…says Local Content policy should level playing field, generate wealth for Guyanese

IF you’re heading towards the ever-busy Camp and Regent Streets’ intersection, you might easily pass one unsuspecting building nestled between a commercial bank and a variety store on Camp Street. This building, however, houses a 100 percent Guyanese recruitment and staffing company, which provides services in the emerging oil and gas industry.

Strategic Recruitment Solutions (SRS) is that company, and it is the brainchild of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kerri Gravesande-Bart. The manpower company seeks to integrate Guyanese into onshore and offshore jobs.

Detailing the genesis of SRS, Kerri disclosed that she was hired by a foreign company to “set up” another Manpower company in Guyana, which also targeted the emerging oil and gas sector. She managed to do so, and that company was well on its way when she realised that as a Guyanese, if she could do it for a foreign company investing in Guyana, then she could do it herself.

“I was particularly not happy with the direction for local content in the country because what we noted was that a lot of foreign companies were coming in and it was just easy for them to set up a company,” Kerri said.

Kerri and other persons who eventually joined forces to create SRS were all Guyanese who possessed the expertise, the necessary competencies and generally, the ‘know how’.

“Our main motivation was to be a company owned and operated by Guyanese…The image we wanted to portray was that Guyanese have the ability to operate within this industry.,” Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SRS Lloyd Bart said, explaining the raison d’être for SRS.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

When it comes to locals getting ready for the oil and gas sector, and by extension the wider development in other sectors, capacity building is imperative.

“For countries like Guyana, new to oil and gas, the indigenous capacity will be limited, so increasing local content will require enhancing the ability of locals to participate,” the second draft of the Local Content and Value Addition Policy Framework of Guyana states.

SRS focuses on providing human resources and as such, its capacity development is focused on appraising recruited persons and providing the prerequisite services.

A key component of the recruitment services offered by SRS is that all potential workers are trained and certified from the onset in professional management areas and technical skills training to work in Guyana, and anywhere in the world.

“We would go into the (MatPal) Marine Institute, go into the technical schools and recruit from there, do a gap analysis to see what training and development these candidates require, put them through that (immediate) training (in Basic Security and Safety Awareness) and put them into entry-level positions,” Kerri related.

Different companies have different requirements, he said, explaining that all of these demand internationally-recognized standards. A majority of the prerequisite technical training demanded is not offered in Guyana, however, according to Lloyd.

In March of this year, Director of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education Training (CTVET) Floyd Scott noted that of the 250 skills in Occupational Health and Safety standards, local TVET institutions only offer 17 of those. Resultantly, if a company comes to Guyana with intentions of recruiting Guyanese with skills outside of those 17, those Guyanese would have to be trained elsewhere or else foreigners will take those jobs.

Lloyd also highlighted that there are some foreign companies, like Stena Carron for example, which provide onboard training for recruited personnel in order to move them from position to position.

Managing Director of the Brass Aluminum and Cast Iron Foundry (BACIF), another local company, Peter Pompey underscored that the country’s ability to equip its human resources is imperative to developing in-country capacity. And as such, stressed that the local technical institutions need to be developed.

“When skills are taught at those institutions, the trainee or the student comes out with a technical requirement that allows them to go directly into play (i.e., work in industries like the petroleum sector),” he said. Furthermore, he opined that this would enable foreign and local companies to have access to a pool of qualified and competent persons.

Outside of the training of personnel, BACIF’s Managing Director also stressed that local companies themselves need to develop their practices, whether they aim to work in the petroleum sector or not.

When Exxon Mobil began its work in Guyana a few years ago, BACIF participated in the gap analyses conducted and contributed to providing an understanding of the existing position of the industry and some of the challenges faced. Later, when the Centre for Local Business Development (which is funded by Exxon Mobil and its partners) began its work, Pompey noted that BACIF readily took the opportunity to develop its business practices.

In fact, BACIF is currently developing its Occupational Health and Safety framework and a Quality Management system, through consultancy support from the CLDB.

“The presence of the oil industry will have a rippling effect in every other sector because the demand of quality, safety and best practice becomes a very focal point of expectation,” Pompey said.

The man however noted that the aim of BACIF is not only to develop for Guyana’s Oil and Gas industry alone, but in the context of sustainability and long-term competitiveness of the company. And it is for this reason the company is also working towards ISO 9001 certification, which is the international standard for a quality management system.

Deputy Director at the Centre for Local Business Development (CLBD), Dr. Natasha Gaskin-Peters related that the aim of the centre is to really build Local Content in Guyana, to ensure that the Guyanese companies are able to benefit from the opportunities in this new and emerging economy. As such, free training courses and seminars are offered to all registered Guyanese businesses that engage the centre.

Dr. Peters noted that over 1700 persons from local companies have participated in the oil and gas training course, which constitutes over 500 businesses. For the Operational Health and safety course, over 700 Guyanese have benefitted so far and for Procurement, over 800 persons. She also indicated that over 100 businesses have been supported in more long term courses such as financial management courses, or human resources management course. 14 Guyanese companies, including BACIF, are also part of the ISO 9001 mentorship programme.

LOCAL CONTENT LEGISLATION
Another key component of streamlining Guyanese into the oil and gas sector is the country’s official Local Content legislation.

“…Local Content is considered the sum of the inputs of local goods and services, including employment, provided in oil and gas operations. This only occurs when operators hire locals as employees or contractors or buy goods or services from them. Local content therefore is the outcome of companies’ hiring and procurement activities, often referred to as backward economic linkages,” the draft Framework noted. Furthermore, the framework highlighted that local content is also only possible when locals (individuals and businesses) are able to provide goods and services at a standard acceptable to the industry.

Pompey noted that be believes that local content is a “good thing” for Guyana, once it is implemented in a way that would truly allow Guyanese and Guyanese companies to benefit. In fact, he stressed that outside of the direct revenues for oil, local content should provide other opportunities that would facilitate wealth generation for Guyanese.

From SRS’s perspective, Lloyd noted that indigenous companies have to compete against foreign companies that have massive amounts of funds at their disposal to invest in Guyana. This he says, leads to a ‘leakage’ of revenues that could have been spent in Guyana’s economy.

“There are two sides to every coin,” he related however. “There are those companies working to get themselves up to international standards to work in the industry and there are those are just to get into the industry just to get a job so that they can get a piece of the pie.”

Cognisant of that, he explained that the local content framework will “level the playing field” for Guyanese businesses that are working to get their standards up and are interested in fostering development in Guyana. Top consideration, the COO opined, should be given to Guyanese companies once they have the capacity to provide the goods or services required.

Even so, however, the draft policy also stated: “Recognising that our investment partners may have more experience and preferred ways of doing business, the government will seek to influence them by making it clear that all decisions must first consider the best interests of all Guyanese, including future generations.”

Pompey related that the Local Content framework should also function to promote knowledge and technology transfer from foreign companies to local businesses. This, he said, will add to capacity development.

Recently, the Director of the Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe, made known that the final draft of the Local Content Policy has been completed and will be presented to the Private Sector and other stakeholders in about two weeks’ time for their perusal.