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Govt. looking to train 400 young Guyanese regulators for oil sector – Jagdeo
Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo
Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo revealed last night on Kaieteur Radio’s Guyana’s Oil & You that he intends for Guyana to move toward developing a base of at least 400 young Guyanese regulators for Guyana’s oil and gas sector.
The discussion at that point had focused on the ability and capacity of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to sufficiently ensure ExxonMobil does what is necessary to protect Guyana’s natural environment.
Jagdeo agreed that the EPA needs enhanced capacity, but he said that such enhancements are to be made across the board.
He reminded that the Government intends to move toward a Petroleum Commission, to ensure the regulation of the sector is handled by technocrats, “so you have less ministerial political involvement.”
“Then, in the ministry itself,” he said, “you need to have policy capabilities, a whole range. Enforcement, compliance capabilities, auditing capabilities so that they can manage effectively these contracts and the sector, and we would like eventually to create a core of Guyanese managers, to put them on scholarships, train them, and we believe the company must share this cost with us.”
Presently, the Stabroek Block agreement requires ExxonMobil to give Guyana US$300,000 a year for the purpose of training Guyanese for the sector. It is an amount that has been described as a pittance, and Jagdeo agrees.
“$300,000 is not adequate for this sort of thing, for training in Guyana,” he said.
“They must provide enough funds for Guyana to build a great capacity, its own capacity to monitor the sector, and this would be good for them, because then, they’d have a core of professionals. You know, sometimes, if people don’t know about the sectors, they can be a bit unreasonable.”
He explained that it would be in the company’s interest as well, to contribute substantially to development of local competence because, “in the long run, it helps them to have qualified regulators.”
There will not be a substantial amount in the upcoming budget to handle such training, Jagdeo revealed. However, he said that the government would look at raising grants and loans from its partners.
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