Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge says the entire David Granger Cabinet approved the establishment of a special Foreign Currency Account to receive the US$18M Bonus from oil giant ExxonMobil but denied that all Ministers had knowledge of how the money would be spent.
Greenidge on Wednesday also revealed that all of the monies would not be used to cover legal fees associated with Guyana’s preparation for the impending court case at the International Court of Justice (CCJ) with respect to the Guyana/Venezuela Border controversy. He said that a portion of the money would be used to cover the expenses related to training geology and petroleum officials.
His comments, told in the National Assembly, differ from earlier statements made by President David Granger who took responsibility for the entire saga after public outrage over Government’s failure to release the seemingly controversial ExxonMobil contract and its secrecy over the bonus which was paid since 2016.
Granger had also said that all of the monies were set aside for handling the court case before admitting that it was being held in an escrow account at the Bank of Guyana. But Greenidge denied this by disclosing that only US$15M would be earmarked for the case while US$3M would be used for the training programme.
He also attempted to play down Government’s lack of transparency and accountability surrounding the bonus and also failed to say exactly when the entire ExxonMobil Contract would be made public.
