Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 59)

Introduction

It was good to see Dr. Mark Bynoe, Director/Head of the Department of Energy in the Ministry of the Presidency speaking publicly on the petroleum sector. While Minister Joseph Harmon has been assigned responsibility for the sector by President Granger, and will necessarily be answerable to the National Assembly, the day to day management and oversight of the sector seem now to fall squarely on Dr. Bynoe.

In an interview with the State-owned Guyana Chronicle published last Wednesday, Dr. Bynoe was cautious about any “revisiting, revising, [or] renegotiating” any petroleum agreement but in a masterpiece of officialese, assured the Chronicle that “we” will continue to engage deeply to ensure that value leakage is reduced wherever possible. Continue reading “Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 59)”

Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 58)

Introduction

Amid all the noise about audits and Memorandum of Understanding, it is understandable and not at all surprising that a letter to the editor might have received less attention than it would have otherwise deserved. I suggest to every reader of this column to go back to last Friday’s Stabroek News and read the letter published under the name of Mr. Stephon Gabriel, Communications Officer of the Ministry of Natural Resources. Last Saturday was of course more than six weeks after Gabriel’s Ministry had ceded responsibility for petroleum to the Department of Energy in the Ministry of the Presidency and the timing of the letter raises interesting questions.

That letter, which would no doubt have been cleared at the highest level of the Ministry, made the astounding revelation that the Ministry had been given the strict responsibility (emphasis added) of ensuring ‘first oil’ production by 2020. As if to emphasise the point, Gabriel reported that that was “the preeminent objective over the past three years”. Continue reading “Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 58)”

There are several circumstances inscribed in law under which the police could stop motorists

I was impressed with the alacrity with which the Guyana Bar Association sought to defend by implication the expletive laden rant by Berbician Attorney-at-Law Ryan Crawford when he was stopped by a policeman recently. Conveniently, the Bar Association avoided naming its member because “the matter is under investigation”, while at the same time repeated Crawford’s misleading statement to the effect that “a motorist can only be stopped by a uniformed police officer for due cause if he has formed the reasonable suspicion in his mind that an offence has been committed.” Moreover, the Bar Association issued a veiled threat to the police officer, and the general public, over the sharing and posting of [obscene] recordings on social media.

No question that any citizen, even those without an expletive middle name, has the right to inquire from the police officer of the reason for his being stopped. But that must be done politely and respectfully, even if firmly. After all, there are some awful police officers, as there are in any vocation or profession, including the legal profession. Continue reading “There are several circumstances inscribed in law under which the police could stop motorists”

Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 57)

Introduction

It has been over one month since the Ministry of Finance tabled in the National Assembly a fifty-one page document which it claims presents “preliminary proposals” to stimulate discussion on its plan for managing the flows from petroleum operations following first oil estimated to flow by the end of the first quarter of 2020. Central to the proposal are what is called the “fiscal rule”, embodied in the second element and that is a Natural Resource Fund to be established under a Natural Resource Fund Act.

I have projected that revenue from petroleum within the next calendar decade will account for approximately eighty percent of government revenues with both negative and positive implications for generations to come. Will we go the way of so many countries of which Nigeria, Venezuela and Democratic Republic of the Congo seem to be the poster children, unable to use their natural resources to improve the wellbeing of their people, reduce the wealth and income gap and fairly distribute their patrimony among all their people – born and unborn? Or could we follow the path of Chile and Botswana which have used very similar resources but pursuing a very different path, to transform their countries and the lives of their people? Of course in so many ways, Singapore, without any natural resources, has been an outstanding example, if not of a political model, but of what inspired vision and leadership can do for a country. Continue reading “Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 57)”

Any delegating of authority to GRA to audit transactions under Petroleum Agreement will raise legal and other questions

I congratulate Mr. Godfrey Statia, Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority for the tone of his letter in your pages – SN Sept. 7, 2018 `As an agent of the Gov’t for tax collection, GRA is acting as lawful delegate in auditing ExxonMobil.’ Without my stating it, the respect he expressed for me, and I am sure for Mr. John Seeram as well, is mutual and is based not out of friendship going back more than thirty years but out of my conviction that despite the exasperating bureaucracy that taxpayers are forced to deal with, Mr. Statia and his officers are doing a good job under challenging circumstances.

His was a response to my letter (SN Sept. 6, 2018 `GRA tax audit is no substitute for the audit of the transactions under the oil contract’) in which I distinguished between an audit by the GRA and one under what is popularly but incorrectly referred to as the ExxonMobil Contract. He acknowledged this only by implication by suggesting that the GRA can carry out this other audit by delegation from the Minister under Article 6.2 of the Petroleum Agreement which allows the Minister to delegate to Other Government entities the performance of these or any other duties under the Contract. Continue reading “Any delegating of authority to GRA to audit transactions under Petroleum Agreement will raise legal and other questions”