Govt. uses World Bank loan to access oil and gas articles, journals and books

Jan 06, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) Administration has utilized a portion of the US$20M World Bank loan to improve its access to reading materials on the oil and gas sector.

According to documents published by the financial institution, US$32,194.86 was used to hire vLex Justis Limited of the United Kingdom, to supply legal software for Guyana’s oil and gas sector. This is expected to allow more efficient legal representation through access to up-to-date oil and gas articles, journals and books. The two-year contract was signed on August 24, 2022.

According to its website, vLex brings together thousands of data sources from around the world to offer its customers authoritative and up-to-date legal content. It is also the exclusive provider of Irwin Law books online, the first service to receive Supreme Court cases from Ireland, and the only provider of Caribbean case law from CariLaw. It also houses some of the world’s largest collections of legal information, all on a single service. With the world’s largest collections of legal information, covering over 100 countries, on a single service, vLex describes itself as being the world’s leading legal information discovery service.

Kaieteur News had previously reported that the US$20M loan was approved on March 29, 2019 for the Guyana Petroleum Resources Governance and Management Project (GPRGMP). The programme’s objective is to ensure the enhancement of legal and institutional frameworks, and the strengthening of the capacity of key institutions to manage the oil and gas sector.

A Financing Agreement in the amount of US$20M was signed and declared effective on April 11, 2019 under the David Granger administration. Kaieteur News understands that the project has four components.

The first component deals with the enhancement of legal framework and stakeholder engagement. It aims to support the update of Guyana’s legal and regulatory frameworks for the governance and oversight of the sector as well as support stakeholder engagement and transparency. This component includes two sub-components: update of the legal and regulatory frameworks for the sector, and support stakeholder engagement and transparency.

The second component on the capacity building of key institutions includes four sub-components: support immediate technical needs at key institutions with responsibility for oil and gas, support critical training needs at key institutions with responsibility for the sector, build up petroleum data management, and strengthen environmental and social management.

The third component is the enhancement of fiscal management.

Finally, the fourth component gives proper management and coordination of all project activities financed under the project. More specifically, it provides support and builds the Government’s systems for procurement and financial management, while allowing for the implementation of safeguards for proper management, monitoring.