Audit delays

Aug 05, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – What could be the problem? Why the lengthy delay with these audits of oil company expenses? Why is it that audits involving ExxonMobil claimed spending seems to give the PPP/C Government the combination of a paralyzing migraine and an unbearable toothache at the same time?

Four years is a long time for an audit to be delayed, almost an eternity, and the longer it is suspended between possible manipulations and arrangements, the more the height of suspicions rises. Vice President Jagdeo, who has taken it upon himself to be Guyana’s leading voice and leading expert on all things oil in Guyana has gone on record to assert, “The [audit] report has been concluded and it is now with the technical people…I am not interfering.” All Guyanese should be thankful for that ray of clarity from the Vice President on “I am not interfering.” Given, however, Jagdeo’s history of making it his duty to be everywhere and in everything, this is a little on the difficult side to swallow. Our experience with this leader has been that of someone who says one thing, with the brightest of practised expressions, only for the opposite to occur.

Notwithstanding what Jagdeo said, the concern is that this audit is too long overdue, and it is for US$1.6 billion in ExxonMobil’s expenses. For a poor country like Guyana, if the inspiring statistics and narratives flooding this country from all over could be held in suspense for a moment, US$1.6 billion is a huge sum. It is not an amount that should be taken lightly, or played around with, or be subject to this type of unending circling around, like some overhead aircraft waiting for permission to land.

Who is holding this audit up, and for what reason? These “technical people”, some of them most likely from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), on which Vice President Jagdeo places the spotlight for part of the delay cannot be that sluggish or, we venture to say, that incompetent. We go further and insist that they cannot be so oblivious about the importance of this US$1.6 billion audit, and the urgency to have it completed sooner rather than later.

Many Guyanese do not place a store of trust in ExxonMobil, or Vice President Jagdeo, given the thick secrecies surrounding the expenses that the American oil supermajor says that it spent, and is ready to drain from our oil revenues. So, when an audit of this magnitude, and for the extended period of 1999-2017, is suspended between time and space, and Jagdeo’s attempt at comforting words, are all taken into consideration, there are good grounds to fear the worst. As much as we at this publication would like to give ExxonMobil (and Bharrat Jagdeo) the benefit of the doubt, neither has helped their cause.

Put in the simplest manner, there has been too many developments that do not make any sense, or offer any cushion for the many anxieties of Guyanese. As one example, when completed reports on other reviews are withheld from the Guyanese public, then both ExxonMobil and the Government of Guyana are viewed skeptically. As another, when something as fundamental as the interest rate charged by ExxonMobil for the billions it claims to have invested in our offshore oilfields is a mystery, then the distrust deepens. So, when need-to-know information relative to our oil sector is a closely guarded secret for both the American oil supergiant, and the Guyana Government (Jagdeo), then this four-year audit delay is more of that pattern.

Though Jagdeo is sure to rant at our observations and positions, he has not left either us or the Guyanese public with much choice. ExxonMobil has not been the quality partner that Guyanese once expected, with the result being that a good fraction of its billions in expenses suffer from being kicked into the can. Similarly, our oil leader, Jagdeo, has left Guyanese with too many unanswered questions about his management of this oil wealth. When he has responded to questions, he has done so most cagily, and has given every indication of being heavily on ExxonMobil’s side, with Guyanese hanging. Four years to finish the audit and report to the Guyanese people is a crime.

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