Jagdeo worried about Guyana suffering “resource curse”
Opposition Leader and former President Bharrat Jagdeo is worried that Guyana may be entering legally binding agreements, which can strip the country of its rights as an oil producing nation.
“We have to be careful about who helps to write our regulations and whose model we use. We always have to keep a little distance to ensure we have
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo
independence,” he told media operatives during a news conference at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown on Monday.
Jagdeo was at the time sharing his thoughts on reports that Guyana is receiving assistance from the United States (US) Department of State in crafting its oil and gas regulations and profit-sharing agreements – Government has since denied these reports.
“I don’t know much about what’s going on. The Government has kept this as a closely guarded secret and my big worry is that they are making deals and giving up our rights over the long-term because of incompetence or at worse, corrupt practices,” the politician expressed.
Jagdeo was also fearful about Guyana’s possibility of suffering the “resource curse”.
With no technical expertise in offshore oil drilling and no experience handling superpower corporations, Guyana faces the real possibility of suffering the “resource curse,” in which a place with massive resource wealth is pillaged and left for broke by bad management and predatory colonial practices.
According to a Huffington Post article, the programme under the Department of State is currently helping the Guyanese Government write profit-sharing agreements, environmental regulations, and develop a strong rule of law to counterbalance corporate power.
But Government refuted this assertion, noting that the US Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative (EGCI) has been lending support to Guyana for the past six years in the area of capacity building to manage eventual oil and gas revenues. The Ministry of the Presidency said EGCI will not be playing any part in writing Guyana’s oil governance laws, or any laws for that matter.
It clarified that the Commonwealth Secretariat is the lead agency supporting Guyana in preparing a suite of legislation for the oil and gas industry.
