Dear Editor,
The oil giant Exxon Mobil has imported its own brand of cronyism to the shores of Guyana. In 2016, then Country Manager of Exxon Mobil, Jeff Simmons, was on record stating that the company will ensure that local content accounts for 95% of its operations.
However, this promise to the Guyanese people is yet to be upheld and further, what category of jobs are our people getting? Late 2017 and early this year, the company published vacancies for several positions that a range of Guyanese would have been qualified for. These positions include Materials Management Coordinator, Media Relations Analyst, Community Relations Manager, Safety Advisor, Executive Administrative Assistant, Facilities Coordinator, Facilities Engineer, Logistics Analyst and Operations Support Analyst. These positions required a Bachelors degree in a range of disciplines including Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Management, Public Affairs, Communications, Information Technology, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering and Environmental Science.
These programmes are all offered by the University of Guyana and there must be hundreds of Guyanese graduates out there who would be grateful for these positions. However, through interaction at various expos it appears that no Guyanese were hired for these positions.
This company has proven itself on numerous occasions to be totally disrespectful to the Guyanese people. They have managed to find yet another way of disenfranchising our youths in favour of “a friend of a friend” rather than qualified Guyanese.
So, Exxon Mobil, were Guyanese actually hired for these positions?
Yours faithfully,
Emmanuel Gittens
