AFC has exhibited duplicitous leadership

I find the report by Mr. Raphael Trotman, leader of the key coalition party Alliance For Change (AFC) that his party will not support the Sedition Clause (clause 18) in the Cybercrime Bill of 2016 most astonishing. Mr. Trotman must be aware that Chairman and immediate past leader of the AFC and Vice-President of Guyana Khemraj Ramjattan and AFC MP Mr. Michael Carrington were members of the Committee and that both were present and voted to retain the dangerously offensive clause 18.

In fact, Mr. Ramjattan played a key role in the Committee, including referring the Bill to a lecturer at a meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association which he attended and also in offering guidance to the Select Committee that the “Commonwealth has a standard Legislation/Model Act and the Cybercrime Bill emanated from that Act.” At best, Mr. Ramjattan could only have been referring to the 2002 Commonwealth Computer and Computer Related Crimes Model Law. Incidentally, a 2014 Discussion Paper on Cybercrime Model Laws prepared for the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T – CY) reports that the Commonwealth Model Law could not be found on the Commonwealth Secretariat’s website and has “been of little relevance in terms of impact upon Commonwealth countries or even generally.”

The reason that I find Trotman’s statement so offensive is that it represents a pattern of conduct in which Trotman and the leadership of the AFC seek to distance the Party whenever questions arise in the public over odious matters supported by the Party in private. Under the Party’s duplicitous leadership, the policy is to support even the most reprehensible and outrageous acts of the Coalition and in the event there is public outrage, the reaction is distance, deny and disown. They did so in relation to VAT on education, the parking meter contract and the Esso/Hess and CNOOC/NEXEN petroleum contract.

Having played a leading role in the formation of the AFC, including hosting and chairing pre-formation meetings, the writing of the party’s constitution, the selection of the party’s logo, and participation in almost every single meeting of the parliamentary party to plan strategies and responses to the annual budgets under the PPP/C, I am shocked to see what the party has become – opportunistic, self-serving and dishonest – seeking only to promote the interests and comforts of a few leading members.

Having read the Report and the Minutes of the Select Committee and the Bill as recommended to the National Assembly, it is clear to me that the high-powered Select Committee did a rather superficial and poor job under the chairmanship of the Attorney General Basil Williams. The APNU and the AFC have used the ruse of a Cybercrime Bill to reintroduce Sedition Legislation nakedly seeking to protect not the State but the Government. That is not what cybercrime laws are about.

My recommendation is that the entire Bill be scrapped and replaced by a Bill based on the Budapest Convention.

Guyana needs an informed and dispassionate debate on local content policies for oil industry

The heading of yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek column by Professor Clive Thomas “Why local content measures are considered ‘backward backdoor protectionism?”, while framed as a question, conveys in my view, an unfortunate negative connotation about local content policies. Dr. Thomas holds the prestigious and influential position of Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development and his writings will no doubt help to shape national policies. Admittedly, the two preceding columns seemed more disposed to local content requirements (LCR) in oil and gas contracts but in this latest column, I am less sure.

Oil discoveries have been made in deepwater areas off Guyana, which means that the first time we will be able to use our oil is after it has been shipped off to a refinery and re-imported into Guyana. If the advisers, policy makers and the managers of the economy, choose to think that local content is not an important matter, the public needs to understand that the major difference between when the first oil flows and now, will at best be manifested in lower domestic fuel price and the balance going into the public revenues. Under Guyana’s model Production Sharing Agreement, there is no separate tax revenue: the Government’s share of profit oil includes the taxes. What this means is that we can use our share of profit oil as we see fit: the Government can sell the oil on the domestic market at reduced prices, or put the value into the Consolidated Fund, or a combination of the two. At this stage, the Constitution allows only for a single Consolidated Fund and would need to be amended to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Dr. Thomas’ column yesterday seeks to summarise two reports on local content policies in the petroleum sector. The first is by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the other by the World Bank. I do not share Dr. Thomas’ view of these as examples of “even more formidable body of empirical studies examining the operations of LCRs in the oil and gas sector”. Guyana has certainly gone through an intellectual transformation from the days when the World Bank-endorsed IMF’s Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) was parodied as Empty Rice Pot by the leadership of both the PPP and the WPA. Continue reading “Guyana needs an informed and dispassionate debate on local content policies for oil industry”

Current petroleum regulations require oil companies to incorporate local content in their operations

Guyana’s oil discovery has attracted droves of foreigners, from near and far, even as the country grapples with concepts of local content – presumably for the current generation – and Sovereign Wealth Fund for succeeding generations of Guyanese. What is surprising is that we speak of local content as if the concept is new to Guyana and the sector. In fact, it is not and here is why.

The Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Regulations 1986 contains a requirement that the application for a petroleum prospecting licence and for a petroleum production licence must contain a statement giving particulars of the applicant’s proposals with respect to the employment and training of citizens of Guyana while in the case of the production licence there is the additional requirement that the application shall include a report of the goods and services required for the production and processing operations which can be obtained within Guyana and the applicant’s intention in relation thereto. Continue reading “Current petroleum regulations require oil companies to incorporate local content in their operations”

It is a misconception that the Constitution gives precedence to judges for appointment to Gecom Chairman

I have followed with more than passing interest the debate on the interpretation of Article 161 of the Constitution which deals with the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom). Article 161 (1) requires the Chairman to be full-time and mandates that he shall not engage in any other employment. The real debate however has been in relation to Article 161 (2) which deals exclusively with the Chairman and his appointment.

For brevity, let me state that 161 (2) sets out the classes of persons eligible for appointment as Chairman as: current or former judges, persons qualified to be appointed as a judge (which is seven years after admission to the Bar) or other fit and proper person. The persons shall be named in a list submitted to the President by the Leader of the Opposition, not unacceptable to the President. Article 161 (2) has a proviso which states that if the Leader of the Opposition fails to submit a list, the President will appoint as Chairman a judge, former judge or one qualified to be a judge. Continue reading “It is a misconception that the Constitution gives precedence to judges for appointment to Gecom Chairman”

Phillips misrepresented the contents of the SARA Bill

Messrs Eric Phillips in a letter dated February 28, and on the newspaper’s Blog, and Tacuma Ogunseye in a letter dated March 1, 2017, both employed in the State Asset Recovery Unit, threw caution, logic, facts and decency to the wind in defence of their boss, Professor Clive Thomas. Based on a subsequent telephone call I made to Mr Ogunseye, a friend of many, many years, it appears that his problem with me is a concern that I am engaged in the formation of a third party.

I never thought that the exercise of a democratic right of a citizen would cause such concern to a genuine freedom and resistance fighter, and I can only guess at the effect political power, absolute loyalty and employment have on people. While it is my right to engage in political activity of my choice, to put Mr Ogunseye’s mind at ease, I assured him that I am not and have not been involved in any discussion or plan to establish a political party. Continue reading “Phillips misrepresented the contents of the SARA Bill”