Oil was struck coterminously with the May 2015 elections. Yet, after widespread outrage over the terms of the contract signed by Raphael Trotman on behalf of the APNU/AFC in 2016, there was hope the coalition government would make amends and enact a robust Local Content Policy (LCP) legislation to ensure that Guyanese would at least share directly in some of the promised “oil wealth”. It was not to be: the first draft of an LCP was submitted in 2017; a second in 2018 – both by Trinidadian expert Anthony Paul, but inexplicably, a British Oil Consultant, Dr. Michael Warner, was hired for $22M to complete a third, which he did towards the end of 2019, but it never reached the halls of Parliament. As such, oil has being lifted since Dec 2019, to the tune of 100,000 bpd, but we still do not have an LCP policy framework in place.
This, unfortunately, has been par for the course for APNU/AFC, which has always placed their own political interests ahead of the nation’s. There was no need, for instance, to drag out the elections declaration with their electoral hijinks, knowing full well that Guyanese stood to “lose corn and husk” by delaying the enactment of the LCP legislation. It is to the credit of the newly-installed PPPC administration that, in addition to hitting the ground running from the moment they were sworn into office at the beginning of this month, they have moved to fulfil their promise made on LCP in their manifesto and on the campaign trail.
In January 2020, for instance, now VP Jagdeo had announced, “Exxon came here under the PPP. They were exploring for oil under the PPP. They found oil before the last elections (2015) and these people (APNU/AFC) came into office with a gift there. All they had to do was to protect our interests and they failed absolutely. The oil belongs to the people of Guyana, all 800,000 of us and it must benefit our people. The young people must have jobs, our people must get more business. There must be a strong Local Content Policy to force the oil companies to send business our way.”
One week into the new administration, VP Jagdeo announced that the Ali administration would be enacting LCP legislation before year-end, “which will be mandatory for companies to comply with”. He emphasised, “We have made it clear in the meetings with ExxonMobil that we want them to do well, but Guyanese must share this prosperity. It is not sustainable otherwise, and we will insist that happens,” and added that Guyanese should have access to opportunities and employment within the sector. “There are several areas we have identified that have serious shortcomings which, in the near term or medium term, can bring enormous benefits to our people, and ExxonMobil has to treat these areas seriously.” More specifically, he mentioned the “inequitable” wages paid to Guyanese workers and the need for training more of the latter.
But in a marked departure from the cloistered modus operandi of the APNU/AFC regime, the Irfaan Ali PPPC administration signalled that it would be engaging in what has been described in other progressive jurisdictions as “Citizen Participation” on the LCP. Basically, citizen participation involves processes that provide for individuals in a community, an opportunity to influence public decisions that affect them. VP Jagdeo announced this policy shift when he spoke about the plans to ensure greater benefits flow to Guyanese citizens, “The President will meet with the entire Guyanese community through a series of meetings to listen to them on their views on local content. We will deal with it directly at that level so that people will be free to express their views. We have heard from the Guyanese public. We have seen how labour is treated and we have seen how the business or opportunities that could have come to Guyanese are farmed out to people… Exxon would have to look at this.”
Guyana has now embarked on economic development coupled with expanded democracy.
