Vincent Adams’ contract terminated

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Django

Vincent Adams

Dr Adams

November 23 ,2020

The services of the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Dr Vincent Adams were today officially terminated.

Termination of his contract came after Dr Adams had been sent on immediate leave while he was spearheading the EPA’s input into ExxonMobil’s third proposed well, Payara.

When he turned up for work last week at the end of his outstanding leave he was sent for a further period and was today notified that his contract had been terminated.

Adams confirmed, when contacted by Stabroek News, that he was this morning given the letter by Office of the President’s Permanent Secretary Abena Moore.

Asked what are his plans for the future, he said that he will return to the United States soon but had already planned to continue his humanitarian work here as he focuses on helping this country prepare for the oil and gas industry.

He said that he remains committed to serve the country of his birth in whatever way his expertise can and that the PPP/C should not be reluctant to ask for his assistance, in the future.

On the 27th of August, and on the heels of a key decision on approvals for ExxonMobil’s Payara well for which the EPA had outlined a number of critical concerns, Adams was sent on immediate leave.

It was Adams who was playing the “lead role” for the government side on discussions on Payara. He has decades of experience in the public and private sectors in environmental management, groundwater, and petroleum production fields, and worked on US$ billion dollar-projects at the United States Department of Energy, where he had served for some 30 years.

Adams’ abrupt exit from a process that he was actively a part of, as well as being this country’s lead technical person, drew public consternation and questions on the rationale for the move.

Adams is the holder of a Degree in Civil Engineering, a Masters’ Degree in Petroleum and Geological Engineering and another in Geohydrology. The Linden-born scientist is also the holder of a PhD in Petroleum and Geological Engineering and another in Environmental Engineering.

He had told this newspaper in early 2018 that he felt that although Guyana is expected to become an oil producer, agriculture and renewable energy will actually be its keys to long-term sustainability. He had said, too, that he believes that ExxonMobil should have paid US$1B instead of US$18M sum as a signing bonus.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Ramakant-PSenior Member

Another one bites the dust. He played the lead role in the negotiations and got only US$18 million instead of US$1 billion.

11/23/206:23 PM

TotaramSenior Member

Dr. Adams was serving in a position for which he is eminently qualified. It is wrong to fire him. This is the work of Jagdeo. He hinted a couple of weeks ago that this was coming. Dr. Adams has two earned Ph.Ds from highly reputable universities. That's more than the entire PPP cabinet put together.

11/23/206:23 PM

TotaramSenior Member

@Ramakant-P posted:
Another one bites the dust. He played the lead role in the negotiations and got only US$18 million instead of US$1 billion.

You are stinking liar with very limited intelligence. You should be ashamed of yourself.

11/23/206:27 PM

Ramakant-PSenior Member

@Totaram posted:
Dr. Adams was serving in a position for which he is eminently qualified. It is wrong to fire him. This is the work of Jagdeo. He hinted a couple of weeks ago that this was coming. Dr. Adams has two earned Ph.Ds from highly reputable universities. That's more than the entire PPP cabinet put together.

There is a reason for his firing. I am quite aware of his qualifications. They are very impressive. I am also looking for answers to the incident.

11/23/206:28 PM

kpHonorary Member

House Cleaning

.many will go to JAIL

11/23/206:29 PM

TotaramSenior Member

@kp posted:
House Cleaning
.many will go to JAIL

It is more like ethnic cleansing. There will be a backlash .

11/23/206:33 PM

kpHonorary Member

The PNC must account for the missing guns, are they in the hands of the black criminals so to cause backlash?

11/23/206:38 PM

TolaSenior Member

@Totaram posted:
Dr. Adams was serving in a position for which he is eminently qualified. It is wrong to fire him. This is the work of Jagdeo. He hinted a couple of weeks ago that this was coming. Dr. Adams has two earned Ph.Ds from highly reputable universities. That's more than the entire PPP cabinet put together.

The PPP don't like people smarter than them, it makes them look inferior and stupid, like some PPP supporters on GCDF.

11/23/206:39 PM

TotaramSenior Member

@kp posted:
The PNC must account for the missing guns, are they in the hands of the black criminals so to cause backlash?

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

11/23/206:47 PM

kpHonorary Member

Adams was used by the PNC he was a figure head, Trotman was in full control, he was known as the Kickback King. Adams is tainted.

11/23/206:52 PM

DjangoAdmin

Dr.Vincent Adams ,is a real Dr. and was Assistant Secretary of Energy of the USA.

He returned to Guyana to service his country.

11/23/207:03 PM

DjangoAdmin

@kp posted:
Adams was used by the PNC he was a figure head, Trotman was in full control, he was known as the Kickback King.
Adams is tainted.

