Leader of the Alliance For Change, (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan has fired off at the Government over its decision to appeal the recent High Court ruling which mandated ExxonMobil and its subsidiaries to provide unlimited insurance coverage.

Last week High Court Judge, Sandil Kissoon ordered the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) to issue an Enforcement Notice to Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and its parent company, Exxon Mobil to ensure it provides unlimited insurance coverage to safeguard Guyana against the devastating effects of an oil spill within the next thirty days.

In responding to the ruling, the Government said it is of the view that the Environmental Permit imposes no obligation on the Permit Holder to provide an unlimited Parent Company Guarantee Agreement and/or Affiliate Company Guarantee Agreement.

Appearing on the Nation Watch programme over the weekend, Mr. Ramjattan said the move by the government is unpatriotic.

“It is damning and so unpatriotic for our Attorney General to go and take up the cause for Exxon. This has no good about it, it has no national interest about it, it is anti-national and it is unpatriotic, quite frankly, it is immoral,” Ramjattan said.

According to the AFC leader, the ruling of the High Court is sound in law, but it also opens the avenue to provide critical coverage not only to Guyana but the country’s neighbors in the event of an oil spill.

Ramjattan said the government now appears to have an incestuous relationship with the company, where Exxon’s interests appear to have trumped that of the Guyanese people.

 ‘It is hopelessly unpatriotic, it is most anti-national and it shows how from a situation where the Opposition PPP now government PPP have said that it is the most rottenness of contract and Exxon is such a bad company and so on and they today have put themselves almost in an incestuous relationship,” Mr. Ramjattan said.

ExxonMobil last week said it is still studying the ruling of the Court. The company has not indicated whether it intends to join the Government’s appeal.

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