Handing copy of Beal deal to Chavez was imprudent -Hoyte
Leader of the Opposition, Desmond Hoyte, yesterday criticised President Bharrat Jagdeo for handing over a copy of the Beal agreement to President Hugo Chavez. Hoyte, leader of the PNC, also denied that he had received a copy of the agreement the government signed with Beal. President Jagdeo had said at a press conference on Monday, that he had sent copies of the agreement to all the parliamentary parties, the Guyana Trades Union Congress and the private sector and had used this distribution to define the agreement as a public document. The copies were sent out two months ago. Hoyte told a Congress Place press conference that the President's gratuitous presentation of the agreement to his Venezuelan counterpart "not only exposed the feeble, confused and indeterminate character of his foreign policy but bespoke his contempt and disrespect for the Parliament and the Guyanese people. "He has given a copy of the Beal Agreement to a foreign Head of State, but is yet to have it laid in the Parliament of Guyana for the information of the people's representatives or have it otherwise published for general information." Hoyte said too that handing the document to Chavez had left the government with no reason why it should not hand over a copy of the CGX oil exploration agreement that was also not laid in the National Assembly. He called for both agreements to be laid in parliament. Hoyte said that he had not received a copy of the document signed with Beal. "And I state publicly and unequivocally that I received no such document." Stabroek News checked with The United Force (TUF) and the Alliance for Guyana (AFG) and they have confirmed that they received the agreement. Hoyte said that two months ago he received "a document which, from the envelope appeared to have come from the Office of the President. There was no covering letter or explanatory note; the document was unsigned, and it was undated." The TUF and the AFG did not say whether the document they received was signed and dated. Referring to his June 28, press conference, Hoyte said that he had disclosed receiving a document from the Office of the President. He said that he had described it then as seeming to be "a revised version of draft document leaked to me by a senior PPP functionary, which I had circulated to the media and others at a press conference on May 11." He said too that Prime Minister Sam Hinds denied that the document circulated on May 11, was the actual agreement he had signed on May 19, on behalf of the government, but was coy about releasing the document he claimed to have signed on behalf of the government. "As I said at the time, a comparison of the two documents `showed no significant changes that would remove the stigma of impropriety, illegality and contempt for the rights and dignity of the Guyanese people, particularly those who live in the concession area.'" He derided President Jagdeo's explanation that the document was a public one because it had been sent to the political parties and other organisations. He pointed out that "allegedly sending the document to a few selected persons or agencies could hardly be said to be publishing it for the information of the Parliament and the Guyanese people." Hoyte said that whether or not the document was laid in parliament, it should not have been given to President Chavez who had not even asked for it. President Jagdeo said that one of the reasons he had given the document to the Venezuelan president was to avoid the continued misrepresentation of the agreement by sections of the Venezuelan government.
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