Nigel Hughes challenges Jagdeo to explain giveaway of Kaieteur and Canje oil blocks days before 2015 elections

Sep 09, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes has challenged Vice President and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Bharrat Jagdeo to clear the air on the questionable giveaway of two of Guyana’s largest offshore oil blocks, the Kaieteur and Canje, days before the 2015 elections.

Leader of the Alliance For Change, Nigel Hughes

The prominent Attorney-at-Law, during the AFC’s weekly press conference, was responding to Jagdeo’s invitation to address corruption during the APNU/AFC’s tenure in government between 2015 and 2020. Perhaps, Hughes, said, it would be of greater significance if the past President could explain the suspicious giveaway of the oil blocks.

“As Mr. Jagdeo has invited us to address the issue of corruption, he perhaps would like to tell us why within the last month before the 2015 elections two oil blocks, during an election campaign period, where the government activity is supposed to be reduced to running the basics, why two oil blocks- the Canje and Kaieteur Blocks were actually allocated,” Hughes urged.

The lawyer was keen to point out that there was no public advertisement, no invitation to purchase, and no criteria provided upon which the two prime blocks were allocated.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo

Nevertheless, he reminded, “Those blocks have since changed hands at millions of US dollars and these were allocated within a month of the 2015 election so if we want to have a serious discussion as a country about corruption, which we should, we must be willing to discuss corruption (under the PPP).”

The Canje Block was awarded by the Donald Ramotar administration on March 4, 2015, days before that year’s General and Regional Elections, to a local company, Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas. Similarly, the Kaieteur Block was awarded on April 28, 2015, just two weeks before the elections, and like the Canje Block, it was done based on the advice of former Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud, Ramotar had said. Two companies received the blocks with 50-50 stakes – Ratio Energy Limited (now Cataleya Energy Limited) and Ratio Guyana Limited. The award of the oil blocks to the companies was especially concerning since the ultra-deep drilling is required for those blocks, a technique which only a handful of companies in the world have the technology, track record, and capability to execute. The red flags which have manifested in both situations include that the awards were given to unqualified companies, that the initial owners quickly flipped the blocks without doing any work, that they are incorporated in ‘secrecy’ jurisdictions, and that Guyana likely lost revenue due to the avoidance of an open, competitive bidding process.

To this end, Hughes suggested that the administration should commence by publicizing data on all assets transferred by the state to private individuals during the PPP’s 27 years in office for the nation to see the beneficiaries of those actions.

The Leader of the Alliance For Change was adamant that leaders must be willing to engage on such issues lest the country emerges as a ‘banana republic’ or a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. “We must be willing to discuss corruption because the track record that we have got as a country suggests that with the wealth that we have, all that we are going to do is become a rich banana republic. We are not going to achieve anything other than that. We will become a rich banana republic with lots of roads, lots of hotels (and) most of the citizens can’t even afford to survive because of the cost of living and we have these vacuous discussions about corruption that are not based on any sort of data,” Hughes argued.

Furthermore, the attorney also noted that over US$1B from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) or the oil account, was spent by government last year; however, there is no evidence of a significant project developed. On the other hand, he said the country is left to marvel at an incomplete Demerara River Bridge and a promise that future projects will not be subjected to feasibility studies.

Still on the issue of corruption, the aspiring President questioned the award of contracts under the incumbent administration.  He said, “How many companies which have been receiving major contracts in road construction have a track record of being more than 20 or 10 years old?”  Hughes pointed to the Schoonord to Crane, West Coast Demerara Road project as an example, citing that the contract was awarded to a contractor whose estimate was $600M above the Ministry’s Engineer’s Estimate, while other experienced contractors were reportedly sidelined.

• AFC, Canje, corruption, Hughes, Jagdeo, Kaieteur, Oil blocks