Robert Persaud’s appointment raises questions based on past performance

Former Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud’s recent appointment as this country’s Foreign Secretary and the potential conflict of interest as the owner of a consultancy and an oil & gas firm raises a variety of questions.

A statement from Minister of Foreign Affairs on Monday announced Persaud’s appointment but did not state what his job portfolio entails. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Attempts were made by Stabroek News yesterday to contact Persaud to elicit his comments. A female answered and said he would return a call shortly after. However, this did not happen and subsequent calls to the mobile phone were all unanswered.

Persaud’s LinkedIn profile states that he is an Executive Oil and Gas Specialist at the Windsor Electric Company Limited as of November of last year. It states too that he is also currently a managing consultant at iPower Consultancy Inc

Persaud who went on a “political sabbatical” in 2015 after the PPP/C lost office, returned to the scene during the later stages of the 2020 elections campaign. He had, according to then PPP/C General Secretary Clement Rohee in 2015, “abandoned his seat” on the PPP’s Central Executive Committee.

“I have no intention then or now… I made it clear after 2015 that I am taking a political sabbatical, unconditional,” he had told reporters in October of last year.

Then, Persaud said that he would have determined the end of that period when he felt that his contributions would be significant. “When I think I can play a role back in politics that is of value-added significance” he had said.

And when asked if with the then 2020 elections in the air, if he thought he could play that role, he said that he was “not sure”.  “I am more focused on what role and contribution I can make in a technical and in a more supportive capacity to the country’s wellbeing. How that plays out is a different issue. But for me I think we need much more involvement of making objective constructive and technical input in shaping designing and moving things forward,” he had said. 

He led the recent setting up of the Natural Cultural Centre for the inauguration of President Irfaan Ali.

Before and after leaving his position as Minister of Natural Resources, where he had served under the Donald Ramotar administration, Persaud had come in for his fair share of transparency scrutiny for decisions taken especially relating to oil & gas contracts and the controversial rare earth mining exploration permit given to Muri Brasil Ventures Inc (MBVI), owned by Brazilian businessman and PPP/C supporter Yucatan Reis, to carry out surveys in the sensitive New River Triangle area. Reis was also awarded 23,000 acres of land two months before the 2015 elections.

A survey permit was given to Muri Brasil in 2012, which would have eventually lead to prospecting in the New River area. Prior to the disclosure brought to light by reports in the Stabroek News, Persaud had sought to assure the Natural Resources Committee of Parliament and the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) that no prospecting was on the cards in that area.

The MBVI venture had come under intense scrutiny over concerns that it was to survey in an area that had for decades not been opened up for prospecting and mining. Following the disclosure of the hitherto unannounced Permission for Geological and Geophysical Surveys (PGGS) for MBVI, questions were asked about how the Ministry of Natural Resources had gone about soliciting interest in the area.

The ministry had subsequently released to the media what it said was a copy of the advertisement.  The notice inviting expressions of interest for the exploration of rare earths was however placed in a GGMC quarterly which was published on Sunday March 4, 2012 in all of the daily newspapers as a pull-out. That notice appeared to be the only public invitation and was not the manner in which such notices are placed. According to sources in the Ministry of Natural Resources, the notice had only appeared in the mining quarterly, a digital edition of which was published for a while on the Ministry’s website. It did not appear in any of the dailies independent of the GGMC quarterly supplement.

The quarterly was mast-headed “Mining Opportunities in Guyana” and carried within it a host of GGMC notices, including the one for rare earths which MBVI was to survey for.The company later pulled out saying that it made a decision to no longer pursue its geographical and geophysical survey under the PGGS.

It claimed that while the process was legal and transparent, its decision was due to the “misinformation, prejudice and hostility” to the venture by persons and agencies fostering an adverse investment climate in Guyana.Persaud had also used the issue as an example as he put miners on notice about attempts to stymie potential investors in the industry.

