Alleged cronyism
One day after Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo came out accusing the coalition Government of being involved in cronyism as it relates to the exploration and production licences for oil and gas, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has denied these claims and has urged Jagdeo to name those involved.
AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan, who holds the portfolio of Public Security Minister, told a news conference on Thursday that instead of Jagdeo accusing the entire coalition Government, he should specifically name the relatives, friends and associates of Ministers and senior Government functionaries being incorporated into companies through complex shareholding arrangements and are applying for exploration and production licences for oil and gas.
But Jagdeo said that if the AFC could deny this and assume the opposite, that meant that it knew of the application and knew every member of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Cabinet who was part of the company. Jagdeo believes the party’s denial could mean that it had full knowledge. “Rather than investigate it, you come out 24 hours later with a denial. There is no way he could find out from every APNU/AFC member whether they have family members who are part of it,” he opined.
The former President also took Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson to task over his remarks that there were no more blocs in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Atlantic. “All the blocs are being given out…,” Jagdeo said, while urging that the available blocs be auctioned instead.
Khemraj Ramjattan
During a press conference on Wednesday, Jagdeo said this move could see middlemen, through these ‘front companies’, with close relations to the coalition APNU/AFC Administration, raking in tens of millions of US dollars.He said they could flip those licences to international companies, since they were unable to raise the required capital for the exploration and development activities required for commercial oil production. One such company identified in recent times is Totaltec, which is spearheaded by the brother of the Petroleum Advisor to President David Granger, Dr Jan Mangal.
The Opposition Leader said: “There are at least two companies that we know of that have developed complex shareholding structures that have made applications.”
Speaking to the need for the available blocs to be instead auctioned off rather than having preferred companies apply, Jagdeo sought to point out that a premium must be considered.
He was adamant that several of the local companies applying for petroleum licences “have no means whatsoever – who are aligned to Ministers and their families, etc, and some others, cronies – they have no means of finding hundreds of millions of US dollars to do the exploration work.”
