Exxon audit and that so called unauthorised action

Sep 18, 2023 News, The GHK Lall Column

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(Hard truths)

Kaieteur News – Where is the late, great Dr. Roger Luncheon when the PPP Government needs him the most?  The rush of developments emerging out of Exxon’s US$214 million pre-contract audit calls for a real verbal maestro, a virtuoso of spin with a grin amid a colossal government sin.   The developments trace an arc that starts low and then heads all the way into the sewer.  I absorb this combination of beauty and leprosy about “unauthorized” action by people in the Ministry of Natural Resources, in reducing the disputed amount from US$214 million all the way down to the ‘fine change’ of US$3 million.  Considering this, I am caught between doubling over in laughter and kicking a car tire.

I would like to know who the superstar intellect is that came up with this flimsy, transparent (see-through) nightgown.  Somebody looks awfully naked, and terribly unattractive, in these rather richly smelly audit proceedings.

Let us examine this slowly, fairly, and carefully, and by the process of elimination see where all interpretations and conclusions lead.  The starting point is IHS Markit’s audit findings of US$214 million in differences.  On the Guyana side, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) had some other ideas and numbers, but went along with the US$214 million figure.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is an interested party, but really possesses no more than observer status in this audit.  On the American side, Exxon immediately made its position clear: no way; that number rots in hell.  All the while, the Vice President of Oil made all the right noises, and kept what appeared to be a safe and civilized distance: the government is waiting on the GRA.  Then, the bottom fell out, and the devils broke free.

Someone at the Ministry of Natural Resources somehow at some time took it upon himself or herself (it could be plural) to move behind the back of the minister, the GRA, and the entire government apparatus, and dealt with Exxon directly.  They did not just deal with Exxon, but had the power and authority (or curiously arrogated same to themselves) to strip the IHS/GRA audit issue amount of US$214 million to a measly US$3 million.  Who the hell does something like that in Guyana?  Bluntly, I believe that there are only two capable of acting so unilaterally and heavy-handedly.  Prime Minister Mark Phillips is not in the duet.

Whether I go up the ladder or down, or across the length and breadth, of the Ministry of Natural Resources, there is not one official elected or selected, who would do what was done with that US$214 million number, and with which a number is being done on Guyanese under the comical banner of “unauthorized.”  I do not think that the Permanent Secretary would go near such an action.  I am absolutely confident that the Hon Minister of Natural Resources would not be so irresponsible, so arrogant, or so thoughtless and careless, as to want his fingerprints on that reduction development, a wholesale dissipation of Guyana’s interests.  I will be so bold as to label that finger pointed at some hapless unit made into a scapegoat as a rank exercise in deception not encountered recently.  If there was someone in that unit who acted arbitrarily and capriciously, then he or she was simply the proxy now made into a patsy.  If that is too American sounding, try this: somebody was doing dirty work for powerful people, and now the thing has boomeranged dangerously out of control, so that all are running for cover, or distancing themselves.  It was what hits the fan and splatters all over.

One by one, I could account for what senior people at the ministry would consider their maximum strength, power, and reach of their pay grade.  One by one, they are eliminated from this ugly issue.  I can see and agree that an official, a senior administrator, or the minister comfortable using some rare discretion and agreeing to taking US$3 million off the audit table.  But I can never envision that any such official would go the other way, which is yield to Exxon’s pressures or overtures, and remove to Exxon’s favor all but US$3 million of the audit findings.  I just cannot see that happening with today’s Guyanese public servants.  That is, unless they share an extraordinary clandestine relationship with the ultra-powerful, and most intimately.  In such instances, it may be the thinking of all at the table that this public servant is a surrogate that has the clout of those who can’t be seen around proceedings like these, viz., audit findings, pushbacks, and reductions.  In other words, he or she speaks for others, and with identical power.

So, when all of this is measured, massaged, and marinated, there is nobody left to put the “unauthorized” dunce cap on their skull.  There is nobody left but one.  Thinking Guyanese are now left in a position to solve this mystery that never was one.  It was obvious as to who was and is the real owner of that US$214 million reduction to US$3 million.  It is not me.

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• Dr. Roger Luncheon, Exxon’s, On the Guyana side, Prime Minister Mark Phillips, the Guyana Revenue Authority, the PPP Government

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