Failure to audit Exxon’s US$9.5B bill spending is criminal

Nov 09, 2021 News

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 …no excuse can absolve Govt. of this grave sin – Dr. Jailall

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s failure to audit Exxon’s US$9.5B spending is tantamount to the Government aiding and abetting the fleecing of Guyana’s resources.

This is according to Canadian based Guyanese, Dr. Jerry Jailall, who in a public statement to this publication said the recent revelations by Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who oversees the oil and gas sector, “that the US$9.5 billion Liza 1 and Liza 2 expenses have not been audited is tantamount to the Government aiding and abetting the fleecing of Guyana’s resources.”
As such, he was adamant, “the sin of omission of failure to do audits is as bad as the sin of commission of wrongdoing,” and that “no excuse can absolve the Government of this grave sin against the nation.”
According to Dr. Jailall, “this is not Exxon doing it to us.

This is our own Government doing it to us.” He suggested that Guyana, at the beginning of its oil journey is already manifesting the “resource curse” syndrome.
Dr. Jailall qualified his position by drawing reference to the fact that the ongoing Public Accounts Committee’s hearings “are all about how the country’s monies are being misspent and there is poor accountability, poor record keeping, missing receipts of transactions and payments running into hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the end of the hearings, nobody is going to jail for the unaccounted millions.”
He pointed also to “poorly equipped hospitals that kill our loved ones, dialysis treatment is unavailable in most of Guyana, most of our village roads are mud roads still, our schools are primitive, internet services are unavailable or poor in most of Guyana, and we have a long list of urgent needs.”
Referencing President’s Irfaan Ali’s assertion, “we are a rich nation of poor people,” Dr. Jailall questioned, “what sins have we committed that in our politics, we vote for one set of dullards to replace the previous set? When is this vicious cycle going to stop?”
According to Dr. Jailall, this publication in addition to its publisher, Glenn Lall, other private newspapers, the Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN), Transparency International Guyana Inc (TIGI), environmental groups, and nationalists such as Christopher Ram and others, have been harping on the need to complete audits since the agreement has only a two-year window to do so.
“We gave ongoing warnings to the Government. The Government had a chance to use Payara as leverage to secure changes in audit timelines but chose not to.”
To this end, he observed that the Yellowtail well approval is coming up and that can be used as leverage to secure an increase in time to complete audits.
“Will the Government ask for more time to complete audits?” questioned Dr. Jailall, who suggests “in my view, the failure to complete audits is criminal and failure to do due diligence,” and that “there might be a cause of action for private criminal action to be filed against those responsible for ensuring the oil accounts are audited.”
Government, he said, cannot say, “we lack capacity to do audits or whatever else and think that’s a good excuse, and then adopt a drill baby drill stance.”
He again questioned rhetorically, “If you are unprepared to manage oil, do you go faster or slow down?”
Dr. Jailall used the opportunity to query also how many of the proposed 20,000 scholarships are aligned to building capacity for oil governance, oil accounting and auditing, environmental and general monitoring needs.
According to Dr. Jailall, Guyana has sent all the wrong signals to the Oil operators “that, we are ill prepared to manage, monitor, and govern oil efficiently and effectively, that we lack the political skill and political will to do so, and that it will be a free ride for the oil companies to do whatever they want in Guyana, and nobody (Government nor Opposition) will stop them.”
As such, the “oil companies can continue to flare gas and take indecent liberties with the environment, local content can wait, they can use shell companies and operate without proper insurance for oil spills, and our Government and Opposition will not be bothered by that.”
Referencing the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that allows for low royalty, low profit sharing, inadequate insurance for oil spills and accidents, paying the oil companies’ taxes, “and oil barons making extra money because our current leaders do not know how to audit the US$9 billion bills the oil companies gave us to pay.” He queried, “how can a country do business like that?”
Moreover, he questioned in whose interest the administration is working, pointing out that “it’s the oil companies and our Government on one side, versus we, the people, on the other side…Our Government should not be the facilitators of the fleecing of Guyana, while our people struggle to make ends meet.”

 

 

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