Wales gas-to-energy contracts

Feb 17, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Though Guyana’s President Ali has made promises before and then burned through the trust placed in him when he failed to deliver, we will continue to trust him to make good on his latest promise. During his keynote address at Guyana’s second International Energy Conference and Expo 2023, President Ali seized the moment to emphasise that there will be total transparency with the Wales Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project. That is, all the contracts pertaining to the US$2B project will be made public. Though the President did add the qualifier of at the “appropriate time”, it is our hope that time will be sooner than later.

The exact words of Guyana’s President to the assembled delegates read well, “have no mistake, every single contract under this project will be made publicly available, [and] we have been speaking about it at the appropriate time.” This is favorably received, and we look forward to that time when the full contract details, all of them for every contract, will be in the public domain. It is music that we have been waiting for a long time to hear, and on this newest presidential commitment, we hope that there will be no need to differ and part company with the nation’s leader, and the PPPC Government.

Projects of this nature simply cannot be left unaddressed, and in the hands of politicians alone. Not with the kind of costs attached to them, the history of our huge capital projects, and the great expectations stirring in the hearts of Guyanese for what it could mean to their standard of living. Plans, projects, and programmes that involve huge expenditures in the name of Guyanese taxpayers should not be State secrets. The people must operate on, have a right to, a need-to-know basis with projects like these.

Also, we are heartened by some other words uttered by President Ali at the Energy Conference. He said that, “You are not living in an environment and operating in an environment of amateurs.” It is good to hear that from our President, and as much as it pains us, we have to remind him that for the longest while, what Guyanese have lived with is an environment that is worse than that of “amateurs.” We are willing to let that be a thing of the past, which does little in continual dredging up, leads nowhere. We will take President Ali at his word, in the belief that he is serious and sincere on this one also. It would be to Guyana’s everlasting benefit if the practices and paltriness of amateurs are behind us, and we can as a government and people break new ground that is professional, on the table, and open for scrutiny and fair comment by all Guyanese. We must do our best, work tirelessly against any human or other forces that think otherwise, to ensure that the chronic secrecies that plague this country are a thing of the past.

As the President should know, we have been asking, pressing, waiting, and then begging some more for the contracts and other details of the GTE project to be made public. There is appreciation that this project has many branches and sources, and that some of them are still in the formative stage, meaning that many key details have not been finalised. These include terms and conditions, with a view to project finances, which it is our position belongs in the public domain. From his clear and unambiguous words, it is clear that Guyana’s leader shares the same positions as ours, and we are delighted that there can be agreement with this.

To make matters on this Wales GTE still more illuminating, President Ali then went on to strike this high note: “Let me make this very clear that [the project will] meet every aspect of international scrutiny and transparency.” We at this publication are going to go out on a limb, and invest our confidence in the President that he means every word that he has said on the GTE project, and that the proof will be forthcoming at the “appropriate time.” If President Ali only delivers in part, then a start towards a different place would have been made.

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Editorial, gas-to-energy, GTE project, International Energy Conference and Expo 2023, Wales

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