SEE BELOW THE STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE APNU:
Guyanese are alarmed over the news of the government’s flagrant and scandalous mishandling of the audit of ExxonMobil’s expenditure for the period 1999 to 2017. The explanations offered by Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat and VP Bharrat Jagdeo at best expose their ineptitude and dereliction and, at worse, point to probable criminality.
Any responsible person with a modicum of common sense would, on receipt of a report on the slashing of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited’s questionable expenses from US$214M to US$3M, seek further information or clarification on the matter. But not VP Bharrat Jagdeo. He informed the nation that he accepted the report at face value and had no concerns and sought no explanations. This is negligence and malfeasance of the highest order.
But worse, such negligence and malfeasance could lead to the loss of billions of dollars of public funds. The nation has travelled this road before with VP Jagdeo. The Skeldon Sugar factory modernization project, the Fibre Optics Cable project, and Su-gate (to name a few) have starkly exposed his incapabilities. He is out of his depth. The nation distrusts him.
APNU therefore calls for the immediate removal of Bharrat Jagdeo from the handling of all the country’s oil and gas matters. Enough is enough!
