BUSINESS experts, though calling for swift implementation of the Local Content Policy, said the draft document must be further strengthened, as they pointed to a number of loopholes.

Last Wednesday at The Symposium, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) hosted a panel discussion on the draft Local Content Policy, featuring Dr. Vincent Adams, a public and private sector expert in the fields of the Environment, Petroleum and Geology; Dr. Leyland Lucas, Economist and Dean of the University of Guyana School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (SEBI); and President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nicholas Boyer, among other distinguished members of the private sector.

Boyer, while pointing out that the Local Content Policy is currently in its third phase of development, told the well-attended forum that Guyanese are losing out on valuable opportunities in the absence of the critical piece of document that is expected to guide the development of local content in the budding Oil and Gas Industry.

“We would like to see a Local Content Policy implemented as soon as possible. I think the Local Content Policy can really kick off a new wave…,” the GCCI president said.
However, he said ahead of that implementation, the policy must be strengthened. “I will commend Dr. Michael Warner, the consultant who was hired by the Department of Energy for putting together a much more stringent draft than the previous consultants and the first two attempts at the policy. However, in my opinion, there is still more that we can do to really make this policy useful,” Boyer told his audience – a mixture of business enthusiasts, oil and gas experts, and representatives of civil society.

In critiquing the draft policy, Dr. Adams said, based on his analysis, the definition of Local Content as laid out in the document is “pretty narrow,” warning that it should not be confined to the Petroleum Industry.

The Environment and Petroleum expert said the specifics are missing in sections of the policy as he questioned what systems would be in placed to ensure enforceability, and whether provisions have been made for the Indigenous Population and citizens residing outside of Georgetown.

“Guess what is going to happen, if provisions are not made, and some strategy is not within that plan; they are going to migrate…I have seen it happened… the agriculture sector moves to the oil (sector) and the next thing you know oil prices go down… and the whole country becomes an economic basket,” he warned.

“Specific is very important because the more vague it is, is better for the contractor… but we have got to make sure that those specifics are in there,” Dr. Adams added.

Immediate past President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, Deodat Indar, under whose stewardship GCCI submitted a Local Content Legislation to the Department of Energy in 2018, contended that Guyanese are being left out in the cold as foreign companies reap the benefits ahead of first oil.

“I am not anti-foreign business, but we have a lot of foreign businesses that are mopping up every single thing and Guyanese are left to watch it happen and can’t do nothing,” Indar contended as he underscored the swift implementation of the policy.

But instead of a policy, the former GCCI President wants to see a legislative framework in place to ensure foreign companies comply with all policies and regulations that would be implemented in the management of the Oil and Gas Industry.

“I never heard anybody breaking policy, I know they break law, you need a legislative framework to make this thing work,” he posited. While such a move would more than likely infringe on regional and international laws, Indar said it is necessary.

“Guyanese always behave like we got to do the Treaty of Chaguaramas to the ‘T’ or else we will go to hell but damn with that, I’m sorry to say that, because if I go to Trinidad, I can’t go and set up my business,” Indar told the audience while adding “somebody needs to stand up and move out the politics and move back the grandstanding and call a spade a spade. It is not right.”

In the proposed Local Content Legislation, GCCI had defined local companies, within the sector, as those registered in Guyana where 51 per cent of the share capital is owned by citizen (s) of Guyana. From all indications, this is a position Indar still maintains. Objecting to a proposal by Dr. Lucas that the Local Content Policy must include in its definition the diaspora, the former GCCI President said “local companies” must operate from within Guyana, and as such, their headquarters and statutory meetings be held here. He also maintained that 70 per cent of the workforce of a company, established here, must follow suit with the definition of a citizen of Guyana as defined in the Guyana Citizenship Act of 1967.

He posited that these measures are necessary to prevent the setting up of “front shops” where, in the documents, Guyanese are named as the owners but the businesses are really owned, controlled and managed by foreigners.

However, Indar, like Boyer, added that this draft policy is a step up when compared to the previous two.