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GRA boss must address nation on auditing capacity- Jagdeo
Kaieteur News – Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Godfrey Statia will be solely responsible for addressing the current human resource shortage at the agency’s Petroleum Unit, as the government will not be intervening.
This was related by Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday during a press conference hosted at the Office of the President in Georgetown.
In his opening statement, the VP explained that he discussed the shortage of workers in the GRA’s Petroleum Unit with Statia last week.
“So I said to him, you need to deal with this matter yourself because the impression is created that somehow you need these people and the government is not supportive and I have confirmed that you have never basically raised this matter with the Minister of Finance nor the President directly at the policy level,” Jagdeo explained.
He said that the GRA boss informed him that the vacant spots were advertised locally and internationally, however, the remuneration sought by the skilled auditors was “very high”. Jagdeo said he informed Statia that this should be discussed if it hampers the work of the agency.
According to Jagdeo, “He is going to deal with this matter and the reason I want him at the technical level to deal with matters surrounding audit is that I made it clear that as politicians we want to stay away from any issue dealing with audits.”
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo
The Vice President explained that while the government is concerned about the lengthy timeline to complete oil audits, it is focused on ensuring that there is adherence to the Local Content provisions. He however made it clear that the government will not be stepping in.
“We don’t want to give directions in relation to audits which is an entirely technical matter because it would seem if we intervene, it would seem we are favouring one party or another and this is not how audits are done and so that is why he (Statia) should deal with it purely from a technical perspective and our position remains the same.”
On July 31, 2023, during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, Statia informed the Parliamentary Committee that the Petroleum Unit, tasked with conducting audits of oil companies, was lacking half of the staff required for the job. He pointed out that the agency has 31 on roll while 65 persons are required for the job.
Statia explained, “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.”
He noted 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.
Presently, two audits of the Stabroek Block oil and gas activities are outstanding. The first audit was awarded in 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.
Jagdeo previously explained that while the auditors have wrapped up the review, the iterative process between the GRA and the oil company has been stalling the completion.
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