According to the October 2026 assessment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Guyana’s economy grew by 19.3 per cent in 2025, growth projected at 22.3 per cent in 2026 and oil production almost a million barrels per day. These figures show the scale of Guyana’s economic transformation driven by oil and gas. However, when you engage with Guyanese, the questions they ask the most are: How much of this wealth is being properly accounted for, how effectively is it being managed, and what is really reaching them?
Economic growth tells us how much an economy is expanding by. It does not establish whether every dollar due to Guyana has been collected, whether public expenditure represents value for money, or whether our natural wealth is improving the standard of living of working class families. As cost of living continues to create much hardship for many households.
Developments last week have made these questions even more relevant. The announcement of the new Rockhead-1 discovery in the Stabroek Block and the Environmental Protection Agency’s granting of a new exploration permit to ExxonMobil demonstrates that petroleum exploration continues to expand. Every new discovery and exploration programme carries implications for contractual obligations, cost recovery, environmental protection, the revenues due to Guyana and those many questions Guyanese are asking.
As the industry grows, so too must our capacity to examine its operations and account for the benefits coming to the country. Production must not advance at a pace that leaves Parliament struggling to know or the average Guyanese having to depend on politicians to know, much less to understand, what is happening with their natural resources.
Last week I noted why Guyana should have a Verified Natural Resources and Revenue Evidence Bank. This week I shall explain what that is and why.
A Verified Natural Resources and Revenue Evidence Bank should be a central, searchable system bringing together verified information on Guyana’s petroleum, gold, mining, forestry and other natural resources. At present, relevant information on contracts, audit reports, environmental assessments and financial records are distributed across ministries, and regulatory agencies. The difficulty is that these records are not readily connected. The public should be able to follow the resource extracted, the agreement governing its exploitation, the revenue received by the State, the deposits made into the Natural Resource Fund and the expenditure financed from those receipts. Each important figure should be traceable to its source, with outstanding audits, discrepancies and unresolved questions clearly identified.
There is also an important historical foundation for this proposal. Under the APNU+AFC administration, Guyana joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2017, establishing a framework for the disclosure and independent reconciliation of payments made by extractive companies and revenues received by Government. This involved Government, industry and civil society through a multi-stakeholder process. We see where today this government has caused much concern for its independent functionality. The administration also established the Department of Energy and advanced proposals for a Petroleum Commission and a governance framework for the Natural Resource Fund. These initiatives recognised that an emerging petroleum industry required stronger institutions, technical oversight and transparency. An Evidence Bank would build on that foundation, moving beyond periodic disclosures and separate reports towards a connected system that makes information accessible and understandable to Parliament and the public.
Last month’s (Oct 2026) IMF assessment makes clear the need for such an approach. While recognising the growth, the Fund highlighted outstanding oil cost audits, the need to strengthen technical audit capacity and the importance of more timely public financial reporting and expenditure oversight. Three oil audits covering the periods 1999–2017, 2018–2020 and 2021–2023 have been undertaken, with outstanding matters yet to be resolved. The IMF also identified approximately US$280 million in unresolved balances through 2020. These matters directly affect the revenues available to Guyana. Cost recovery determines which petroleum expenditures are charged against production revenues before the remaining proceeds are shared. This determines our real bottom line. The country must therefore have the technical expertise and reliable records to establish whether those charges are properly supported. The Auditor General must also be adequately equipped with financial specialists and engineering expertise, to examine an increasingly complex petroleum industry and major infrastructure projects such as Gas-to-Energy.
The Evidence Bank should serve Parliament as a practical oversight resource. Members of the National Assembly and the relevant parliamentary committees should be able to examine production figures, petroleum receipts, cost recovery, Natural Resource Fund transactions, contractual obligations, environmental compliance and major project expenditure without having to reconstruct the national picture from dozens of separate documents. Technical information should be accompanied by concise explanations, accessible summaries, timelines and comparable figures, while the original reports and records remain available for verification. This would allow parliamentarians better access to information and enable citizens to understand the evidence behind the decisions being made in their name.
Guyana already has the Access to Information Act, 2011, and the statutory framework for the Commission of Information. The proposed system would complement these arrangements by making information that is lawfully available easier to locate and understand. It should identify the institution responsible for each record and provide clear information on how citizens may seek documents that are not publicly accessible, while respecting legitimate legal exemptions and the independence of the Commission.
Implementation should begin with an inventory of information held by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Finance, the Petroleum Management Programme, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Guyana Forestry Commission and other relevant institutions. These records should be organised into a central system covering petroleum agreements and production, exploration permits, mining and forestry licences, environmental assessments, petroleum receipts, Natural Resource Fund transactions, cost audits and major public investments. Each entry should carry its source, date and verification status, with regular updates on outstanding audits and unresolved matters. The system must strengthen the work of Parliament and independent oversight institutions, without compromising their respective statutory responsibilities.
Ultimately, the purpose of managing our natural resources must extend beyond producing more oil, issuing more licences or announcing larger national budgets. We must be able to establish what the country has received, what has been spent and what has been achieved. We must also examine whether this wealth is creating sustainable employment, strengthening public services, supporting local businesses and improving the lives of Guyanese families.
Our natural resources belong to the Guyanese people. Their management must therefore be subject to accountability that extends beyond the tenure of any government or political administration. Public access to reliable information is not a favour granted by those in office; it is an essential part of responsible and good governance. The average Guyanese should not have to be an accountant, lawyer or petroleum specialist to understand the basic facts about the wealth being extracted in their name.
Guyana is entering a defining period in its economic history. As the scale of our natural wealth increases, the responsibility to account for it must increase as well. We cannot ask the people to trust figures they cannot examine, decisions they cannot understand or expenditure they cannot follow. The question is not simply how much wealth Guyana is producing, but how that wealth is being managed and accounted for. The people must have access to the evidence, Parliament must have the information necessary to exercise oversight, and those entrusted with managing our resources must be answerable for their decisions.
The wealth belongs to the Guyanese people, and the people have a right to know where it goes.
Hon. K. Sharma Solomon
Member of Parliament
APNU Representative for Natural Resources
