Unwise to place oil revenues in foreign bank account

Dear Editor,

It is quite unwise to have a sovereign nation such as Guyana place the revenue from its natural resources in a bank account out of its control. The oil contracts have already given a foreign supplier substantial power over the resolution of disputes with the laws of their homeland being very instrumental for any such dispute that could occur. In addition, the APNU+AFC is placing the revenue from our oil into a low interest bearing account in a foreign government’s federal banking system in the foreign supplier’s country of origin. In the event of a dispute, funds can be easily withheld from Guyana resulting in significant financial distress for our nation. This is not a very astute move on the part of a party that may not be in power after the March 2020 elections. The APNU+AFC have no idea what a new administration may result in, via oil contract renegotiations or via new legislation resulting from public action.

It seems quite unwise to place a key source of the country’s future budget in a location out of our government’s direct control. If there is a concern over the principles of transparency, good governance and international best practices being in place in Guyana’s banking system, then the more prudent action is to correct what is wrong and ensure our auditing team is empowered to report regularly on the status of the nation’s funds and the associated processes.

Yours faithfully, Jamil Changlee