Member of the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee Deonarine Ramsaroop has expressed disappointment that ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were absent from yet another meeting on Friday.
He made this disclosure to the media during a press conference also held on Friday by the Alliance Change (AFC), where it was mentioned that EMGL and EPA continue to make excuses for their absence at meetings convened by the parliamentary committee.
Ramsaroop said Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat, who is the committee’s vice-chair, was also absent.
According to the AFC member, the opposition had compiled approximately 15 questions for the minister relative to the findings of the auditors and the developments in the gas-to-energy (GTE) project.
“Parliament is not a cake shop and if the government believes that this is a cake shop and does not have the relevant agencies to come to us to the sectoral committee, we are not going to take it lightly. We’re going to execute the standing orders where we are going to summon these agencies directly to come to Parliament,” Ramsaroop said.
Endorsing his colleague’s statement, Leader of the AFC Khemraj Ramjattan highlighted Standing Order 86 of the National Assembly which states that the committees can summon individuals and organisations to provide evidence and answer questions.
“They can call for their papers and they can call for their records and documents and they are to give evidence by the legislative body’s Evidence Act whereby they can be forced to answer questions” he expounded.
Ramjattan who is an attorney-at-law alluded to the similarity with congressional committees in the United States of America where Exxon must answer questions and provide evidence if required.
He is of the firm view that Minister Bharrat who is tasked with the management of the natural resources sector here and is also the vice-chairman of the natural resources committee in Parliament is neglecting his responsibilities. Ramjattan is adamant that the government official must get his act together
The AFC Leader questioned “Why are they not showing up at the meeting? Is it that they have something to hide? You don’t want to be accountable? You don’t want to be scrutinized? What is it that you want to hide? Is it because these are the committees where you could get all the answers?”
Meanwhile, former minister of public telecommunications Catherine Hughes, who is also a member of the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee, said that the committee, through Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs, had written the request to Exxon, through the Prime Minister’s office to follow the established protocols.
Hughes related that when her party queried on Friday about the reason for Exxon not appearing, they were informed that Isaacs requested copies of the correspondences from the Office of the Prime Minister which were sent to Exxon.
She said, “As a member of the committee we know that we have been sending letters since November of last year so we are going over to six months and of course what has been told, is although we request that if you can’t make the proposed date, please recommend a date, the subsequent correspondence just says we are unable to attend.
“The Evidence Act allows us to take this up a notch. The first step would be for the Clerk of the National Assembly Mr Isaacs to write to the two organizations next week; we have asked that. We hope to have a response before the next statutory meeting which is in two weeks and if not then we will certainly go under the Evidence Act and summon the representative to speak with the committee.”
