US oil company ExxonMobil did pay a signing bonus following the new agreement it clinched with the government on June 27, 2016 and why this was kept secret will pile pressure on the Granger administration over its claims to transparency particularly given concerns over accounting for revenue from the petroleum sector.
Stabroek News has seen correspondence (reproduced on this page) dated September 20, 2016 from the Ministry of Finance to the Bank of Guyana (BoG) pertaining to arrangements for the signing bonus. The letter did not specify the quantum of the bonus but commentator Christopher Ram said in October that he was told that US$20M was paid. This
statement was not contradicted by the government. Pressed for answers, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman would only say that that Cabinet would deliberate on the question of making the June 27 contract available to the public. On November 30, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said that the contract and presumably any information on the signing bonus would be made available sometime this month…..
Guards hold key in Piarco heist probe
(Trinidad Guardian) Preliminary investigations into Wednesday’s $5.5 million heist at the Piarco International Airport have revealed employees there may have had support from co-conspirators with military training, police said yesterday.
CCJ scolds Appeal Court over 4-year delay in ‘urgent’ hearings
The Guyana Court of Appeal has come in for a reprimand by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for not following instructions given to it more than four years ago to urgently hear motions filed by the Blairmont Rice Investment Inc.
‘Now what we going to do?’
“Enmore will suffer. It done. It done deh. It gon’ turn a ghost town,” says Bharrat Ramjit, one of the sugar workers from the Enmore Estate, who will be without a job for the first time in over two decades as GuySuCo has notified 1,100 workers of impending layoffs.
West Coast Berbice man remanded over waitress murder
A Number 5 Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB) man was yesterday remanded at the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court over the murder of Marissa Fraser, 22, a waitress, whose body with multiple stab wounds was discovered in a trench at Number 4 Village (WCB) on Monday morning.
Cops charged with stealing $500,000 from miner
Two police constables were yesterday charged with stealing $500,000 from a gold miner.