APNU+AFC shore base motion designed to frustrate development – Finance Minister

Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Hon. Dr. Ashni Singh today thrashed an Opposition motion in the National Assembly which sought to regulate the placement of shore bases for the oil industry.

The motion called for a multi-agency taskforce to decide on a land use policy for the oil sector, and mandates that future shore bases be state-owned, but leased to private operators.

Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Hon. Dr. Ashni Singh

Dr. Singh said the motion was ill-conceived and designed to frustrate the course of national development.

“A land use policy sir, will not dictate what area should be used for what; a land use policy sir, will instead outline the broad principles that will govern the management and use of land … nothing to do with whether to use Berbice River or Demerara River for land.”

A section of the motion calls for future shore bases to be constructed in the counties of Berbice and Essequibo only, to develop parity in the oil and gas industry.

Dr. Singh said linking the land use policy to the location for a shore base operation reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of the aims of such a policy.

He explained that the very formulation of the motion points to the “gross ineptitude and incompetence” that characterises the APNU+AFC in government. The Minister questioned why the coalition did nothing to advance a land use policy during its five-year term if it believed such a document was important.

“They spent five years engaged in an excursion of frivolity in government and have left absolutely no policy of any significance, no new project, no legacy of which to speak except a legacy of disrepair and disgrace.”

Dr. Singh said the coalition government could have done a lot better to prepare Guyana for oil.

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