Anti-corruption group Transparency Institute Guyana Incorporated (TIGI) yesterday accused the government of “deliberately” deceiving the nation on a signature bonus it received from United States oil company ExxonMobil for a renegotiated agreement that was signed last year.
“The government has failed to handle matters related to oil with transparency and it appears to have deliberately engaged in deception in relation to the matter of a signature bonus. The Minister of Natural Resources [Raphael Trotman] in particular and the government in general have done much to drain whatever residual confidence there was in their handling of the oil industry in Guyana,” TIGI said yesterday in a statement, where it called the disclosure of the signing bonus a “shock” to the nation.
The statement followed the publication of a Stabroek News report yesterday confirming correspondence, dated Septem-ber 20, 2016, from Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance Dr Hector Butts to the Governor of the Bank of Guyana (BoG) Dr Gobind Ganga with the reference line ‘Signing bonus granted by ExxonMobil – Request to open bank account.’
“I shall be grateful