There has been a recent flurry of exchanges between the EPA weaving its tangled web of lies concerning Exxon’s Parent Company Guarantee and responses telling the truth coming from knowledgeable, credible, and patriotic sources such as yours truly and eminent Attorney Christopher Ram, notwithstanding the Honorable Judge Sandil Kissoon’s uncompromising admonishment of EPA, describing the Agency as “derelict, pliant and submissive and acting in unison with Exxon…and at every juncture, is engaged in a course of action to undermine and erode the terms and conditions of its own Permit and has relegated itself to a state of laxity of enforcement and condonation and placed the nation, its citizens and the environment in grave peril and potential calamitous consequences”.
As serious and as consequential it is to be the keeper of the nation’s health, safety and the environment, it can’t get any more laughable than EPA taking nepotism to a new level in bringing on board, cricket umpire Daniel Singh as its environmental spokesperson on the Parent Company Guarantee. Mr. Singh described a picture in Canada with him and EPA Director Khemraj Parsram on his FB page as “catching up with this longtime friend” and was soon after brought on board with EPA. Mr. Parsram owes it to the taxpayers to let them know the qualifications of Mr. Singh to be writing environmental statements for EPA; what process was followed for his appointment; if is he working from his home in Canada; and what is his remuneration package. As a former national cricketer, I have great respect for umpires, but Ow man! Parsram eyes pass us so bad that he would bring a cricket umpire to refute Judge Kissoon and to engage the likes of scholarly Attorneys Ram and Melinda Janki, and yours truly on such very serious matters of consequence!
In any case, this shines a bright light on the Government’s lackadaisical acceptance of EPA’s dreadful dearth of competence with the chronic exodus of almost all of the most qualified and experienced staffs leaving EPA over the past four years because of biased cuts in pay and demotions among other malpractices, only to be replaced by grossly unqualified staffs. The undeniable fact remains that because of EPA’s negligent abandonment of the World Bank/EPA capacity building programs, there is no one at the EPA with even one single hour of formal training in oil & gas, including the recent leaving of the Head of the oil & gas unit. Nevertheless, let me join Mr. Ram in addressing the lies pedaled in EPA’s December 22, 2024 letter. To quote the great Poet Walter Scott “Oh what a tangled web we weave” defined as “the effects of lying and how as one lie leads to more, the lies multiply, and we become trapped in the dishonesty”.
First, My December 20, 2024 letter to the media, no doubt exposed the EPA getting caught red-handed selectively omitting the key nine words from the clause I wrote into Exxon’s Permit, to tell a lie that “Nowhere in the permit signed by Dr. Adams is there reference for unlimited parent company guarantee”. Their letter was met with an instant scolding from Attorney Mr. Ram calling them out that “The EPA’s response to Dr. Adams’ reflects poorly instead of addressing his substantive arguments….ignores both Judge Kissoon’s clear ruling and its own selective omission of key texts..and finds it troubling that our regulator advocates for weaker rather than stronger protections”. Mr. Ram asked six questions which we know will be dodged because of the telling deficit of knowledgeableness to respond; thus, they will as usual, resort to ducking and distracting, or, as the Judge avers “the EPA has sought refuge in avoidance, concealment and secrecy… and descended into a state of inertia and slumber at the critical juncture of an emerging oil and gas sector.”
Second, though confessing to being caught red-handed selectively omitting the key texts to deceive the public, they weirdly still claimed that my statement was “misleading”. Even whackier was their absurdly laughable confession that yes, they did indeed selectively omit the words from the main text, but backhanded the confession with the ruse that they had placed the words in the attached note. Which sane, competent or honest mind would remove key words from a main text and bury them in lengthy notes, expecting such lengthy notes to be published!
Third, the EPA asserted that “Dr. Adams appears to have relevance in only one particular media entity” (inferring Kaieteur News (KN)), though EPA gets all of the daily newspapers and would have known that my letter was also published in the Stabroek News (SN) and the Village Voice to name a few. This naked falsehood is not only another shameless lie, but also a direct assault to provoke a chilling effect, intimidation and silencing of the media at large, particularly KN and SN, consistent with their boss-man Jagdeo’s very same weekly attacks on the KN and SN Reporters at his weekly press conferences.
Fourth, the EPA maliciously stated that I am “a former political appointee as Head of the EPA during the APNU+AFC Government”. The fact is that to halt the unabated decadence of the EPA under Mr. Parsram, an advertisement was placed for a new Head to which I applied, along with Mr. Parsram and others. The selection panel included EPA Board members and current Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Office of the President. I was granted two interviews leading to my selection as by far the best candidate. Mr. Parsram could not make the cut owing to his lack of basic qualifications and his disastrous two years of running EPA into the ground that compelled the urgent look for competent leadership in the first place. Indisputably, Mr. Parsram is fully cognizant that he went through the very same process that had absolutely nothing to do with a political appointment, and therefore owes an apology to the nation, the APNU/AFC, and the PS in the President’s Office for this blatant lie. He must further disclose if he ever begged some of his same APNU/AFC Minister friends to influence his getting the position. More will be said about the EPA under Mr. Parsram, followed by its phenomenal transformation to respectability in less two years due to the hard work of the same staff under new leadership; but sadly, rapidly returned to its woefulness chronicled by the myriads of most credible and internationally renowned voices of the likes of Mr. Ram, Ms. Janki who co-authored the EPA Act, and none other than the Honorable Judge Kissoon. Even VP Jagdeo continuously thrashes Mr. Parsram’s Liza 1 permit as the “worst ever”, yet, he brought Parsram back and is suffering the consequences; but, as the saying goes, you can’t repeat the same things and expect different results.
Fifth, maybe EPA’s new environmental guru Singh who now umpires the people’s health and environment, should read and possibly comprehend the very simplistic, but merciless rubbishing by Judge Kissoon’s Decision on EPA’s falsehood that no “unlimited parent company guarantee”exists inthe clause I wrote into the permits. The Judge described the clause as “clear and unambiguous terms in simple language that boded no uncertainty or lent itself to ambiguity…that the Permit Holder (EMGL) is mandated to provide assurance of an unlimited parent company guarantee to indemnify the Government against all liabilities”; and “if the Guarantee is in place, and there is a spill then EMGL, to the extent it is unable to do so as it is largely an assetless subsidiary, then EXXON, the Parent Company comes into play. If, however, there is no unlimited parent company guarantee, then the State is liable for all that occurs” and “at every juncture the EPA is engaged in a course of action to undermine and erode the terms and conditions of its own Permit and has relegated itself to state of laxity of enforcement and condonation and placed the nation, its citizens and the environment in grave peril and potential calamitous consequences”.
Sixth, the EPA lied in saying that I “mislead Guyana by suggesting that Exxon had in the past agreed to an unlimited parent company guarantee”. It is so sad that the umpire and EPA do not even have the basic understanding that signing a permit means an agreement, thus, Exxon’s April 2019 signing of the permit, simply means that they have “agreed” to the term of unlimited parent company guarantee irrefutably established by Judge Kissoon, and other worldwide experts including yours truly as its author.
Respectfully,
Dr. Vincent Adams
