Raising our collective voices against the few contrarians

In 1999 Guyana’s Finance Minister refused to adjourn a Paris Club negotiation at 8 PM as he wanted an additional USD 30M of Guyana’s debt forgiven; five hours later the Paris Club team folded and the sum was added to those agreed to be written off. The Finance Minister, Bharrat Jagdeo, spent years wrangling Guyana’s national debt payments down from 152% of GDP to less than 50% when he demitted office. Jagdeo as President led Guyana to an exit from the IMF and our designation change from Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) so it must be galling for him to see Guyanese making demands that would increase the cost of oil production unnecessarily and others who want the industry and its offshoots shut down completely. The demands for USD 2B plus in ‘oil spill’ bond adds USD 50M to ‘cost oil’ and quite frankly benefits overseas insurance companies only; we have moved from clawing debt forgiveness of 30k to wasting 50M on an ill-conceived court action.

The other action making news this week is Melinda Janki writing to the US Exim bank seeking to block the loan for the Gas to Energy facility; Janki seeks to mislead the bank by laying partial facts of a court judgment for consideration. Janki informed the bank that a decision was handed down on October 5, 2023, where the court concluded that “…the decision by the EPA to grant the permit to Esso Guyana was contrary to law and was improper.” What Janki omitted was that the EPA decision to grant the permit was deemed improper based on timelines for land acquisition by the State of Guyana (which were not concluded before the permit was granted) an administrative issue and that Justice Beharry concluded:

70. The Applicants have not cogently articulated what real or substantial public wrong occurred to them or the wide Guyanese populace upon the grant of the environmental permit facility, which would justify quashing the decision of the EPA. Cognizance must be paid to the fact that significant fiscal expenditure has been injected into the Gas to Energy pipeline. A quashing order would disproportionately disadvantage Esso Guyana and the State by halting significant project development already underway. Moreover, it may also have an unintended consequence of impacting innocent third parties to the project development, all while proving to be a brutum fulmen in the way of substantive relief for the Applicants.

71. It is upon a delicate balancing exercise, that I am of the view that no good to the public can be done by granting the reliefs sought in the Amended Fixed Date Application. Consequently, the Orders sought in the Amended Fixed Date Application with Notice filed on 22 June 2023 are refused. Regardless of the administrative errors made during its issuance, I fail to see how this permit can now be characterized as unlawful or ‘contrary to law’ and have therefore concluded the missive by Janki to the US Exim bank was disingenuous at best and an attempt at sabotage of a project for national good at worst. I would expect Justice Beharry would ask Janki to explain the gross misrepresentation of her Honor’s judgment soon, for it shows a measure of contempt few would contemplate of a sitting judge.

From our exit from HIPIC in 2006 to our present designation as a high-income country in 2022, Guyanese have been experiencing development much like the proverbial frog in a pot of water, we have been coming to a boil slowly without quite realizing what has been happening; the chef who had to beg and borrow salt to start the meal however knows, and he must be understandably upset and protective when people who have no idea of what it took to get us here want to turn off the gas (pun intended) just as the meal starts cooking. Justice Beharry put it best: 69. In the present case, there is no evidence that the Applicants were personally aggrieved by the EPA’s decision to grant a permit to Esso Guyana. Most Guyanese want cheaper electricity and more job opportunities; they are unopposed to new industries, we need to raise our collective voices against the few contrarians using our court system in an attempt to stymie growth.