Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 05, 2020 News
The coalition administration is of the firm conviction that the Global Witness Report called “Signed Away” is nothing but a “baseless, sensationalist, agenda-driven and extraordinarily speculative” piece of reporting.
In its statement to the media fraternity last night, the government said that citizens need to pay keen attention to the fact that the international organization offered no evidence of corruption or malpractice on the part of its officials, even as it sought to place a cloud of suspicion over the negotiations that took place between Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and ExxonMobil.
The Government said it views the report as a cunning and calculated attack on a sovereign state that is mere weeks before an election, while noting that the timing cannot be seen as a coincidence. It is of the view that Global Witness is seeking to influence the electoral outcome.
Turning its attention to some of the specifics in the report, the government seemed offended that the non-governmental organization suggested that Guyana “should allow no additional drilling in the Stabroek license” and “should also cancel its nine other allocated licenses and not award any new licenses”.
The coalition administration said that this is not only arbitrary but utterly absurd.
“On what basis does Global Witness seek to impose its proposition that the people of Guyana must not benefit from our natural resources as the peoples of other countries have done freely for millennia?” the government questioned.
Contrary to the beliefs of Global Witness, the government stressed that it entered a fair agreement for the people of Guyana which has resulted in numerous benefits, namely: a 50 percent profit oil cut, a two percent royalty, withholding taxes, an US$18,000,000 signing bonus, over 1900 persons directly employed in oil and gas sector to date, over US$300M in foreign direct investment to date, and over 700 service providers to date.
It also refuted contentions by Global Witness that geo-political issues with Venezuela were not as serious as the government made it out to be. It maintained that there were national security imperatives which could not be ignored.
The government said that, unable to establish any corruption, Global Witness then pivots and engages in a flight of fancy by stating that Guyana’s lopsided deal cost it US$55B.
“The figure of $55B is random, arbitrary and highly speculative,” the government said, while adding, “the people of Guyana are assured of earning tens of billions of United States dollars in the years ahead and would have unprecedented and bountiful amounts for investment in their wages and salaries, pensions, education, health care, security, infrastructure, sea defence, agriculture, hinterland development, and for future generations through Guyana’s already established Natural Resource Fund.”
The government also noted that to date, countless organizations have shared its optimism based on sound economic analysis of Guyana’s projected growth and development.
In this regard, it noted that Nasdaq, and other regional and multinational agencies such as the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), have noted that Guyana is the fastest growing economy in the world and expected to experience vast wealth as a result of its oil and gas agreement.
Furthermore, the government said that these agencies have hailed the positive steps taken in setting the foundation for the prudent fiscal management of the resource.
In conclusion, the Government maintained that it acted decisively in allowing for first oil to have been celebrated in less than five years, an unprecedented and historic achievement.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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