Govt. scraps oil exportation licence Sam Hinds gave Chinese
Entrepreneurs who were said to be on safe ground during the previous administration are now ‘feeling the squeeze.
’One such businessman would be Su Zhi Rong. He is the owner of China Zhonghao Inc, a sister company of Rong-An Inc.
An audit into the affairs of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) revealed that China Zhonghao Inc. was granted a license to export oil. Former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds later took full responsibility for the granting of the licence saying that it was by no means an act of corruption.What mostly worried the auditors is that the import licence carried an expiry date of January 19, 2025.
However, Kaieteur News understands that that date of expiration shall no longer be enforced as the licence is no longer in effect.Regulations indicate that an applicant desirous of exporting petroleum and petroleum products must apply to GEA and lodge supporting documents.The forensic audit report prepared by Nigel Hinds did not confirm whether the company indeed satisfied all the necessary requirements.
However, Minister of Infrastructure, David Patterson, said that the company did not produce the necessary documents within the time given to do so.“A company is given time to provide additional information that was outstanding. If it doesn’t, then the licence is deemed revoked or expired.”He said that in the first place, the company did not have an oil exportation licence, as was highlighted in the audit report. What Hinds granted was a conditional licence and that is no longer in effect.
“The company was given a conditional licence which meant that at the time of issuance, it still had outstanding issues but was given an interim licence anyway,” Minister Patterson stated.
He said that when he assumed office he sought to find out on what basis the company was granted the conditional license. The Minister was informed that the permission to export oil was to facilitate a proposal by China Zhonghao to attempt to establish refueling and other bunkering services in port or at sea, to Chinese or other fishing fleets, and any other vessels traversing the Caribbean Sea.
Patterson said that since the PPP/C never granted the fishing licence, “we wrote seeking justification for a license since fishing was their basis first time around.”
Former Prime Minister Hinds was also given the energy portfolio.
Defending his decision to grant the licence, Hinds said that it is a matter of regret that the report of issuing fuel export/re-export licences was presented to the public as a preposterous matter.“There is no corruption. Guyana already has small incidental exports/re-exports of fuel. All fuel (and other) sales to international carriers –ships and planes – are exports/re-exports,” he said.
Hinds said that during the years of the PPP/C administration, the economy increased and there was a need to improve it a further tenfold if the country wanted to attain the prosperity it wants.“We have to look for new activities, thinking out of the box, opening our minds to a thousand possible new ventures with the hope that some tens of them would take root and be fruitful.”It is against this background, the former PM said, that the then Government “agreed” to issue a fuel export license.
In early January, the APNU/AFC government disclosed that a multi-million-dollar bulk fuel importation operation on the East Bank of Demerara was on hold, with the Chinese owners asked to dismantle an unauthorized wharf construction.
Government said that the Chinese conducted an operation called “Falls”, located at Coverden. They reportedly built a larger-than-authorized wharf.Officials from the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) reportedly unearthed the unauthorized works during inspections. The matter was reported to the Ministry, and the company ordered to do corrective worksNow, China Zhonghao is not operating at all.Patterson explained that the one licence covered all of the company’s operations along with the conditions of operation “as soon as one of the conditions became irrelevant so did all the others.”
