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VP Jagdeo drifts and shifts

Mar 14, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s chief policymaker and oil supremo, Bharrat Jagdeo, is now pleased with himself to assume the role of messenger and intermediary.  When he should be the best representation of strength and clarity on oil, he has fallen in love with bringing messages and sending Guyanese on wild goose chases.  It is a pitiful situation when the man who put himself in charge of the nation’s oil patrimony is content to limit his role to that of a go-between for ExxonMobil.

Jagdeo was asked to share some details on ExxonMobil’s $133B depreciation and amortization deduction but he refused to do so.  Instead, he is sending the local media to squeeze the details out of ExxonMobil.  At best, that is a tough proposition, and because it is ExxonMobil being asked for the information, only the slippery is to be expected.  Senior officials of the company were pushed before in public consultations (themselves a farce) for certain disclosures and backup details on oil projects in the pipeline, and they quickly and cleverly ducked.

The people from ExxonMobil immediately referred Guyanese to their government for enlightenment on whatever they wanted to know, whatever was bothering them.  But now there is Jagdeo doing his own ducking and referring his citizens to ExxonMobil.  This is how Guyanese are treated like toys (or kids) and passed backward and forward by this top American oil company and a top Guyanese leader.  It is part of the games and schemes at which ExxonMobil and Jagdeo have both gotten very good at, and which gives Guyanese a lot of grief.

Depreciation and amortization in the amount of $133B is a staggering figure.  It will help immensely if Guyanese have some idea about the underlying assets, as itemized and quantified.  The Government of Guyana should have that information, which means that Jagdeo should have access to it.  He should have some interest in knowing what is involved, given the huge figure.  This should not rise to the level of a mystery for the Guyanese people.  The backup for $133B in depreciation and amortization would represent a long list of items, for sure.  But it is also a certainty that there are some assets of significant value that would stand out, if not account for a good percentage of the deduction.  Guyanese are seeking answers, actually forced to groping in the dark by their own oil leader.  This is all due to the thick layers of secrecy through which the PPPC Government (and Jagdeo) has seen it fit to bury billions upon billions in oil expenses.  Jagdeo and the government have committed to tight secrecy with oil expenses, and the result is this shameless but revealing merry-go-round from Guyana’s oil czar.

It is shamelessness taken to another level locally, for Jagdeo has no qualms about abandoning his duty to Guyanese and sending them to where he knows they will encounter a barb-wired wall, total resistance.  ExxonMobil deals with the government, it has no direct relationship with the Guyanese people, hence it is not answerable to them.  ExxonMobil does not have to answer anything that it doesn’t want to, and since expenses have been such a lock and key affair, then it is a fool’s errand. This is what Guyana’s oil chief knows, but still directs the media to the company. This reveals so much of the Vice President’s management of this oil wealth.  He is fearful of his shadow, he is fearful of opening his mouth, and he is fearful of what could fall on his head, if he were to be bold.  So, he surrenders himself to hiding behind fig leaves, which only makes him look more naked and anxious.

Jagdeo sweats and shakes with dread that any depreciation and amortization detail he provides would be ‘changed’ to his detriment. A leader devoted to truthfulness and openness could care less about how what he provides is misconstrued and by whom.  Accuracy is his armor, and there is no morbid fear of anybody regarding anything.  But when a national leader falls apart, like Jagdeo does, when need-to-know information is involved, then he is his own accuser and confessor.  This is what secrecy spawns; this is the kind of oil leader Guyanese get.

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