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APNU+AFC may have obstructed SARA’s probe into Canje, Kaieteur awards – Global Witness report
Kaieteur News – The A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government may have deliberately stonewalled the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) in its probe of the awards of the Kaieteur and Canje Oil Blocks in the weeks leading up to the 2015 General and Regional Elections.
In a February 2020 report titled Signed Away, Global Witness stated, “According to a source close to the government, one reason why SARA has not been effective is because some officials may have stonewalled investigators’ record requests.”
The investigation started in May of 2018. Two years later, SARA has nothing to show for it. While in office, APNU+AFC was in the best position to assist the State investigator to complete the investigation with haste. Yet, even now, its leading officials claim not to know who the true beneficiaries are of the suspicious giveaways.
During an October 2 virtual conference, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon claimed that he did not know who the real owners of the Canje and Kaieteur Blocks are. He had said that he has some information on the matter, but that he did not want to put out information into the public, which was unverified, as he said this is information, which he received from someone overseas who reached out to him.
The Coalition had no need to rely on outside sources to close this case, as the two oil blocks changed hands several times under its tenure. As the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) should have done when it awarded the blocks, every time the blocks changed hands, the Coalition was in a position to determine who the beneficiaries are. The government has to know the hands, which the stakes are leaving, and the hands to which they will go.
Harmon only offered that he would endeavour to find out the information and to relay questions about the matter to the Coalition’s Members of Parliament who carry the portfolio of oil & gas.
The Kaieteur Block was initially split 50/50 by Ratio Energy and Ratio Guyana (owned by the Israeli company, Ratio Petroleum) on April 28, 2015. As of today, the Kaieteur Block is split among four companies: ExxonMobil (35 percent), Ratio Guyana (25 percent), Cataleya (25 percent) and Hess (15 percent).
The Canje Block was awarded to Mid Atlantic on March 4, 2015. Currently, four companies have stakes in the Canje Block: ExxonMobil (35 percent), Total (35 percent), JHI Associates (17.5 percent) and Mid-Atlantic (12.5 percent).
The Coalition has had its own controversy to deal with, given that its Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman also raised suspicion for signing a lopsided contract with ExxonMobil while on a luxurious trip, which the company paid for, to its Texas headquarters. Both major parties’ stewardship of the petroleum sector has been marked by global standard corruption red flags.
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