THE Ministry of the Presidency (MotP) on Wednesday rejected media reports which suggested that Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman has been stripped of his responsibility for the oil-and-gas sector.

In a strongly worded statement, the MotP described the claim by Citizens Report, an online media outfit and the Guyana Times newspaper as “false.” The MotP said despite Trotman indicating on Tuesday that he had made a proposal to Cabinet for the establishment of a Department of Energy, which is to be managed under the Ministry of the Presidency, “the articles, it appears, were deliberately crafted to mislead the public”.

In a MotP release published on Tuesday, it was disclosed that the concept note submitted to the Cabinet by Minister Trotman outlined the need for the new department and the role it would take on with regard to oil management. It stated that “given the evolving macro-economic and national security considerations, and the transformative nature of the imminent production of petroleum,” it is his view that several matters must be taken into consideration. Key among those was the proposal that “all policy matters, including, but not limited to, the negotiating and entering into contracts, and issuing of licences for exploration and production, be transferred/re-assigned to the Ministry of the Presidency and placed within a Department of Energy and Development.”

Trotman’s proposal was accepted by the Cabinet Tuesday after detailed discussions on its contents. Trotman in his public statement said, “The second announcement is that last year, I did propose to His Excellency the President that we begin considering the establishment of the Department of Energy; a department which will be focused only on development of the petroleum sector. Today we held and had a very lively discussion on the proposal, which I presented and it has been determined and decided that we will have the Department of Energy established and this will be coming within the next few months. It will be housed at the Ministry of the Presidency and so the President and the Cabinet has mandated that I will head the Task Force, which would comprise the quintet of ministers, that would be Ministers of Finance, State, Public Infrastructure, Business and myself and we will include the other Ministers of Public Security, Public Telecommunications and hopefully the Ministers of Education and Social Protection.”

Eventually, the expectation is that the Ministry of Natural Resources will hand over responsibility for the functioning of petroleum to this new department and we will see a more direct and focused mandate from this Department of Energy and we will of course, as a Cabinet be supporting the Department,” Trotman added. The MotP said Trotman has provided sterling leadership in development of the sector and noted that it is under his stewardship that significant progress has been made in capacity-building and preparations for ‘first oil’.

Some notable achievements include the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Petroleum Institute of Mexico for training and capacity-building, which has seen the commencement of training for Guyanese, the drafting of the Petroleum Commission Bill, Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill and Health, Safety and Environment Regulations and the revision of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act with the help of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the MotP stated.

“The two articles are, therefore, at odds with the utterances of Minister Trotman and the facts of the matter and can be deemed malicious and dishonest…While the Government of Guyana promotes and stands solidly behind press freedom, the MotP calls on the Guyana Times, Citizens Report and all media houses to pay attention to the ethics and responsibilities that ought to be observed in the profession of journalism. The media must take its responsibility to provide accurate information to the members of the public seriously,” the statement concluded.