Local content- do what is said

Nov 15, 2024 Editorial, News

…Editorial

Kaieteur News- More Guyanese should be participating in the growing oil and gas sector, pursuant to Local Content law (the law). Guyanese ought to be doing better because of that same law. Clearly, the law as it stands is being fulfilled in part only, with locals being the losers, and Guyana’s economy not harvesting the full benefits that should follow as a matter of course.

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat sounded an early warning, registering the PPPC Government’s disapproval of how the law is being sidestepped in new and different ways. More recently, Guyana’s chief policymaker in the oil and gas sector had his turn and did he let off some steam. His words are worth listening to, violators must be ready to comply fully with the law, or pay the price.

“Let me just reiterate that all of those who are violating now the Local Content Act, they have a lot to worry about. We intend to crack down (sic) on it.” There must be serious crackdown, with none spared, all made to pay the severest price, if only to deter future evaders. The law, which covers over 40 areas of involvement for locals, says that Guyanese must own 51% or more of any business, and with all the associated benefits happening. Simply, stated, the 51% partnership requirement is not merely a paper demand, but incorporates all that goes with that majority ownership representation. Convenient arrangements are out, and so are shell companies. We believe that the foreign commercial plotters and participants who come up with new ideas about how to use the 51% Guyanese presence, the requirement of the law, should be the ones who are dealt the harsher penalties. But the government must not stop there.

Those who arrange such local proxies (stand-ins) must also be punished. Further, the same should be applied to either willing or naïve Guyanese who allow themselves to be trapped in the webs weaved by cunning foreign operators. If the minister, the government, and the vice president are all sincere in their anxieties, then violators must be singled out and the fullest extent of the law be the fate they incur. There must be no sacred cows, no political leadership double standards, given the likely affiliations and history of some of the local middlemen and women, who play costly games.

Guyanese businesspeople are the first ones victimized, through lack of opportunity and a field tilted against them. The Guyanese economy is the next victim, since the taxes and foreign exchange implications, among other considerations, weigh against the interests of this country. As a practical matter, the only ones benefiting from ‘shell’ company setups are foreigners, with a small number of Guyanese collecting some decent sums for their cooperation. We consider the local arrangers of those who are called “front men” for “rent-a-citizen” purposes to be betrayers in that they are selling out the interests of Guyana for pittances, and hurting the country. The local arrangers, those bringing together gullible Guyanese with scheming foreigners, for the most part, would not be of an ordinary man-in-the-street standing. They are bigger, brighter, and better at their ruses than the regular touts operating around the bus parks. They know their way around, and they know people, so they get things done. Dirty things for dirty rewards that make a mockery of the law. They are among the first ones who should be hauled in and penalized according to the law.

According to Vice President Jagdeo, the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) has compiled a body of evidence, is ready to act. We greet that with optimism, with some fruit expected in short order. We emphasize that the foreigners have their penalties to pay, once they have been found guilty of violations. But they could not have operated on their own, since they wouldn’t know where to start, or who to recruit. Therefore, the five and ten million dollar fines, per Section 23(3)(A) of the Local Content Act, must be applied consistently and rigorously. Based on the complaints lodged with the LCS, the government should have some Guyanese and foreigners on its radar. Examples must be made of them, so that Guyana and Guyanese genuinely benefit from their wealth.

(Local content- do what is said)

crackdown, Editorial, Local Content Law, Minister of Natural Resources, PPPC Government’s disapproval

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Local content- do what is said

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