Dear Editor,
Reference is made to commentaries about Exxon audit and potential or probable conflict of interests in monitoring Exxon’s environmental record. Mr. Shyam signed off on Exxon’s request for approval for drilling and production.
Mr. Shyam Nokta was not only a candidate on PPP list in 2020 elections, his environmental company, Environmental Management Consultants Inc (EMC), was reported to get contracts with Exxon and has a very close relationship with Exxon as well as with the Guyana government. And he signs off on environmental report, according to a Kaieteur News report from Ms. Mangal. If that is not a conflict of interest of Nokta, what is?
A check on google says Shyam Nokta got a MA at University of Oxford-Brookes that Guyanese mistook for Oxford University. Oxford Brookes University and Oxford University are worlds apart in prestige, scholarship, imparting knowledge, and reputation. It is like comparing Chichester University with Cambridge or Edinburgh Napier University with Glasgow University. Nokta claims he is an environmental specialist. I don’t now if he is a scientist. But it would be interesting to know his take on Exxon releasing pollutants in the atmosphere and its effects on Guyanese and neighbouring countries.
Internet news report that Nokta’s Environmental Management Consultants Inc has a partnership with Acorn International in USA. Doesn’t Acorn Int’l also have a very close working relationship with Exxon. Acorn is also involved in oil and gas. Readers can put two and two together and figure out what is happening here! We need to know how much contract money was given to Nokta’s company and to Acorn from Exxon.
An audit of Exxon’s Guyana Energy expenditures would reveal who were contracted and paid (how much). Would Guyana ever see an audit that audit would expose all of the conflicts of interest and who were/are silenced?
Yours truly,
Jillian Adams
