…maintains CGX was an aggrieved party
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has blistered the Government for justifying its act of hiding the US$18 million signing bonus it received from ExxonMobil, noting that their argument about monies paid by CGX is irrelevant and totally different to the issue at hand.
In June of 2000, the Surinamese military seized a rig belonging to CGX. The rig was at the time operating in the Corentyne River; the border between Guyana and Suriname. As a result of the seizure, Guyana took the issue to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 2004 and in September of 2007, the Tribunal ruled the rig was operating in Guyana’s waters and the issue was settled.
“CGX was an aggrieved party, it was their rig that the Surinamese gunboat removed so they had a vested interest, not just in resolving the case that would allow them to go back in exploration, but they were an aggrieved party,” he explained.
He said the then Government could not have received money from CGX because CGX was not moving to production. “A signing bonus only comes about if you are starting to produce. At that time, CGX’s obligation to Guyana, to the GGMC (Guyana Geology and Mines Commission), and to the Treasury was only for licensing fees that they were supposed to pay,” Jagdeo added.
The Opposition Leader was at the time responding to a statement read in the National Assembly by Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge on Friday. In his address, Greenidge erroneously said that the then Jagdeo-led Administration contracted lawyers to represent Guyana in the UNCLOS Tribunal “without either paying for them, without depositing in the Bank of Guyana the foreign exchange CGX provided for the payment of the lawyers or without reflecting the payments in the Consolidated Fund or seeing authorisation for the transaction in the House.”
“Not a cent came from CGX to the Government or to any accounts in the Government to pay to any lawyers or to do anything else for that manner. In this case, money was handed over and CGX did pay lawyers directly but that was not in consultation with us (Government). So (Finance Minister Winston) Jordan speaks about the CGX money should be accounted for in the Consolidated Fund, money that they (CGX) paid directly to lawyers but money paid as revenue in a (signing) bonus he (Jordan) does not want to account for it,” Jagdeo observed.
The Opposition Leader added that he saw the hypocrisy in the statement two days ago, considering that it was a totally different situation. “Then this money was not receive from ExxonMobil for any border issues, they (Exxon) made it clear, this money was revenue a signing bonus so they (Government) are weaving a tangled tale of lies and contradictions and illegalities and they act with impunity and bravado. This is how this Government operates,” he said.
As an explanation for not putting the money into the Consolidated Fund, the Government consistently spoke about the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Administration having slush funds in GGMC and the monies, supposedly, paid by CGX.
Proper handling
During his address, Minister Greenidge explained that the signing bonus was placed in a deposit fund, as provided for in the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA), and that US$15 million would be used for legal fees, while the remaining US$3 million would be used for training. However, both the Finance and Natural Resources Ministers along with the President related that the money was placed in a special account, which is not provided for by the FMAA.
“The receipt and treatment of public monies must follow the laws of Guyana, the financial laws, the rules that are laid down, the Constitution speaks to this. They do not exist there, these public monies, to be treated in a manner that is discretionary at the whims and fancies of the Finance Minister. Our point is no public official, no Minister of this Government, no group of Ministers nor the entire Cabinet can ignore the financial laws and Constitution because they want to treat this money in a special way, they do not have that discretion,” Jagdeo noted.
Article 42 of the FMAA states that, “On the establishment of a deposit fund, the Minister shall notify the National Assembly of the deposit fund and shall specify – the source or sources of the moneys in the deposit fund…”
However, in the case of the ExxonMobil signing bonus, none of these steps was taken by the Government, hence the Opposition’s argument that the monies were not deposited into a deposit fund.
“But what they have done here is illegal. It is outside of our books completely… first, the set of oil money that we received attempting to steal because people would forget about the special account and then that will be the end of it,” Jagdeo said.
The PPP/C has since indicated that they would be moving to the courts to force the Government to amend the 2018 Estimates to reflect the US$18 million signing bonus.
