–calls for ‘national conversation’ on oil & gas expenditure

PRESIDENT of the Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Deodat Indar, has called for a national conversation on how the monies generated by Guyana’s prospective oil and gas sector will be expended.
Asked by reporters about the issue on the sidelines of a stakeholder engagement recently, Mr Indar opined that there is an entire “laundry list” of matters pertaining to the proposed development of the oil industry before 2020 that needs further examination.

But chief among those concerns, he said, is a pronouncement on how oil revenues will be expended. “Most of all, we need to have some document, some law, some policy or something to say what we are doing with the money that we are going to receive from Exxon [Mobil],” Indar underscored.

He is of the opinion that in much the same way that there was stakeholder involvement in the development of the Local Content Policy, there should be an inclusion of the local people when deciding how the oil revenues should be spent.

“We need to have a sit down, just as we did with Local Content Policy, to ensure that the policy we have, the Guyanese people are part of that design,” he said.

He has a few ideas of where he feels that money should be channeled, and one of them has to do with the institutional development of such institutions as the security, fire and health services, the education sector, transportation, infrastructure, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

He is, however, optimistic that when the time comes, the right decision will be taken. “I’m sure that when it comes to the policy to deal with how we spend the country’s oil revenues, a national conversation will take place,” Indar said.

But expenditure aside, Indar also feels just as strongly about the finalisation of the legislations for the Petroleum Commission and Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), to the extent that he wants an all-inclusive national conversation on them too.

The draft Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill was prepared by the Commonwealth Secretariat, and has benefitted from extensive consultations from a number of Guyana’s multilateral and bilateral partners.

Finance Minister, Mr Winston Jordan, who is responsible for presenting this Bill to the National Assembly, had reassured earlier this year at a Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association Limited’s (GMSA) business dinner that the legislation will be made available to the public for wide consultations before being presented to the House.

The Petroleum Commission Bill, on the other hand, has been sent to a special select committee for bi-partisan deliberations.