I do not believe that Guyana can avoid the curse that has afflicted so many resource-rich countries. The controversy surrounding the recent contract the government signed with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary is a clear indication this. Whether or not the government’s rollout of some oil big-shots last week was – as some believe – a gimmick intended to intellectually intimidate its critics or was a genuine effort at learning, one must be hopeful that it has gained something useful from the venture. The process whereby many resource-rich countries have squandered their resources and become mired in corruption as their populations remain wallowing in poverty is very disheartening, and elsewhere Sir Paul Collier, one of the government’s invitees, made an insightful contribution as to how the ‘resource curse’ might be avoided that is well worth reading. (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2013/12/collier.htm).
But first, whatever was the government’s expectation or Sir Paul’s intention, he made what I assess to be a withering critique of the regime that should not be left without comment. He stated what most of us already suspected, that ‘Guyana was unequally matched in negotiations with ExxonMobil and other multinationals’ and he could only properly have come to that conclusion from an appreciation of the outcome of the negotiations. For someone of his calibre to conclude that, notwithstanding the necessary resources at its disposal, a government, sworn to protect the interest of the people, was outclassed in this manner is a formidable critique. It suggests that the results of the negotiation are not marginally but substantially in favour of the other side. In sports, à la West Indies at the moment, the team would have been relegated. Hard for the government to swallow as it must be, there is only one reason that this disastrous result was possible, namely that the government did not realise that it was fielding such a weak team and did not know what it was getting into!
