Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 07, 2018 News
– Questions regarded as “hogwash”
By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
His confusion and accompanying amusement were quite visible. In fact, he even paused for a fe
w seconds before answering the question. It was quite clear that ExxonMobil’s Country Manager, Rod Henson, did not expect to be asked why the company did not secure legislation for local content.
Eventually, Henson answered, “I am sorry, but a company cannot secure legislation sir.”
It was Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Neendkumar, who posed that question at yesterday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources.
ExxonMobil appeared before the committee.
Neendkumar’s question made it appear as if the longstanding parliamentarian actually thinks that ExxonMobil, or any other company for that matter, actually has relevance in the drafting and passing of legislation. This is usually the job of the legislature. But even after Henson said that it is not in ExxonMobil’s remit to secure legislation, he followed up the question. When faced with a similar response, the parliamentarian gave up and said, “Okay, we will have to follow-up with the minister.”
The Neendkumar scenario was unfortunately not unique to yesterday’s meeting. It is even safe to pronounce that the meeting was characterized by similar occurrences.
Across the board, the questions posed were not what would be considered ‘hardball’ or constructed based on research or an understanding of the industry and Guyana’s uniqueness at this point. The few well-framed questions that ExxonMobil’s Henson could have actually provided answers to were posed by government MPs and Chairman of the Committee, Odinga Lumumba, who sits in parliament on behalf of the opposition.
Opposition Member, Yvonne P. Fredericks did not pose a single question during the almost three-hour meeting.
While MP Pauline Campbell-Sukhai posed many questions, few were considered pertinent. So worrying was the situation that Minister Ronald Bulkan asked that members stick to matters relating to ExxonMobil’s role in the oil and gas industry and the progress the company is making.
But Sukhai insisted on asking questions like why it is that ExxonMobil has not sought to provide jobs for displaced sugar workers.
Also, most of her questions were accompanied by lengthy comments. In fact, most MPs were guilty of this. However, Sukhai was the biggest culprit, to the extent that she spoke for spans of five to 10 minutes when ‘posing questions.”
In one instance, when her colleague attempted to guide her, Sukhai said “I would like to finish my line of thought.”
At another point, she accused the chair of trying to steer the conversation. It was here that Lumumba got upset. He reacted, “Come on, me ain’t protecting Exxon; Exxon big enough to protect itself.”
But Sukhai was not deterred. She then went on to accuse ExxonMobil of funding political initiatives.
Sukhai said, “There is talk that Exxon is funding a political initiative that is not yet approved by the National Assembly–that is the Green State Development Strategy.”
At this point, she offended Henson. He said, “Sorry ma’am but I have to stop you. ExxonMobil…we don’t choose sides, we are apolitical. We are not funding any political party.”
But even after then, Sukhai continued. Henson then said, “Allow me to say that is complete hogwash.”
But still, Sukhai was not deterred. She insisted that she is “a National MP and the concerns are out there, so it would be remiss of me if I do not seek the level of clarification that is needed at this meeting.”
There were instances after Sukhai’s questions that Henson said, “Thanks for your comments, can you repeat the question?”
This would be a surprising turn of events as just a few weeks ago, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo committed that the Opposition would bring its “A-game” at the next meeting.
Jagdeo had said, “They are clever people. It is just that they are not specialists in the areas.”
Jagdeo said this after it was pointed out that PPP/C’s representation was not at its best at the meeting before.
Kaieteur News highlighted the fact that some opposition members of
the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources seem to lack the capability of holding the government accountable at these meetings. The fact that most questions at the last meeting were posed by PPP/C’s Odinga Lumumba was also noted.
Jagdeo had said, “Let me be truthful… I had a meeting with the members of that committee. I said that whilst I was happy with what took place I am not satisfied that, for such an important committee, we do enough preparation to hold the government to account…”
Jagdeo revealed that that meeting saw an agreement being made that “they will seek guidance from the others because we work as a collective. Some may not be specialists in the areas that are going to be discussed. But we can have specialist assessments that will guide them in the questioning of the people who come before the committee.”
Jagdeo was convinced that the PPP’s preparation would be strong.
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
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