Dear Editor,
Almost from the first discovery of oil below our seafloor, I have been absorbing the righteous indignations over local content policy, or lack of one that hits the sweet spots for Guyanese. But on Sunday, we were all informed by the President himself that consultations on local content policy were set to begin on Monday; they did. That is a good first start; and my own take follows on where this should lead, and where it may not.
I read of documenting a slew of clauses and conditions in our local content policy, to memorialize and enshrine, what we insist is the national position, on how things should be locally, with our people and country reaping the benefits. That is good, in the saying and the putting on paper. Hard requirements and nonnegotiable positions, which must all be met, as to what must prevail. Jobs for Guyanese; penalties for breaches; and foreign payment of taxes, among other mandatory positions. Those all speak for themselves and are supportable; they are good to hear about first, and then to see committed to paper. I agree and stand in support of that I read. The word is that local content policy will cover all sectors, which is even more agreeable. The playing field must be leveled, so that Guyanese are not condemned to be stonecutters and bottom feeders.
Editor, with all that in mind, and with no intention of being a winter blast, I must be realistic and bring citizens on the same page with me. We have, and are, being held prisoner by foreign countries and companies. We, who have never experienced such sustained interest on most things, and could barely get the time of day from the occasional hard bargaining foreign investor, are suddenly overrun by unending waves of them, from everywhere, but mainly from the advanced and deep-pocketed North. Thus far, numerous foreign investors and companies have come here and put a rope around our necks, to quickly suck the air out of any leadership resistance, while extracting the richness from national treasures. All the components of what could be an official, and inspiring local content policy will have considerable cost elements for foreign operators in Guyana. They are maximum profit seekers, functioning in a highly competitive world, with still higher shareholder expectations, and almost zero accommodation for disappointment. They may agree publicly, while stubbornly resisting secretly. How successful they are, for how long they will be allowed to succeed at either dodging or denying the objectives of our national local content policy, in the future is up in the air currently. And how much political will there is to hold them to local content requirements is another grab-bag of uncertainty. The record of the recent past is not encouraging. The foreigners have been allowed by Guyana’s governments to get away with the barest minimum, regarding delivery with what is good for Guyana. To emphasize the mindset of foreign investor, I remind my contemporaries of negative and dismissive American investor reaction to the court award for Union Carbide’s chemical spill in that forlorn, impoverished outpost named Bhopal.
I further remind my fellow Guyanese that we have had comprehensive policies before on non-oil things, and then we sit back contentedly and do absolutely nothing more. To state differently, we have had a long and solid history of crafting robust policies, and then a troubled record of immediately mothballing them on the shelf to gather dust and cobweb from nonuse. To be clearer still, there is neither implementation nor enforcement. It is like a rich man who goes through with the public spectacle of a will for the handling of his business, but then promptly and quietly buries it at sea. My hope is that we do not do the same following all the current fanfare about local content policy. For certain, our final local content policy will have all the elements identified before and more. The big challenge and test would be what is done with the policy, how widely, how seriously, and how effectively. If we can do those on an uninterrupted basis, we will get something from this oil (and other treasures). In the next instance, if we don’t, then it will be business as usual, with ceaseless squabbling and bickering following. And that will be only the first down payments on the price to be paid.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall