“We had recommended full transparency” – GCCI President

Local Content Policy

The Local Content Policy (LCP) is out and already concern has been raised about its confidentiality clauses. According to the Head of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), it had previously recommended full transparency when it was consulted by the Energy Department.
This was communicated by GCCI President Nicholas Boyer, in a brief interview with this newspaper. When asked, he underscored the importance of full transparency and the fact that this was one of the recommendations they had made.
“In our deliberations on what we would like to see in the policy, we had said we would like to see as much transparency as possible. That was our position. We would like to see as much transparency as possible and we would like to recommend disclosing that information,” Boyer said.
However, Boyer also noted that he is currently reviewing the policy and doing a comparative analysis to see what was left out from GCCI’s recommendations. He, therefore, committed to the Chamber coming out with a more detailed response next week.
Page 33 of the Local Content Policy specifies that the subject Minister will inform the public whether or not an operator has submitted its yearly plans. A Local Content Oversight Committee will be allowed to privately view these plans, in keeping with its functions.
There is no mention of the operator’s entire local content plan being released to the general public. Rather, the Minister is only mandated to disclose excerpts pulled from the operator’s half-year and end-of-year reports.
“In all other cases, information submitted to the Minister in operator Local Content plans and appendices and half year and end of year local content reports shall remain confidential to the operator and Ministry.”

Features
Another feature of the policy is one which mandates the operator to provide to the Department a list of contracts it is expected to tender over the forthcoming half year, as well as the dates when they will invite expressions of interest.
As part of its reporting, operators will also have to provide figures of how much money they spent in Guyana’s economy from expenditure on services as well as goods. Another feature of the policy is that the operator has to describe its plans for supporting the development of local suppliers.

“In association with each project and related work, activities described in the operator’s yearly local content plan, the operator shall describe in its plan, programmes of support and development to Guyanese suppliers for the forthcoming year and for 2 to 5 years out that involve the operator and its primary contractors and shall include milestones and anticipated outcomes.”
According to the policy, some of the areas operators shall consider include supporting Guyanese in accessing the procurement process and international partnerships, developing skills, quality standards and certification, as well as “access to finance to develop capacity for Guyanese suppliers.”
During his press conference earlier in the week, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had warned that with the policy, the appropriate legislation to support it was necessary. He noted that it was, in fact, a rushed job.
“As it stands now, the deal will not work now in favour of our people and that has to be fixed…There is no big issue about Local Content Policy. We have to have a legislation. The legislation is what matters, not the policy. The policy, people can ignore that because it has no effect of law…You have to simplify it.”
“What is it we’re looking for from these oil companies to do? First of all, to make sure that they spend more in Guyana using Guyanese labour and using Guyanese business. More business has to flow to our people. That’s the purpose of a Local Content Policy…It’s a simple thing.”
Jagdeo noted the importance of ensuring that where locals have the capacity, they must be given the full opportunity to be employed. According to Jagdeo, at the end of the day, foreigners must not be brought in to do things Guyanese have comparable skills for.