Petroleum Bill – Ministerial Powers

Aug 10, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The Petroleum Activities Bill 2023 (Petroleum bill) that is now before parliament has a slew of positives in it. On paper, the Petroleum Bill has provisions that could significantly benefit this country’s management of the sector, with two qualifications. The potential benefits incorporated into the Petroleum Bill will only happen if the stewards execute their powers with the highest regard for standards, and those powers are diversified.

The list of powers is enormous, and in the hands of the overseeing minister. The minister can delegate many of the powers currently contemplated in draft form. But he can also reverse the powers given to a public entity, or a public officer. The minister can take back the powers granted, and vest them in himself, or he can tamper with decisions made. It is our position that this is too much power vested in one man, or woman, as the case could be later. This becomes obvious when the range of powers in the draft legislation tabled is examined.

The subject minister has total control of most aspects of the operations of the sector. The issuance of licenses for exploration and production are in ministerial hands. Safety and environmental matters, as well as the proper disposal of residual waste materials also fall within the minister’s purview. The minister can protect, correct, and redirect. He or she can introduce enhancements made necessary by circumstances and from those that were learned along the way. This is all good, but recognition of norms in Guyana stirs more than routine skepticism relative to these powers all being with one political person.

The record is bright with draft bills that became laws for other areas, and which had what was required to best serve the interests of this country. They had provisions and clauses that reassured Guyanese that the best could result for this country, but only if the powers were handled most appropriately. In many instances, they were not, and citizens have had to live with the consequences. We have helpful drug laws, we have solid anti money laundering laws, we have penetrating cybercrime laws, to name a few, but implementation has been problematic, with those laws falling short of what was impressively stated on paper. Responsible ministers have tried to wiggle themselves out of corners for overreaching, or resorting to silence, or not living up to letter or spirit of the law’s requirement. Though important, those laws covered areas that pale into some insignificance when compared to the difference that a comprehensive petroleum bill could make to this society.

The draft bill does, indeed, have provision for transparency and accountability in the oil sector, and seemingly every step of the way. We repeat for emphasis: this law in waiting has teeth. But it is only as the good as the man and the woman in charge of it. And when too much power is placed into a single pair of hands, then prudence fails on the occasions most needed, the baffling occurs with the country’s interests injured. Usually, there is no recourse because what was done is sanctioned by standing law.

On the issues of transparency and accountability, Guyanese are already too familiar with promises about both, and how much they exist in governance today. The commitments have come from the top of the political pyramid, with insistent claims to that effect. Yet, the reality is of an environment that is plagued by secrecy. To counter the preponderance of powers in ministerial hands, there should be some checks and balance, some restraining presences, over the vast array of ministerial powers in this Petroleum Bill.

A layer of expert and independent civilian involvement could give credibility, not on every aspect of the law, but on some of the sensitive ones. Examples include licensing, safety, bidding, spending, and managing of licensee bottlenecks. We believe that the powers must be diversified, and all must not be retained by the government. A bad name has been earned by government, for that has come to mean one man, one way of doing things, and one result, like it or not. Oil represents too much of Guyana’s future, and its management and control should be with government and outside of it.

bill, Editorial, highest, Parliament, petroleum

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Petroleum Bill – Ministerial Powers

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