Dear Editor,
Reference is made to a letter by the Economic Advisor to the Leader of the Opposition, Elson Low that appeared in sections of the print media on April 9, 2023. The Advisor contended that only a corrupt group will rush through these reviews by limiting the timeline for consultation to two weeks.
The argument on the length of time for the review put forward by the opposition’s economic spokesperson, however, is subjective. To the contrary, the undersigned’s contention is that sixty days as has been proposed by the opposition is absolutely ridiculous and is indicative of laziness and incompetence on the part of the Parliamentary Opposition. For the simple reason that the hard work has already been done by the Ministry of Natural Resources’ technical team in drafting the new PSA.
Moreover, as far as the undersigned is aware, the opposition has a diversity of appropriate skillsets that they could have tapped into to aid in a timely review by simply putting together a team and delegate the various sections of the PSA for review to each person or sub-team. For example, at minimum, the different skillsets needed are: (1) an environmental professional with an engineering background (Dr. Vincent Adams comes to mind); (2) a team of accountants and/or economists (the economic advisor supported by his other accounting and finance colleagues within the opposition); and (3) a team of lawyers which they do have at their disposal.
Editor, the Parliamentary Opposition has a constitutional duty to treat these matters with the utmost importance and urgency required of them. In so doing, the opposition needs to put in the hours of work necessary and stop complaining if they are truly serious about the country’s development.
Moreover, the opposition should be embarrassed for complaining about the timeline. Due credit must be given to Kaieteur News despite their perceived political or mischievous agenda―wherein they have managed to conduct their own review of the PSA within the prescribed timeline.
The undersigned has also submitted comments on the draft PSA which focused exclusively on those Articles in the PSA that relate to the fiscal framework and Annex C which relates to the accounting procedures. And, of note, less than 24 hours was expended in conducting this exercise.
Yours sincerely,
Joel Bhagwandin
Financial and Public Policy Analyst
