Dear Editor,
As before, I find myself compelled to respond to a news article appearing in the Kaieteur News, and on this occasion, under the caption: ‘Resistance by oil companies is no excuse to continue contract secrecy. Consultant accuses government of being “disingenuous”.’
Without fear of contradiction, I can state the facts as follows:
1. The Cabinet of the Government of Guyana took a collective decision that I as Minister should write to all petroleum companies, which are licensed to operate in Guyana, informing them of government’s desire to publish their contracts and to seek their approval and collaboration. President David Granger neither advised, nor “instructed” me to take this course of action.
2. Every single petroleum operator responded in the affirmative and over the course of several months, the Ministry of Natural Resources was able to publish these contracts.
3. With respect to concessions in the forestry and mineral sector, the heads of the respective agencies, the Guyana Forestry Commission and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission were written to with the instruction that all contracts be sent to the Ministry. From this exercise, it was learnt that some contracts were entered into by various agencies during the life of the previous administration, and as such, were not all in their possession. It should also be remembered that these regulatory agencies have separate and concrete procedures for the granting and monitoring of licenses under which every company currently operates.
4. During the life of the current administration, no new awards were made in the petroleum sector, and only one large-scale permit was issued in the mineral sector, and that is for manganese mining. Where forestry is concerned, based on the President’s declaration of Guyana transitioning into a green state and his pledge to add an additional two million hectares to the pool of conserved forests, we have thus far refrained from granting any large-scale forest permits.
5. The Ministry of Natural Resources has written to the principals of every foreign-owned and large-scale operator and some responses have been received, and which did not grant consent, and yet, by no means have we abandoned our quest to publish everything. In fact, this is an ongoing process that engages several Ministries, the GYEITI and several international financial institutions.
6. It is disingenuous for Kaieteur News to take the straightforward answers to straightforward questions and to twist and contort them to suggest corruption and malfeasance by Government Ministers and officials.
It should be recalled that several months ago, members of the Parliamentary Opposition exercised their right to ask questions about whether any Ministers or officials had holdings in the mining and forestry sectors and the answers to these questions were published by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Parliament Office. It is strange that Kaieteur News made no mention of this.
The Ministry of Natural Resources will endeavour to manage the sector in as open a manner as possible and strenuously refutes any and all allegations and insinuations that it is obscuring details of contracts to benefit members of the current or past administration.
Lastly, both Kaieteur News and Dr Jan Mangal are free to make contact with me at any time, as was done in the past, for explanations or access to available information. There is no “Jack in the box” waiting to spring out to reveal some sordid deal.
Yours faithfully,
Raphael Trotman
