Hours after it was confirmed that Guyana has been suspended from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) over its failure to submit its 4^th Report, President Irfaan Ali expressed his disappointment, telling the nation that the country’s failure to submit the report within the specified timeline was unacceptable.

“In relation to the EITI Report, I have already made it clear that it is unacceptable to have a delay in the submission of our report. Notwithstanding the fact that an extension was given by EITI Secretariat to May this year, to have that report completed by May this year, we still should have been in a position to have that report submitted. Notwithstanding the fact that all countries were given an extension in 2019 as a result of the COVID-19 and in our case, extensive floods in the forest, in the hinterland that obstructed data collection, the pandemic that brought with it, its own circumstances, I have made very clear that I would not tolerate delays in the presentation and submission of our reports,” the Guyanese Head of State said in a special address to the nation.

Guyana was required to submit its 4^th GYEITI Report on or before December 31, 2022 for the period January 1 to December 31, 2020 but missed the deadline. At a meeting on February 1, 2023, the Board of EITI voted against granting the country an extension.

“Guyana is not eligible for an extension of the reporting deadline for fiscal year 1 January 2020-31 December 2020,” the global transparency body said on its website but the Government is adamant that the EITI Secretariat had granted an extension.

President Ali, in registering his disappointment, said his Government stands resolutely behind every institution that promotes transparency and accountability, and will spare no effort in advancing transparency and accountability in everything it does.

 He said the Government took several steps to ensure the successful completion of the report, however, its efforts were hindered by the Guyana’s EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG).

“The Government of Guyana in keeping with its mandate and in keeping with its commitment to transparency and accountability hired an independent administrator to complete the report, however, for four months, the Multi-Stakeholder Group, the MSG, had the TOR for this administrator on hold, on pause, that is, they did not approve the TOR for the International Administrator. This begs the question, whether, there are persons on that group with ulterior motives. It is not after four months that we were able to have the TOR agreed upon with two persons abstaining,” the President explained.

He said it was unacceptable for the MSG to put the country’s reporting framework at stake, and ultimately damage the country’s credibility.

Nonetheless, the President said he is pleased that the TOR for the independent administrator has been approved, and the report will now be done expeditiously, and completed ahead of the May ‘extension’ that  was given to Guyana  by the EITI Secretariat.

“I want to make this very clear, that Guyana was given an extension by EITI Secretariat as communicated to me by the Minister. I want to further say that Guyana stands committed in working with the EITI Secretariat in fulfilling our responsibility and our mandate and we are going to further strengthen the MSG to ensure that the credibility of Guyana, to ensure the work in relation to transparency and accountability of our natural resource sector is not affected by ulterior motive or desire. The only desire of this Government is to have strong monitoring framework,” President Ali said.

Noting that such failure will not reoccur, the President warned that those responsible will be exposed and held accountable.

 However, while the President maintains that an extension was given, according to EITI’s website, Guyana has been suspended over the failure to meet the deadline, and no extension has been given.

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