Minister Bharrat on Petroleum Commission

Aug 21, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – I had the early idea to disagree with the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Vickram Bharrat when he said that a Petroleum Commission would slow down the oil sector.  A change of heart occurred at lightning speed.  Discretion is the better part of valor, and there is no way that I am engaging in any wrestling match with those two heavyweights that he ensured were by his side.

A picture is worth a million sterling.  Geology and Mines Commissioner, Mr. Newell Denison was the picture of solemnity to the point of grimness, while Permanent Secretary Joslyn McKenzie made sure to keep his head down with eyes glued to the floor.  Me, I aint messin wid dem two guys: life is too meaningful to get into a fight that is unwinnable.  For the record, I had long acquaintance with those two fine Guyanese, which I cannot say about Minister Bharrat.  The plan is to stick close to him the next time he decides to travel to JFK.  The conversation should be more than enlightening.

The normally tightlipped Natural Resources minister was unusually talkative.  A Petroleum Commission is not a “magic fix.”  Vice President Jagdeo, the real natural resources supremo, said the same thing before.  Do these guys have the same speechwriters?  Then, it could come in due time, which was what Jagdeo covered his rear end with before.  Again, the same speaking from one script, while leaving the door slightly open for a Petroleum Commission. Hedged language by both Minister Vickram Bharrat and the Chief Minister Bharrat.  Is that really necessary?  Both are downplaying the need for a Petroleum Commission, while upscaling the Petroleum Unit in the Ministry of Natural Resources.  One would think that this vaunted Petroleum Unit would not be another top secret national subagency, like the Special rank of the Guyana Police Force.  My thinking is that such an expert and highly hailed Guyanese (or whomever) group, at least, would be introduced to Guyanese for them to determine who are these mysterious experts entrusted with such sensitive work for hopeful citizens. Perhaps, Minister Bharrat is displaying his clever side by having Messrs. Denison and McKenzie as his bookends, as he signals the elevated role of his secretive Petroleum Unit.

Commissioner Newell Denison, I believe, is a man who possesses training and skills in the field.  Is he a member of that Petroleum Unit now saddled with so much?  If he is, why does he look so unhappy?  Is that fine fella whose name was hung out to dry for the US$214M audit findings reduction to US$3M a member, or member in waiting?  If so, my comfort level just took a dive.  Nothing personal, but it is just that he is somewhat shaky, or always seems to be around shaky setups that don’t quite land on firm ground.  PS McKenzie, being the player that he is, is a man who could be trusted to carry a load quietly and artfully, a vital skill for a Jagdeo-type Petroleum Unit.  The question is whether Mr. Mac is a member of that team of luminous Guyanese workers in the Petroleum Unit shoved into the spotlight.  All this matters because my interpretation of the situation is that the Petroleum Unit is being held out as a very good substitute for a national Petroleum Commission.

In the normal scheme of developments and presence like these, this Petroleum Unit of which both Bharrat Senior and Bharrat Junior are now talking up a storm would be mostly technical and operational in nature.  I will give any Petroleum Unit of even limited merit that credit.  But a Petroleum Unit is not a substitute for a Petroleum Commission and both Bharrat One and Bharrat Two have been around long enough, and are sensible enough, to know so.  It was Big Bharrat who said in another section of the media in August 2020 that a Petroleum Commission would be in place in six months.  Forty-eight months later, the same Bharrat Jagdeo now sells to Guyanese this creature that he calls a Petroleum Unit, while consistently and strenuously insisting that it is the genuine article.

That is, a workable, likeable, and presentable Petroleum Commission in drag.  I repeat something that I have said before: it is at times like these that I am intrigued by how much of a combination of Houdini and Machiavelli and Modi that Bharrat Jagdeo is.  This Vice President of Guyana is so wily that he could sell sand to the Saudis. Or bows and arrows to the indigenous people of Guyana.  To say this differently, he took a mosquito (Petroleum Unit) and made it into a manatee (Petroleum Commission).  This superstar Jagdeo should be made Guyana’s president for life, regardless of what the constitution and courts say.  I raise his prolife some more: he should be president of Exxon, with no further use for such Dallas Cowboys as Darren Woods and Alistair Routledge.

Here is the endgame.  The best Petroleum Unit cannot and must not be a proxy for a Petroleum Commission.  In its best hands-on expressions, the former is about the interpretational, organizational, operational, and governmental.  At a higher and detached (independent) level, a Petroleum Commission is about clinical stewardship, unfettered insights, positive and probing strengths among many other hopefully neutral attitudes, attributes, and actions.  A powerful Petroleum Unit is still a public service animal subject to sophisticated political manipulation.  A well-manned Petroleum Commission backed by the right instruments could stand guard and get the best from this oil wealth that is now enshrined with so many quirks and what looks, sounds, and smells queer. I present Bharrat Jagdeo’s Petroleum Unit as Exhibit 1.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Geology and Mines Commissioner, Hon. Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Newell Denison, Mr. Vickram Bharrat, Petroleum Commission

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