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Former finance minister questions legality of using oil money to pay ExxonMobil for pipeline
Kaieteur News – Former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan has raised questions regarding the legality of using oil money to fund the pipeline being constructed by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL).
Former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan
The pipeline is a component of the highly touted Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project, intended to reduce the cost of electricity by some 50% according to government. During a recent interview on Nation Watch streamed by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the former Member of Parliament (MP) said the pipeline could not be financed by future oil revenues. He explained, “…(in) the 2021 (Natural Resource Fund) Act, there is a Clause there that says the resource in the Natural Resource Fund could not be encumbered and you could not borrow against future earnings.”
NRF Act states at Section 25 (1-3), “The financial assets of the Fund shall not be encumbered by any person or entity. The future petroleum revenues shall not be encumbered by any person or entity. The Government shall not- (a) borrow or lend money from the Fund…”
Jordan however noted that in the absence of the agreement between the Government of Guyana (GoG) and Exxon, information related by politicians indicate that the pipeline will be funded through oil revenue. “It seems implicitly that the government has agreed with Exxon that they can take as part repayment from our share, our future share, monies, to repay for the loan that they gave to the pipeline,” the former MP stated.
He explained that since Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo revealed that Exxon would not have advanced the money for the project had the company not seen it as a profitable venture, it could only be deduced that the pipeline is being funded through a loan. As such, Jordan argued that by law, no borrowing should take place against revenues to be earned.
He said he was in discussion with a few Attorneys on the matter since information has not been forthcoming from the government on the matter. “I’m asking some legal people because I know they are going to be difficult to give me an answer because we have not seen the agreement in relation the pipeline – to the financing of the pipeline. We have not seen that agreement and I don’t know if our MPs, when they go back, if they can make one more attempt to be asking and to imply whatever legal arrangements we have in place to get that agreement because to me, something is amiss,” Jordan related.
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