OPPOSITION Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo and his party’s Members of Parliament failed to show up at a high-level briefing on the ExxonMobil contract with the Government of Guyana on Thursday, despite having joined the fierce lobby over the past months for the agreement to be made public.

The contract, which was entered into by the PPP Government back in 1999, was never released to the public by that administration. However, sticking to an earlier commitment, the slightly modified contract which was renegotiated by the APNU+AFC Government, was released to a broad-based group of stakeholders, including senior members of the media, at the Ministry of the Presidency and later placed on the internet.

Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman, during a brief presentation at the event, observed that invitations were sent out to the Opposition Leader and his MPs. Trotman said it was unfortunate that they did not attend. “I just wish to say that it is unfortunate that the opposition is not here; we did invite them in Parliament. I did say that an invitation will be extended and we would expect that they would be present. They’ve chosen not to be here…but they know in the opposition and others know that the reason why the 1999 was not revealed. “

Trotman said the APNU+AFC government is being beaten up for “why aren’t you revealing” but in 1999…they took a decision not to reveal contracts. “It was in this very building (Ministry of the Presidency) when the then opposition sought to get more details of the Amaila Falls Project that they were invited into this Building…into a closed room to see just some pages of it, not the entire document…that was never made public. So this is a signal day in the history of the country, “ the natural resources minister said.