Despite all past assurances, the APNU+AFC administration has failed to bring on board, a Local Content Policy before first oil. While this is grounds for all Guyanese to feel a great sense of disappointment in the government, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) believes that the citizenry should see as an absolute demonstration of disrespect, recent comments by Head of the Energy Department, Dr. Mark Bynoe.
In a statement to the press yesterday, the PPP reminded that Dr. Bynoe on the announcement of first oil by President, David Granger on Friday said, “It is also imperative that as Guyanese we begin to appreciate that the direct and indirect benefits from this sector will go far beyond anything that we have seen to date.”
With the foregoing in mind, the Opposition party said that Dr. Mark Bynoe is attempting to sell pipe dreams to Guyanese for in the absence of a policy, the said benefits to which he alluded to would not be realized.
The Party stressed that the Local Content Policy is one of the key means of ensuring that Guyanese benefit in a direct way from the operations in the oil and gas sector. It further noted that if the appropriate policy environment is not in place then the President’s claim that “Guyana’s future is brighter with the beginning of first oil” only rings hollow.
The PPP/C then concluded that the entire architecture for proper and transparent management of the oil resources would be completed in six months should it win the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.
