Dr. Prem Misir will soon replace Dr. Rudy Jadoopat as the head of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) of Guyana, a secretariat established to promote transparency and accountability of the country’s natural resources.
Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat told the News Room on Saturday that this process was done openly and transparently. Bharrat said the position was advertised months ago and was published in all the local daily newspapers.
The Natural Resources Minister was responding to claims by the Alliance for Change (AFC) that Dr. Jadoopat was terminated from the secretariat.
Minister Bharrat revealed that Dr. Jadoopat’s contract expired between February and March last year.
“…if we wanted to get rid of him there was the opportunity, but we kept him on because we didn’t want him to leave the secretariat because we realised how important the secretariat is,” Minister Bharrat explained.
Bharrat also revealed that Dr. Jadoopat was well aware that the position was advertised since he also applied for the position and was interviewed.
However, Dr. Misir, who also applied for the position, was ranked as the number one candidate.
“He has a wealth of experience and we are confident that he can maintain the work and integrity of the secretariat,” Minister Bharrat said.
Dr. Misir, a former Pro-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, has experience at the policy level in the extractive sector. The News Room understands that he is expected to take up the position on March 1, 2022.
In 2010, the Government made a commitment towards the EITI; a Memorandum of Understanding with EITI was signed on May 15, 2012, and the Guyana EITI National Secretariat was established in December 2016.
Due to the emergence of the oil and gas industry, on August 18, 2017, the Government formally submitted its application to become a candidate country of the EITI following the completion of several sign-up steps.
The EITI also offers disclosures on how the mining, forestry and fishing industries are managed to enable stakeholders to understand the laws and procedures that apply to these industries.
The AFC and PNC want to run the Government not contribute to it.