…oil money creates
Mouth open and story jumped out!!! And what a story it is!! Reporting on this story can make even the most staid family newspaper (like this one!) appear sensational! Here we have the biggest oil find of the decade by the oil behemoth Exxon off the shores of Guyana, which has the potential to be the long-hoped-for game changer for this long-suffering country.
All eyes are on the country, especially for hanky-panky by the Government officials dealing with the Oil Major. After all, the world now has decades of experience with countries — especially in Africa — that were as dirt poor as us before they found oil; and remained so even after TRILLIONS of dollars of oil was shipped out!! Where did the money go?
Some went towards profligate projects for support at the polls, but most went into private bank accounts of Government officials. And that’s the sad truth. And there’s no use blaming the oil companies; if they don’t play the “under the table” game, the countries simply pick another that does! It’s the way the (oil) world turns.
But forewarned is forearmed, no? Well…No!! Even with Trotman and Jordan being the cynosure of ALL eyes, they pulled a scam. It’s like the fellas on the street with their “three-card-monte”. Their hands are moving right in front of your eyes, but they still manage to pull off their scam. It all has to do with misdirection; and that is just what Trotman and Jordan did.
First of all, they claimed they couldn’t renegotiate the original 1999 contract — which was bull, since that contract had sunset clauses that just happened to kick in not long after oil was discovered. And so Exxon had to renegotiate by 2016. This was sheepishly admitted by Trotman, the Resource Minister — who should be renamed “the Resourceful Minister”! — when he BOASTED he ‘renegotiated” the Royalty from 1% to 2%!!
That fact alone signalled that Trotman was playing footsies under the table! The norm is around 8% to 15% — which translated to billions (US!). So now we found out about the bonus, which Trotman says ISN’T a bonus, but a fee to fight big and bad Venezuela. Are we to believe that to get a PSA on 3billion barrels of oil, Exxon had to fork out just US$25milion??
Naaah!! The search must continue to unearth the secret bank accounts of Government officials — in addition to Trotman and Jordan — into which payoffs might’ve been deposited.
Remember the US$300 million deposited into the account of Equatorial Guinea’s ruler, BRIG. GEN. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, in the Riggs Bank in Washington?
…the AFC weaves in Berbice
Moses Nagamootoo used his time during the Budget Debate to try extricating his size six shoes from his mouth on the unfolding sugar tragedy. Apart from exposing the correlation between his foot size and testicular fortitude and other allied prowess, it was a pathetic performance. And “performance” it certainly was!
The two Berbice estates are already sold, and NOW he suggests “plans” for the workers? OK…it’s true that cane-cutters and their children weren’t born with cane-bundles on their heads, but they certainly also weren’t born with silver spoons in their mouths. So how will they survive to be “trained for oil and gas” when there have been absolutely no provisions for alternative employment?
“Oil jobs”? Where are they? Last your Eyewitness heard, there will be employment for only a few hundred at Muneshwer’s East Bank facility — for which they received 4000+ applications!! As usual, Nagamootoo just bloviates! He suggests “cash crops”. Has GuySuCo leased land to the workers?
As his sidekick Ramjattan would say, “Haul yuh ass!”
…on infrastructure
APNU and AFC berated the PPP on their infrastructural focus, yet adopted the PPP programme when they got into Government. But why the surprise to bemoan CJIA’s delayed and needs more funds?
Have they completed a single project on time and on budget?
