Shrouded in secrecy and deceit 

Jun 10, 2024 Editorial

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Kaieteur News – It has now come to light that the Guyana Government has tried to hide the full audit report of US$7.3B of Exxon’s expenses from the citizens by extracting close to 30 pages from the document that they published online.

Just last week when this newspaper questioned Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo whether the full report that was handed over to the government was released to the public, he answered in the affirmative and even went on to cast aspersion on the leadership of this newspaper for merely asking the question. Now it is in the open as we reported in our Sunday edition, the auditors confirming that the full report, which they handed to the government is not online as Jagdeo said.

What is interesting as we have pointed out in previous news articles is that the section of the report which the government extracted from the full document contains the major expenses of ExxonMobil and its partners, operating the prolific Stabroek Block. Contracts awarded for major expenses such as chemicals used in the operations; costs associated with the rental of supply vessels and drill rigs; subsea umbilical, risers and flowlines (SURF); helicopter charges; laboratory costs and waste treatment management among others have not been included in the report completed by the local consortium-VHE Consulting, a partnership between Ramdihal & Haynes Inc; Eclisar Financial; and Vitality Accounting & Consultancy Inc.

Sources close to the process explained that approximately 40 pages of the audit report have not been included in the document that was made public by the government. The source told Kaieteur News, “The audit team submitted a detailed report of approximately 170 pages, including a manager’s report to the Ministry.” The document available online however consists of 135 pages. See link attached for report: https://nre.gov.gy/2024/04/12/vhes-initial-audit-report-for-the-stabroek-block-cost-recovery-audit-2018-to-2020/. This newspaper had also previously reported that a number of major expenses were not captured in the second audit report. This glaring observation was made when comparing the document to the first audit report completed by British consultant, IHS Markit.

The report we have been privy to and which they published exposes numerous instances where Exxon used our profits on non-oil operational business and in other cases, they over-billed us for billions of Guyanese dollars. But these were for small matters. We can only imagine what the auditors found when they examined the major expenses, which the Irfaan Ali Government has hidden from the public. As we have pointed out in numerous other editorials, corruption and Guyana are now as inseparable as identical twins. In their existence since Independence, citizens have been betrayed by their elected representatives, paid harsh prices for their trust.  The advent of oil has made matters worse, with those in charge carrying on like reckless hoodlums, with their cronies imitating them. This is what UN Human Rights Committee Member, Ms. Helene Tigroudja, noted: “The wealth derived from oil and gold exploitation and mining only benefits the richest in society leaving the poorest in extreme poverty.”  One does not have to look too far or too long, and there are self-evident truths in what Ms. Tigroudja spoke about so openly.

Given that so many of the details in offshore oil operations are hidden from Guyanese, what kind of deals have been worked out between the company and members of the PPPC Government who manage the ExxonMobil-Guyana relationship?  Billions in expenses have been buried far from the prying eyes of Guyanese. What is the quid pro quo involved, who is collecting juicy paybacks?  At US$1 = approximately GY$215, it doesn’t require much from ExxonMobil to make the weak and the willing in the PPPC Government to see things the company’s way.  When there is nothing to hide, then there is no need for any degree of secrecy.  When there is deep secrecy, the lessons of life have taught that there is corruption of some kind present.  In times before, people in government showed that they did not have the principles required to say no when temptations and invitations to help themselves surfaced.  Now that there is oil, which means much more money, there is the simple logic that its fruits will prove to be irresistible.

The Guyana environment now stands as a proven field of corruption that is infested by the out of control. Sections of the private sector in Guyana are choking on the public works that are approved to provide what is needed to support the oil sector, or the mining sector in the interior.  Some contract awards make no sense, have no merit, and the people who are the recipients of them are known for their intimate relationships with those who make the decisions in the PPP/C Government.  The really big decisions are only made by a small group of people, a close-knit cabal floating near the top. The secrecy is so tight that even government agencies are thwarted when they put in for the records of awards involving specific contracts. Awards that have raised a hue and cry about their cleanliness and their credibility.  This is what has become a standing feature of contracts that amount to hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.  Some come from oil, and some come from gold and elsewhere.

The corruption is at such an acute stage that those who need the benefits of their patrimony the most, end up being the ones that receive the least.  The Indigenous community can speak to this, given how their rights have been violated at will by those favoured by the PPP/C Government.  The Chinese Landing community and how it has been ravaged stand as a billboard that the present government prefers to stay covered.  Secrecy and transparency are natural enemies. The clash between corruption and accountability falls in the same boat, with the PPP/C Government being both captain and crew.  Guyanese already knew about the corruption UNHRC member Tigroudja and her team raised in their questions, which caused some hysteria in local leadership offices.  Those questions expose and emphasize how corrupt governance has been under the present regime.  The media is mauled when pressing for answers, women are made examples of, and other Guyanese pummeled for calling out the government. Government that is clean does not have to resort to criminal conduct. Clean leaders fear none. But both the PPP/C Government and its leadership operate in such a corrupt world that principle and reason have fled.

 

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