Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Dr. Vincent Adams says he is in communication with the Office of the President regarding his current work status.
Scheduled to resume duty yesterday after being sent off on his accumulated vacation leave in late August, Adams said that he did not return to his EPA office but is in communication with the Office of the President, as advised.
“No, I am not at office. I returned to Guyana and I am in communication with the Office of the President, as advised,” he told Stabroek News yesterday, when contacted.
With promises by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo that the Irfaan Ali PPP/C administration will seek to integrate Adams within the oil and gas sector, it is unclear in what capacity government will utilize his expertise.
“Mr. Vincent Adams is still off the job. We are looking to see, in the new architecture that we are creating for the managing of the energy sector, whether his skills can be utilized there,” Jagdeo had told his last press conference.
On the 27th of August, and on the heels of a key decision on approvals for ExxonMobil’s Payara well for which the EPA had outlined a number of critical concerns, Adams was sent on immediate leave.
He has decades of experience in the public and private sectors in environmental management, groundwater, and petroleum production fields, and worked on US$ billion dollar-projects at the United States Department of Energy, where he had served for some 30 years.
Adams’ abrupt exit from a process that he was actively a part of, as well as being this country’s lead technical person, drew public consternation and questions on the rationale for the move.
