Granger’s ‘good life’ is nothing more than a ‘good lie’

Dear Editor,

The discovery of oil in commercial quantities was announced Four years, Four Months and 20 days ago; ‘First-Oil’ is due sometime in March 2020, and yet Caretaker President David Granger is still without a clue as to what Guyana will be earning from oil production. In response to questions posed to him (Granger) by Journalist, Ms. Julia Johnson, on the margins of an accreditation ceremony hosted on the 9th October, at the Ministry of the Presidency, Granger said “…So, we don’t know how much we are getting; we are asking our partners to address their minds to how much needs to be spent and for what purpose and to whom. I agree with you there is a question of national and natural disasters… We are now in the stage of planning and it is not necessarily the best thing to conduct this debate before the plan has been made”.

The Government of Guyana employs over Thirty-five thousand people, many of whom have looked closely at the Oil industry. I refuse to believe that Granger has not been briefed of possible earnings based on a range of crude oil prices and expected BPD. Granger’s own Finance Minister said Oil earnings are expected to be $200 Million in 2020 based on a $50 per barrel price. Granger may be waiting on his cabal’s advice on what percentage will be ‘lost’ to ‘brokerage fees’ and other siphoning mechanisms they intend to deploy before he makes any pronouncements. Granger is desperately seeking an extension of his administration’s life so that he (Granger) may legally enter into these arrangements that will continue to benefit ‘the cronies’ well after APNU/AFC demits office.

The issue of Direct cash transfers from oil revenues has become a hot topic; Dr. Clive Thomas has floated a proposal that depends on the production of 1.5 million barrels of oil per day(BPD). ExxonMobil has not presented a plan where production goes past 750K BPD. Dr. Thomas is promising what he knows cannot be delivered in the near future. The PPPC delivered direct cash transfers in the past, without the benefit of a single BPD. The schoolchildren’s $10,000 cash grant would have been increased threefold by now and is not dependent on oil revenue; it is based on sound management of the economy. The current ‘dietary’ cost to the treasury is $1.5 Billion MORE than what was expended by the PPP administration, for example, this money can/will be redirected to the schoolchildren of the nation after the ‘fat cats’ are expelled from office in 2020.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Karen Cummings, Speaking of Granger’s policy on direct cash transfers, said that President David Granger and Government have a preference to teach citizens to “fish” rather than giving them the “fish” as handouts. In fact, thousands of sugar workers and their families have already been taught/forced to fish by Granger, they head into the back-dams in droves daily, true to his word, even the fish in the trenches are not allowed as ‘handouts’, Granger’s government has implemented a fishing fee of $500 a day or $15,000 a month for the fishing ‘privilege. Granger does not want to give Cash or anything else to Guyanese; Granger’s ‘good life’ is nothing more than a ‘good lie’.

Respectfully
Robin Singh