–75 per cent of oil company’s food supplies must be procured from Guyanese, Bill outlines
IN the hallmark Local Content Bill tabled in the National Assembly, on Thursday, the government has proposed that a Local Content Secretariat be established.
This secretariat, the Bill outlines, will be established within the Ministry of Natural Resources and shall consist of a director and other members, appointed by the Minister of Natural Resources.
The functions of the secretariat will be to develop and maintain measures for the effective implementation of local content by contractors, sub-contractors and licences; develop and implement strategies that will give preference to or ensure equal treatment of Guyanese nationals and companies; conduct market analysis, and make recommendations to the minister.
This new institution will also be tasked with developing formats for local content plans and reporting, and creating guidelines, including those for local content reporting, procurement, big evaluation, training, research and development, partnership and joint ventures, and financial and insurance services.
In addition, the secretariat will be tasked with developing and maintaining a Local Content Register of qualified Guyanese nationals and their companies; recommending for approval or refusal, local content masterplans and local content annual plans and proposals for modifications to the master and annual plans; develop auditing procedures and conducting regular audits for the purposes of monitoring and ensuring compliance with this legislation, and measuring and reporting on the local content performance of contractors, sub-contractors or licensees.
Also, the body will undertake public education and awareness campaigns and report to the minister on the performance of its functions and the general administration of the legislation.
On the eve of the tabling of the “historic Bill,” Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, said the legislation was finalised at after extensive consultations with civil society, the private sector, as well as the oil and gas companies operating in Guyana.
“This legislation is a way of moving our developmental agenda forward,” Minister Bharrat said, adding: “We believe that Guyanese must benefit from this new sector. We might not have the knowledge and requisite skills now, but I am sure that in years to come and with the programmes that the government is putting in place, both in the human resource capacity as well as the capacity in our local private sector to ensure that they place a meaningful role in the oil and gas sector and bring true benefits to Guyanese and Guyanese businesses.”
The Bill lays out 40 services that oil companies and sub-contractors must procure from Guyanese companies and Guyanese nationals by the end of 2022.
For instance, by the end of the upcoming year, Guyanese should provide 90 per cent of office space rental and accommodation services, 90 per cent for janitorial, laundry, catering services; 95 per cent pest control services; 25 per cent medical services; 20 per cent aviation and support services and 75 per cent local food supply. These are just a few of the services highlighted in the schedule.
“We’re saying by the end of 2022, 75 per cent of your food items should be purchased locally so that the farmers at Black Bush Polder, their food can go on the floating production storage and offloading vessel. Our provisions and our meat can make it out there on the FPSO.
“That is creating opportunities for poultry, cash crop farmers – everyone in the agriculture sector, as well as the others to benefit from the oil and gas sector,” the Natural Resources Minister said.
This Bill which looks to give Guyanese first preference and knowledge sharing in the oil and gas sector is still to be debated in the National Assembly. The government has committed to ensuring that it is passed and made into law before 2022.
The Bill to amend the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) was also tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday too. These amendments make way for the more prudent, transparent and accountable management of this oil fund.
Prior to the tabling of the Bill in the National Assembly, President Dr. Irfaan Ali was reported as saying that the Local Content Bill will be a “living document,” which will address “transactional issues” and “transitional issues” faced within the oil and gas sector. Also included in the Bill is the space for evaluation and changes, as the country moves forward.
“As we move to this very important part of the advancement of the sector, I want us to be conscious of the realities, I want us to be conscious of the opportunities and I’m proud of the product that would be the catalytic, directional, legislative push to the forward development of Guyanese,” he said.
The Head of State elucidated that the Bill is tailored in a way to develop a local content platform and an enabling environment in which there are opportunities for local content.
“These opportunities will advance and be graduated as we improve, as we build the capacity, as we develop the skills and as we have greater investment in the sector,” President Ali said, noting that through the correct approach, Guyanese enterprises could develop themselves to offer top-tier services to the industry.
