Dear Editor,
On Sunday we read that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said that government has nothing to hide and will be transparent in all oil and gas-related matters, and that he has suggested that the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) set up a portal for the publishing of real-time information, but that initiative has not been taken up and it is unclear how the media would be able to access the information. It strained credulity to believe the MNR would not take up the V-P’s ‘suggestion’. Next we heard that currently ExxonMobil is forging ahead with the laying of a US$50M fibre optic cable under its ‘Fibre Optic Enablement Project,’ where it plans to connect the onshore and offshore operations so that there can be real-time oversight, and that the Minister of Legal Affairs said that the government will also be given a feed and it will also be able to independently monitor works. Ignoring the many implied non-sequiturs (like having to pass more legislation for this fibre-optic cable, when there are already privately-owned, successfully installed fibre optic cables for internet in existence), it became obvious that the Government was setting the stage for an excuse for not previously providing all the information the knowledgeable public has requested; and that we would have to await the fibre-optic cable for all to be revealed in the fullness of time.
And then President Ali told a virtual press conference on Monday, when asked about the lack of transparency and information on the sector, “We are working now on a website that will have all the production details; that will have all the revenue details… that will have all the expenditure details. We are presently putting that system and institution in place.” He said, “I do not believe that we have been hiding anything as it relates to the oil and gas sector, … every piece of information that the government has, every discussion we have had… has been made public and shared with the public.” Poor President Ali! He has to operate in the realm of belief when conducting the country’s oil business. If he genuinely believes what he said, why did his MNR not tell Transparency Institute Guyana Inc., (TIGI) that the fibre-optic cable and internet had to be set up before the information that was requested months ago could be given? Let me therefore proceed to enlighten President Ali, Vice-President Jagdeo, Hon Ministers Nandlall & Bharrat, and our benighted EPA, who is supposed to advise the government on behalf of the citizens, of the very real dangers of ignorance of the information TIGI requested. It does not require a fibre-optic cable to give us the information.
Between 2012 and 2014, I engineered, installed, and commissioned meters to read electricity and other interesting variables in real time remotely over the internet so that I did not have to physically visit to monitor energy in the industries I advised. One of my associates saw such a meter installed at the Centre for Local Business Development (CLBD) of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd (EEPGL). So the oil companies are very much aware of how to monitor and transmit the information, even if the politicians, the advisers they surround themselves with, and the EPA do not. The internet, then and now in existence, supported the transmission of the data. It is not molecular biology or rocket science, because many Guyanese householders, who have installed security cameras, can, from anywhere in the world where there is internet, see on their cell phones what their home cameras are seeing. The President had better check if his security knows about this version of the internet of things (IoT).
Should our leaders wish more of the clarity they professed to lack about how the media can access such information, they have only to ask. TIGI has teachers, who have lived for decades on the Guyanese teachers’ pay scales, and who can teach them about Open Data, Open Contracting, and Open Government, where citizens live more satisfactorily with opportunities more according to their abilities, and less according to who they know. The oil companies can run and monitor their operations continuously with computers and internet from satellite. And when they do eventually put in the fibre-optic cable, we will expect even better data. Let them not make more fools of us.
Sincerely,
Alfred Bhulai
TIGI
