Economist Dr. Mark Bynoe has been appointed by President David Granger to head the soon to be formed Department of Energy (DoE) but his lack of experience in the oil and gas sector has raised questions about his suitability for the portfolio.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon yesterday confirmed that Bynoe had been appointed and that he would be taking up the position this week.
Sources within government told this newspaper that Bynoe was handpicked by Granger and that even the five ministers the President had delegated to overlook the sector in the absence of the DoE “were left in shock” when Granger introduced Bynoe to them for the first time last week.
“He is His Excellency’s choice and no one else had a say in that matter…I can’t answer you as to if the vacancy was advertised or not but I do know that applications were received by some individuals and they were being looked at. It came as quite a shock and, as far as I am aware, the ministers were left in shock when they were told this is the chosen man,” the source said.
But according to former Presidential Advisor on Petroleum Jan Mangal, the requirements for the person to head such an integral institution were laid out in a plan that had been compiled during his tenure and which was discussed as recent as March of this year. That plan included that the vacancy be advertised globally so as to get the best person.
“The head of the new Department of Energy, per the plan from March, was to be someone with international gravitas, someone who could challenge the likes of (former US Secretary of State and former Head of ExxonMobil) Rex Tillerson, for example, who was comfortable talking [oil and gas] with Ministers from the major producing countries and the top executives from the major oil companies,” Mangal stated yesterday.
“Some of the qualifications were: High level ministerial experience in natural resources, Executive level experience with a major Oil & Gas company (such as Shell, Exxon, Chevron, BP, etc). Hence the candidates were to be former Ministers or Vice-Ministers from major oil producing countries who also spent time in industry at the executive level. The objective was to hire the best from around the world, and the intention was to advertise transparently in top international magazines (such as the Economist). It is unlikely any Guyanese would have fit the criteria, but that was accepted back in March,” he added.
Mangal believes that the new DoE is “the last chance Guyana has to make this oil business benefit the people of Guyana.” He said that the Ministry of Natural Resources, under the leadership of Minister Raphael Trotman “forfeited three years and almost every decision taken by the Ministry favoured the oil company and did not favour the people of Guyana.”
“The new Department of Energy was meant to remedy the situation, but it is baffling why the appointment of the first and top position did not follow the plan from March,” Mangal said.
This newspaper reached out to Dr. Bynoe for comment but he explained that it would be unethical of him to speak about the appointment before formally being introduced by the President
“I would say that it is best until the President makes an official announcement where he wishes to go with this and it would be remiss of me and totally unethical to be giving any kind of interview at this time,” he said.
Bynoe is the Managing Director of the George-town-based Development Policy and Management Consultants firm.
Qualifications
On the company’s website, his listed qualifications include a PhD from the University of East Anglia in Economics (Environmental economics). “He has wide ranging experience in development-, trade-, and environment-related issues and possesses strong analytical and quantitative skills. Specifically, he has been involved in a variety of socio-economic studies during the conduct of Environmental Impact Assessments, and assessing and economically quantifying climate change impacts,” the company’s website states.
“Furthermore, Dr. Bynoe has worked, in collaboration with Distinguished Professor Clive Thomas on assessing the Impact of Agricultural Trade and Related Reforms on Domestic Food Security, looking at poverty indicators and nutritional statistics, among other things. He has published widely in reputable journals on issues of environmental economics, trade and environmental impact assessment,” it added.
In April of this year, the President had said that there would have been a global search to find staffing for the DoE.
“We are conducting talks and we have a road map we have to identify personnel, we have to identify buildings we have to and start advertising to attach quality personnel that can lead this important department into the future. We are being very careful,” Granger had said.
He had said then that he was confident that by May 1st there would have been some announcement on staffing. Nonetheless, preparatory work was being done by government to see this realised, but he did not go into details on what structure the agency would have or what rules or regulations were followed for its setting up. It is unclear if it will be part of the public service.
“It is going to be a challenge because this is an international industry. We are aiming at a world-class industry, so we have to get the best. As you know, Guyana has no experience in the field and we have a small petroleum unit, which is now in the Ministry of Natural Resources and we obviously have to attract the best people from around the world. So, we are not attempting to avoid that responsibility, so have to be careful,” he said when asked about human resource constraints.
The date for the DoE’s establishment was moved to “sometime soon in August.”
The APNU+AFC government has been heavily criticised for not hiring experts to oversee the negotiations with ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, in 2016 for the controversial Production Sharing Agreement, which many analysts have said has left Guyana with far less than it should be receiving when oil production begins in 2020.
Trotman, who was responsible for the petroleum sector, gave up those responsibilities earlier this year and announced that the DoE would be formed, while saying he believed that the President should be able to shape the vision for oil and gas.
Both Trotman and government denied that the plan to establish a DoE to oversee the petroleum sector was due to the criticism directed at both him and the government over the contract negotiated with ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary and its partners.
