-gov’t looking to replace foreign consultants with home-grown experts, says Dr Jagdeo
-Minister Bharrat reiterates administration’s focus on transparency, accountability and proper management of sector

GUYANA has emerged as a nation that is well known for the management of its oil resources and while the government can boast about many positives, there are talks to build greater capacity by tapping into the local skillset.

“Right now, we rely on a lot of external consultants for advice. Over time we’d have to replace those with Guyanese consultants. There’s always room for better management, always to improve this,” Guyana’s Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, told reporters at a press conference last Thursday.

Dr Jagdeo further pointed out that the country has implemented several policies to ensure that Guyanese benefit from the country’s resources, and in fact, many are now looking at Guyana as an example.

“When I look at the comments coming out from other places, like the presentations made in especially the newly emerging producers, they use Guyana often as an example of the changes that have taken place in a relatively short period of time.”

Citing the country’s Natural Resource Fund, he noted that the government has established a transparent and accountable formula to ensure that Guyanese are informed of how the country’s resources are being expended.

“We have a transparent formula for transferring money from the NRF to the budget. We have the strongest disclosure agreement anywhere in the world in terms of receipt of oil money, with a 10-year penalty jail term for the Minister of Finance for failing to disclose. We have strengthened the management of the fund by putting in a board instead of the Minister of Finance or having oversight, sole oversight.”

Aside from this, the government has updated several legislations to ensure that Guyanese benefit from the sector.

He noted that there has been a focus on local content and ensuring that the country has the most modern legislation that gives officials the tools to manage a contemporary oil and gas industry.

NOTING TO HIDE

Meanwhile, the country’s Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat, recently highlighted that the government is on the ‘positive end’ with regard to sharing information publicly.

Bharrat at a recent press conference told reporters that Guyana is among very few oil-producing states that have consistently published and shared information on the management of its oil and gas sector.

He keenly pointed out that the local media has weekly access to one of the country’s chief policy makers, Vice-President Dr Jagdeo.

“We have the chief policymaker in our country, our Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, speaking on the sector and giving the opportunity to the media and anyone else to ask questions on the sector. We also share information on the sector.”

According to Bharrat, there is clear transparency and accountability in the sector and to further support his statement he cited the country’s Natural Resource Fund.

“Anyone anywhere in the world will know how much money flows out of the Natural Resource Fund, and there are only two ways in which money can flow out of the Natural Resource Fund.”

He pointed out that government could only access the fund through approval from the National Assembly.

“There are only two ways in which money can flow out of the Natural Resource Fund. It is through the national budget, which is debated in the National Assembly, where there is an entire week for the Opposition to question us on expenditures, and it must be approved by the National Assembly. The second way is, if there is a national disaster …and we need emergency funding to help our people… then we will withdraw money from the Natural Resource Fund, but, again, it must be approved by the National Assembly,” the minister explained.

In July, the government received parliamentary approval for US$1,586,150,331 (equivalent to G$329,885,563,088) to be withdrawn from the NRF in 2024.

“In accordance with this approval, the Government of Guyana has made its third transfer for 2024, totalling US$300 million (equivalent to G$62.394 billion) from the NRF on July 22, 2024, to the Consolidated Fund,” the Finance Ministry had said in a press statement.

This transfer brings the accumulated withdrawals to date in 2024 to US$850 million (equivalent to G$176.782 billion) which is part of the US$1.586 billion (equivalent to G$329.9 billion) total approved for withdrawal this year.