Local content cheers jeers

Apr 19, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The PPP/C Government and ExxonMobil are pleased with themselves, thrilled to point to local content gains in the last nine years. There was Minister Vickram Bharrat and Country Head Alistair Routledge smiling for the cameras in their best responses to ‘say cheese.’ Mr. Routledge has plenty to laugh about in the context of local content, for his company has gotten away with many white-collar murders in the first degree every year for the last nine years. This is what Guyana’s Minister Bharrat was grinning about, he being the good soldier for the PPP/C Government’s cause. It was what Master of the Game, Routledge looked very cheery about. Give a thirsty man, an unthinking and weak fellow, a bottle of 7-Up and he gets the sensation of being on top of the world. Simple strokes for silly folks delighted over what is termed the Local Content bonanza. Scrutinizing this closely, there should be more jeers than cheers.

There was the government and the minister (and ExxonMobil’s headman) cheering US$1.5B in contracts over the last nine years. A simple math exercise reveals that that distils to a measly US$150M a year in contracts for Guyanese, a drop of honey to keep the locals buzzing. ExxonMobil just handed out a US$1.5B contract for an underwater platform to be built for the just approved 6^th oil project. One billion dollar plus contract in an hour to a foreign contractor from Guyana’s oil business, but the same amount (US$1.5B) to Guyanese businesses in the span of nine years. We know that Guyana cannot build an underwater oil platform, but there is certainty that Guyanese can do more than what is coming their way. When ExxonMobil does less in many areas, then Guyanese should be the only ones in line to get those. The Local Content law now operative identified a slew of areas and work that Guyanese should be involved in, and at what percentage levels. The question is how much of that has been happening in such businesses as insurance and transportation, to name two only.

Two Local Content numbers touted by the government and ExxonMobil are of 6,200 Guyanese employed in some connection with oil-related work, and 1700 Guyanese suppliers having a role in oil sector business. This looks arresting on paper, but only at first blush. The reality is that this approximates to 600 locals a year finding jobs and 180 domestic businesses having some vendor association with oil. In a business that is spending US billions of Guyana’s oil revenue money annually, these numbers are not only paltry, but they also don’t look as good as hailed. In fact, they could be said to be downright insulting, crumbs thrown at beggars who cannot do better, don’t know better. There is still another consideration worth the effort: What types of jobs are these mostly about, cooks and chauffeurs, or gatekeepers and traffic directors for ExxonMobil and its people? Isn’t it time all this local content cheering be replaced by the jeering that is due?

Guyanese who get carried away by the self-serving propaganda of the PPP/C Government have another gross imbalance to weigh. Since oil production began in December 2019, ExxonMobil and its partners carted away US$21.6B in profits and cost recovery dollars. In the same period, Guyana collected US$4.2B in what is celebrated as a 50:50 partnership. In this partnership that is supposed to be a half and half one, it is clear that ExxonMobil’s half is bigger than Guyana’s by a staggering margin. All in all, the American company’s half is bigger than this country’s so-called half by more than five times. That is better than fuzzy math, or fake accounting. That is what smells, looks, and strikes like something approaching sophisticated fraudulences. Billions in expenses incurred by ExxonMobil from its Guyana oil operations are almost like some sacred, ancient secret. In that secret, aided and abetted by the PPP/C Government, resides the truths to many mysteries, especially the huge disparity in this 50:50 partnership profit-sharing. The jeers by now should be reaching the rafters and drowning out any cheers that still have life in them. Profit-sharing and local content, like lots more, are one colossal con game.

Editorial, Minister, Routledge, strokes, Vickram Bharrat

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Local content cheers jeers

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