Hinterland communities already benefiting from Oil Money -says VP Jagdeo

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Tuesday defended his Government’s spending of money from the oil fund and told indigenous leaders that the Hinterland community is already benefiting from the oil money.

Guyana has been earning hundreds of millions of dollars from the oil sector, which began production in 2019. In many communities, citizens complain that they are yet to see and feel the impact of the cash flow.

With regards to the Hinterland communities, Mr. Jagdeo told the National Toshaos’ Conference which is currently underway that the development taking place in their communities is being funded by the oil money.

“So apart from the funds that you are receiving directly, the infrastructure in the regions that you live in, are going to be transformed, health infrastructure, education infrastructure, we are spending over $2 billion on water, road connectivity and of course ICT connectivity that will allow people to have greater access to scholarship programmes. So, if anything, the Hinterland community is benefiting from beyond resources that we get from the oil sector, and so too is the rest of Guyana, so don’t let nobody tell you that the oil money, that you are not getting from it”, he said.

The Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo also announced that Indigenous communities will be receiving some $4.8B this year from the sale of Carbon Credits to undertake several projects.

He said over the next ten years, some 15% or US$112M will be given to Amerindian communities for various projects.

Last year, the government received US$150m from Carbon Credit sales and US$22M or G$4.7b was disbursed to 242 Amerindian villages.

This year, the Vice President said the country is set to receive just over US$80M from the carbon sales and while $2.7B was earmarked for Amerindian villages, a decision was taken to add an additional $2.1B.

“The President graciously agreed to increase this—so we reduce the government’s amount, that we are going to use for adaptation measures, a lot of them, back into Amerindian communities too—the remaining 85% will be spent all across Guyana including Amerindian communities but we decided that 15% will go directly to the villages and the villages will decide how they spend the money,” the Vice President noted.

It was also noted that while the same 242 villages will receive the monies this year but an additional $100m will be set aside for those communities that have now asked to be part the disbursements.

Meanwhile, just like the President did, the Vice President also used part of his presentation to lash out at the Amerindian People’s Association, which has been highlighting various issues in the indigenous communities.

“And so today, any Toshao who believes that this programme is not serving your people and your community is free to opt out, we give you that chance to opt out because the APA doesn’t want you to collect this money— that is one thing I want to put to the Toshaos here, the money can easily be realocated to the villages that want it,” the Vice President noted.

Jagdeo has accused the organisation of wanting to undermine development.