A Portfolio Without a Ledger

   A Portfolio Without a Ledger

OPINION BY: Hem Kumar October 2026

One American lender, at least six projects, and no published terms. The first numbers came from an ambassador.

In our previous editorial we set out a test for any arrangement with Washington: who proposed it, on what terms, through what process, with what sight for the National Assembly, and under whose name. The past ten days have supplied the material to apply it.

What Has Been Said

On Monday 21 September President Ali met John Jovanovic, Chairman and President of the US Export-Import Bank, in New York. The Department of Public Information published its account the next day. On the public record, the picture is this:

♦Energy. EXIM is expected to support financing for phase two of the Gas-to-Energy project, and the bank will continue working to complete phase one at Wales. It has also signaled interest in a second GTE project.

♦ Berbice. EXIM will be part of a structure investing in the deep-water port.

♦Widening scope. The President said EXIM’s support is widening into housing, security and other areas of national interest. The release adds Amaila Falls, where US companies are expected to play a role, and the Lethem Airport. 

♦ Housing. Mr Jovanovic pointed to an Affordable Housing Construction Project advanced with US companies. Six days later, on 28 September, US Ambassador Nicole Theriot told a podcast that two American firms, US Frame Factory of Louisiana and Golden Shield of Indiana, will build 10,000 homes, with EXIM funding. The state-owned Chronicle reported this on 30 September.

What Has Not

The DPI release names no amount, no instrument, no borrower and no tenor. It says “financing,” and no more. EXIM is a lender, guarantor and insurer of American exports, not a grant-maker, so the Board proceeds on the understanding that these are loans or loan guarantees whose repayment will fall on the Guyanese public, directly or through state entities. The government has not said otherwise. It has not said which projects the loans attach to, whether any is tied to the purchase of American goods and services, or what “security” financing means. We have seen no published loan agreement, resolution or paper tabled in the National Assembly for any of them.

The ambassador supplied the firms and the number. The government supplied the adjectives.

The Patron’s Bargain, Applied

Mr Jovanovic told the President that Guyana’s success is America’s success in bringing stability to the hemisphere, and that Mr Ali could be a “catalyst for stability.” That is the language of usefulness. It is an honest description of how Washington sees Guyana: as a regional asset whose value is measured by what it does for American ambitions. The Free Press critique we examined last editorial warned what follows when a patron’s favor tracks usefulness and the terms are left unwritten.

Stability is a fine thing to be a catalyst for. Guyanese are entitled to ask who sets the terms of the catalysis, and who pays when it is called in.

The security reference deserves its own scrutiny. It arrives in the President’s words, in a sentence about EXIM. We have seen nothing that explains which US agency would fund what, on what terms, or how it relates to the drone and air-domain-awareness arrangements whose data-sharing terms remain undisclosed.

The Exposure Question

This Board has previously reported foundation-engineering concerns, contractor and payroll irregularities and cost overruns on the Wales project. The DPI release says EXIM will continue to work to complete it and is interested in a second. The public should be told, before phase two is financed, whether EXIM who is already a lender on phase one, on what terms, and what the combined exposure across GtE, the port, housing and the rest will be.

Seen project by project, each number may look manageable. Seen together, they are a sovereign balance sheet decision, and nobody has yet put the sum on the table.

The Test, Scored So Far

♦Who proposed it? Unclear. The ambassador and the EXIM chairman have both described the housing project. No Guyanese ministry has, so far as we can establish, set out its origin.

♦ On what terms? None published.

♦ Through what process? None stated, including whether any tender or exemption applied to the housing contractors.

♦ With what sight for the Assembly? None that we can find.

♦ Under whose name? No named officer has accepted responsibility for the package.

Every one of these answers could be supplied in a day, and supplying them would cost the government nothing if the deals are sound. The speed with which this portfolio is moving is not a measure of its merit. It is a measure of how little of it the public has been shown.

The 592 Guardian calls on the Government to publish the financing terms for each project, table the agreements in the National Assembly, and name the officer answerable for the whole.

— The Board

Sourcing note: Facts on the EXIM meeting are drawn from the Department of Public Information release of 22 September 2026. The housing announcement is drawn from the Guyana Chronicle report of 30 September 2026 on Ambassador Theriot’s podcast remarks. The characterization of EXIM financing as loans or guarantees is the Board’s understanding and is not stated in the release. Observations about the absence of published terms reflect the Board’s review to date.