Is Glenn Lall smarter than the PNC and PPP combined?

Jun 29, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I read about former top Government officials on the PNC side and the Government side could not explain the status of the 2% royalty whether it’s a deductible cost to the oil companies or not. Isn’t this pathetic that our leaders don’t know what they signed in the contract? Who is minding the store? Why is it that a private citizen, Mr. Glenn Lall, has to ask these kinds of questions? Isn’t that the job of the Government, their lawyers and accounting people? How is it that Mr. Glenn who did not go to College can ask these smart questions that trip up both the Government, the AG’s Office, and the Opposition. Even the smartest man in Guyana, the VP of oil, could not provide a ready answer. Mr. Glenn surely knows more about the oil deal than our leaders who are supposed to be minding the store. Nation, listen to what Glenn says!

Also, in the Glenn Lall lawsuit on behalf of the people of Guyana challenging the tax provisions in the 2016 Petroleum Agreement whereby oil companies are not actually paying taxes to Guyana, the Attorney General made an application for a one-month extension to file his submission in the tax case. This was followed by a similar request for more time made by the ExxonMobil subsidiary – Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL). The Government and Exxon are on the same side in this case fighting the people represented by Glenn. How will the PPP explain that in 2025 when they ask for your vote?

The application for the extension by the Attorney General made on June 22 provides a number of reasons for the request for time. Among them, the Attorney General noted that Lall’s case raises highly technical and complex questions of tax law (which itself is a highly complex, and specialised area of law) and contract law. Glenn has them all tied up in a legal tizzy. They have to call for back-up help to figure out the tax issues. So, it seems we can trust Mr. Glenn more when he talks about the bad oil contract than we can trust the PPP and PNC – the sellouts. The PPP and PNC are on the same side operating as Public Relations spokesmen for the oil companies defending the bad contract that rapes our country.

Nation, why is the PPP even defending a sellout PNC-signed contract? Do they want Glenn Lall to win or lose? Do they want the people of Guyana – our poor huddled masses – to win or lose? Do they want Exxon to win?

This now raises the question of how did the PNC sign a contract and do not know what the tax provisions mean, whether they are legal or not? Why did the PNC sign that contract without understanding the meaning of the various provisions? Was there duress involved? Who pressured them to sign in a hurry without understanding what they are signing? How could the PNC cabinet do something like that? And if the PPP cares about this sin, why are they not doing a Commission of Inquiry into how this contract got signed, while Mr. Trotman is still available? Why did the PPP not go through the contract with a fine-tooth comb and unearth and fix all the likely illegal clauses such as the Tax Clause, Stability Clause, and the oil companies getting 600 rather than 60 blocks?

Thank you Mr. Glenn and your Attorney Mohamed Ali, for fighting for all the poor, weak, dispossessed masses of Guyana. You are the people’s champion. Your labour of love will not be in vain. Good always triumphs over evil. Continue to hold their feet to the fire. If not you, who; if not now, when? It’s our country and our wealth and we must care! Wake up Guyana!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Jailall