Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram has launched one of his strongest attacks yet on the management of Guyana’s petroleum sector, accusing successive PPP/C and APNU+AFC administrations of presiding over a “persistent pattern of weak oversight, lax enforcement, poor transparency” that has allowed oil companies to secure virtually every concession they sought.

In his latest Road to First Oil – Every Man, Woman and Child Must Become Oil Minded column, Ram argued that Guyana’s problems extend far beyond the controversial 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), contending that failures in governance, regulation and contract administration stretch back to the original 1999 agreement and continue under the current administration.

“The financial, audit and regulatory weaknesses highlighted in this mini-series make for disturbing reading and raise serious concerns,” Ram wrote. “These failures pale in comparison with the absence of adequate contract administration by successive administrations.”