…Dr Bynoe says no valid case has been established

DIRECTOR of the Department of Energy (DE), Dr. Mark Bynoe, has stated that should a valid conflict of interest be found between American law firm, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP and ExxonMobil, this will be addressed.

However, until such a case, it must be understood that the firm was hired in the best interest of Guyana. On Monday, Dr. Bynoe set the record straight on what he said has been a “brewing” matter which misrepresents the current situation.

On March 8, 2020, British daily newspaper, The Guardian, published the article ‘World Bank accused over ExxonMobil plans to tap Guyana oil rush’ indicating that the American law firm has a 40-year relationship with ExxonMobil.

This information piqued the interest of local media entities as Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP was hired about a month earlier to review Guyana’s Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 1986 for improvement. A sum of $1.2M was supplied by the World Bank to cover the one-year contract for consultancy and the provision of legal advice to the DE on all matters. The Bank was also required to vet the selection and found no fault in it.

In the article, the newspaper quoted Senior Advisor on Multilateral Financial Institutions, Heike Mainhardt, employed at German non-profit environmental and human rights organization, Urgewald, as stating that the World Bank is causing a conflict of interest and undermining good governance.

According to Section 3.17 of the Bank’s Procurement Regulations: “Consultants shall not be hired for any assignment that would be in conflict with their prior or current obligations to other clients, or that may place them in a position of being unable to carry out the assignment in the best interests of the Borrower.”

Mainhardt was quoted a month later in the local media as stating that the World Bank funded the contract under a limited, non-transparent process. “I’m not here to defend that firm, if there is a conflict, yes, we have to address it because we want the best for Guyana,” Dr. Bynoe said when the matter was posed to him.

However, he noted that before the contracting of a firm, a Request for Proposal (RFP) and draft contract is used – as common practice — to determine whether the firm possesses a conflict of interest. He said that even when a specific firm denies having any conflicts of interest, the DE does as much due diligence as it can, stopping short of the unrealistic measure of hiring a Private Investigator to look into every company/firm showing interest.

Even so, the DE Head said, that in the specific case of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, there are several check points along the way which led to its final selection.
He said: “When we go through the draft contract during the contract negotiating period, each clause is examined. If you’re asking me if an entity has a conflict [of interest] if I’d be concerned, I have to be concerned. This is something which we go though as part of the procurement process; this is then sent to the Bank for no objection.”

Dr. Bynoe pointed out to reporters that almost every single consultant that the DE has hired, the issue of a conflict of interest has arisen. While the DE has plausible reason to be concerned about conflicts of interest, he reminded the media that most worthwhile law firms in the industry have worked for one major oil giant or the other.

“All companies are asked to present the history of work previously done and for whom it was done. Yes, they would have submitted what they would have done. It is almost an impossibility to find any firm worth their salt who would not have worked for one of the oil majors. The important thing is, what that relationship is really like as against what they’re being asked to do for the government of Guyana,” he said.

The DE Head also reminded reporters that Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, in its contract, is partnering with one of Guyana’s leading law firms, Cameron & Shepherd. He said that the misconception must not prevail that Guyana is somehow now at the behest of the said firm.

He made it clear: “Let us remember that consultants don’t determine where the government goes, consultants make recommendations and this company was called onboard to draft laws not to set laws. Even after they’ve been drafted, they still have to go through a process of going through the AG Chambers, of going to the National Assembly and it almost seems to insult the intelligence of Guyanese to say that, somehow, once these laws are drafted, it becomes a quid pro quo.”

Furthermore, Dr. Bynoe said that he has taken note and is displeased that organisations such as Urgewald have chosen to take up fire at the wrong target.

In another one of its articles on Guyana in February, the organisation which fights against environmental destruction, said that Guyana’s oil and gas production would turn it into the “largest issuer of CO2 per capita” Dr. Bynoe’s position is that the writers of the said article have chosen terms to benefit their motive by making Guyana’s contribution to CO2 emissions seem greater than it is.

“Let me say here and now, per capita emission is nonsense because the globe is not concerned about per capita emissions, the globe is concerned about global emissions. If my per capita emissions are high and I only have 750,000 people and China or U.S.’ per capita is low and they have hundreds and millions of people, the totality is what matters,” he explained.

The DE Head urged persons to really sit and think about why organisations such as Urgewald, Global Witness and some international lawyers have been urging Guyana against the utilisaiton of its resources when it is the first time that the country has an opportunity for self-determination.

He put forward the questions: “Why isn’t this also being spoken to Norway, to the U.S. that has massive shale exploitation and is the only county to have opted out of the Paris Agreement? Why is it that you’re coming to a small, developing country whom you continuously remind is just sitting above Haiti? Now that she’s been given an opportunity, why are we getting in to those discussions? This bothers me somewhat. Yes, conflict of interest bothers me, but the larger picture bothers me even more.”