‘Govt. lacks urgency in recovering US-millions from ExxonMobil’

Apr 07, 2023 News

– Opposition says audit duration unacceptable

Kaieteur News – The political Opposition is of the view that the Government of Guyana (GoG) is uninterested in recovering US-millions that the country may have lost due to unfair practices by oil giant, ExxonMobil during the period 1999-2017.

Opposition Economist, Elson Low

Opposition Economist, Elson Low at a press conference yesterday made the observation that a preliminary audit report, which has been leaked to another section of the media and reported on, has shown that US$214M in costs are disputable as they could not be verified by supporting documents. The Economist said this is alarming as the administration chose to keep citizens in the dark on the progress of the review process, conducted by the auditing firm IHS Markit, hired by the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government.

He told reporters, “The PPP government is showing a marked lack of urgency to complete the audit cycle and to engage ExxonMobil in recovering all disallowed expenses.” In pointing to the unacceptable duration of the review, Low pointed out that the first audit report was submitted in March 2021- over two years ago. In this regard, he urged that the government must act now to protect the interest of the people of Guyana.

While the audit report in question is a preliminary document, Low said it is important to note the magnitude of the sums that have so far been flagged as questionable. He explained, “For perspective, Guyanese should note that the questionable US$214M (or G$46B) is close to 6 percent of the total 2023 national budget; but it is bigger than the 2023 budget for the Ministry of Human Services by $6 billion; bigger than the budget for the Ministry of Agriculture by about $13 billion, and bigger than the budget for the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport by $39 billion.”

To this end, the economist said Guyanese are left to fear what the audit of Exxon’s US$7.3 billion expenses can uncover, and more importantly the response from the government in ensuring these costs are not recovered by the oil company.

According to him, “Despite the magnitude of the sums involved, the government’s attitude reeks of collusion, negligence and recklessness. We must therefore be fearful with regards to the second audit being conducted by VHE Consulting for the period 2018-2020, which involves the sum of US$7.3B — that is, a sum over four times larger than the first audit. Let us recall that at our Press Conference on 6^th December 2022, we reminded the nation that the PPP agreed to conduct this second audit only after persistent public pressure. Furthermore, we had insisted that the audit of oil receipts must be based on “an assessment of reasonable and competitive prices.” If properly done, we expect the second audit to reveal greater amounts of contestable expenditures.” Low added, “Guyanese must demand that the PPP release all the audit reports and recover all invalid expenses. The PPP’s cavalier attitude in the management of the country’s national patrimony will cost Guyana tens of billions of dollars. This disaster must not be allowed to persist.”

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Audit, expenses, ExxonMobil, Report, urgency

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