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Successive Governments spinelessly conspired with ExxonM to deprive current and future generations of their patrimony – Chris Ram
Kaieteur News – Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram has accused successive governments of “spinelessly” conspiring with ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, to deprive current and future generations of their patrimony.
Attorney-at-Law and Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram
In a letter recently published in the Stabroek News, the columnist said both the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government and the Coalition regime which consisted of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) cannot escape blame for the poor management of the oil and gas sector.
In the case of the Coalition, Ram reminded readers of three damning incidents that contributed to current and future generations being saddled with an unfair deal.
He recalled that following Exxon’s announcement of Guyana’s first oil discovery back in 2015, a team from the Petroleum Unit of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) headed by Commissioner Newell Dennison had conducted a visit to Exxon’s Head Office in Texas. This was done to discuss a range of issues pertaining to the development of the discovery.
“… (But) the bullies from Texas inhospitably told them that the only thing to be discussed was a new Agreement (which would replace the 1999 agreement that was already in place),” Ram recounted. When Dennison complained to former Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman in a written Memo of being “confronted” on a new Contract for the Stabroek Block, Ram said Trotman did nothing. “In fact, his Ministry started working towards the infamous 2016 Petroleum Agreement – shockingly, with the help of Exxon’s top lawyers,” the Chartered Accountant wrote. To give legitimacy to the new Agreement, Ram said a Bridging Deed was concocted to make the 1999 Agreement part of the 2016 Agreement.
Another scandal he cited was the US$18M signing bonus which the APNU+AFC regime had accepted from Exxon, hid from public scrutiny and denied its existence until the truth was exposed by Ram.
“By Trotman’s own admission in his recent book, the so-called signing bonus was not a signing bonus at all, but a sum to pay legal fees partly to protect Exxon’s interest,” the Chartered Accountant wrote. He added, “Trotman of course had denied any such signing bonus until the veracity and his duplicity were exposed in the media. To this day, he has been unrepentant.”
Additionally, Ram recalled that Trotman had commissioned an independent investigation by a UK law firm, Clyde & Co, “into the circumstances leading to the execution of the 2016 Petroleum Agreement”. Ram said that report is a damning indictment of Exxon. What he also found troubling is that neither Trotman nor his successor, Vickram Bharrat, made the report public.
Despite the incriminating information of Trotman’s and the APNU+AFC’s conduct in the execution of the Agreement, Ram said the PPP/C administration has refused to hold an inquiry. He presumed this is being done to protect Exxon from public scrutiny and the discovery and exposure of their accounting shenanigans.
Ram said indeed, Trotman has suffered the lion’s share of blame and ignominy for the giveaway of the country’s patrimony. However, Ram said the PPP/C is no less culpable, arguing that it committed its fair share of transgressions where Exxon and partners are concerned. He flagged, for example, the government’s mishandling of the audit into Exxon’s US$1.7B expenses. That matter is said to be under investigation for the unauthorized reduction of ExxonMobil’s questionable expenses from US$214M to US$3M.
With the foregoing considered, Ram said it is clear successive governments are depriving current and future generations of their rightful patrimony.
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