Category Archives: graft and corruption

GUYANA: Govt. puts hold on US$20M World Bank loan to strengthen scrutiny of oil sector

04/29/2022 – 12:06 am

Apr 26, 2022 – Kaieteur News – By Kiana Wilburg

Since the PPP/C Government has not requested any disbursements from a US$20M loan Guyana took three years ago to help strengthen the nation’s capacity to manage the oil sector effectively, the World Bank said it has been forced to downgrade the country’s performance score on the loan.

The latest implementation status and results (ISR) report recalls that the money was approved on March 29, 2019 for the Guyana Petroleum Resources Governance and Management Project (GPRGMP). The programme’s objective is to ensure the enhancement of legal and institutional frameworks and the strengthening of the capacity of key institutions to manage the oil and gas sector.

A Financing Agreement in the amount of US$20 million was signed and declared effective on April 11, 2019 under the David Granger administration. The ISR, which was reviewed by Kaieteur News presents the implementation status of GPRGMP as of March 2022.        Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Commentary, Energy- Oil and Gas, Government, Guyana, Oil Exploration, Personalities | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

GUYANA: IMF advises against development of national oil company

04/28/2022 – 8:00 pm

…tells Guyana to improve oil contract terms for higher profit instead

– Apr 26, 2022 Kaieteur News – By Zena Henry

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Guyana to secure a higher share of profit oil through its model Production Sharing Agreement, rather than actively participating in the task of petroleum development through a national oil company.

Another commentator opined that having a strategic investor in Guyana’s oil company would give that person or entity a permanent lien on all of Guyana’s oil resources. That means that the strategic investor would have the right to keep possession of property belonging to Guyana until it pays any potential debt that is owed. This is a recipe for cronyism and nepotism, it was suggested.In one of the institution’s 2019 documents providing technical support to the government, the Fund concluded that there is no strong business case to show that Guyana would receive more value from its oil endowments if it were to participate as a partner via a national oil company (NOC) in the development of the oil blocks.            Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Energy- Oil and Gas, Government, Guyana, Oil Exploration, Personalities | Tagged | Comments (0)

GUYANA: Guyanese think Govt. corrupt at all levels – US Dept. of State Human Rights report

04/26/2022 – 12:30 am

Apr 25, 2022 Kaieteur News

A new Human Rights Report released by the US Department of State has found that Guyanese citizens continue to perceive widespread corruption in every level of government and its branches.

The 2021 report was released last week. The report stated that the law provides for criminal penalties for corruption by officials, and the government generally implemented the law effectively. It said there were isolated reports of government corruption during the year, and administration officials investigated these reports but, “there remained a widespread public perception of corruption involving officials at all levels and all branches of government, including the police and judiciary.”      Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in crime and Investigations, Government, Guyana, Personalities, Politics | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

GUYANA: Government: Auditing of the public accounts: – By Anand Goolsarran

04/18/2022 – 12:43 am

 — What about non-Central Government activities?

By April 11, 2022  – Mr. Goolsarran was a former Guyana Auditor General. He has a weekly column in Stabroek News.

In last week’s article, we discussed four of the seven infrastructure development projects financed by the Exim Bank of China that ran into serious difficulties during their execution stages – the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project; the One Laptop Per Family Project; the Fibre Optic Cable Project; and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Project. The first three have failed completely to deliver in terms of their objectives, outputs, outcomes and impacts, thereby encumbering the Guyana’s public debt in the tune of US$115.4 million, with little or nothing to show for the expenditure incurred.

This is in addition to the significant amounts expended as counterpart funding on these projects. In the case of the airport project, the works are still on-going after ten years, with a revised completion date of 20 June 2022. The original construction cost was estimated at US$150 million. This has now been revised to around US$200 million.            Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Commentary, Economics/Finance, Government, Guyana, legal, Local Government, Politics | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

GUYANA: OIL: Is Guyana the next Angola? Oil wealth with poverty, debt and corruption -Opinion

04/10/2022 – 12:03 am

GUYANA BEWARE:  Apr 06, 2022 – Editorial – Kaieteur News

The PPP/C Government is engaging in a huge gamble using the rich assets of this society to entrap it and endanger it.  This was the stark warning embedded in the article titled, “Guyana may not steer clear of failure with oil if fatal flaws in oil deal not corrected -Int’l Analysts” (KN April 3).  Fatal is a frightening word, and we don’t use it recklessly, for it has a world of meaning.  As we use it (fatal), our hope is that what happened to Angola does not become Guyana’s nightmare.

Since the 1990s, Angola has been the destination of the hunter-predators that are oil companies.  They went there in droves, and the names should be familiar to Guyanese because they are right here now.  America’s Exxon and France’s Total are two of the bigger names that led the charge into Angola.  From a peak of 1.9 million barrels a day, production declined to around 1.4 million barrels daily last year.