Do you have any proof ?

11/23/207:05 PM

Former Member

@Django posted:
Dr.Vincent Adams ,is a real Dr. and was Assistant Secretary of Energy of the USA.
He returned to Guyana to service his country.

To the best of my knowledge, Dr. Vincent Adams was NOT Assistant Secretary of Energy, United States government. He was a senior personnel in the U.S Energy services.

Dr. Vincent Adams was one of over 7, 000 personnel appointed as a Senior Executive Services official in the U.S government.

11/23/207:19 PM

DjangoAdmin

@Former Member posted:
To the best of my knowledge, Dr. Vincent Adams was NOT Assistant Secretary of Energy, United States government. He was a senior personnel in the U.S Energy services.
Dr. Vincent Adams was one of over 7, 000 personnel appointed as a Senior Executive Services official in the U.S government.

I may have present the wrong information ,he held high position in U.S Energy Services. Bear in mind we are talking about the USA ,not a backwater country.

11/23/207:26 PM

kpHonorary Member

@Django posted:
I may have present the wrong information ,he held high position in U.S Energy Services. Bear in mind we are talking about the USA ,not a backwater country.

Did he quit or they let hI'm go?

11/23/207:38 PM

TotaramSenior Member

@kp posted:
Did he quit or they let hI'm go?

Why don't you find the information for yourself rather than foolishly cross examine people? There is no one in Guyana as qualified as Dr. Adams to do the job from which they have fired him.

11/23/207:42 PM

Former Member

@Django posted:
I may have present the wrong information ,he held high position in U.S Energy Services. Bear in mind we are talking about the USA ,not a backwater country.

Indeed Django ...

Dr. Vincent Adams held a very high position in the US Energy Services.

The position Dr. Vincent Adams held was one where the respective individual managed the day to day operation of the government and also form the bridge/connections between the government department work force and the political appointees.

11/23/207:44 PM

DjangoAdmin

@kp posted:
Did he quit or they let hI'm go?

From which country job positions ?

11/23/208:04 PM

kpHonorary Member

@Django posted:
From which country job positions ?

The job in the US.

11/23/208:07 PM

DjangoAdmin

@kp posted:
The job in the US.

Retired .

https://www.energy.gov/managem...r-30-year-doe-career

In 2012, Dr. Vincent Adams received the Ohio School Boards Associationâ€™s Presidentâ€™s Award.

In 2012, Dr. Vincent Adams received the Ohio School Boards Association’s President’s Award.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Dr. Vincent Adams, deputy manager of EM’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), retires at the end of this month after 30 years at DOE.

“It was a highly rewarding career,” Adams said. “I am grateful to DOE for the opportunity to serve this great nation.”

PPPO Manager Robert Edwards said Adams managed the Portsmouth Site during a critical period in the site’s history.

“In his final years of DOE federal service, Vince oversaw the deactivation of the first of three large process buildings at Portsmouth and ultimately the initial construction of the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility,” Edwards said.

Adams credits the community and regulators’ acceptance of the project to building good relationships and trust.

“Dr. Vince Adams was an outstanding public servant for DOE and for this community,” said retired Pike County auditor Ted Wheeler. “His work will contribute positive things for this community for the next 50 years.”

Wheeler, who said he appreciated Adams’ “can-do attitude,” previously wrote that the deputy manager had “integrated the community’s future development visions with DOE’s long-range mission” and “established himself as a dependable partner with the community.”

Adams’ unconventional path to DOE began in Guyana, where he attended high school, a privilege for only about the top 1 percent selected at an early age. He was mindful that his mother never got to go to school.

“She could have been bitter, but she was one of the kindest people on the planet,” Adams recalled. “Her situation lit a fire inside me.”

Adams captained his high school cricket team, made the national under-19 team, was captain of two first division men’s teams, and made the national team as a teenager representing Guyana in elite Caribbean regional cricket tournaments.

By the early 1970s, he was preparing to sign a contract with England’s big leagues when he was injured in a serious automobile accident, putting his dream suddenly out of reach.

Adams then focused on education, graduating in the first civil engineering class from the University of Guyana.

He later moved to the U.S., where he earned two Master of Science degrees, one in hydrogeology and the other in petroleum and geological engineering. He later obtained a doctorate in environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

In 1986, Adams joined DOE’s former Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management as a hydrogeologist in west Texas. Two years later he joined the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program at Oak Ridge, Tenn. as an environmental engineer.

Following the shutdown of Oak Ridge’s K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Adams helped establish the EM program at the East Tennessee Technology Park. He managed the Toxic Substance Control Act Incinerator, including leading a successful 18-month restart after his 1990 arrival following a major accident there.

