GRA, Ramps and ExxonMobil

Apr 29, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The arrival of oil has transformed Guyana into an Alice in Wonderland country. In Guyana, by some great miracle, US$4.4 million ends up being US$12.1 billion. This is mindboggling, and until an alert Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) caught that false customs declaration, the other parties were keeping their heads down, saying nothing. They are Trinidad’s Ramps Logistics, Inc., (broker) and America’s ExxonMobil (company), Guyana’s make-believe oil partner. Now there is this farce making the rounds, where the broker is blaming the company, and the company is dancing away from that by passing the blame for the false declaration right back at the broker. It is a wonderful situation, yet another revelation of the way that business related to this country’s oil wealth is handled.

Despite this inflated customs declaration, one of immense magnitude, and many implications, the American company is taking its own sweet time to provide a persuasive response to the GRA, and bringing some level of closure to this transfixing issue. In addition to blaming the broker, the Americans came up with a peculiar one: there was a conversion mix-up, in that the declaration should have been in Guyana dollars. Holding fast to the US$4.4 million cost and using a rate of US$1 = GY$220, the final amount is still miles (many countless miles) from that US$12.1 billion submitted in the false declaration. Could it be that the US company devalued the Guyana dollar, and it is only now that the Guyanese people are being informed? This false customs declaration is also confirmation of how the American company has gone native, so to speak. In this country, politicians blame the public service and the media, while the public service passes on the favor to the people. On the other hand, the independent media has no one to drop the hammer on, so it just keeps digging and reporting, and there is this GRA scandal involving a broker and a national partner. To confirm our point about blame dodging and blame shifting, there is the company dumping the hot potato false declaration on the broker, and the broker saying, no thanks.

From US$4.4 million to US$12.1 billion, this is a glimpse of how the heist of Guyana goes on with most of the activities happening behind the scenes. When the oil company is asked about project expenses, it nods in the direction of the Guyana Government. When the media (KN) pushes the government chief spokesman for some details and clarity on this oil patrimony, he sends them to the American company. The Government of Guyana, the oil partner, and the subcontractors, the one in this declaration instance, are all skipping rope. They go up and down, while everything stays in place. Nothing is said, less is shared, but then there is this bizarre development of US$4.4 million climbing like a space rocket to US$12.1 billion, with the stroke of a pen. Or as the oil company is representing, the slip of a thumb. Guyanese must be the most docile, most patient, people to keep absorbing these unending insults to their intelligence without flaring into a proper rage. But there is more than what is insulting that is involved in this oil sector. There could be more than company concoctions at play here, which one is the million-dollar mystery for citizens to ponder. They shouldn’t look for any help in finding a solution to this mystery that could be a crime from their government.

This is where the GRA has stood out before (oil audits) and does so again with this false customs declaration. It is worth thinking that if there was someone other than the current Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, whether something of this nature would ever have made it into the public domain. Guyanese could benefit enormously if they were to have political leaders of the same quality, those who refuse to knuckle under the demands of the oil partners now lived with, those now found so destructive to local interests. If Guyanese were to be similarly helped with high-caliber men and women leading national institutions, then Guyana would be a different place. Meanwhile, there is waiting to see what the American company delivers on this inflated declaration.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Editorial, ExxonMobil, GRA, Ramps

Latest News