Government on Thursday signaled that it would be moving to close loopholes in the local content legislation as Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat said there would be zero tolerance for those seeking to abuse the country’s citizenship laws for profit.
Speaking at a Private Sector Commission (PSC)-organized Local Content Forum, Bharrat said that he and President Irfaan Ali are awaiting the return of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo to hold meetings with stakeholders to discuss what measures can be taken to prevent another loophole in the legislation that was evident in the case of Ramps Logistics.
“…I can tell you that government is not happy. We expected companies to act in good faith…to act professionally,” Bharrat said during an address at the forum, while noting that it was time “to say what is on our minds”.
“We saw what played out and we will ensure that there are systems in place to ensure we deal with these matters, as they arise because we can’t have people holding a Guyana passport but never pay a dollar tax in this country to develop it where it where it is today. It is unfair and it is hurtful, too, that you can just show up,” the minister asserted.
“[They] never paid a dollar to develop this country. Don’t even know how that road was built or that school was built and how people was punishing for water in Berbice, like I did, or how children were studying with flambeau and kerosene lamp back in the days. But you just show up like that and want benefits? It is unfair. The government has taken note of that and it is not fair to us fighting every single day to develop this country to where it is today,” he added
According to the Minister of Natural Resources, when Jagdeo returns, there will be a series of meetings.
On Monday, minutes before the midday deadline that had been ordered by acting Chief Justice Roxane George on Friday, the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) issued Ramps Logistics (Guyana) Inc its Local Content Certificate.
The finding by the judge that the LCS improperly withheld certification has brought into sharp focus concerns that the Local Content Act is being used to favour certain businesses over others. The judge shredded the arguments advanced on Friday by the Attorney General’s Chambers in defence of the withholding of the company’s certification and also referenced the absence of regulations to ensure the proper functioning of the legislation.
Following the issuance of the certificate, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a statement expressing its disquiet, even as it said that the government respects the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and had therefore complied with the ruling.
The Ministry said that it had strong reservations about the eligibility of Ramps’ application for local content certification and that the government is exploring all available options, including an appeal of the judge’s ruling.
The statement added that the LCS will “continue to act in a professional manner and defend the people of Guyana consistent with the Local Content Act”.
Bharrat said that when the Local Content law was crafted, it was done with the objective of ascertaining how Guyanese can benefit from the emerging oil and gas sector and it should strengthen legislation and regulations so that more benefits flow.
He noted that while there are thousands of jobs in the petroleum sector, government understood the constraints of locals, especially for upstream services, and it was why only 40 services were singled out for locals, in the interim.
“The local content legislation was designed to ensure that it bring benefits to Guyana and Guyanese and Guyanese businesses. There are only 40 services in schedule one, fair enough. And we are as saying ‘Leave those forty services for Guyanese businesses. If you look at those 40 services, not all are 100%…so there is still an opportunity for foreign companies too. So we have not locked any company out. Some of them might run around crying and run to the courts saying we are unfair. We are not unfair. Anyone who knows the oil and gas sector knows there are thousands of services needed out there and we only identified 40 and said leave this for Guyanese,” he stressed.
He said that government has taken note that foreign companies wanting to capitalize here have studied the law and have channeled their investments to meet the mere requirements, in some cases just getting citizens as fronts.
“We are serious about people trying to rent citizens. We are serious about people now trying to acquire Guyanese passport just because of some line of family membership. We are serious about that too because it … It is only fair that us , who stayed who worked, who toiled, who scarified to develop this country that we should benefit first and Not people who are born elsewhere. But today they come to reclaim their citizenship just for benefits. That is why we issued the LCC but we have out reservations too,” he said to loud applause from attendees.
“We issued the certificate because we are law-abiding and we respect the rule of law. However, there are reservations by the government, and there are concerns by the Government that people cannot show up, or fall out of the sky, or appear after 70 or 80 years and say, ‘I’m Guyanese to the bone’. It cannot work like that. We are very concerned about it. I know people would have taken advantage,” he added.
When addressing the issue of defining who was a Guyanese for the purpose of the law, Bharrat said that persons proposed limiting the eligibility to “birth or residence” but added that government would not restrict those with ancestry as it expected investors coming here “to act in good faith”.
“We expected companies to act in good faith too, and not to resurrect people who were not born (here) but somebody was born, and then apply for a Guyana passport and then claim you are Guyanese 100% to the bone. We expected some amount of professionalism, we expected maturity, and we expected that companies would have acted in good faith; and obviously they didn’t,” he posited.
Guyana and government, according to Bharrat, are not naïve and fully understand that businesses come to maximize profits, and it is why there is an open door policy for investment. But he said that policy is not to be abused.
Government’s investor friendly position, he reasoned, is reflected in its stance for being adamant that it would not renegotiate the ExxonMobil PSA and they have “taken a lot of flak” for it.
“We have made our position clear that we will not renegotiate the existing PSA with ExxonMobil because we want Guyana to be seen as a stable country where your investment is secure …this is about our country. If we should do that [renegotiate], investors will not line up to invest, because it will look like every time a government change [their contract will change]…We don’t want Guyana to be seen as that,” he stressed.
“…We know when companies are coming to a country, you are coming to make money. Nobody could say you are coming to do charitable work…we have no problem with that. But what we are saying is Guyana and Guyanese must benefit equally,” he added.
