Local Content – The Minister has the power

Aug 19, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – There are two ongoing developments involving the application of Guyana’s Local Content law, which are negatively impacting Guyanese hoping to get their share of our oil wealth. The first has to do with bundling of contracts, and the second is about payment delays for goods and services rendered. This negative impacts from both should not be so, as we pointed out in a recent caption, which states that “Local Content law gives Minister Bharrat the power to regulate bundling and payment delays” (KN August 18). Since the Minister has the power, why is he not using it to benefit Guyanese? What is preventing him from doing so?

Specifically, Section 25 of Guyana’s Local Content legislation under the heading of “Power to make Regulations” says: “The Minister may make regulation for carrying out the purposes of this Act.” Reduced to its simplest terms, standing laws are acts of parliament, from which rules and regulations, and policies and procedures are finalized for implementation and enforcement to make the law come to life. In the context of this nation’s Local Content law, the objectives could not have been more literal, for they are aimed at benefiting the citizens of Guyana to the greatest extent possible. Yet, we have these situations involving bundling of contracts, and delays in payments, which put pressure on Guyanese when there should be none, while the Minister is a study in the motionless, a figure of self-inflicted helplessness.

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, has to know of the problems being experienced by Guyanese with the bundling of contracts, and the glaring disadvantages that such bundling places on Guyanese. He has to have heard the continuing cries of Guyanese citizens, who the Local Content law was created to give an edge, but from which they are still waiting to get the pluses from its presence. Minister Bharrat has it in his hands to preside over the kind of regulations that would compel the unbundling of contracts so that locals are not left out, but are able to participate and profit from their supplying of supporting products and services that are part and parcel of the presence of oil operations. When contracts are bundled to include a range of corporate needs, then micro, small, and medium Guyanese entities have no chance at competing successfully. When contracts are bundled, the playing field is not level at all, and only the bigger company presences are in a position to take advantage of the business coming out of the oil industry.

The Minister must know this, for it does not call for any great wisdom. It is why, therefore, we at this publication call upon him to act with energy and determination to use the authority vested in him by the Local Content law to do what is right by Guyanese consigned to the margins, and with no chance of sharing in any aspect of the rich oil action. Minister Bharrat must indicate in the clearest terms, and sooner rather than later, that he is readying to use the full scope of the powers he has in his hands.

Along the same lines, Minister Bharrat could not have failed to hear, cannot pretend not to know, of the difficulties faced by Guyanese in that endless wait of 90 days to get paid for either the services that they have performed, or the goods that they have delivered.

It is impractical, it is inexcusable, and it is unacceptable that the very people who own this oil are being held to ransom in these cunning ways. Loans are not usually repaid to banks on a 90-day basis, but via a monthly cycle, and it is the same standard for mortgages, salaries, rents, utilities, and similar such things. Any practice that continues to condone this 90-day payment cycle is nothing less than criminal. And both bundling and this 90-day waiting period to get paid should be outlawed. Minister Bharrat holds the keys, so he should not wait any longer, sit on his hands a single day more. Hopeful Guyanese have been hurt, and this has to stop. A start has to be made somewhere, and the proper regulations would be the best place to start immediately.

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