The facts, please – all of them

Jun 16, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – It is interesting to note the things that engage the leading minds in the PPP/C Government and twist them into deformed states. Now, even audit reports are not spared the chopping block. What was hidden before for long periods is now being published, but with trickery attached. Previously secret audit reports are now being released for public consumption, but it is a peculiar situation. Parts of at least one report are missing. What was being held out as the full report for the US$7.3B audit of ExxonMobil expenses for 2018-2020 has some holes in it. These huge holes involve possibly huge bills that were reviewed by the auditors, but which have now been yanked from the official online version.

GHK Lall

What kind of government would do something like this? What does this say about the quality of the leaders who knowingly or unknowingly preside over something of this nature? What sort of senior officials manning official online channels could reduce a crucial audit report to this awful state? We cannot say with certainty what goes into the thinking of leading politicians in this country and the senior public servants who jump to do their bidding. But, at a minimum, something is highly improper or, at the worst, the ugliest, dirtiest deeds, are being dumped on the heads of trusting Guyanese.

According to sources close to the US$7.3B audit, the full audit report stood at 170 pages. Mysteriously, approximately 40 pages have been removed, and are now missing, from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s website. This is not media speculation, but according to the same sources with insights of what was involved in the audit process, and the report that resulted. The missing 40 pages from the reportedly full audit report of 170 pages is about a quarter of it. Instead of focusing on the quarter of the report that is now strangely missing, it would be more beneficial for citizens to think of the three quarters of the big ExxonMobil expenses that are nowhere around. Supply vessels and drill rigs cost huge sums daily, but those are not in the partial online report. The same huge amounts hold true for helicopters leasing and waste management disposal, both of which are daily occurrences in ExxonMobil’s offshore operations. But those are noticeably absent in the approximately 130 pages that were cobbled together and thrown at Guyanese as representing the full audit report.

Again, we go back to an old, now familiar, question: why take such steps, why go to such lengths, if there is nothing to hide? What is there to fear, and which must be concealed from citizens, using any means that come to mind? Removing (or dropping) almost a quarter of an audit report raises all manner of questions about the principles of those who oversee these things. To be clear, we are not talking about systems managers or webmasters. We are focusing on the decision makers, and asking how this could be, and how something like this is expected to stay a secret.

One of the most senior PPP/C Government figures, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, the man calling the shots on the Guyanese people oil wealth was conspicuous in the extreme care that he took when discussing the US$7.3B VHE Consulting audit report. “I asked them to release the audit report…as received from the auditors… They have posted it so that should be the report.”

It is inconceivable that any audit team that values its name would withhold 40 pages from its final report. The issue then becomes who could have taken it upon themselves to make 40 pages of the report disappear, and not just any 40 pages. Who in the ministry would have the audacity to do so without the confidence that their shenanigans meet with the approval of the higher ups? This is the US$214M IHS Markit audit findings all over that was reduced to US$3M that turned out to be a big coverup and farce. It was hundreds of millions before in that earlier audit. Now it is about audit report pages, and every Guyanese should want to know how many more millions, probably US billions, have become part of local oil conspiracies, skullduggeries.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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consumption, facts, GHK Lall, Government, PPP/C

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