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Govt. distances self from Sam Hinds’ glowing comments on Exxon’s deal
Kaieteur News– The government of Guyana has distanced itself from comments made by former President, Prime Minister and Guyana’s current Ambassador to the United States of America, Sam Hinds on the ExxonMobil oil contract.
In two separate letters to the media earlier this month, the Ambassador encouraged Guyanese to rejoice over the paltry proceeds being received from Exxon and even ventured to insinuate that the country benefits from the lack of ring-fencing. In his second letter, Hinds also suggested that the royalties being paid by Exxon makes up for the taxes that the oil companies do not pay.
On Thursday, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo made it clear that the Ambassador’s views do not align with that of the party’s.
Jagdeo argued that the media, in particular Kaieteur News has lost focus on the fact that Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) is being paid by Exxon, a glaring conflict of interest. He however highlighted that the newspaper has jumped on the former President for sharing his thoughts on the issue.
“They just brushed off this whole question of lack of integrity from this conflict of interest. They just brushed it off. It’s gone. Kaieteur News forget about that. The man is working for Exxon now and heading a political party that’s in parliament. He collecting money every day from Exxon (but) they cuss the PPP and poor Sam Hinds because he muses and shares his thoughts publicly what he thinks,” the VP said.
Govt. distances self from Sam Hinds’ glowing comments on Exxon’s deal
He however noted, “But it’s not an official position of the party…Sam has earned the right to say what he wants. He has contributed enough to this country to allow him to have a free intellectual thought, wherever he believes in…but they are hounding Sam Hinds.”
Kaieteur News reported that following the first letter from Ambassador Hinds, the two major political opposition parties raised concerns over the views shared by the former Head of State.
Chairman of the AFC, David Patterson in an invited comment said that it was unfortunate that a former President of Guyana could express such simplistic utterances.
In fact, he said, “Hinds is now the country’s Ambassador, so we have to be very worried about the level of representation on behalf of the country, if he is satisfied with seeing his country short-changed.”
Meanwhile, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) spokesman on oil and gas, Elson Low said that Ambassador Hinds has once again proven to be a window into the PPP’s true thinking and attitude.
“He previously praised the Stabroek block Production Sharing Agreement as “fair” and now his recent comments have made it clear that the PPP is intimidated by the challenges of the oil industry. Virtually, no political leader or party worldwide would say that it prefers not to have more revenue,” Low stated.
Instead, the PNC/R insisted that the country should be pushing to earn more revenue to meet the urgent development needs of the country.
(Govt. distances self from Sam Hinds’ glowing comments on Exxon’s deal)
- Alliance For Change (AFC), distances, ExxonMobil, oil, position, Sam Hinds, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo
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