ERIC Phillips, who up until Thursday July 18, 2019 had held the post of Special Assistant to the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA), has tendered his resignation.

Phillips, announced his departure in a media release in which he stated, “I firmly believe this is the best solution for both SARA and myself, and ultimately for the country.”

Phillips made the news headline, following a claim by the Kaieteur News that he was one of the beneficial owners of a company, African Business Roundtable Oil and Gas Exploration (ABR O&G), which applied for oil blocks in 2016.

The claim was subsequently absorbed by Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, and the People’s Progressive Party which he heads. The party subsequently latched on to the issue, claiming that Phillips presence at the agency and his being associated with the ABR O&G, represents a conflict of interest.

The SARA of which Phillips was a part, is currently probing the awarding of oil blocks offshore Guyana to “junior” companies by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration, just before it demitted office in 2015.

On Monday, July 15, Phillips, during an interview with this publication, categorically stated that he was not a member of SARA when the application was made by ABR O&G, that he joined SARA in May 2017, and that fact that the newspaper even made the weak connection is suspicious. He added that the recent attempt by Jagdeo and the Kaieteur News to paint the ongoing oil blocks investigation as compromised, has failed for a lack of merit.

Outlining the reasons for his resignation, Phillips stated that: “it will protect the investigation which many want to see stopped. It will also allow SARA to address the issue of what information is being leaked or tampered with given that files associated with the issuance of oil blocks appear to be unsafe; it will hopefully allow the media to focus on the many critical issues facing the nation such as the upcoming elections with a credible list; it may diminish the personal threats that have increased since the media frenzy.”

Noting that there was much creative journalism in the matter, the former SARA executive reiterated that he was not actively involved in ABR Oil & Gas since 2016, but was President of the African Business Roundtable (ABR) until 2018. He reasoned that the ABR is a business service organisation, similar to the Private Sector Commission or the Guyana Manufacturer’s Association or the Chinese Business Association.

Further, he stated, “The ABR Oil & Gas is a separate entity which applied, like many other groups, for one of the remaining blocks in 2016. I was not involved in the application process as there was a separate management team responsible for that company.

“This confusion in the media, between the dates and especially between the African Business Roundtable (ABR) and ABR Oil & Gas, the applicant in 2016, gives rise to the perception of a conflict, therefore a conflict exists.

“The application for the block in 2016 was never responded to by the Government of Guyana (GoG) or the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) since 2016, although an award was made by the government in 2017 to Tullow for the Orinduik block, therefore indicating the ABR Oil & Gas application was passed over,” Phillips added.

In his earlier interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Phillips had stated that Jagdeo’s “using of age-old political trickery”, will not take away from the fact that the oil blocks given away under the former administration over just a six-week period was worth “hundreds of billions of dollars”.

He also criticised the opposition party for calling on the current government to go into a “caretaker” mode, which sees them awarding no contracts when they did worse than the opposite in years past.

“Note that these blocks were awarded secretly when there was no parliamentary oversight because parliament had been prorogued since November 10, 2014, with elections held on May11, 2015. Of course the ‘duplicitous’ PPP former administration has been arguing since December 21, 2018 that no major decisions of this type should be made during a period close to an election,” the SARA executive highlighted in his July 15, interview.