“This may not be the only one,” he had told those in attendance at a special meeting of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), where he had warned that other companies in the sector may befall the same fate as Muri. “My question is who and what is next and that is what I want the sector to bear in mind. I am not trying to cause hysteria. I am not [being] an alarmist. I am being a realist,” he had said, while urging those gathered against losing sight of “big issues” that could undermine the sector and its contribution to the economy.

Parliament’s Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources had taken up the matter in 2013 and its then chair Rupert Roopnaraine had said that Persaud could have been more forthcoming with the truth in testimony before it.

Lock down

And in June of last year, as this country’s State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) embarked on a probe of how two small companies without the capacity to drill for oil were able to lock down prime offshore acreage near to ExxonMobil’s key oil find days before the 2015 general elections, the spotlight was on the key decision maker, the then Minister of Natural Resources.

After being called out by former president Donald Ramotar to answer questions for himself, Persaud had taken to Facebook to break his silence saying that he has nothing to hide but remained tightlipped on the rationale behind his advice to grant the prime offshore acreage to two unproven companies.

He said that actions taken by the PPP/C administration to lay the foundation for Guyana to become an oil-producing nation were in “full conformity” with laws, even as he pointed out that SARA had not questioned him.

On March 25, 2018, the Sunday Stabroek reported on the concerns about JHI and Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas Inc. (MOGI) gaining access to the Canje block and later farming-in big players like French oil major, Total S.A, in what would be lucrative deals. Another company, Ratio Oil Explorations, also secured a deal.

Following issues of transparency raised on the awards of the contracts, the two companies took to defending their contracts though whole page advertisements in the dailies. By their own admission, in the advertisements, JHI and MOGI said that negotiations for the Canje block began in March 2013. This was the exact period in which ExxonMobil was beginning preparations to finally begin a drilling programme in the Stabroek Block, where in May 2015, it made a major find.

With a general election just days away, Ramotar signed off on deals that he said were presented by Persaud. The big question has always been why in a transition period between administrations would such a major deal be concluded – and in secrecy – and why it couldn’t wait until after the general elections?

Observers say that in a farming-in arrangement for the Canje block, JHI and MOGI stand to make extraordinary gains from just having the licence and without the ability to drill for oil.  JHI and MOGI have as their principals John Cullen and Edris Dookie, respectively, both of whom had a long association with Canadian oil company CGX, which had been pursuing the drilling of oil wells here since 2000. Observers say that both Cullen and Dookie might have over time become aware that Exxon’s ability to accurately pinpoint wells could lead to major discoveries.

While the APNU+AFC government had taken a hands off approach on these deals, SARA had begun to turn the heat up by announcing an investigation of the awards to the two companies based on whistleblower information.

Anti-corruption watchdog group Global Witness this year recommended that more effort be put into the SARA investigation of the awarding of the licences for the offshore Kaieteur and Canje oil blocks, as it noted that key participants, including Persaud, had not been questioned about the process.

The recommendation that government “redouble the efforts” is contained in the group’s report, ‘Signed Away: How Exxon’s exploitative deal deprived Guyana of up to US$55 billion,’ in which it noted that the awards raised “red flags.”

“In particular, the government should ensure that the investigation faces no obstacles in obtaining all the evidence it requires. And if the investigation does uncover evidence of wrongdoing, those involved should be held accountable,” it said.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had said when he was Opposition Leader that the PPP/C will support an investigation of the award of the oil blocks once it is led by an internationally recognised firm and not the SARA as he believes it is a biased agency.

“If you want to do an investigation, do the investigation, we will support it, but hire an impartial firm to do it. It can’t be SARA. SARA is not impartial… The PPP has nothing to hide… I am not worried,” Jagdeo had said.

“For any investigation into oil and gas contracts, the award of contracts, what took place at the negotiations, et cetera, for that investigation to have credibility, you cannot have SARA do it. You have to have an international organisation that has a well-known record of established transparency,” he added.