Jagdeo should address legitimate questions, not attack Kaieteur News – Chris Ram

Mar 08, 2023 News

---

Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, the designated spokesperson on Guyana’s oil and gas sector, has not been hosting regular press briefings to update the public on important developments in the industry and management of state affairs.

This, according to Attorney-at-Law and Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram is a threat to citizens’ right to information and the essence of good governance.

In an invited comment, following the VP’s first press conference for the year on Friday, Ram expressed disappointment at Jagdeo’s visceral reaction to the queries raised by Kaieteur News. The Attorney said Jagdeo gave irrational responses to legitimate questions and displayed total disregard for the right of the press to ask piercing and even embarrassing questions.

During his interaction with the press at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Jagdeo did not engage the media on the petroleum sector, except while giving an update on his recent travels to India. When this newspaper raised questions regarding the oil and gas sector, the VP became visibly annoyed and began attacking the credibility of the newspaper.

Publisher, Mr. Glenn Lall was the first to raise a number of questions regarding more benefits on future projects in Stabroek Block and whether government will be capping the interest rate on investments being made in the Stabroek Block by ExxonMobil. He also asked Jagdeo to kindly indicate the interest rate Guyana is paying on the oil company’s investment to date which stands at approximately US$40 billion, and if ring-fencing would be included. More importantly, he enquired about adequate insurance for Guyana and the Region.

Jagdeo reacted angrily, saying plainly that he would not answer some of his questions as he had previously addressed them. The leader then went on a tirade asking “Why this crocodile tears now? What about 100 years ago? Where were you when Trinidad was pumping oil all the time? Were you worried about Trinidad…for 100 years Trinidad has been producing gas and oil smaller in quantities and nobody were worried about that, suddenly Guyana in Guyana’s case? We have dealt with all of this convenient ‘holier-than-thou’ high horse attitude, it’s pure nonsense, utter nonsense.”

Kaieteur News’ Senior Journalist, Kiana Wilburg also asked the VP about the cost recovery statements Exxon submits to the government on a quarterly basis, specifically whether these can be shared with the public.

He said, “A lot of this is proprietary but, in this environment, and with an organization like Kaieteur News, I would never want to release that because they will nitpick, they will take one word out of it and create a story and lie about it.”

The official also said there are some standard practices in the hydrocarbon industry while noting that the release of such statements is not one of them. He said, “In no country in the world, you would not find intermediate reports being released to the media. You show me a country that is doing this where oil operations are concerned, and we will do it.”

The question from Kaieteur News on how the country would manage to repay US$106 million annually should any event render the facility inoperable, seemed to further enrage the VP, whose emotional response was to ask: “Can we get out of this morbidity, is Kaieteur News a morbid? Imagine we must not build the power plant because we might have an explosion there. This is in effect what you are saying…which government starts off by… anywhere in the world… by saying that oh we are not going to pursue a development, or we are gonna make mitigating plans to pay back a facility if we have an explosion?”

The Vice President then went into detail to regurgitate the benefits of the project, insisting that once operational, some 300 megawatts of electricity will be available to the national grid.

In this regard, Ram who is also a member of a civil society body that advocates for good governance reasoned, “To ask Lall what he and others did or did not do 100 years ago makes no sense because neither Lall nor Jagdeo nor indeed anyone one else was around 100 years ago, and decades before LCDS [the Low Carbon Development Strategy], EITI [Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative] or COP 1 [Conference of the Parties], let alone COP 26.”

He was keen to point out, “Jagdeo should address legitimate questions, not attack patriotic, honest and committed Guyanese.”

More importantly, Ram said Jagdeo must remember that the Government is not the owner, but merely the custodian of information gathered by, or in the case of oil contracts, supplied to the Government of Guyana.

“The suggestion that the VP can decide what information is made available to the public is a dangerous proposition that flies in the face not only of EITI and transparency but of the whole concept of responsible and open government. Unless this attitude is checked, Guyana will find that it is no longer deserving of EITI membership,” the Attorney cautioned.

Recalling the occasion 12 years ago when Jagdeo refused to answer questions from him on his Government’s stewardship of the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) fiasco, which cost policy holders and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) billions of dollars in losses, Ram expressed disappointment that with substantially more at stake now than then, Jagdeo’s attitude has not changed when challenged.

As a final comment, Ram noted that Jagdeo and Exxon now sing from the same song sheet, at the expense of accountability, transparency and disclosure.

Meanwhile, the Publisher of this newspaper also had some comments about Jagdeo’s posture during his Friday press conference. Lall said, “I asked him about the three gold companies larger than Omai coming to Guyana that may already be here and what was granted to them as well as the interest rates when he told me he addressed this already but to date Guyana is yet to know whether he will cap it and tell us what are the interest rates we are currently paying.”

The businessman said it is time Jagdeo stops playing games and come clean with Guyanese on the management of its natural resources and wealth.

---

• Chris Ram, Jagdeo, legitimate, Press Conference, questions

---