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No justification for delay in audit report for ExxonMobil US$7.3B – AFC
Kaieteur News – A final report for the review of ExxonMobil expenses to tune of US$7.3 billion, is expected next month, but the Alliance For Change (AFC) believes this delayed process is unjustifiable.
At a recent engagement with the press, the Party was asked to weigh in on the audit, which has reportedly been completed, pending the handover of a second report to the government. “There is no proper explanation because this should be our number one priority in terms of how we manage our oil resources,” Chair of the Party, Catherine Hughes stated.
Khemraj Ramjattan
Meanwhile, leader of the political group, Khemraj Ramjattan warned that skulduggery may be brewing while the nation awaits the publication of the audit findings. “We feel rule of thumb, when such delays happen sometimes it is machinations and skulduggery brewing, and unless some proper information is given, we would want to believe that the entire country is going to speculate,” Ramjattan explained.
He added that the audit report may flag ‘skulduggeries’ on the part of the oil company, while it is also possible that the process could have missed the ‘true values’ of declarations it reported. Ramjattan noted, “These big transnational companies like Exxon and so on can do a lot of mischief and we have read about them,” arguing that the People’s Progressive Party administration has now gone silent on the ‘nasty habits’ of these companies.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat had said government is expecting the final audit report in March, while responding to a question by Shadow Natural Resources Minister, David Patterson.
The Opposition Parliamentarian told the House that in November 2022 it was reported that the second audit would be completed by the end of last year. To this end, he asked that the Minister say when exactly the final report will be ready and available and laid in Parliament.
According to Minister Bharrat, “The final report is due in March of 2023.” He went on to explain that there may have been some misunderstanding regarding the expected completion date for the expenditure review.
“I think from the inception when the contract was signed there was a bit of misunderstanding. In the contract it says 120 working days and I think there was a lot of misconception…that it would be 120 running days or calendar days, but its 120 working days,” the Minister explained.
He said that the local consortium would have benefitted from training opportunities in Oklahoma and Houston to aid in building capacity.
The Minister acknowledged that while there is a ‘slight delay’ in the completion of the review process, it is with a view of ensuring Guyanese can conduct our own future audits.
The contract for the Exxon audit was signed on May 24 last for VHE Consulting which is a registered partnership between Ramdihal & Haynes Inc, Eclisar Financial, and Vitality Accounting & Consultancy Inc. The Local Consortium is supported by International firms- SGS and Martindale Consultants for the ‘Cost Recovery Audit and Validation of the Government of Guyana’s Profit Oil’ Share’.
President Irfaan Ali in November last year told this newspaper that the process was estimated to wrap up before the end of 2022, with the first report ready by December.
The publication of this audit report is especially important, since the nation is yet to see the completed audit report for Exxon’s US$460 million pre-contract costs. IHS Market, a British firm, was contracted back in 2019 to audit these costs incurred by the oil company. The bills are supposedly for exploration and administrative costs incurred prior to oil being discovered in 2015. It was also responsible for auditing a portion of costs incurred from 2015 to 2017.
Government said the report is still being finalized, four years later.
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