The Week-in-Review - May 22 to May 28

Oil & Gas

Trinidad not currently pursuing challenge to local content law here – Rowley: The Government of Trinidad and Tobago on May 22nd said that it is not currently pursuing challenging Guyana’s local content laws but rather, is trying to understand how both nations can collectively benefit from the resources in the sector. “There has been a lot of interest in this particular matter. There has been interpretations. What the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has tried to do is not to view it through negative lenses but to understand what Guyana is trying to do. From that standpoint, we have not aggressively taken any positions to put the Guyanese objective under any litmus test,” Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Keith Rowley, said when asked by Stabroek News at a State House press conference if his government has mulled asking the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for a legal interpretation of the law. Rowley instead said that his country will work within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding Trinidad concluded with this country on Sunday, and that whatever decisions are made will be in keeping with CARICOM’s founding Treaty of Chaguaramas. “We do intend to rely on the cooperation that is written and embodied in the MoU and also understand that whatever our intentions are, those intentions are codified in the Treaty of Chaguaramas. So there is no need to start getting at each other’s throat and start misrepresenting the intentions and creating a negative environment. We believe that the Treaty of Chaguaramas is sufficiently robust to deal with all of these matters”, the Prime Minister said as he sat next to Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali. Rowley added: “And if interpretation is required in a court of law, that is normal in these matters. How many times you see in the United States, the administration taking the government to court or states taking the government to court? …What we hope does not happen is individuals going off on a frolic of their own and seeking to control the narrative into a nothingness for us,” he added. Rowley said that the public must judge for themselves persons who create varying negative narratives for their own objectives. For both sides, according to Rowley, decisions will be made in the best interest of the peoples of both countries.

Deal finally signed to audit US$9B in expenses claimed by Exxon and partners: Nearly 22 months after it took office, the PPP/C Government last Tuesday finally signed a deal to audit a whopping US$9billion in expenses claimed by ExxonMobil and its partners which could help to establish whether this country is receiving all of the oil profits it should. Under the maligned 2016 Production Sharing Agreement, up to 75% of each’s year’s oil revenues can be assigned to production costs while the remainder comprises profit oil to be split evenly between Guyana on one hand and ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC on the other. If any of the production costs are disallowed by the auditors it could potentially expand profits to this country. Underscoring that public expectations should be tempered as the aim is not to find ExxonMobil guilty of impropriety, but to verify and validate the US$9 billion in claimed costs, the RHVE consortium of local accounting firms yesterday signed the US$700,000 ($150.5 million) contract to audit Guyana’s 2018 to 2020 cost oil and is expected to commence work soon. For the contract which has a duration of four months , Ramdihal and Haynes, Vitality Consulting, and Eclisar Financial & Professional Services (EFP) that make up the RHVE consortium, have subcontracted the US firms of Martindale Consultants Inc, and Squire Paton Boggs, for technical support and expert assistance. “The purpose of this audit is to verify the validity and the allowability of claimed costs. We look at what Exxon submitted and ask the questions, ‘is it valid and is it allowable under the production sharing agreement?’ There is an expectation that we will find that Exxon has been cheating and we would like to temper the expectations of the Guyanese public,” Chartered Accountant and Professor Floyd Haynes, who leads the consortium, told Stabroek News following the signing. “The idea that Exxon has been overbilling and overcharging, it is grossly misleading and it is not fair to mislead the public. We don’t know what we will find, but we will ensure the costs are legitimate and allowable,” he added while underscoring that the firms will do their work with professionalism and in the best interest of the country.

Regional affairs

Guyana, T&T MoU aims to upturn status quo: Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago last Sunday signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will see the establishment of a high-level bilateral commission and address areas such as non-tariff barriers which have strained relations between the two countries. The MoU came in the backdrop of a major agricultural conference here and after months of wrangling by government and private sector officials in both countries over trade and prospects in Guyana’s oil and gas sector. Georgetown and Port of Spain vowed that the MoU will challenge the “current status quo” wherever trade is impeded. “By this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Renewed and Enhanced Cooperation the Parties agree to work with each other in the areas of trade and investment, agriculture and food security, security, energy, and infrastructure, and other areas as may be determined, with the aim of developing a strategic cooperation partnership for the mutual benefit of their respective countries and the wider Caribbean Community,” the document signed by Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd and his Trinidadian counterpart Amery Brown at State House said. It adds, “The Parties may enter into complementary cooperation agreements in specific areas of common interest.” Both President Irfaan Ali and Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley witnessed the signing and then held a joint press conference. For Ali, the MoU demonstrates that both countries will take “the bull by the horns and identify in an open and frank way the many missed opportunities for the future and blocks to those opportunities.” He has already underscored that less talk and more tangible work towards realistically achievable targets is what is needed if the region is to meet its ‘25 per cent by 2025’ food import reduction bill. Ali, who is the lead Head of Government for Agriculture in the CARICOM QuasiCabinet, according to CARICOM Secretary General Carla Barnett, repeated what he told regional leaders at the opening of the recent Agri-Investment Expo, that the onus is on current leaders to start an active process for achieving food security.