One would have thought that Angolans were rolling in prosperity, among the most well taken care of people in the world.  They are not, and now come the lessons, another cautionary tale for Guyanese.            Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Commentary, Economics/Finance, Energy- Oil and Gas, finance and trade, Government, Guyana, International News, Oil Exploration, World Politics and Economy | Tagged , , , | Comments (13)

GUYANA: Think of That: Let’s talk about it – By Mosa Telford

03/01/2022 – 7:29 am
By February 12, 2022

The hashtag #guyanaisnotarealplace is a coping mechanism. Humour often replaces the disappointment and hopelessness we feel when certain shocking events occur. Instead of being publicly critical, some would rather hide behind fake social media profiles or engage in gossip with their family and friends. ‘Talk name’ or ‘su-suing’ is a part of our culture. But recently we learned that ‘Su’ can not only be hyphenated to mean a Ponzi scheme called ‘su-su’, but ‘Su’ could also be a Chinese whistleblower.

A journalist from Vice News interviewed Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and questions were raised about corruption involving bribery. It was alleged that the Vice President has accepted bribes from Chinese businesses so they can secure contracts in Guyana. Of course, these allegations were denied. It is expected that accusations of corruption will always be denied until there is evidence to prove otherwise.             Continue reading →
By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Chinese investment in Guyana, Commentary, Government, Guyana, legal | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

GUYANA: PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton promises to scrap income tax

02/25/2022 – 12:09 am

By: Denis Chabrol in Demerara Waves –  23 February 2022.

Aubrey Norton

Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Aubrey Norton on Wednesday promised that the opposition coalition would remove income tax if elected to government because Guyana is now an oil producer-exporter, in his message to mark Guyana’s 52nd Republic Anniversary.

“The PNCR wishes to make it clear that as your government-in-waiting, as part of the coalition, we will remove the burden of personal income tax from our people,” he said. Mr. Norton said the scrapping of the income tax was an “enduring obligation” to Guyanese “given the current favourable economic circumstances from oil and gas.”

In the 2022 National Budget, the government increased the income tax threshold to GY$75,000. (app $375US/month).      Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Economics/Finance, Government, Guyana, Oil Exploration, Personalities, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (4)

GUYANA: Vice Media’s Interview with Vice President Jagdeo – Stabroek News Editorial

02/13/2022 – 12:09 am

By February 12, 2022

Stabroek News

To see our Vice President fumbling for words the other evening in his interview with VICE Media was not pretty.

His typical press conference begins with a two-hour monologue touching on every issue, many of which are outside his chief cook and bottle washer portfolio. Local media operators tolerate these because most of them are genuinely intimidated by Mr Jagdeo who has described them as vultures, barred one senior reporter from his press conferences and pulled state advertisements from this newspaper.

So one might not feel too sorry for him when he  was led to believe for over an hour that the award winning journalist, Isobel Yeung, was genuinely interested in his opinions on oil, the environment and his grand vision for Guyana with a mandatory sprinkling of attacks on opposition individuals she had likely never heard of.          Continue reading →
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GUYANA: AFC says termination of talks with top Demerara bridge bidder raises serious questions

02/13/2022 – 12:06 am

An artist’s rendition of the path of the new bridge

An artist’s rendition of the path of the new bridge
By February 11, 2022
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In a press release, AFC General Secretary and former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson says that the announcement on Tuesday that the government had terminated talks with the Chinese contractor and moved to the next bidder on the replacement of the Demerara Bridge was suspicious and requires a proper, detailed and coherent explanation.    Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Government, Guyana, Guyana infrastructure, Personalities | Tagged | Comments (1)

GUYANA: VP Bharrat Jagdeo denies taking bribes from Chinese companies

02/09/2022 – 12:09 am

Also read: PNC Leader Norton to Jagdeo: ‘Match your earnings with your assets’

By: Denis Chabrol in Demerara Waves – Tuesday, 8 February 2022.

V.P Bharrat Jagdeo

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has rejected claims of kickbacks to facilitate Chinese investors doing business in Guyana.

In an interview with the United States-headquartered Vice News that was posted on his Facebook page, he admits that he helps people but he denies that he takes bribes. “I help people out but doesn’t mean for consideration. It does not  mean for bribe because I believe that we have a mission to help as many as possible move forward in Guyana,” he said.

He admits that he knows a gentleman whose name is Mr. Su who is his friend and his tenant but said that he is lying on him if he told the reporter those allegations.      Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Chinese investment in Guyana, crime and Investigations, foreign investment, Guyana, Personalities, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (6)
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