Causing Government even greater embarrassment

Dear Editor,
My attention was drawn to a press release issued by the Natural Resources Ministry in response to my comments made in respect of Minister Raphael Trotman’s assertion that the Government can make impromptu visits to ExxonMobil’s oil operations.
In my comments, I cautioned that the least the Government says about the Petroleum Production Contract, which they signed in 2016 with affiliates of ExxonMobil, the better. The Natural Resources Ministry has ignored this good bit of advice and has now issued a statement that causes the Government even greater embarrassment.
Firstly, there was a public announcement that the oil and gas portfolio was removed from the Natural Resources Ministry and placed under the purview of the Ministry of the Presidency, with Minister of State Joseph Harmon being assigned ministerial responsibility for same. One must assume that there were good and substantial reasons for removing this portfolio from the Natural Resources Ministry. In responsible Governments, portfolios are assigned to different Ministries with identified Ministers being assigned responsibility for same, so that the citizenry can hold these Ministers responsible and accountable for these portfolios. This is a fundamental tenant of good, responsible, democratic and accountable governance.
As I indicated, the oil and gas sector, we were told, was removed from the Natural Resources Ministry. Why does this Ministry continue to speak, publicly, on this sector? Or, is it that the announcement that this portfolio was removed from the Natural Resources Ministry to the Ministry of the Presidency, a hoax?
On behalf of the citizenry, I respectfully demand that this matter be clarified, immediately.
Secondly, the gravamen of my contention, in my response to Minister Trotman’s public disclosure, was not so much an objection to the clause, which mandates a notice to be served on the Contractor within seven days before a visit, but was that in the face of that very clear, unambiguous and express clause of the contract, Minister Trotman contends that the Government can make impromptu visits. My simple contention was that these impromptu visits cannot be made, unless the Government intends to breach the contract.
If such elementary issues, expressed in the simplest of language, poses comprehension problems, then no wonder a technical document like the Petroleum Agreement, is causing the Government such preponderance of problems.
To equate the contracts signed under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration, when no oil was found, with one signed by this Government, when billions of barrels of oil were confirmed to exist within Guyana’s territorial space, is by itself, a graphic illustration of the level of confusion in which this Government is mired.
So, while I was the Attorney General, when these several contracts were signed by the PPP/C Administration, because they contain those clauses, I never said publicly that the Government could make “impromptu visits” to the oil operations of the contractor. In any event, as I have indicated, these contracts were executed in radically different and material circumstances and therefore, there is no basis for comparison.
I can assure the Government that were I the Attorney General, no contract remotely resembling the 2016 Petroleum Agreement, would have been signed.

Sincerely,
Mohabir Anil
Nandlall, MP