Is this an audit, or is it a case of bury it?

Oct 17, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We had made our position clear from the inception: that audit of ExxonMobil’s US$9B in expenses was not going to go down well. Now here we are almost at the end of October, and of word regarding that same four-month audit, there is deafening silence from the PPP/C Government.

The audit that was scheduled to be completed at the conclusion of September, but regarding its state, there is nothing. It looks like it is going to go the way that almost everything that the PPP/C Government and leaders made big and bold promises about sharing with Guyanese. That is, more leadership deceptions, more political trickiness, and the same story of ongoing thick secrecy by government.

From the beginning, Guyanese knew what international observers knew, which was that the four-month audit timeframe was one big joke. Though the PPP/C Government’s oil minister did say that if more time is needed for the US$9B audit, then that will be worked out, and shouldn’t be a problem. Given that it is past the end of September timeline, then it would be helpful if the PPP/C Government and Vice President Jagdeo were to come out and say in the plainest language that the audit is making significant progress (or it is not), and that more time is needed. It would be straight talk as to where matters stand.

What could be simpler than that, we ask? Why is that proving to be so worrying that there is this wall of silence from government and Vice President? If the audit team needs another four months, then it must be said, and let it be arranged, be done. But, as we have often cautioned, silence breeds the worst of suspicions. When silence reigns, it is not golden, but about what is corrupt, possibly about what is being covered up.

On the other hand, if the US$9B audit of ExxonMobil’s expenses is completed, then the PPP/C Government must have the courage to share the findings with Guyanese. Let all have the clearest idea of what the auditors found. Then, let the audit papers be open to a trusted team of scrutineers to look at the work done to determine whether a bona fide and competent audit effort was given, so that Guyanese really did get the best value for their money spent. Meaning, that what citizens received from the audit does justice to both the US$751,000 fees to be paid to the audit team, and the US$9B that ExxonMobil said that it spent.

To make our position crystal clear, we do not think that four months was sufficient to get an audit of this size and nature properly done. Further, and we cannot pull any punches, there are serious concerns by many others of highly competent calibre, who have doubts that the team assembled for this US$9B audit can deliver. The thinking is that the audit team is severely handicapped, and could be subject to political intrusions, that political expectations could be too much of an unseen and unknown but, nevertheless, influential presence.

The record of ExxonMobil is that everywhere that it has gone many costly tricks have been played, particularly on vulnerable countries poorly led and poorly managed. If expenses can be inflated, and gotten away with, then ExxonMobil will. If people have to be made to see matters a certain way that is in ExxonMobil’s interests, then the company will leave no stone unturned to ensure that they do so. Money is no object, and this is how weak, woeful politicians come across whenever the issue is oil, and when the concern is over what ExxonMobil is really doing to Guyanese. The PPP/C Government has gone around and around like a plane that just can’t land. So, its leaders prefer to stay up in the air to avoid damaging themselves, and keep up their charades as long as they can, are allowed to do so.

The silence on the progress or lack of progress on the US$9B audit, or its completion and the findings, have all being shrouded like something that is dead, and which should not be exposed to light and sight. Something tells us that there is trouble with this audit of ExxonMobil’s expenses.

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