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Non-disclosure of negotiation details costs Trinidad 75 percent of its national debt
– Only recovered US$157M of pilfered US$17B
When Governments fail to be transparent about the decisions they make and deals that are signed with oil and gas operators, they can be taken for a royal ride that leaves the country losing billions of dollars in revenue.
Energy, Strategy Advisor Anthony Paul
This is the case with Guyana’s CARICOM sister, Trinidad and Tobago.
During a recent interview on Kaieteur Radio’s Programme, Guyana’s Oil and You, Energy Advisor, Mr. Anthony Paul explained that his country was “taken to the cleaners” due to the government’s failure to be transparent with the people as well as its trust in the companies to market the country’s resource in a fair and honest manner.
But when an audit was done, Trinidad found that it was being robbed by the billions of dollars. In fact, the country lost US$17B.
But what occurred after this came to the fore is an even more saddening story, says Paul.
The Trinidadian said, “…In 2010, our Prime Minister went to London to meet with the companies (about the taxes owed on the sale of our gas). And instead of coming back with what we thought we were owed, which was billions of dollars in taxes, he came back smiling with a cheque for US$157M…”
Paul said that interestingly, the Prime Minister stated that the companies convinced him that based on the formula set out in the contract, that is what they should pay. But the Energy Advisor was keen to note that Trinidad’s law stipulates otherwise.
The Energy Advisor said, “The law supersedes the contract and the law says that you will pay the price in the contract if it (gas) goes to the market in which you are contracted in but if it goes elsewhere then you have to pay the world market price.”
Paul intimated that if the nation was kept abreast of the decisions the government was making every step of the way about its resources, then the foregoing situation could have been averted.
But in the absence of accountability or transparency, Paul noted that three-quarters of the country’s national debt, that is, US$17B, was given away.
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