Oil companies ‘stealing’ GRA trained auditors with big $$$ – Statia tells Parliamentary Committee

Aug 02, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

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Kaieteur News – As petroleum activities ramp up in Guyana, a key unit established by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to review the expenses of oil companies operating in the country is presently grossly understaffed, with the agency anticipating that the gap will plugged in a few years’ time.

This troubling revelation was made during the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting on Monday by the Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia.

The tax chief was at the time responding to a question from Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill on the adequacy of the personnel to monitor Guyana’s oil and gas operations.

To this end, the Commissioner General explained that the agency is presently understaffed in this department, with 31 on roll but 65 persons required for the job.

According to him, “we do not have the full complement of staff. We are working assiduously to get the full complement of staff. We have even pulled some staff from other Ministries, but as we know we have a paucity of skills in Guyana. We have even increased pay for persons in that capacity for them not to leave but what we have seen is that as we train staff we lose staff.”

Statia said that the trained workers are being lured with higher salaries from the oil companies and their contractors. In fact, five persons trained within the past year alone have been stolen by the oil companies.

He said, “A couple of them were actually snapped up by CNOOC whereby their salaries is actually way more than mine and my officers and a couple by Exxon and we have even lost one to Schlumberger.”

The Commissioner General indicated that GRA is presently operating with less than half of the required complement with the Cost Recovery Unit lacking most of the manpower needed to conduct reviews of the petroleum companies.

Presently, two audits of the Stabroek Block oil and gas activities are outstanding. The first audit was awarded since 2019 for a review of ExxonMobil’s US$1.6 billion expenses between 1999 and 2017. Meanwhile, another audit that was signed in 2022 for the oil company’s US$7.3 billion expenditure, racked up between 2018 and 2020 is yet to be finalized.

Statia said he has been appealing to the employees’ patriotism, rather than force the workers to remain on the job, since he believes “you have to love your work and you have to love what you do”. Additionally, he said he believes that GRA employees are privy to the best working conditions and in some cases double salaries compared to the other public servants at the same level.

Ramped up production activities

With the ramping up of offshore oil and gas activities, the GRA has seen an increased presence of petroleum operators and contractors, with the agency still trying to catch up.

In 2019, Statia said the agency had 15 trained personnel in this department; however it has now grown to 31, with at least 34 more employees needed. Back then, 121 petroleum companies were operating in the country, however it has now increased to more than 350, with this number also still climbing.

In the meantime, the Commissioner General said GRA has been conducting “selective audits” with the tax body concentrating its efforts on clawing back the largest return. In addition to that, he said, “We have to use external accountants to do the cost recovery audit and we work along with them and we utilize their analysis and their findings to guide us in our examination and review of the accounts that would have been submitted by the oil and gas players.”

Statia said if his entire staff compliment were to be trained, they would be able to function in the Cost Recovery Unit; however this would take a few years’ time.

The tax chief was keen to note, “Oil and gas training is a technical aspect of taxation and you do not meet that level almost immediately…anytime I see an oil and gas file there are lots of things that are not being dealt with…we need to look specifically for some specific transactions where you would find a lot of profit shifting and transfer pricing between the related companies in the oil and gas industry.”

Consequently, Statia said the GRA will require the need of “outside help” which the company has so far been utilizing with the audit of cost oil.

The revelations made by the tax boss as it regards the limited human resource in this critical agency would spark further concerns among Guyanese who have been calling on Government to implement a depletion policy for its newfound resources. This plan could possibly, among other things, address the prevailing challenges being faced by the Revenue Authority.

In its bid to fast track the oil and gas sector however, Government last year launched its maiden bid round for 14 of its oil blocks. This will undoubtedly add to the already strained tax authority.

Foreigners crippling Guyana

Meanwhile, the Publisher of this newspaper, Mr. Glenn Lall in a public comment articulated the view that foreigners are crippling Guyana by not only exploiting the nation’s wealth but by buying out the individuals hired to look out for the country’s interest.

He said, “I have told you people before, the oil companies have bought out many of the media houses along with some of the best journalists. They buy over and buy out some of the best law firms already in this country.  They bought out some of the best accounting and auditing firms.  They buy out some of the best professionals in every field…using our oil money to cripple this country.”

Lall observed that the GRA boss himself has complained that the trained personnel to audit monitor and verify Guyana’s interest in the oil industry is being snatched by the oil companies, offering salaries higher than his pay.

To this end, the newspaper Publisher reasoned, “When are we going to emancipate ourselves from this type of slavery? Today is Emancipation Day but yet we remain in chains because of the actions of the oil companies; using our oil money to buy out the people, who have to safeguard Guyana and protect our interest.”

He pointed out that oil companies have been utilizing this trick for centuries across the world, yet leaders are blind to the trouble.

“How can you have foreigners coming to your country, thieving out the family’s wealth, buying out your own children, paying them more from their own wealth than you who are the owners of the wealth…you are in more trouble than anyone of you can ever dream of.”

Lall, a stern advocate for better governance in Guyana pointed out that petroleum companies in Guyana have hired the best experts in the World that are paid from the country’s oil revenue, now the few skilled employees that are being trained to monitor those costs are being stolen.

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• Audit, companies, GRA, oil, steal

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