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EITI – Guyana must do better

May 10, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has made its position clear: Guyana must improve (“Govt. urged to do more to educate citizens on resource governance…EITI Secretariat told to demand higher standards of transparency and accountability from Government” -KN May 5). Those are steep issues in a steeper environment, which lead to an outlook that is far from encouraging.
We have a PPP/C Government whose leaders say that they are about transparency and accountability, but that is all that they do. They say that they have no intention of fulfilling in the oil, gas, and other mineral resources sectors. What government leaders deem to be transparency and accountability is not recognised as either in any part of the world that does its business cleanly.
Guyanese have a government that has little patience, less use, for rules and regulations. There are many volumes of official policies and procedures in government quarters, but they suffer from neglect and wither away from cobwebs and mildews. These guiding principles have now been selectively left for reading on the tabletops of waiting areas of government offices; or as material to keep company in the lavatory.
Due to this government’s obstinacy, its slipperiness, relative to implementation and enforcement of what is on the books, as refined and enhanced, there is great risk. The KN story referenced termed it possible “temporary suspension” which is a comforting word, despite its ominous undertones. The more relevant word is what used to be the much-used and much-feared coin of the country called ‘blacklisted.’ Now, that is a rough step, with a usually rougher road ahead, but it is not one that is rashly used, or one to be dismissed airily locally.
It is why the 20-member EITI Board that oversees 55 countries has asked, more like pleaded, with Guyana to get its act together. Among the recommendations is that the government moves with speed and authority to advance what is labelled “a suite of corrective actions.” One of the top ones is to ensure that citizens are enlightened on what goes into proper resource governance. To be frank, we at this publication are of the view that the leaders in the PPP/C Government are more inclined to keep Guyanese in the land of the lost. That is, the less they know about resource governance, the more it suits the government’s visions and ambitions for its tight club of insiders and donors.
Clean and user-friendly documenting and reporting are key components of this kind of governance, which all should be able to sift through and evaluate for themselves. It is not what government sanitises, but what tells the facts about income and contracts, among other vitally necessary elements. Government is also called upon to foster public debate on our extractive industries, which rather regrettably, we believe, is the last thing on the minds of its cunning, secretive leaders. The word from the EITI Board is that whatever occurs, it must be socially inclusive, which is another bone in the throat for PPP/C leaders.
The points and objective of all of this is for Guyana to climb from the dismal place of a “fairly low” overall score in implementing the 2019 EITI Standard, some of which we have already touched upon above. The other one, that is unsaid, is that if Guyana keeps going down the road that it has chosen, then there is the high risk of the hammer coming down hard. No matter how well we look at where matters are today with the local EITI, it must be said that this government has backed itself into a corner, and in more than one place.
The PPP/C Government ousted the local EITI head for the most vexatious of reasons, and replaced him with someone unmentionable. It is the best that we can do with what happened, with what leads the way forward. With such a head, and such intimate closeness to ruling politicians, there will hardly be any “demand” for transparency and accountability from government. And given this understanding headman, those monied donors to ruling party coffers who passionately detest most rules will flourish with winks, nods, and friendly handshakes. The stage is thus set for worse, not better.

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