THE PetroCaribe Fund, which was set up as part of an arrangement between Guyana and Venezuela, is empty.

This was revealed to the media yesterday at the first post-Cabinet media briefing by Minister of State Joseph Harmon at the Ministry of the Presidency.
The Fund was intended to pay local famers supplying rice to the neighbouring country under a concessionary fuel supply agreement.
According to Minister Harmon, checks have revealed that the Fund is basically empty, and that currently there is no cash to pay rice farmers.
“The fact of the matter,” he said, “is that based on the casual and, in some cases, very callous manner in which the previous Administration dealt with the proceeds from that arrangement, the Fund is almost bankrupt; there is nothing of it.”
Minister Harmon recalled for the benefit of the media that it was his Cabinet colleague, Finance Minister Winston Jordan who discovered and reported that monies from the Fund were used, in part, to fund the Hope Canal project and other things.
He said that in order to service their immediate debt, “We are actually going to have to find somewhere in the vicinity of US$15M to basically pay our farmers when they ship the next set of rice to Venezuela.”
The money has to be found, he said, since it is no fault of the local farmers, but that of the previous Administration.
The issue is further complicated by the very rice sector itself, which is projected to break its own rice production levels by October of this year, Harmon said. In preparation for this reality, he stated that “Cabinet has approved of the setting up of a sub-committee to examine and aggressively look at markets for our rice.”
Government is adopting an aggressive approach to finding foreign markets, the Minster added, and this effort will be spearheaded by the Foreign Affairs and Agriculture Ministries, and other stakeholders.
The governance mechanism in the rice industry will also be examined, as mandated by Cabinet, to ensure transparency in the appointments to boards and other entities.
Asked about the evolving border and maritime dispute, Harmon said that while the government might have some concerns, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge has been in consultation with his Venezuelan counterpart, Ms Delcy Rodriguez, and the ambassador to this country. “They made it clear to us the issues as they relate to the decree, recently signed into law by President Maduro, will not affect the bilateral relations,” Minister Harmon said.
The PetroCaribe fund contained most of the proceeds that came out of the Venezuelan ‘oil for rice’ deal. This has been estimated thus far to have amounted to hundreds of millions of US dollars. Minister Harmon said since Guyana paid only 10 to 15 percent of the money, with a long-term agreement for gradual repayment. This payback period has been endangered with a much shorter payback period now being considered, due to the actions of the previous government. (GINA)