MINISTER of State Joseph Harmon said though he cannot pronounce on Dr. Jan Mangal’s contract at the Ministry of the Presidency, Government still has uses for the petroleum expert.

Dr. Mangal is a Presidential Adviser on Petroleum. One day after Government had cause to state that Dr. Mangal is not authorised to speak on behalf of President David Granger, Minister Harmon, when pressed for answers with respect to the renewal of the expert’s contract, told reporters that with respect to the advisory services, Government has uses for Dr. Mangal.

“Whether in fact he makes statement in his own private capacity, that is another matter, but as far as the advice which he gives to His Excellency the President, it is on those terms that the contract, whether it is extended or it is brought to an end, it is on those terms and not so much what he says to whatever audience,” Minister Harmon said.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of the Presidency stated that Dr Mangal is not authorised to speak on behalf of President Granger or the Government. The ministry’s terse statement came hours after Dr Mangal made comments to the media at a forum at the University of Guyana on the oil contract with ExxonMobil. He stated that it is “natural” for contracts to be reviewed with the availability of new information, provided that there is agreement between the parties.

Dr Mangal was speaking on the sidelines of a forum on Guyana’s petroleum sector held at the University of Guyana. He was at the time responding to questions regarding the many concerns raised by civil society and other stakeholders on the 2016 Petroleum Sharing Agreement (PSA) between the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited.

The petroleum adviser said that he is pushing to have reviews of the PSA done by multinational agencies such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Following the release of the PSA, a number of stakeholders, including the media, have made their criticisms clear on several aspects of the agreement – from the percentage of royalty to the signature bonus and on issues such as local-content provisions, among other issues.

Last year during an interview with the media, Mangal had stressed that there was need for Guyana to enforce legislation, policies and regulations in the emerging oil-and-gas sector that cannot be easily influenced by politicians.