If Guyana’s Constitution was violated, people must pay

Dec 17, 2022 Features / Columnists, Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
If Guyana’s Constitution stipulates one company can only receive 60 oil blocks, how can Exxon get 600? How can this be? Guyana’s Constitution also stipulates one company can own a maximum of one third of the oil interest, but Exxon got 45% and Hess Corp got 30% making it 75% for these two, this too has violated the constitution as Hess is an arm’s length partner of Exxon.
This means the Constitution was violated or secretly amended to facilitate this violation, if amended we should know the signature of the elected officials. If such violation did occur, this goes beyond the oil contract, as the oil companies and the Govt. signed the contract. Violation of a country’s Constitution is a very serious offence. If this was done, then there are grounds to charge and indict all those involved, oil companies’ executives and everyone from Guyana who took part in this criminal act, even if they are abroad and this can extend to third parties who benefitted.

There is also conflict of interest, if elected officials have themselves, or arm’s length families and relatives having interest in the oil and other resource operations and benefit from decisions made by these elected officials in an official capacity then this a criminal offence.
Then there is also collusion, if it can be established that elected officials colluded with foreign interest to mislead and defraud Guyana, this too is a criminal offence. There is also Constitutional violation of Guyana’s environment laws as oil and related projects continue to forge ahead in Guyana, with no protective measures as required. If Exxon is pumping more than the standard depletion rate of the oil, this will destabilize the ocean floor with risks of underwater earthquakes followed by tsunamis, also this will make the wells bigger, wider and deeper; and harder and more expensive to close after drilling, the oil companies will not be footing this bill, guess who will? The oil companies bemoan how people are objecting to the oil operations, the Attorney General laments people are filing lawsuits and the VP and others, complain they are sick and tired of getting questions on the oil sector, what is wrong with you people? You actually think Guyanese would be blindly robbed and everyone would accept this? Are we supposed to believe the oil companies, which were convicted for fraud, tax evasion, environmental violations, collusion, bribery etc? And Mr. VP all people are asking you to do is represent your own words on renegotiation and transparency.
Stop saying you’re not the GPO and publish the mining contracts, great leaders admit when they don’t know something and listen to competent voices rather than stonewalling, do the right thing Mr. VP. Don’t run to PPP strongholds for sanctity when being questioned on the oil sector, just be honest and be done with this secrecy and hiding information that the public who are owners of Guyana have the right to know. I can’t but if there is anyone out there to check if Guyana’s constitution was violated or amended to facilitate the crimes on this country, shake this tree so we can see what skeletons fall out.
Sincerely,
R. David