Pres. Ali Jagdeo differ on release of mining contracts

Jan 18, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Head of State and Vice President (VP) are not on the same page when it comes to the release of large scale mining contracts.

While VP Jagdeo publicly committed to the release of the agreements during an appearance on a Kaieteur Radio Programme, President Irfaan Ali, who repeatedly says his Government is transparent, said he will explore whether this is a possibility.

On the sidelines of a media engagement on Tuesday at State House, President Ali was asked by a Kaieteur News Reporter when the Government will be releasing the mining contracts given the numbers promises made to do so.

He replied: “The Government is transparent (but) transparency does not mean that there is no confidentiality in anything. What I am saying is the contracts in the mining sector and those contracts that exist that you want to be released and those are things that the sector has to examine.”

The Head of State said that was not given a brief so he is not aware of what confidentiality agreements are embedded in the contracts. Furthermore, Ali accused the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition Government of being in office for five years but failed to release the mining contracts.

“Why weren’t the contracts released? I’m sure the contracts were examined and there were no questions asked in relation to those contracts so I don’t know. I have to find out what are the conditions governing those contracts,” he said.

In the absence of those agreements, Guyana remains in the dark regarding the benefits of the multi-billion dollar sector. The country is unaware 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 including EITI requirement 2.4 (a) of the 2019 Standard which 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 by Kaieteur News about the release of the mining contracts at an event held at State House in December 2022 but he distanced 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 cell phone 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 Commissioner of Information’s 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.”

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.”

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• agreements, confidentiality, contracts, Mining, Transparency

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