Later, Adams served as director of the K-25 deactivation and decommissioning (D&D), oversaw the DOE National Metals Recycle Center and managed the Melton Valley environmental restoration project.

Adams moved to EM headquarters in 2007, where he served as director for the Groundwater and Soils Office. He helped stand-up the $6-billion EM Recovery Act program and directed the $1.7-billion Recovery Act project at the Savannah River Site.

In 2010, Adams returned to the Portsmouth Site, which he had previously managed temporarily, to serve as its director and to kick off the D&D project there. In August 2016, he was promoted to deputy manager of PPPO, which oversees both the Portsmouth and Paducah, Ky. gaseous diffusion plant sites.

In retirement, Adams will continue the quest to make the U.S. the next frontier for the world’s second-most popular sport as a member of the International Cricket Council Advisory Group. He will also continue his mentoring and advocating for disadvantaged youths in the U.S. and Guyana. Adams received the 2012 President’s Award from the Ohio School Boards Association for his commitment to education and contributions to science, technology, engineering and math education.

“People helped me,” said Adams, who recently delivered the commencement address at the University of Guyana. “Now it’s my turn to help people who are in the same situation I was. I tell them my life story. If I can make it, you can make it.”

11/23/208:08 PM

kpHonorary Member

@Totaram posted:
Why don't you find the information for yourself rather than foolishly cross examine people? There is no one in Guyana as qualified as Dr. Adams to do the job from which they have fired him.

Sorry I am having an intelligent conversation not you

11/23/208:18 PM

TotaramSenior Member

@kp posted:
Sorry I am having an intelligent conversation not you

What you call intelligent is a transparent method used by the PPP and their unthinking supporters to besmirch the good name of respectable people. This is a public forum and I saw you going down that road and let you know that I know what you are up to.

11/23/208:27 PM

VishMahabirSenior Member

@Totaram posted:
Dr. Adams was serving in a position for which he is eminently qualified. It is wrong to fire him. This is the work of Jagdeo. He hinted a couple of weeks ago that this was coming. Dr. Adams has two earned Ph.Ds from highly reputable universities. That's more than the entire PPP cabinet put together.

LOL!

11/23/209:12 PM

VishMahabirSenior Member

Any way you look at this...it smells like ethnic cleansing. Even if its not, the PNC will make it such.

I honestly find this disturbing because the man is eminently qualified. Jagdeo did say he will find ways to use his service...so lets see how this turns up.

11/23/209:14 PM

cainTired old hippie

@kp posted:
The PNC must account for the missing guns, are they in the hands of the black criminals so to cause backlash?

This has absolutely nothing to do with the firing of this fellow. Or you saying he's black..gotta be a criminal?

11/23/2010:52 PM

Ramakant-PSenior Member

Mark Phillips must be cleansing his own people.

@VishMahabir posted:
Any way you look at this...it smells like ethnic cleansing. Even if its not, the PNC will make it such.
I honestly find this disturbing because the man is eminently qualified. Jagdeo did say he will find ways to use his service...so lets see how this turns up.

Ethnic cleansing is the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in society.

There is no ethnic cleansing in Guyana.

11/24/2012:23 AM

VishMahabirSenior Member

@Ramakant-P posted:
Mark Phillips must be cleansing his own people.
Ethnic cleansing is the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in society.
There is no ethnic cleansing in Guyana.

You are missing the point.

Let me make it simple for you: Try telling an Afro in Guyana that there is no ethnic cleansing going on in Guyana and that this government is a representation of ALL Guyanese.

Like "coolie", ethnic cleansing have different meanings, not the meaning you want to give it because of its historical use.

The point is this: Its one thing to remove political appointees from a previous government, but when you are doing this in a country that is racially divided like Guyana, it has racial undertones...especially when it comes to removing highly qualified Afros, who you and the PPP know can very well make a serious contribution to the development of the country.

Had they done this, it would make it difficult for the opposition to continue to use the race card against the PPP.

Its one thing for you to support the government, but its another when you choose to be a sycophant drinking the PPP cool aid.

11/24/2012:41 AM

cainTired old hippie

Is not cool aid..is soup.

11/24/2012:44 AM

TolaSenior Member

@cain posted:
Is not cool aid..is soup.

Perhaps its Jones cool aid soup.

11/24/201:56 AM

Ramakant-PSenior Member

Ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing. It does not apply to Guyana. Only Burnham tried it and it didn't work. Burnham employed 95% of afro_guyanese in all Government sectors and created a National Service to control Indians. This forced the Indians to flee the country.

11/24/209:50 AM

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