Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 22, 2022 Editorial
Kaieteur News – The fallout from the Ramps Logistics, Inc. fiasco continues. This is despite the judicial calming of the waters. Apparently, it sounds like only a temporary measure, generally speaking, since the PPPC Government is not taking anything sitting down complacently. It has never been its style, and it is not going to depart from what has worked well for it before. The sounds and signals coming out of the PPPC Government indicate that it is already plotting its next moves in the learning-on-the-job scenario with Local Content.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat made the opening overture on behalf of the government. As captioned in our November 18 edition, “Foreign companies cannot pluck random Guyanese from the sky to front as partners …vows to plug loopholes for abuse – Minister Bharrat.” We hear the minister loud and clear, and we agree with that position of the government. Foreigners are sitting back and closely studying our Local Content Law, and going through its provisions with a fine-toothed comb. Many pairs of eyes are employed in efforts on how to take advantage of openings to game the Guyana system.
One of the long-practised tricks of business has been to examine laws, rules, and regulations that provide for equal opportunity, set asides for minorities, and so forth, and come up with smooth arrangements that do the equivalent of driving a ‘sand truck through what was well-intended to benefit a protected group or class’. In this instance, it is Guyana’s Local Content Law, now in its early stages of on the ground implementation, and with outsiders coming up with schemes that may not violate the actual letter of the law, but definitely the overall spirit of it. It is how businesses make some of their money, and their legal advisers prove their worth.
In passing, and though we have no wish to go near to the Ramps Logistics matter, now adjudicated, there was something about that citizenship setup that didn’t sit right with us. That’s all we will say in this prickly, much watched, matter. But, we think that Minister Bharrat, broadly speaking, is on to something, which needs to be addressed. It is quite likely that Guyanese, random or not, naïve or not, and willing or not, can always be found by enterprising foreigners going to great lengths to fulfill their local content visions and ambitions.
Any new legal and rule-based provisions must be keen enough to anticipate where what is presently in place can be skillfully circumvented and, sometimes, before we know it. There must be that kind of comprehensive due diligence, so as to prohibit these kinds of intrusions in our Local Content Law, to the disadvantage of bona fide, business-oriented Guyanese seeking opportunities to capitalize on our wide-open oil and gas sector. Whenever foreigners succeed in pulling a fast one on Guyana, using our Local Content Law, and through using any Guyanese that they can pick up off the road, then that means that one genuine (or group of) Guyanese thirsting for a fair chance is effectively locked out from benefiting from oil wealth opportunities.
We take the position that being Guyanese, and meeting standing requirements, as properly amended, should give those who are eligible, the first priority in our oil and gas opportunities. This is what is due from being the owners of this wealth. We make no excuses for that, and there are no two ways about where we stand.
Meanwhile, as the Government considers how to close existing loopholes in our Local Content Law, it is our hope that schemers in the PPPC Administration do not get too greedy and self-serving, under the cover of remedying defects in the law. To elaborate, any amendments to the law to benefit Guyanese first and foremost must not be about only benefiting insiders and others in the broad PPPC cabal of the favoured. This would be a step in the wrong direction, and add more controversy to what is on the books. Our final recommendation is simple: fix the Local Content Law in the right way with the right objectives in mind, and all will be well. Guyanese meeting sensible and practical eligibility requirements must be first in line and benefit.
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