Former Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr Vincent Adams says that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira lied about his role here when she appeared yesterday before the UN Human Rights Committee.
In a letter addressed to the Human Rights Committee, Adams, who was fired by the PPP/C government, said that while listening yesterday to responses to its questions with respect to Guyana’s EPA, “I was flabbergasted by what appeared to be her carefully prepared answer littered with gross untruthfulness”.
He charged that it was a complete fabrication and disrespectfulness by the Minister towards the Committee, when she barefacedly proclaimed that he “oversaw the 2016 Exxon/Government of Guyana Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) which was widely criticized”; and that he was responsible for the hiding of some sort of US$18 Million signing bonus.
Adams pointed out that the PSA was signed in June 2016, while he was still employed as a Senior Executive (highest levels of the USA Government) with the highest national security clearance in the Department of Energy.
“As such, it would have been a very serious violation of the US laws, national security, and my oath of office to be working for another Government. Not only is this Minister’s accusation false and disrespectful to the Committee, but it also puts me at risk of being branded as conducting illegal and unpatriotic acts against the USA”, Adams asserted.
He added that he retired from the US Government on December 31, 2016, and did not take up employment as Head of the EPA until October 1, 2018, a full 2 years and 3 months after the PSA was signed.
He also adverted to a Stabroek News front page article of February 4, 2018, see https://www.stabroeknews.com/2018/02/04/news/guyana/exxon-should-pay-us1b-up-frontto-guyana-energy-expert-says/, to attest to the fact that he was the first to publicly criticize the PSA “before it became a popular thing to do; and driven by my professionalism, I have continued to do so, even when Head of the EPA under the previous Government that signed the PSA. Thus, her suggestion that I was responsible for crafting and defending it, is a deliberate falsehood to mislead the Committee”.
He pointed out that the EPA has absolutely nothing to do with the crafting and/or managing the PSA, for that would be an obvious conflict of interest. It was crafted, and is managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources, he added.
“I have not listened to the entire testimony of the Minister, but based upon this small portion on the EPA and my close following of the country’s Governance, it is crystal clear that all of her answers will undoubtedly be consistent with the incompetence, nontransparency and untruthfulness of the Government”, he told the committee members.
Guyana’s delegation was questioned on a range of topics yesterday including the reason for Adams’ dismissal. Adams’ dismissal by the government was widely seen as a move to seize control of the EPA and pave the way for swift approval of ExxonMobil projects.
Guyana is to face more questions today from the Geneva, Switzerland-based committee.