Fire

Three children die in fire at Barnwell: Three children died in an early morning electrical fire in Barnwell village, aback of Mocha on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD) last Thursday. The fire occurred around 01:25 hrs. The deceased children were identified as 8-year-old Timothy Kippins, 6-year-old Triston Kippins and 1-yearold Zhalia Flue. According to a release from the Guyana Fire Service (GFS), a call was received at 01:25hrs about the fire and water tenders were immediately dispatched to the location. However, while the fire tenders arrived in the area at 01:42 hrs they were unable to access the burning house due to the deplorable state of the access dam. Acting Fire Chief, Gregory Wickham told Stabroek News that due to the poor state of the road, the fire trucks were forced to stop some distance away from the scene and that resulted in fire fighters not being able to effectively respond. However, when they did, the wooden building had already been engulfed in flames. It was only after the fire was put out, that investigators were able to comb the scene and the charred remains of the children were found. The structure was a one-story wooden building which was owned and occupied by Tracy Flu and her three children. The GFS reported that investigations revealed that the fire was electrical in nature. The mother of the children related that she was at work at the time of the fire.

Crime

Cop fatally shoots man while responding to domestic violence report: An investigation has been launched by the Guyana Police Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to determine the circumstances that led to the death of a 30-year-old Ruimveldt man after he was shot at by a Police rank last Tuesday. The man has been identified as Deanraj Singh, called Steve Singh, of Riverview, Ruimveldt, East Bank Demerara (EBD). The shooting occurred at about 8 pm on Tuesday after Police officers from the Ruimveldt Police Station responded to a report of domestic violence. The ranks went to a house at Riverview Ruimveldt, where Singh and some other friends were drinking. When he saw the ranks, he ran into a house, jumped through a window and dashed towards the Demerara River. The police ranks followed him. The Police’s statement related that the rank carrying the firearm was walking on a landing heading towards the river when he heard sounds coming from the bushes on the riverbank. The rank shone his torchlight in the direction of the sounds and reported seeing Singh with an object in his right hand. That was followed by a “loud explosion”, according to the Police and resulted in the rank responding by discharging two rounds in the direction of Singh. The Police said that the rank reported that he saw Singh running towards the Demerara River where he jumped in. A search was then mounted for Singh but was unsuccessful. His body was discovered on Wednesday, at about 6:45 am lying face down on the mudflat in the Demerara River. The discovery was made by a fisherman who lives in the area.

In the courts

Accused in murder of Kescia Branche freed: With the prosecution unable to locate a witness who was key in establishing a prima facie case against Matthew Munroe for the 2017 murder of school teacher Kescia Branche, the former-accused has been freed. Following his arraignment last Tuesday, a jury was empaneled to hear Munroe’s case. After the trial got underway, Prosecutor Muntaz Ali disclosed that the State could not produce one of its main witnesses who was key in establishing a nexus between the accused and the crime. That witness was material to the circumstantial case the prosecution had built against Munroe. Justice Sandil Kissoon commended the prosecution for its “full and frank” disclosure, but noted that it would have failed in making out its case against Munroe.

In the circumstances, Justice Kissoon directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty in favour of the former taxi driver, which saw him being discharged and cleared of the capital offence. Munroe, 52, was represented by a battery of attorneys led by Dexter Todd and Dexter Smartt. The indictment against him to which he had pleaded not guilty, was that he murdered the 22-yearold Richard Ishmael Secondary School teacher on November 7th, 2017, at Georgetown. Branche, a mother of one, was found unconscious and badly wounded on the morning of November 5th, 2017, along Cemetery Road, obliquely opposite the cemetery office, in Georgetown. She succumbed to her injuries two days later while in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital.