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ExxonMobil continues to provide no evidence on billions claimed to be spent on local content
Kaieteur News – American oil giant, ExxonMobil, has claimed that from 2015 to the first half of 2020, it has spent roughly GY$60B on local suppliers for the procurement of goods and services, with more than 700 unique Guyanese suppliers.
Specifically revealing this was ExxonMobil’s Local Content Advisor, Devon Seeram, during the oil company’s launch of their Virtual Energy Tunnel, on Friday.
Even while the Local Content Advisor touts ExxonMobil’s utilization of some 600 Guyanese vendors, with over GY$14B spent in the first half of 2020, the oil giant continues to fail to provide the evidence to support the claims.
Concerningly, since ExxonMobil began operations in 2015, the company has kept away from scrutiny, its local content reports, which would expose just how seriously it takes local capacity building.
What is notable is that at the end of the day, it is Guyanese who will have to foot this $14 billion dollar bill along with the unaudited $60 billion, which the company has said it spent from 2015 to date.
The company has also said more than 2,000 Guyanese are supporting its operations, representing 55% of the total workforce.
What ExxonMobil failed to show, however, was a breakdown of the job description, salaries, and even the plans in place to increase this workforce by more than 55%.
In fact, no data was provided for the public to analyze if there was any progression in the employment of Guyanese to senior positions from 2015 to now.
With regards to capacity building, ExxonMobil said that this is an ongoing process for its own operations as well as for its direct contractors, with more than 100,000 hours of training provided to Guyanese staff as of the first half of 2020.
As for the local businesses, which it has used for the first half of the year, ExxonMobil said more than 600 Guyanese suppliers were used for services. These “services” included the procurement of “food stuff” and “engineering” works.
Again, the company provided no breakdown of the names of companies it used for the first half of 2020. The only time ExxonMobil ever released the list of companies it claimed to have used for its local content efforts was back in June 2018.
The company had claimed that it had used over 300 Guyanese registered companies to supply services.
In response to calls for evidence of same, a list was provided. Upon examination, however, it was founded that ExxonMobil padded its list with the names of places like Bourda Market, Haags Bosch Dumpsite, Royal Castle, Bounty Supermarket, Metro Office and Computer Supplies, Star Party Rentals, and Shanta’s Roti Shop. It listed utility companies such as the Guyana Power and Light and the Guyana Revenue Authority as part of its local content efforts too.
Persons were also listed as registered companies, which Sonia Noel, Chontelle Sewett, Andron Alphonso and Mokesh Daby.
As part of one of their August statements, ExxonMobil claimed that the Centre for Local Business Development, which is located on South Road, has remained supportive of local businesses with a transition to virtual courses.
No evidence or report of any kind was provided to confirm this. Additionally, ExxonMobil said that the centre continued mentorship of 10 Guyanese companies in the process to be compliant in the ISO 9001 quality management system. Those names were not released.
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