Dear Editor,
It is ridiculous to believe that “Trotman’s hurried negotiation would place him solely at fault for failure to capitalise on Guyana’s strong bargaining position” as Kaieteur News asserted in their article dated February 9, 2020 and captioned “Announcement of Liza-2 find, one day after contract signing, shows ExxonMobil’s dishonesty – Chris Ram”.
The repeated overkilling and unreasonable focus on Trotman is a distraction from the clear reality that it was President David Granger and his key aides including Minister Raphael Trotman that led to this most corrupt of Petroleum Agreements – that stole the assets and generations of prosperity from the Guyanese people.
Limousine rides, five star hotels and other special treatment are not unusual for global companies such as Exxon to use in dealing with their clients. Anyone who knows Raphael, as I have since we were kids, would know that Raphael Trotman grew up in an upper class environment and was not unaccustomed to living in comfort and even luxuriously by Guyana’s standard and he has enjoyed economic, academic and political success as an adult. Limousine rides and accommodation at five star hotels were factors of no significance to the indefensible, disadvantageous and grossly unfair Petroleum Agreement.
Stabroek News’ article dated February 6, 2020; carrying the headline “Exxon pressured gov’t for speedy signing of 2016 pact – Cabinet-sanctioned report” included the following odious revelation “On 19 May 2015, the law firm said, it understands that ExxonMobil sent a proposed “Escrow Process” flowchart, setting out the various steps and timeline for the execution of a new petroleum agreement. This was accepted and is now the current contract.”
We could have no more damning evidence than the above referenced escrow letter from Exxon resulting in the current terms of the Petroleum Agreement that allowed 10s of billions of United States Dollars to be lost to the Guyanese people.
The enormity of the sellout by the APNU+AFC Government would have been sufficient to pay each Guyanese aged 18 years and above, G$100,000 per month for thirty years starting in 2020. This does not account for the trillions of cubic feet of natural gas already partially disclosed to the Government of Guyana but not transparent to the Guyanese people.
The unprecedented scale of deceit and dishonesty in Guyana’s politics reverberate around the Exxon Petroleum Agreement, with leaders of APNU+AFC and all the vocal and silent enablers against renegotiation of this most exploitative and extortionate contract that condemns masses of Guyanese to be hewers of wood and water fetchers is a total betrayal and sellout of Guyanese.
Embarrassing, shameful, corrupt and disgraceful are the words that frame my thoughts in relation to the absurd Petroleum Agreement/Arrangement between the Government of Guyana and their so called partners led by Exxon. The APNU+AFC inner clique led by President Granger, have allowed principle and integrity in public office to be thrown overboard and be replaced by greed for maintenance of power and the lust for power, with absolutely no regards for the economic and social needs of the Guyanese people.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Hinds
