The clock and the cloud   

Feb 22, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News- Time, as the ancients knew, is a trickster. It slips through the fingers of kings and commoners alike, mocking the best-laid plans of mice and men. In Guyana, time has become a particularly mischievous sprite. It weaves its way through the corridors of power and the boardrooms of both public and private enterprises. It leaves behind a trail of missed deadlines, unfulfilled promises, and unanswered questions.

The latest victim of this temporal mischief is the gas-to-energy project. This is a venture so grand in scale and ambition that it has been heralded as the costliest public sector project in the nation’s history. Yet, like so many of its predecessors, it has fallen prey to the familiar disease of delay.

The government, ever the stoic in the face of such setbacks, has assured the public that the national interest will not be sacrificed on the altar of haste. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, in his characteristic tone of measured reassurance, has declared that timelines are secondary to the integrity of the project. This is a noble sentiment, to be sure, but it tells us little about why the project has stumbled. Nor does it inform as to why Guyanese citizens must once again adjust their expectations to accommodate the delays.

Why?  Why? They ask. Tell them that its human nature cries the answer. But is it, and why does it happen so often in Guyana?

The gas-to-energy project is not merely another infrastructure initiative; it is a promise—a promise of a 50% reduction in energy costs, a promise of economic transformation, a promise of a brighter future for a nation poised on the precipice of unprecedented wealth. Yet, as the deadline slips further into the horizon, the promise begins to fray at the edges. The people of Guyana are left to wonder: What went wrong? And why are we always the last to know?

The government’s track record on major projects is, to put it charitably, checkered. Delays are not the exception but the rule. Excuses are as plentiful as the May-June rains. Whether it is a matter of mismanagement, unforeseen complications, disputes, or the simple inertia of a system unaccustomed to the demands of large-scale development, the result is the same: deadlines are missed, costs escalate, and the public is left to foot the bill.

In the case of the gas-to-energy project, the stakes are particularly high. The project is not only a test of Guyana’s ability to manage its newfound oil wealth but also a litmus test for the government’s commitment to transparency and accountability. The recent dispute settlement, shrouded in secrecy and marked by a report whose findings remain hidden from public view, raises troubling questions. Was the delay related to this dispute? Were there other factors at play? And why has the government been so reticent to provide a full accounting of the situation?

These are not idle questions. They are the questions of a citizenry that has grown weary of being kept in the dark, of being told to wait a little longer, of being asked to trust in a process that too often seems designed to obscure rather than illuminate. The taxpayers of Guyana deserve better. They deserve to know why the project has been delayed, who is responsible, and what steps are being taken to ensure that such delays do not become a permanent feature of the nation’s development.

The government must level with the public. It must commission an independent inquiry into the delay, one that is transparent, thorough, and free from the taint of political interference. This inquiry should examine all aspects of the project, from the initial planning stages to the present day, and it should make its findings public. The people of Guyana have a right to know how their money is being spent and why the promises made to them remain unfulfilled.

Such an inquiry would serve not only to shed light on the current delay but also to set a precedent for future projects. It would send a clear message that the government is serious about accountability, that it is willing to confront its shortcomings, and that it is committed to building a culture of transparency and efficiency. It would also provide an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and to put in place mechanisms to prevent similar delays in the future.

The gas-to-energy project is too important to be left to the vagaries of time and the whims of bureaucracy. It is claimed that the project that has the potential to transform the lives of every Guyanese citizen, to reduce the cost of living, to spur economic growth, and to lay the foundation for a more prosperous and sustainable future. But this potential can only be realized if the project is managed with the utmost care and transparency.

The people of Guyana have waited long enough. They deserve answers, and they deserve action. The clock is ticking, and time, as we know, waits for no one.

(The clock and the cloud )

(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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• fallen prey, Gas-to-Energy project, Peeping Tom, temporal mischief

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