Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo is urging companies to desist from naturalising foreign workers to secure high-paying jobs meant to be passed on to Guyanese.
During his weekly press conference on Thursday, the Vice President said many companies have been engaging in this practice in an effort to adhere to the Local Content law.
“It’s our intention to close the loopholes that some foreign companies are utilising…because some of them have high-paying jobs for the management, the foreigners, [and] over time, they have to change the management,” he said.
“… we’ll start exposing them [because] they’re trying to get their foreign staff to claim that they’ve lived here for five years and to get them Guyanese nationality,” he added.
Jagdeo noted that this practice is being monitored and efforts will be made to have it stopped.
“I see some of the big companies applying for that, let me say here now, they are not going to succeed. We have to give our people more opportunities and better paying jobs too,” he noted.
The Vice President said it is the Government’s intention to strengthen the local Content Act of 2021 and expand opportunities for Guyanese.
Despite loopholes however, he said the law remains successful in its objective.
“This Act should be hailed as having the biggest impact,” he said noting that by the end of 2024, local companies would earn a combined US$700M.
“That is major change and we intend to create more room for our people providing they develop the capacity…Just imagine if we didn’t have the law… maybe US$50M of the US$700M would have come to Guyanese,” he told reporters.
Earlier this year, the Local Content Secretariat warned contractors, sub-contractors, and licensees that they are required to ensure that Guyanese nationals employed to support their operations continuously benefit from training and capacity development. This provides opportunities for Guyanese to become skilled in the developing and new industries.
The Secretariat informed the foreign employers mainly in the energy sector, that it will be conducting audits to ensure compliance with the requirements outlined in the Act.
