Home Letters Scandalous – APNU+AFC regime handling of the oil sector
Dear Editor,
The PNC-led APNU regime has begun their time in power from exactly where they left off twenty-six years ago. The deals that they have been making are simply scandalous. The public is hard pressed not to conclude that corruption is at the heart of this regime. They cannot help themselves, it is in their nature. The PNC has not changed.
I see the media that is sympathetic to the regime, mainly ‘Kaieteur News,’ are unable to cover up the disaster that the regime is. So they are doing the next ‘best thing’. They are blaming the ExxonMobil for the disaster they have made in handling the agreement with ExxonMobil.
If we want to be generous to say they are not stealing and not making huge ‘backdoor/under the table deals’, then we have to conclude that they are the most incompetent bunch of persons to ever assume high office. Added to their incompetence is the high intoxication with power that is showing in sheer arrogance.
Form all that is being revealed in the press, we see that our country has lost, is losing, and will lose billions of US dollars by this deal.
In the first instance, the royalty of only 2% is indeed very suspect. Dr. Mangal, the expert that the regime hired, said the norm is between 10% and 20%. Why was Dr. Mangal ignored? If he was not, why was his recommendations not considered?
On the basis of 2% royalty, and if we assume oil price at US$50 per barrel, production at 300,000 barrels per day and production of 360 days for the year, then Guyana will receive US$108,000 per year. That works out to US$144 per person (assuming a population of 750,000). That is really chicken feed.
Some apologists for the regime say that it is because we have no experience, Exxon took advantage on us. That is the lamest excuse I have heard. Information is available and could have been sourced. Trinidad and Tobago, with decades of experience, would have been most helpful. Were they asked? If not, why not?
The regime could have sought council from the UN and many other sources. They chose not to, and produced the most lopsided agreement probably in the world.
There is no clarity on the Government’s policy on oil. The regime seems to be blundering blindly all the way.
For instance, we are all in the dark as to the issue of local content in the oil and gas sector. Would our private sector benefit? This is a big concern, but the nation remains unenlightened.
Another unpardonable aspect of this agreement is the regime’s concession to our sovereignty! How could this regime agree that no official can visit ExxonMobil locations without giving seven days’ notice?!
This really makes us look worse than a banana republic. One cannot help wondering what was the inducement to sign something as objectionable as this. These are the same people who beat their chest talking about nationalism, yet they have compromised our sovereignty.
This regime action in relation to the collection of funds is also very disturbing. For more than a year, they collected US$18 million in signing bonus and kept that information hidden. When asked about it, they denied ever collecting any. They also ridiculed those asking.
Now it has come out that they had collected it and placed it in a private account. How can anyone be blamed for believing that it was put aside to be carted off by the elite?
Even now that it is exposed, they continue to refuse to put it in the Consolidated Fund, thereby perpetuating an illegality.
In any normal democratic country, the regime would have resigned. They had sworn to uphold the Constitution and the Laws of Guyana, but now are regularly and knowingly violating them.
Donald Ramotar
Former President