Who is in charge?

Aug 05, 2024 Editorial

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Kaieteur News – Last week, this newspaper in one of its lead stories reported on how Mozambique has demanded and passed laws ensuring that oil companies provide reports on their spending, contracts and hiring of their citizens.

We contrasted that country’s approach to the management of their oil sector with what obtains in Guyana. Our report showed various instances where the chief policymaker of the oil sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo insisting that Guyana does not have co-management arrangements with Exxon although we are in a 50/50 profit-sharing partnership. He said Guyana does not have any say in ExxonMobil’s procurement and spending. He said this against the backdrop of questions for information on what is the cost for the rental of the capping stack brought in this country by ExxonMobil recently; how much is the company paying for the treatment of produced water and the lack of information on what is the interest rate being paid by the company on its investments.

The Vice President said instead, Guyana depends on the cost recovery audits to flag expenditures that might be inflated or illegal in the current contract arrangement. His position that this country does not have any say upfront makes light of his campaign promise to bring better contract management to the Exxon-Guyana deal. Of course, his position is all about protecting ExxonMobil at the expense of Guyanese and has nothing to do with the lack of co-management arrangement or even the hope to flag inflated bills after the audits.

This nation has already seen how ExxonMobil is running roughshod over Jagdeo and the Ministry of Natural Resources. They have refused to repay or put back into the cost bank, the US$214M in illegal expenditures and have opted for arbitration. We have seen how Guyana’s oil profits were used to pay for yoga classes for ExxonMobil’s employees and also several other non-oil production activities and nothing has been done to recover those funds, yet Jagdeo is telling us what he has told us.

Guyanese having no say in spending is part of the devilish objectives of the scheming PPP/C Government leaders, who study and plot, and come up with new ways on how to bleed Guyana dry and the many ways to steal the wealth of this country so as to bring it to the point of insolvency. Guyanese have to get one thing in their heads, the only time they have value, have any standing that calls for recognition by political leaders is during elections seasons. This is when they are courted and wooed, and the one time when they represent something. All other times, they are nothing but doormats to be used for wiping the feet of leaders and ministers. The quicker citizens of this country get used to that reality, the better off they will be, the more they will be able to cushion their disappointments, when their hopes are dashed.

For here it is that this country is poised to cash in on its biggest oil paydays, and the PPP/C Government has moved with cunning and determination to set up a mechanism to rob the people of their inheritance. The President has the power, or so we are led to believe, but he is just the puppet on a string that is responding to the tugs and pulls of one man in the shadows who is calling the shots. That man has a certain history where big money, in fact, any kind of taxpayer money, is concerned, and he has been slick enough in the swirl of oil developments to make the Head-of-State the front man, with all these powers, when he doesn’t have any other than to sign and carry out orders at the behest of the real power behind the throne.

What the Vice President desires all Guyana to believe is that he has no say, and is along for the ride in all of these fast-rushing oil issues. But regardless of where the power to make decisions of enduring significance with this oil resides, the President or the Vice President or the subject Minister, the end result is still the same. We encourage our fellow citizens to look around carefully, and absorb what has been going on, and then ask yourselves whether you have any say in anything related to this oil, since its discovery. It is the same dismal and secretive story with the very costly gas-to-shore project slated for Wales, where Guyanese have their say, but are completely ignored by arrogant leaders in a rampaging government. In addition, more and more people have come out and said that they want more for this oil, that the contract should be renegotiated (which the PPP/C itself said during the campaigns for elections), but today, nobody listens to what Guyanese have to say about this oil or have the time of day for them.

 

 

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• cushion, Exxon, funds, Guyana, Ministry of Natural Resources, wiping

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