The main opposition grouping, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) yesterday called for the removal of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo from the oil and gas portfolio following confusion over a key audit which saw the Ministry of Natural Resources going beyond what had been recommended by the Guyana Revenue Authority.
In a statement yesterday, APNU said that Guyanese are alarmed over the news of the government’s flagrant and scandalous mishandling of the audit of ExxonMobil’s expenditure for the period 1999 to 2017. It charged that the explanations offered by Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat and VP Jagdeo expose their ineptitude and dereliction.
“Any responsible person with a modicum of common sense would, on receipt of a report on the slashing of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited’s questionable expenses from US$214M to US$3M, seek further information or clarification on the matter. But not VP Bharrat Jagdeo. He informed the nation that he accepted the report at face value and had no concerns and sought no explanations. This is negligence and malfeasance of the highest order.
“But worse, such negligence and malfeasance could lead to the loss of billions of dollars of public funds. The nation has travelled this road before with VP Jagdeo. The Skeldon Sugar factory modernization project, the Fibre Optics Cable project, and Su-gate (to name a few) have starkly exposed his incapabilities. He is out of his depth. The nation distrusts him”, APNU said.
It called for the immediate removal of Jagdeo from the handling of all the country’s oil and gas matters, declaring “Enough is enough!”
