Latest update December 18th, 2024 5:45 AM
Jan 15, 2023 News
Kaieteur News – After months of delay, the Government has promised to deliver an update on the release of large-scale mining contracts on Monday. Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat has also committed to provide an update on the US$7.3B review of oil major ExxonMobil’s expenses.
On Saturday, Bharrat was asked to say whether the audit was completed and to indicate when the mining contracts would be published, as promised by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. The Minister explained that he was out of town and would give details on the issues come Monday.
Prior to Bharrat’s promise to address the issue of the mining contracts, the Minister had given a commitment in December to do so as well, but never delivered.
On December 10, 2022, he was told that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had instructed the media to direct this request to him. His response was “Details will be provided tomorrow.”
On December 19 when this publication reached out again to the Minister, he did not respond.
Another message to his cellphone was ignored on December 21. A reminder was sent again on December 28. That reminder was merely acknowledged but a detailed response regarding the issue did not follow.
Kaieteur News Publisher, Mr. Glenn Lall said he had also texted Bharrat last year but to date, has not received a response.
In the absence of those agreements, Guyana remains in the dark regarding the benefits of the multi-billion sector. The country is not aware of the royalty rates, what percent Guyana is benefitting from and how much of its resource is being extracted by foreign companies.
The Irfaan Ali-led Administration has been repeatedly dodging calls for the release of large mining contracts.
The Government was pressed last year to make public those contracts it has signed with foreign companies but has failed to do so. Kaieteur News, in particular, following the publication of Guyana’s third Extractive Industries Transparency (EITI) report in 2022 has been asking Government officials to make the mining contracts public to no avail.
Since becoming a member of the global body, the report notes that the Government agreed to adhere to several requirements. In this case, EITI requirement 2.4 (a) of the 2019 Standard states that Guyana should publicly disclose all mineral agreements entered into force prior to the reporting period, in this case, 2019. Although the requirements are known to the Administration, it continues to make excuses in avoiding the release of these contracts.
Vice President Jagdeo was asked for a fourth time about the release of the mining contracts at an event at State House in December last year when he decided to distance himself from the request.
“Talk to Vick about that. Vick is more familiar with that. That’s his portfolio,” the VP said. He was referring to Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat. The subject Minister, who was also at the event, was nowhere to be found at the conclusion of the interview with the Vice President. Calls to his cellphone also went unanswered.
Guyana’s third EITI report was issued in June 2022. After it was published, Jagdeo was confronted about the secret deals at a Press Conference held at the Office of the President. Then, he explained that the large-scale mining contracts in Guyana should be made available to the public should a formal request be made to the Freedom of Information Office.
When asked why the contracts were not made public in the first place, Jagdeo told Reporters that “these contracts don’t rest with the President, if you go to GRA [Guyana Revenue Authority] every one of these contracts will be at GRA because they all have duty-free concessions.”
He was adamant as long as a request is made to the Commissioner of Information for one of the mining contracts “and you don’t get it, then that is a different matter”.
Later in August of that year, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo was asked for an update on the release of the mining contracts by Kaieteur News Publisher, Mr. Glenn Lall when the VP again promised to make the contracts public.
Jagdeo said, “I don’t think these agreements should be secret. Right, because the concessions are standard… Many people don’t remember this but the Minister of Finance used to sign every duty-free letter that was when I was there and we changed it. When I became President and even before that, we started moving to change it where all of that, the administering of duty-free concessions would be done by the GRA and not by a political individual and secondly, they would be based on legislation.”
He therefore indicated, “I don’t see the reason why many of these are not in the public domain already. I’ll find out about it.”
The VP later appeared on The Glenn Lall Show, a radio programme aired on Kaieteur Radio, back in September. When questioned about the release of the mining contracts, he said, “You are characterising it as hiding these contracts. For me personally, I don’t see any reason why you should not have these contracts.”
The Kaieteur News Publisher told the Vice President that this response has been repeatedly given to no avail when Jagdeo blamed the agencies. “I don’t have the contracts,” he said.
Lall then asked Jagdeo to ensure the deals are released to which the Vice President replied: “I can undertake to find out with you there, what provision the GRA is so cagey about that it doesn’t want to release… I will undertake that anything that is non- propriety that you get it released. I will personally now see that this happen.”
Dec 18, 2024
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