Op-Ed: Guyana’s political opposition is asleep at the wheel on oil

Dec 21, 2020 News

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“Sadly, our political opposition for the last four months has demonstrated that not only is it solely dependent on the media to spoon-feed it with the issues of the day, but it also appears to suffer from an unbelievable measure of shortsightedness.”

By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – Very few countries can profess that they have been able to change the lives of their citizens with the wealth accrued from oil and gas discoveries. In fact, many countries, like our CARICOM sister, Trinidad and Tobago and our continental neighbour Venezuela, are prime examples of how oil can leave a country in economic shambles when they fail to manage these resources prudently. In other cases, countries have seen more than half of their population plunged into extreme poverty, while the family and friends of the administration of the day revel in the billions of dollars they’ve stolen from its people.

In many of these cases which have been reviewed and published by Kaieteur News, there are some easily identifiable patterns which can be used as a blue print to ascertain if a new oil producing state like Guyana may be susceptible to the same fate. Some of these include weak procurement systems; the failure to bring on board modern legislation and policies for the sector; the absence of independent and experienced technical staff being appointed to key regulatory positions; the failure to renegotiate contracts to ensure adequate protection from the abusive tactics of oil companies and to ensure the country gets fair compensation for the exploitation of its resources; weak auditing capacities; and absence of transparent and accountable reporting on field production as well as how the resources are being monitored. Guyana has checked all of these boxes. And even though it has been told to address these issues before oil production, the country is nowhere near where it ought to be to effectively regulate the sector and protect the interests of its citizens.
Indeed, one would think that the political opposition, which served one term in office, would be fully acquainted with these challenges and would therefore be championing, once a week at the very least, for these matters to be addressed. Instead of having an opposition that is hammering the new government to get critical oil and gas matters handled, the APNU+AFC remains quite frankly, asleep at the wheel. This was the same posture it held while in office on the oil and gas sector.
Our political opposition has for the last four months sadly demonstrated that not only is it solely dependent on the media to spoon-feed it with the issues of the day, but it also appears to suffer from an unbelievable measure of shortsightedness. Since August to now, the political opposition has been stuck on one particular set of issues which it intends to hold the government accountable on… and that is only when they are asked by the media to do so. These issues include the audit of the expenses incurred by ExxonMobil in the Stabroek Block, management of the Natural Resource Fund, ensuring local content is addressed, and keeping an eye on environmental issues like flaring and the dumping of produced water.
While these matters are critical, the political opposition has failed to add anything new to the conversation nor has it maintained a relentless campaign for change on these matters. More importantly, these issues which the APNU+AFC continuously regurgitates during media briefings, are not even a fraction of the many issues it should also lend its attention to. We have yet to hear the opposition’s views and plans to address the fact that Guyana is without the appropriate technology offshore to monitor the measurement of oil remotely; a roadmap to use a portion of the oil money to build sustainable industries; benchmarks for Corporate Social Responsibility for oil companies; a Depletion Policy; a Decommissioning Policy; the strengthening of key auditing agencies, specifically the Office of the Auditor General, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and the Ministry of Health; Guyana’s capacity to monitor and record emissions offshore, particularly in the case of the Environmental Protection Agency; the modernization of policies/laws/regulations; to address issues of ring-fencing, transfer pricing (and other financial loopholes/issues), health and safety of workers, monitoring of the environment (regarding issues such as flaring and stiffer penalties for such infractions), pre-qualification criteria for oil blocks, etc.
There is also a plethora of weaknesses which agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank, have pointed out as critical to fixing if Guyana intends to be a competent regulator for the oil sector.
The political opposition, like Kaieteur News, had and continues to have access to the detailed reports of these institutions, yet it continues to be dependent on being spoon-fed by the media on matters that are of importance. When will the political opposition bring an end to the apathetic approach it is taking on monitoring the government’s handling of the oil sector? How does it intend to prove to the nation that it is capable or worthy of being considered a holder of office when it displays such an abhorrent lack of interest in doing its part to ensure oil is not a curse for Guyana? When will the political opposition awaken from its slumber at the wheel?

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