Jagdeo-led PPP supported tax waivers to Exxon without seeing terms of oil contract

Jan 10, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News- Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, said the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) gave its support for the tax waivers to ExxonMobil in the National Assembly, although it had not seen the terms of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA).

The VP’s comments on the issue comes on the heels of a Kaieteur News article, published on Monday, where it was reported that former Minister of  Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, in his book, revealed that Jagdeo was briefed and would not object to the tax waivers to the company.

Trotman in his book stated, “Interestingly, I had been previously informed that the Leader of the Opposition had been “briefed” and would offer no objection, and further, that I should not elaborate too much on the specifics of the June 27 agreement (Exxon deal); except to note that it had been signed and to list some of the provisions. This advice I followed.”

During his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo questioned the source that gave the former minister these instructions, since this was not mentioned in the book.  He reasoned, “Briefed by whom? Exxon? By the PNC? He didn’t say who, this is Trotman saying somebody told him, a vagrant walked off the street and said to Trotman,  ‘You know, Jagdeo has been briefed, you don’t need to give the Guyanese people this agreement.’”

The former President continued, “You think if I had a deal with APNU, all these years, they would have mentioned it, they would’ve shouted from the top of their voices, taken out ads.”

Jagdeo was explicit that the Coalition brought a Motion to the National Assembly for approval, rather than a copy of the Petroleum Agreement. A one-page Order was tabled in the House on August 2016 for affirmative action, which means the majority of Parliament can approve its passage. Jagdeo explained that the Order was included on a Supplementary Order Paper for the day. In fact, he argued that Members of Parliament (MPs) only saw the document at 7:47 that evening.

The debate subsequently commenced at 11:47 pm. To this end, Jagdeo said two MPs from the PPP side spoke on the Motion, including Odinga Lumumba, who was Chair of the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee and Gail Teixeira.

According to the Hansard, the VP said Lumumba raised concerns about the Motion being tabled and passed the same night to give effect to an Agreement that the PPP had never seen. Lumumba stated according to Jagdeo quoting from the Hansard: “I am Chairman of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources and I was not informed about this Motion here tonight. We cannot carry on like this in this country…big oil is important, but big oil has already shaken up the roots of many countries whether it be Nigeria, whether it be Ghana, whether it be Venezuela.”

He continued, “We have to be careful, therefore we have to work together. Informing us early about this Motion cannot and will not allow us to say no. How can we? First of all you have a one-seat majority, secondly, we have been supportive of oil exploration and development for a number of years…what is the problem? Why is there this secrecy? It makes us feel funny.”

Why the PPP supported the Motion

Meanwhile, Jagdeo told reporters that the PPP were given the false impression that the terms of the oil deal had been improved. He noted, “(Former Finance Minister Winston) Jordan said in his presentation they are strengthening the benefits. We did not see an agreement. We asked to see the agreement. They signed the agreement in June of the year, they brought an order for affirmative action to rush through one night to give effect to the agreement and the benefits but nobody saw the agreement until a year and a half after.”

Instead, the VP stated, “Trotman cleverly created the impression that it was the 1999 Agreement signed by Janet Jagan that we didn’t bring this enabling order under the Petroleum Act of 1986 and Jordan spoke about strengthening the benefits for the people of the country in an agreement we have not seen.”

Although they had not seen the agreement, Jagdeo said the PPP wanted to support the growth of the industry so it gave its support to the Motion. He explained, “We were in the sector, we worked very hard to get the oil industry going in Guyana  -from seeking out people to put into this industry for years, exploration – when nobody wanted to do so, to the entire period when we had a force majeure, we solved a border issue to get people to come back.”

Jagdeo added, “We are not the PNC, we don’t… because they are in government, we have to run down everything…so we are told here at this late hour that they have strengthened the agreement-fiscal terms- we raised the concerns but they didn’t need our support to pass the Motion. All they needed was to vote. Our vote did not make a difference.”

(Jagdeo-led PPP supported tax waivers to Exxon without seeing terms of oil contract)

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• Contract, Exxon, Jagdeo, oil, seeing, tax, waiver

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