‘US Ambassador selling Guyanese fake dreams’- Glenn Lall 

Nov 16, 2022 News

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– says her comments about economic climate here misleading 

Kaieteur News – Businessman Glenn Lall has taken umbrage to statements made by US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann Lynch that the economic prospects of this country are promising.

Lall and others have deplored the lopsided oil contract Guyana signed with ExxonMobil believes that this country is being robbed billions and will be left poorer after the oil reserves are fully exploited. In a front-page headlined article on Sunday, the Guyana Times reported Lynch as saying “Guyana’s economic climate very promising.”

Her comments were made during an interview facilitated by the Wilson Center, which the newspaper republished. According to the Guyana Times, Lynch referenced the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Guyana signed with the US Export-Import Bank in July of this year.

“The US Government, through the Export-Import Bank, also signed a historic MoU with Guyana, which would allow for the accessing of up to US$2 billion of potential investment. So, with all these things we really find the climate promising here,” the diplomat explained.

Going into detail on some of the areas the US has provided assistance to Guyana, Lynch spoke about the help the US has given in improving management and digital solutions in elections and the Judiciary.

“On economic growth, we’ve done so much to highlight the economic investment opportunities, through virtual meetings, through trade missions, through conferences. We work primarily in the areas of governance, economic development and security. And as such, we work with Guyana to improve transparency and accountability, we provided assistance from the US Treasury to Guyana’s Revenue Authority to help them audit large contracts and improve their human resourcing efforts,” she was quoted in the Guyana Times as saying.

“And to improve standards, we’ve worked on even some people-to-people exchanges like our Fulbright programme, to provide specialists to work to ensure that certain programmes at the University of Guyana are accredited, like their engineering programme. So, we have the accreditation board for engineering and technology that we’re working with. And a Fulbrighter to help them,” Lynch said.

Lynch was asked about geopolitical interests in Guyana, particularly since tenders for large projects such as the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) and components of the gas-to-shore project tend to attract international bids from various countries… including the US.

“Chinese companies are bidding on these tenders, European companies, Canadian, US, we’re all bidding. Our hope is that what we can show, as the United States, is that our companies bring something that not all investors bring to the table.”

“And that’s quality, excellence, on-time projects, on-time budgets. So, we’re really hoping that we’re the partner of choice in the majority of these projects,” the diplomat explained to the interviewer.

Sickening

Meanwhile, reacting to the comments by the diplomat, Lall on his Monday night radio programme- ‘The Glenn Lall Show” said the news item was very sickening. He said Lynch is deliberately selling the Guyanese people a “fake dream, a dead, stinking pig in a bag… that’s what she is doing to all of us with that string she is dangling in our face about promising economy.”

He said the Ambassador never one day talked about the “rip-off the American companies along with ExxonMobil doing to Guyana with that criminal oil contract. A contract a deal that cannot even repair the damage and destruction being done to Guyana by the oil companies who fetching out our oil wealth.”

Mr. Lall said the US Ambassador would not speak about the security of Guyana and its people where full liability coverage is concerned.

“Guyana’s environment and its people is of no value to her, you think she is concerned if ExxonMobil paying taxes or not, but this is the promising economy she is dangling in front of Guyanese…and the Guyana Times, Jagdeo newspaper, is proud to put that on the front page – that’s the kind of message Jagdeo wants to plaster in the faces everyday of citizens.”

According to Lall from independence to now, there has been little progress in this country. “All the gold, diamond and bauxite have been stolen by the billions every year, the country still sitting with a US$3B debt and keeps borrowing to buy COVID medicine and patch roads. The US Ambassador sees that as promising.”

Lall said in the Guyana Times article readers were reminded of the US$2B loan promised to Guyana by the US Exim Bank. “We will wait and see if Guyana will be get the 4% interest rate on the loan like what the developed world does pay or the 14% the black, brown and purple people pay,” he said.

Lall continued: “This is the promising economy the US Ambassador is talking about. Before we found oil, you couldn’t get a penny to borrow from them, because there was nothing for them, now we found oil and everybody wants to shove money down our throat by the billions in loans…”

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