Amid Guyana’s embarrassing suspension from a natural resources transparency body, President Irfaan Ali yesterday pledged that his government is firmly committed to openness and accountability and sought to blame members of a stakeholder group for the predicament the country now faced.
Yesterday’s Stabroek News reported on Guyana’s suspension from the Norway-based Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) for failing to meet an end-of-year submission of the 2020 report.
Official notification of the suspension was transmitted to the government on February 17 but there was no statement until the publication of the news item in yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News.
Without mentioning the SN report, President Ali in a Facebook video said that his government was strongly in support of transparency.
“This government stands resolute and strongly behind every single institution that promotes transparency and accountability. We will spare no effort in advancing transparency and accountability in everything we do.
“I’ve already made it clear that it is unacceptable to have a delay in the submission of our report. Notwithstanding the fact that an extension was given by EITI Secretariat … we still should have been in a position to have the report submitted”, he said.
The President added that he has made it very clear that he will not tolerate delay in the presentation and submission of the country’s report.
He then sought to assign blame for the delay in the submission of the report to the multi-stakeholder group which forms part of GY-EITI, the local correspondent of EITI.
“In examining the cause and effect of this delay I have found out a number of things, one, the Government of Guyana in keeping with its mandate and in keeping with its transparency and accountability hired an independent administrator to complete the report.
“However for four months the multi-stakeholder group the MSG had the TOR (Terms of Reference) for this administrator on hold, on pause that is they did not approve the TOR for the international administrator.
“This begs the question whether there are persons on that group with ulterior motives… it is now after four months that we are able to have the TOR agreed upon with two persons abstaining. This is unacceptable to put a country’s reporting framework at stake”, Ali asserted.
Sources had told Stabroek News that sections of the MSG had had serious differences with the head of GY-EITI, Dr Prem Misir over a number of issues and this had retarded progress on the report.
Noting that the country has now been given an extension, the President said: “I want to further state that Guyana stands committed in working with the EITI Secretariat in fulfilling our responsibility and our mandate. And we are going to further strengthen the MSG to ensure the credibility of Guyana to ensure the work in relation to transparency and accountability in the natural resources sector is not affected by ulterior motive or desire”.
He said that the government desires to have a strong monitoring framework.
“…one or two persons cannot drag an entire country and its credibility at stake. No. I have made it clear to this sector that this will not reoccur in the future and persons will be exposed and held accountable”, the President asserted.
This same line was taken by the Ministry of Natural Resources which issued its own statement on the fiasco.
MNR said “Guyana remains fully committed to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and it has demonstrated strong leadership in fulfilling its reporting mandate.
This leadership has been manifested in our continued and unwavering efforts in working to meet all deadlines established under the EITI”.
MNR said that there were a number of intervening challenges during the reporting period, including a national flood disaster and restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges associated with the pandemic resulted in the EITI Board approving an extension for the 2019 report for all countries.
The intervening challenges also affected data collection efforts and effectively required Guyana to submit two reports in one calendar year.
MNR said that more importantly, there has been deliberate frustration with the approval of the TOR for the Independent International Administrator.
“Guyana wishes to point out that its temporary suspension is solely linked to its inability to meet the statutory deadline of December 31, 2022 to submit the independent report by the Independent Administrator on the account of, in the main, the delay perpetuated by some members” of the MSG, it said.
The reasons for the delay in submitting the report were communicated to the International Secretariat of EITI. This was followed by a meeting with Dr. Mark Robinson, Executive Director of the EITI International Secretariat, seeking an extension to May 31, 2023. At this meeting, the Guyana team was assured of the requested extension.
On receipt of the letter dated February 17, 2023 regarding temporary suspension, MNR said that it immediately wrote to the International Secretariat outlining once again the reasons for the delay and Guyana’s commitment to transparency in the extractive sectors.
After a period of four months, it said that the TOR for the Independent Administrator has finally been unanimously approved with two Civil Society members of the MSG; Mike McCormack and Vanda Radzik, abstaining from voting.
“The government trusts that the country’s temporary suspension is reconsidered as Guyana seeks to urgently have its outstanding report submitted. The people of our nation should rest assured that Guyana’s transparency credentials are stronger now than it has ever been before.
“This administration remains committed to ensuring that the report is submitted long before the extended date of July 31, 2023 given by the International Secretariat in its correspondence dated February 17, 2023”, MNR said.
EITI countries commit to disclose information along the extractive industry value chain – from how extraction rights are awarded, to how revenues are channelled through government and how they benefit the public. Through participation in the EITI, more than 50 countries have agreed to a common framework governing what has to be disclosed and when – the EITI Standard. Now that Guyana is an oil producer the Standard is seen to be even more important.
In each country that has joined the EITI, a multi-stakeholder group, comprised of government, companies and civil society, supports implementation of the EITI Standard.
