Finance Ministry contradicts Trotman on creation of Cost Recovery Committee

May 07, 2018 News

Four months ago, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman told the media that a joint ministerial committee was established to examine matters related to cost recovery. He went as far as to say that the head of the committee is Finance Ministry Budget Director, Sonya Roopnauth.

Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman

Finance Ministry PRO, Wanita Huburn

But when Kaieteur News challenged the Finance Ministry recently for an update on the work of that committee, one could not be provided.
It turns out that all the members of the committee are still to be appointed. This was revealed by Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Finance, Wanita Huburn. The official informed this newspaper that the Ministry of Natural Resources is still working on the Terms of Reference for the cost recovery subcommittee as well as membership. She also clarified that it is not headed by the Budget Director.
Bilateral partners such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have made strong calls for local authorities to implement a robust cost recovery committee and commence auditing of all exploration, development costs by USA oil operator, ExxonMobil.
The Fund made this recommendation to the Government in a report it handed over since last year.