Amid concerns that the Government may have allegedly accepted a US$20 million bonus from United States oil giant ExxonMobil, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has made a commitment to ask the company if this information that has been circulating was indeed factual.
Jagdeo maintains that the Government should maintain a high level of transparency when it comes to this new and emerging sector and should not hesitate to release the contract or any information relating to the sector. The former Head of State said that he was briefed on the visit by Government Ministers
Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram
in Texas, but the issue of the US$20 million bonus was not out yet.
“When I meet them (ExxonMobil), I will ask,” Jagdeo told the local media on Wednesday, explaining the need for Government to be truthful to the nation and provide all the necessary information about this sector. He emphasised that this would help to bring greater accountability to the running of the sector.
The issue of the US$20 million was brought to the fore in one of the columns written by Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram. He alleged that the hefty signing bonus paid by ExxonMobil formed part of the new contract agreement signed when the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government took office.
He further alleged that Government used the excuse of a new licence to extract a signing bonus, but he believed it should come clean on the matter.
Government has since refused to make the contract public and would only say there were minor changes to the initial 1999 contract agreement. Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman has responded to those calls and said that full disclosure would not be in the best interest of the nation.
“Right now, we are prepared to share the salient features of the contract; it is a 50/50 production share agreement…that means that Exxon and its partners will share 50 per cent between themselves and Guyana will (have) 50 per cent,” he also revealed at a public forum a few months ago.
Trotman has also repeatedly played up the fact that the contract signed with ExxonMobil and Government predated the APNU/AFC Government’s accession to
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo
office, explaining that that was enough reason why the Government was in no rush to release the new contract that was signed.
The Minister had stated publicly that that matter would have to be discussed at the level of Cabinet for added guidance. When asked about whether Government collected a signing bonus from ExxonMobil when a new agreement was signed, he said, “Nothing on the contract I am discussing. I would like to take this whole issue of the publication of the contract to Cabinet for guidance.”
Additionally, Finance Minister Winston Jordan had said too that he was unaware that Government received a signing bonus. However, the senior Government Minister did not deny it. He has since promised to check on the matter and relate to the media if in fact the allegation was true.
Meanwhile, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has denounced, as an absolute falsehood, the contentions peddled by the Government that the Jagdeo Administration passed, in 1997, an amendment to the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act which prevents disclosure of the ExxonMobil contract.
The Party has reiterated that “the 1997 amendments do not prohibit the disclosure of such information…Therefore, all Ministers have been shamelessly misleading the nation.”
