Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 20:26 by Writer
As civil society gathered momentum to lobby the Norway-headquartered Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) against the Guyana government’s alleged overreach in selecting civil society representatives on the local chapter, the Ministry of Natural Resources on Tuesday questioned the sincerity of Policy Forum Group (PFG).
PFG and 18 other local, regional and international EITI chapters and civil society organisations earlier on Tuesday said they planned to ask the EITI Board that would be meeting in Armenia this week to state publicly that the Guyana government’s approach to civic appointments is incompatible with the independence of all sectors as required by the EITI Standard 2023.
“The role of the convenor is plain and simple. Pull civic members together and have them set their own rules and guidelines, leading up to selecting their members. The convenor has no influence whatsoever over who or how a civic representative is selected. So, why are there all the pushbacks?” the ministry said in reaction.
The ministry reiterated its commitment to the EITI process, including respect for the CSO (Civil Society Organisations) Protocol and Requirement 1.4 of the EITI Standard which requires civil society to choose its representatives freely.
The natural resources ministry also dismissed the civil society organisations’ accusation that the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) was attempting to capture the GYEITI (Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) “politically” and the government was seeking full control through monpolising selection of MSG (multi-stakeholder group) members on top of exerting significant influence through a GYEITI Secretariat that functions as a department of the Ministry of Natural Resources that controls all financial, staffing, and communications decisions.
The ministry said more than 90 percent of the 55 countries that are implementing the EITI have the EITI National Secretariat embedded within a government agency. “This allows the administrative and operational aspects of the Secretariat to be overseen by the oversight ministry/agency, while implementation priorities, including the work plan, reporting, corrective actions, etc., are overseen by the MSG.”
The government said only two countries, Nigeria and Liberia, have fully legislated the EITI, where the national secretariat is an autonomous agency of the government.
The government released correspondence to the GYEITI to disprove PFG’s claim by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources that the MSG had ceased to exist only surfaced in January 2025, when the industry and civic sectors requested a meeting of the MSG co-chairs to discuss membership renewal.
Natural resources minister Vickram Bharrat’s first letter to the MSG co-chairs dated October 1, 2024 authorised the mechanism’s retroactive extension of its then “current membership structure” from September 19, 2024 to October 18, 2024.
His second letter dated October 18, 2024 approved a second extension up to November 1, 2024. “These exchanges speak to the contrary. These communications were dispatched to the MSG and its members. The MSG meetings and the minutes of same confirm the falsehoods being peddled by PFG in this regard,” the ministry said in a statement.
The natural resources ministry also questioned PFG’s sincerity as it is now objecting to the process for selecting civil society representatives after having responded to the call for applications in daily newspapers from 29 September to 15 October for the position of convenor of civil society and non-governmental organisations.
The ministry noted that PFG, convenor Dr Ivor English, the Private Sector Commission (PSC), and Dr Nanda Gopaul applied. “Further, one would ask whether the PFG had any issues with the criteria outlined in the public announcement for the civic convenor, including conditions for individual or organisational applications. If so, why did it not register its concerns at the time? Instead, PFG applied for the role and frowned on the results when it was not selected,” the ministry added. The ministry also questioned the reason that PFG did not fix what it indicated was a flawed process while it was on the MSG for six years.
While the natural resources ministry reiterated that Dr English has not been active in the mining sector for a few years and has publicly stated that he has no future interest in the mining sector, he had told Demerara Waves Online News that he would probably return to mining in a big way in the future.
The ministry said in 2017, at the inception of the EITI in Guyana, the then Minister selected PFG as the civic convenor. “There was no open bidding or vetting. PFG has never questioned the process leading up to its own appointment as convenor under less transparent guidelines. Instead, PFG continues to question a more transparent and open process leading up to the recruitment of a civic convenor,” the ministry added.
The ministry, at first, had appointed then Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Komal Singh to be the Convenor.
The ministry said it agrees with the definition of CSOs outlined in PFG’s press release but said the emphasis on organisational representation is interesting. The question was raised as to why every member of the civil society representatives on the MSG since 2017 has been more or less operating as an individual representative, rather than an organisational representative.
“The EITI allows for domestication of its Standard while ensuring core conditions are met, and this fact seems to have evaded the PFG.
Rules should be equally applied at all times, not when they work in your favour.,” the ministry added.
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