Dear Editor,
Guyana has been a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) since 2017. GYEITI’s emphasis on transparency of information about gold mining and timber logging and fishing and petroleum has allowed light to shine on some data held by government, otherwise impossible to find or read. GYEITI also helps to show trends in these sub-sectors. GYEITI works through a government-funded local secretariat and a 3-chamber Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) which provides oversight: the three chambers are government, private sector companies, and civil society. Under the EITI international Standard (June 2023), the chambers are self-organising, and each chamber elects its own 8 members (4 regular and 4 alternates). The role of government is restricted to facilitation and financing the MSG. There is no provision in the EITI Standard 2023 for government to direct or control how the MSG organises itself. The Standard does not contain the word ‘convenor’, nor does it give the government any authority to create or direct the work of such a position. A member of the EITI international Board confirmed that this is correct, during an online call with members of Guyanese civil society, and persons from EITI chapters in Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Australia on 15 November 2025.
So how did the ‘convenor’ position arise in Guyana? The private sector companies have the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Private Sector Commission and the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association as representative organisations, but civil society did not have a collective group. In 2016, the then Minister invited the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) to convene consultations with civil society to introduce the concept of EITI as a precursor to the establishment of a national branch of EITI in Guyana and the creation of its local MSG. GHRA welcomed the Minister’s invitation, and counter-proposed instead a network of NGOs rather than a single organisation. Policy Forum Guyana (PFG) was designated as the platform for mobilising and facilitating the MSG-Civic chamber.
The validation report by EITI international in 2023 was critical generally of Guyana’s performance but gave high marks to the Civic chamber of the MSG, as mentioned in the statement by the Transparency Institute of Guyana published in Stabroek News on 16 November 2025 (‘Appointment of Mr English as Civil Society Convenor under GYEITI is null and void[1]’).
It is not clear why government is trying to adopt a directing role over civil society in the MSG. The Protocol for civil society in the EITI Standard 2023, section 5, is clear that the government has no such role (https://eiti.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2023%20EITI%20Standard_%20Part%201_Principles%20and%20requirements.pdf?hash=1763377200[2]).
The EITI Standard (2023) calls for election of MSG members. PFG has organised such elections transparently in 2017 and 2021 – section 1.4 (a) (ii) in the Standard – and had proposed new members for Ministerial appointment in March/April 2025. However, on 2 August 2025, and without telling either PFG or the EITI international Secretariat in Norway, Minister Vickram Bharrat appointed Komal Singh as convenor for the next recruitment and selection of the 8 civil society members. Policy Forum Guyana was informed of this appointment by the EITI International Secretariat in September 2025. Komal Singh is a well-known local businessman, managing director of the GAICO Construction company, and thus not eligible to be organising the civic component of MSG.
After local and international protests, on 8 November 2025, Minister Bharrat replaced Komal Singh by another businessman, Ivor English, holder since 2014 of 17 medium-scale mining permits for extracting gold and diamonds over almost 20,000 acres in the Cuyuni basin (as disclosed in the relevant annexes on mining permit holders in GYEITI annual reports, and Kaieteur News’ ‘GGMC Chairman approves mining lands for friend, then takes full control via irrevocable power of attorney’, 04 December 2015). Dr English is managing director of E&E Mining Enterprises (‘GYEITI civil society convenor says no conflict of interest though a gold miner’, Demerara Waves 09 November 2025). He is thus doubly disqualified – as holder of mining licences and as running a commercial company – from organising the recruitment and selection of MSG-Civic members.
In clear violation of the EITI Standard (2023), the disqualified Dr English is now calling an open meeting on November 20 at the Marriott Hotel to develop and decide on a process for recruiting and selecting civil society members for the MSG. It is not clear why the Ministry of Natural Resources wants a new recruitment and selection process. The process described in the Policy Manual of GYEITI (15 May 2024) developed with the consensus of the MSG, conforms to the requirements in the EITI Standard (2023). This government interference in MSG management is entirely contrary to Guyana’s agreement in October 2017 to uphold EITI norms.
We do not endorse the Government’s interference in civil society matters and we reject the role of the ineligible Dr English to ‘convene’ civil society for any GYEITI purpose, with no disrespect for the other roles which Dr English plays and has played in public service in Guyana. We wish to point out to Dr English and other participants that there is an existing, internationally-approved system for managing the GYEITI multi-stakeholder group, including recruitment and selection of members, and that government has no role either directly or indirectly through nominees in the GYEITI management.
If the government of Guyana has time on its hands, instead of interfering in GYEITI, it could usefully clean up its inconsistent data on natural resources stocks, production and trends, and stop fabricating data in support of its political boasts.