Make the agreements public!

Nov 08, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Jagdeo should think before he speaks. Instead of opening his mouth and claiming that no laws were broken or no corruption involved, he should ask himself: why should he be believed?
How does he know that no laws were broken or that there was no corruption involved? Did the main actors tell him that? And does he expect to hear anything different from them?
Jagdeo was not President when the deals were signed which handed out the Canje and Kaieteur Blocks. By his own admission, he was travelling around the world speaking about climate change. As someone outside of Cabinet, he would not have been entitled to have access to those agreements. So how did he formulate this idea that no laws were broken or no corruption was involved?
Now that he is Vice President and seemingly with some responsibility for the oil industry – about which he appears completely at wits end – he may have seen the agreements. Would he care to inform the nation therefore as to the identities of those involved?
Did he see the agreements? Can he tell us what he saw?
Is he willing to do like what David Granger did? Make the agreements public now so that the terms can be scrutinized. Is he willing to be transparent or is he of the opinion that the secrecy clauses override the public’s right to know?
If he is certain that no laws were broken or no money was passed under the table, or no government official has a stake in the oil blocks, either directly or indirectly, then he should have no problems in making the agreements public like Granger did with the Production Sharing Agreement between the Government or Guyana and ExxonMobil.
What is the basis of his assessment that no laws were broken? Has he ever heard that the highest law there is, is the moral law? This law compels public officials to act with honour and in the public interest. Well, based on what is being made public that law was violated as a result of the signing of the agreement between the owners of the Canje and Kaieteur Oil Blocks and the Government of Guyana.
Jagdeo must explain whether the agreement provides for Guyana to approve any sale or trading of the rights to those oil blocks. If it does, he should let us know whether any such approval was granted and who granted it. If it does not, then he should let the public know why he feels this was omitted from the agreement.
After what happened with Payara, no one should take seriously anything Jagdeo has to say about oil agreements. The government squandered a golden opportunity to make the oil agreements right. Now Jagdeo wants the nation to believe that from the inception everything done in relation to the law was done when the Canje and Kaieteur Blocks were given away. He can go and tell that to the marines!
Jagdeo has put in his time. He did some good work as President from 1999 to 2011 but some of the most disconcerting agreements, using dubious models, were signed during his time.
If he really wants Irfann Ali to do well, he should do the honourable thing and retire. I do not believe he can add any value to the present government, judging from his recent public comments.
When it comes to climate change, he is living in a bygone world. He always had a blinkered view of climate change. He saw it as an opportunity for Guyana to make money. His entire idea was that the world would pay Guyana for not cutting down his forests. Well, that ship has long sailed without any cargo. The world has abandoned that plan and thereby reduced Jagdeo’s vision to a pipe dream.
Norway was then a major oil polluter. It was described as an environmental hypocrite. But Jagdeo was smitten by them. They used him to buttress their international image. US$250M, which was the sum they dangled in front of Guyana, was ‘chicken feed’ for Norway to have international credibility.
Guyana is going to earn more this year from just the increase in gold prices than it will from oil revenues and what Norway gave us over the years. For US$250M Guyana allowed itself to be put through a misadventure.
The model which the Norwegians forced down Jagdeo’s throat was flawed. It has never been replicated anywhere. It no longer has any value. The agreement he signed with Norway placed Guyana at the mercy and behest of the Norwegians and they exploited it to the hilt. Guyana and Norway were constantly fighting over Norway’s withholding of monies owed to Guyana.
All the talk therefore about low carbon development is an hyperbole. Guyana is now an oil- producing state and Jagdeo has provided no details of the supposed plan to decarbonize the economy. So why should he be believed when it comes to the Canje and Kaieteur Blocks?

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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