Guyana’s management of huge chunks of cash if crude oil is found in commercial quantities appears to trouble the United States. 

Those sentiments were contained in a February 24 cable from the US embassy in Georgetown to, among others, the Secretary of State, United States Army Southern Command and the Department of Treasury. 

“While the GoG (Government of Guyana) includes a range of ministries and agencies which should play a role in managing oil and gas revenues, the Jagdeo administration's penchant for micromanagement suggests that oil and gas royalties would only intensify political wrangling over budget allocations,” states the cable. 

The sentiments were contained in a scenesetter cable for the March 3- 4, 2010 visit by the US Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, David Goldwyn and officials of the State Department’s Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative (EGCI) program that was designed to assist emerging resource-rich nations to optimize the value of new resources for development. 

The diplomatic cable states the embassy expects that reforms implemented at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Deeds Registry, Guyana Office for Investment, parliament and the National Procurement and Tender Administration through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold Program have prepared some groundwork that can assist the country in managing oil revenue inflows.

“While the GRA is probably not ready to administer a large surge in oil and gas revenue, it now has a functional organizational structure, a better trained technical staff, and good information technology systems for revenue management. Post believes this baseline of revenue management capacity is a suitable target for EGCI intervention in Guyana,” the embassy states. 

The mission added that the Threshold Program’s implementation may usefully inform proposed interventions by the Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative in Guyana's fledgling oil and gas sector. In addition, the program's success in modernizing the GRA provides a better foundation on which the EGCI may build capacity among Government of Guyana (GoG) agencies in responsibly managing oil and gas royalties. 

Against the background of long delayed local government reforms and local elections, the US diplomatic post here also noted that allocating monies from oil-wealth could pose some political problems. 

“Revenue-sharing from oil and gas royalties to local jurisdictions would be a politically complicated affair under the current system of local government financing,” states the Cable that is among thousands made public by the whistleblowing website, Wikileaks.

Local government elections have not been held since 1994, partly because of disagreements between the government and the opposition over reforms including more directly educated representatives in smaller areas, dedicated funding and the reduced role and influence of the minister.