Opposition insists Govt covering up corruption in oil sector

… “If you get ketch lying, at minimum say sorry nah” ̶  Edghill

Government’s defense of Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson has flabbergasted the political opposition, which insists that the Government continues to deflect from the substantial issue at hand when it comes to the allegation that relatives and friends of those in the administration have in fact been applying for petroleum blocks in order to flip it for a profit.
The political opposition now believes that the administration is engaged in covering up the corruption taking place in the embryonic industry, and in fact does not want to come clean on all of the pending applications currently being processed.

Former Minister within the Finance Ministry, Juan Edghill, lashed out at the administration, and has since, in a direct message to Minister Patterson, said, “Ow man, c’mon, if you get ketch lying, at minimum say sorry nah.”
Patterson, this past week, found himself embroiled in controversy when, during an Alliance For Change press briefing, he told media operatives that former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, had farmed out all of the available petroleum blocks—a claim that has been debunked by the former president, among others.
However, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, lent support to Minister Patterson, saying that his utterances are a Government position. Minister Harmon told media operatives, “I am quite sure that Minister Patterson is quite aware of the statement that he made with respect to the offshore concessions. I don’t know (why) the Leader of the Opposition is seeking to have some kind of confusion about it; he knows fully what Minister Patterson is talking about.”
According to Minister Harmon, “Minister Patterson, I know, is technically competent and careful enough to be able to explain that situation again if necessary; but Minister Patterson was talking about offshore concessions.”
Maps supplied by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission have since confirmed that there are several concessions available in the offshore economic zone.
Meanwhile, Opposition Member of Parliament and member of the Parliamentary Natural Resources Committee, Odinga Lumumba, has also lent his voice to the debate, saying the actions of the Government ministers have exposed “an obvious agenda by members of the coalition government, with collusion from their financiers to malign the reputation of Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.”
He drew reference to the specific utterances by Patterson that there were no remaining un-assigned oil blocks because Jagdeo had already distributed all to favoured awardees, saying,
“Again, this is palpably untrue, and has compelled me to release the list of concessions and expose the malicious lies being repeated by the current administration in another effort to defame Dr Jagdeo.”