Jagdeo distances PPP from Global Witness report and timing of its release

PPP General Secretary and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has distanced his party from the recent report by the non-governmental group, Global Witness on the oil contract between the Government and ExxonMobil.

Globa Witness chided the APNU+AFC administration for negotiating what it considered a bad contract and estimated that Guyana could lose up to US$55 Billion because of the contract.

Since the report, the Government and a number of international oil analysts have dismissed the Global Witness report. The coalition government has even accused the group of attempting to influence the elections in Guyana.

At his weekly solo press conference today, the Opposition Leader made it clear that his party had nothing to do with the report or the timing of its release. He said the Government likes to hold on to report that makes it appear as though it’s doing a good job, but doesn’t like other reports that point to something else.

“Let me say, the People’s Progressive Party did not bring Global Witness here. We have no such power over Global Witness which is an international NGO, and I suspect that their presence here was largely by this Government’s own hand”, Jagdeo contended.

In response to those who have criticised the report, Jagdeo said those explanations are “lame” since “people really believe that Guyanese are really really stupid to give these explanations to our people. But they knew of this report and about Global Witness presence in Guyana”.

Jagdeo also questioned the Government hiring of another company to do what he called a rebuttal of the Global Witness report even before the Global Witness report came out. He noted that the Global Witness report on the Guyana Oil Industry and contracts cannot be dismissed, but added that if his party gets back into power, it prefers to conduct its own reviews.