AMIDST the legal and political battles precluding an end to Guyana’s four-month-long elections, international business experts have cautioned that further delay in conclusion will likely result in financial losses to the country.

This concern was relayed in a written commentary on Thursday, by Vice president of Manchester Trade Ltd., an international business advisory firm in Washington, Dr. David Lewis and a Senior Associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., Dr. Anthony Bryan.

The men noted that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pinned Guyana as perhaps the only country in the Americas which will experience double digit economic growth due to its massive oil finds and recent achievement as an oil-producing nation.

However, the experts, like many others worldwide, have taken note of Guyana’s elections situation which has led to a delay in the swearing-in of a new President and Government and therefore a delay in the advancement of key projects when coupled with the pandemic.

“Amidst the chaos, Guyana could face serious setbacks, risking previous economic projections and potentially reducing a recent flood of investments into Guyana. Even as oil wealth starts to flow into government accounts, key policies and projects remain unfinished and the country has not yet made firm decisions about how to spend the oil wealth. Approvals for the next stage of Guyana’s oil development have also been delayed for months by the political uncertainty and regulators seem reluctant to act without knowing who might be in charge when the dust settles. Keeping development moving, unfortunately, seems to have become one more political playing card in an already-chaotic situation,” they stated.

Indeed, as reported by the Guyana Chronicle in June, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pending governmental and regulatory approval, advancements on ExxonMobil’s third and fourth development projects have stalled.

The said projects are the Payara Development Project with outstanding approval for its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Field Development Plan, and the Hammerhead Development Project for which Exxon has paused its provision of the required EIA.

Another case for example includes the deadline for Guyana’s second Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) report which has been postponed to March 2021 due to restrictions associated with the pandemic and the delayed completion of Guyana’s electoral process.
For Guyana to complete its second report, it is necessary that an independent administrator be hired but the contract for the hiring cannot be signed by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) as the proposed fee is above G$15M and permission to sign for above this amount must come from Parliament.
Guyana’s Eleventh Parliament was dissolved on December 30, 2019 to cater for the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections which has not yet concluded.
“Delays are likely to be costly. The country has taken in nearly US $100 million since production started earlier this year, with billions more on the horizon if development proceeds as planned. That’s revenue the government will desperately need to jumpstart the post-COVID-19 recovery.,” Lewis and Bryan stated.

However, they noted that the millions spent to develop the local service industry and to train thousands of Guyanese for jobs offshore will be put at risk if workers and companies cannot count on steady development moving forward.

The men said: “Guyana still has a golden opportunity on the hook. The country has taken the advice of the World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat and others and has set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund and taken other steps to ensure that revenues are saved for the future. Whatever government is in power will be looking at annual oil revenues that easily exceed Guyana’s entire current gross domestic product in just a few years. But a steady and transparent regulatory process will still be a critical signal that current and future investors will be looking at to decide if Guyana will be a stable and trustworthy partner.”

They explained that while political chaos is “inevitably corrosive” to a country’s economic goals, insulating Guyana’s burgeoning oil industry from politics would go a long way towards ensuring that the country becomes a poster child for development and not a cautionary tale.