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‘Govt. ducking of full audit report extremely suspicious’ – Opposition

Jun 11, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – Opposition Advisor and Economist Elson Lowe has raised concerns over the Guyana Government redacting a number of pages from the second audit of ExxonMobil’s US$7.3B expenses, saying it is extremely suspicious.

Lowe also called out the government’s behaviour saying it is a red flag for the nation and that such actions should be considered a criminal offence. He further questioned what were the expenses Guyana’s leaders did not want the public to see?

This publication recently reported that auditors who were integrally involved in the review of the US$7.3B expenses incurred by U.S. oil major, ExxonMobil, between the period 2018 and 2020 have denied that the full report prepared by the team has been published online. VHE Consulting, a partnership between Ramdihal & Haynes Inc; Eclisar Financial; and Vitality Accounting & Consultancy Inc. was recruited by the government of Guyana back in May 2022 to conduct a cost recovery audit of the company. The local consortium was supported by International firm- Martindale Consultants. 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. When questioned on this state of affairs, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo who manages the petroleum sector told reporters that he did not check the document personally, but the full report should be online.

Jagdeo during his May 30, 2024 press conference was asked whether the full report was published online he explained: “I asked them to publish the audit report. It should be the audit report as received from the auditors, that’s the report so that would be the report they would publish, as received from the auditors. I have not checked it personally but I asked them to post it and they have posted it so that should be the report.” Meanwhile, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat has been utterly silent on the subject. This newspaper reached out to Bharrat on May 30 to clarify whether the full report has been released to the public. The Minister responded saying “It’s online” but did not clarify whether it was the complete document at the time.

Meanwhile, a telephone interview with this publication on Sunday Low said that, “Government’s decision to hide dozens of pages of Guyana’s second oil audit is both shocking and extremely suspicious. What are the expenses that they do not want the Guyanese people to see? This is a continuation of the government’s policy of extreme secrecy when it comes to Guyana’s oil industry.” Low reiterated that it should be a criminal offense to not audit the expenses of incurred offshore from the offshore oil operations which government seems reluctant to do but it should also be considered an offense to hide the results of audits from the Guyanese citizens.

“There should be a set process and timeline for the completion and release of audits. Given the huge sums involved, this issue must bear the highest degree of transparency and accountability,” he added. Furthermore, “The first audit revealed concerns about inflated costs for a drill ship, as an example, and if this has been hidden in the second audit it could mean hundreds of millions of USD of losses to the Guyanese people, especially as the second audit makes initial comments about the use of multiple drill ships.” The economist highlighted that this was one of the numerous issues highlighted by the audit that government may be hiding. Reiterating the call for local capacity building and for international experts to be hired as well, to ensure that Guyana receives the highest quality of audits in the future, Lowe said that, “we demand that the full second audit be released immediately.”

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