Local Content Bill recommends $50M penalty for oil companies, sub-contractors’ breaches
Government’s Local Content Bill is proposing a GY$50 million penalty for oil companies and their sub-contractors who breach the Act.
In the document which was tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday, under subheading ‘offences and penalties’, a person who carries out petroleum operations without the minimum local content requirements, is liable to a fine of $50 million dollars.
Further, a person who submits or causes to submit a local content plan, or report any other information in pursuant to the Act, and the person knows or ought reasonably to know that the submission is false or misleading, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction. In the case of an individual, a fine of $5 million, and in the case of a body corporate, a fine of $10 million dollars.
The Bill goes on to state that a Guyanese national or company that aids or abets anyone to contravene any provision of the Act in order to defeat the local content obligations under the Act, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction. For an individual, the fine is $5 million while in the case of a corporate body, the fine is $10 million.
A person who submits or causes to be submitted any information for the issuance of a certificate of qualification, knowing or ought reasonably to know that the information is false or misleading, commits an offence and is liable on a summary conviction to $10 million. Failure to submit a local content plan, return, report, record and any other local content documents, could be charged $5 million. Furthermore, that person could be charged $1 million for failing to meet the submission deadline for the aforementioned document.
The Local Content Bill proposes too, that if a person fails to satisfy the prescribed local content requirements of an approved plan, they could be charged $10 million. Likewise, the person’s failure to submit a performance report and/ or complies with a request by the Minister of Natural Resources, or the Local Content Secretariat to review or provide information on any return, report, record or any other local content document. For both offences, the person could be charged $1 million.
Where an offence has been committed by a corporate body, or companies operating in Guyana, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of a director, manager, secretary or any other officer or agent of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of that offence and liable to the same penalty. Notably, the Natural Resources Minister, by Order subject to affirmative resolution of the National Assembly, could amend the monetary penalties specified in the Bill.