%. It is even less than that when the duty-free losses we will suffer is taken into consideration.
It is terrifying enough that the Granger-led APNU+AFC has unabashedly abused the constitution and rendered Guyana a dictatorship. Adding salt to Guyana’s painful wounds is the combination of corruption, incompetence and cluelessness. Every single day, we see the utter depravity of APNU+AFC. Every single APNU+AFC official has become involved in small and big corrupt transactions. Their incompetence is unimaginable. How do you sign a contract and not make provisions for, first, forensic auditing of EXXON’s expenses, and, second, to penalize them for false accounting? The cost of auditing them is also a Guyana cost. This falls under both the corruption and incompetence rubric. APNU+AFC is shameless, totally irredeemable, totally devoid of principle. Elections March 2020 is about whether we will allow APNU+AFC to continue shafting us or not.

Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

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