While he may have held responsibility for two important portfolios in the APNU+AFC regime, former Foreign Affairs Minister and Foreign Secretary, Carl B. Greenidge has sought to set the record straight, once and for all, that he had no role to play in the heavily criticized 2016 Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA).
Contrary to the beliefs of certain sections of society, Greenidge said he is not to be blamed for any generous tax waivers or the 2 percent royalty contained in the PSA, be it a deductible expense of not. That agreement was signed with Operator, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited and its partners, Hess Guyana Limited and CNOOC Petroleum Limited.
Greenidge thought it prudent to make the foregoing declaration following a news item on the matter in the Kaieteur Newspaper. The article in question was published on Friday, June, 24, 2022 with the headline: Exxon’s contract on 2% royalty misleading as Guyana bears the burden – Chris Ram.
Greenidge said, “My name appears in the said piece as being responsible for inappropriate, if not illegal, ‘generosity’ including, remitting or waiving royalty payments ExxonMobil was due to make to the state. The writer/s of the article, points out that the Production Sharing Agreement is the framework in which the petroleum companies, namely ExxonMobil et al, are being taxed.”
Greenidge said this allegation has been made even though elsewhere in the paper, writers and persons interviewed are uncertain whether the royalty was ever paid, remitted or treated by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) as an expense.
In spite of all of this and indeed, without missing a beat, Greenidge said the writer informs readers that, “According to Ram, ‘this is the inheritance which (Raphael) Trotman, (Carl) Greenidge and David Granger have bestowed on Guyana. What a shame. All that is left for them to do to complete their generosity is to waive the royalty as they are permitted to do under section 49 of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act”.
Greenidge categorically stated however that he is not to be blamed in any way, shape or form for what the newspaper is contending. He said, “I have (and have had) nothing to do with the legislation or the waiver of these payments. I was not the Minister responsible for such matters in 1999 nor was I either the Minister of Finance or Energy between 2015 and 2020. I had no Ministerial responsibility for the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act and was therefore not in a position to be ‘generous’, irresponsibly or otherwise, as alleged or implied by the paper.”
At the very least, Greenidge believes the newspaper as well as Ram, owe him a correction of such mischievous information.
