ExxonMobil, EPA a no-show again at Natural Resources Parliamentary meeting

Apr 13, 2024 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat

…Minister Bharrat joins absentees

Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday again failed to attend the Natural Resources Parliamentary Sectoral Meeting, providing no reasons for their absence.

This was ventilated by the Alliance For Change (AFC) during a press conference on Friday afternoon. Deonarine Ramsaroop, an AFC Member of Parliament (MP) and member of the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee told members of the press that the organizations have been providing consecutive letters of excuses to avoid being grilled at the level of the National Assembly.

Also absent at Friday’s meeting was the Minister of Natural Resources and Vice Chairman of that Committee, Vickram Bharrat. Ramsaroop argued that the Opposition had compiled approximately 15 questions for the Minister relative to the findings of the auditors and the developments in the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project.

Ramsaroop made it clear, “Parliament is not a cakeshop and if the government believes that this is a cakeshop and not having the relevant agencies to come to us to the sectoral committee, we are not gonna take it lightly…we’re gonna execute the Standing Orders where we gonna summon these agencies directly to come to Parliament.”

Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan was keen to note that Standing Order 86 of the National Assembly states that the Committees can summon individuals and organizations to provide evidence and provide answers to questions.

“They can call for their papers and they can call for their records and documents and they are to give evidence in accordance with the Legislative body’s Evidence Act whereby they can be forced to answer questions,” he explained.

Ramjattan pointed out that this was similar to the Congressional Committees in the United States of America (USA) where Exxon must answer questions and provide evidence if required.

He stressed that even the Minister who is responsible for the sector and is the Vice Chair of the Committee was also dodging scrutiny.

The former Minister reasoned, “Why is this thing not happening? Why is it, they got something to hide? You don’t want to be accountable; you don’t want to be scrutinized? What is it that you want to hide because these are the Committees that could get all the answers?”

Meanwhile, former Minister of Public Telecommunications, who is also a member of the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee, Catherine Hughes explained that the Committee through the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, had written the request to Exxon, through the Prime Minister’s office to follow the established protocols.

Hughes said when the AFC enquired on Friday about the appearance of Exxon; they were informed that Isaacs requested copies of the correspondences from the Office of the Prime Minister that were sent to Exxon.

She said, “As a member of the Committee we know that we have been sending letters since November of last year so we are going over to six months and of course what has been told, is although we request that if you can’t make the proposed date, please recommend a date, the subsequent correspondence just says we are unable to attend.”

Hughes was keen to point out, “The Evidence Act allows us to take this up a notch. The first step would be the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Isaacs writing the two organizations next week and we have asked that we hope to have a response before the next statutory meeting which is in two weeks and if not then we will certainly go under the Evidence Act and summons the representative to speak with the Committee.”

The MP said it was “wholly unacceptable” that Exxon and the EPA were dodging scrutiny since it impacts the tenets of transparency and accountability.

Committee, EPA, Exxon, natural resources, Parliament

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