New draft PSA recommendations

Apr 14, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali has given assurance that comments, concerns, and recommendations relative to the new draft Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) will be addressed publicly. This is good news, but only when one condition is fully satisfied. That is, what the Guyanese people say is given fair, clean, and full consideration.

When questioned on the draft PSA, President Ali had this to say during his visit to Leonora: “Definitely. When they collate all the comments and so… definitely. I’m sure that you will be updated on some of the issues that were raised and how we are addressing it…Even if there are issues that we feel differently about we say that.”

In normal circumstances, this should be sufficient and comforting, especially given that it is coming from the national leader, and on something as massive as our oil wealth. The problem is that when President Ali signals that matters will be addressed, he later finds ways either to walk them back, or to deliver what does not even scratch the surface of the issues raised.

We will be frank, and assert that President Ali has failed to inspire confidence that his words and postures can be relied upon, because he means what he says. Because his actions that come later have not reinforced, in the broadest, most persuasive fashion, the things he committed to, said will happen. To make matters more unpalatable, Guyana’s President has repeatedly let us down by failing to deliver on his words on things that are of the most importance to Guyanese, to wit, our national patrimony in its various ingredients. President Ali has waffled and wiggled, with oil and other natural resource components, only for all those actions that he believes give him an ‘out’ and bringing disappointment about the leader that he could be.

The President promised transparency from the earliest days with national power in his hands. We point to oil, and note all the secrecy with studies, and of which the gas to shore stands as a prime example. We continue with oil, and ask about audit reports for the Liza 1 and 2 projects, and wonder about the reasons why the US$7.3 billion audit report on ExxonMobil’s expenses is the source of so many extensions, no publicizing. We go beyond oil, and point to the mining contracts repeatedly promised to be made public, only for them to be hidden, and Guyanese made into fools, again and again.

Using these important aspects of our natural resource treasures as precedents, and pointing to what the President and his Government promised versus what actually occurred, we have no choice but to take with a pinch of salt, this latest Presidential promise about the recommendations in the new draft PSA received being addressed publicly. Indeed, we have no doubt that it will be so, but it is what could be involved in “updated on…the issues” and “how we are addressing it” (sic). As is said, the devil is in the details, for “updated” and “how we are addressing” can be the old song and dance of the PPPC Government sharing a little, but withholding the substances of what the Guyanese people really should know. All Guyanese should recall how commitments to transparency transformed into insistence that there is also something else called confidentiality. Confidentiality in the hands of government has served as an instrument for cover-up.

The last thing that Guyanese need with the new draft PSA is more spinning of, and avoiding, the hard issues raised. Already that draft PSA started out on the wrong foot, with the measly and clever 14 days allowed for review. This alone indicates a government that is not interested in getting to the meat of what may be missing. Rather, it is more focused on glossing over sensitive matters with our national patrimony, and then turning around and insisting that Guyanese were afforded every courtesy and opening to participate in the draft PSA, and make meaningful contributions to their economic welfare.

We have no wish to be enemies of President or government. Our efforts for more frankness and transparencies should not put either on the defensive, but welcomed as an asset that helps in doing better for all Guyana.

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Editorial, Leader, Leonora, National, President Ali

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