Dear Editor,
‘Local content in the Guyana oil & gas context is a shameful bag of confidence tricks; a company will advertise for a product locally, for example, a Guard hut, the specifications would be high and the purchase limit set at USD 2500, locals would look at the specs and know it is impossible to deliver, the company then declares no interest was shown locally and proceed to import Guard huts costing well over USD 20,000 using the lack of local bids as justification. The same scenario plays out with hiring locals, offer locals an impossibly low salary for a qualified position, and then fill the vacancy with a foreign worker at ten times the price. This ‘local content’ sham will only end when the Government of Guyana implements policy and laws to regulate this and all other sectors of our economy. All Guyanese deserve a level playing field, especially when we are at home.
Sincerely,
Name and Address supplied