Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
Cost oil audit unit at GRA now strengthened with more employees- Govt.
The GRA Head office
Kaieteur News – The Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) Cost Recovery Unit has been strengthened with the addition of more auditors; the Government of Guyana (GoG) revealed in its 2024 Mid-Year Report.
In providing an update on the legal, regulatory, and institutional framework relative to the oil and gas sector, it was noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continued to strengthen its monitoring of operations offshore.
Additionally, “The Guyana Revenue Authority also made progress by staffing key departments examining oil companies’ revenues and cost recovery statements as well as performing customs controls,” the report stated.
The GRA had complained that its trained auditors were being lost to the petroleum sector. The cost recovery unit plays a crucial role in examining the expenses incurred by oil companies to develop the resources offshore.
Last year the Commissioner General of the GRA, Godfrey Statia pointed out that the department was understaffed as 31 persons were on roll, while 65 persons were required for the job.
According to him, “we do not have the full complement of staff. We are working assiduously to get the full complement of staff. We have even pulled some staff from other Ministries, but as we know we have a paucity of skills in Guyana. We have even increased pay for persons in that capacity for them not to leave but what we have seen is that as we train staff, we lose staff.”
Statia said that the trained workers are being lured with higher salaries from the oil companies and their contractors. In fact, five persons who were recently trained at the time were stolen by the oil companies.
He said, “A couple of them were actually snapped up by CNOOC whereby their salaries is actually way more than mine and my officers and a couple by Exxon and we have even lost one to Schlumberger.”
Statia said he has been appealing to the employees’ patriotism, rather than force the workers to remain on the job, since he believes “you have to love your work and you have to love what you do”. Additionally, he said he believes that GRA employees are privy to the best working conditions and in some cases double salaries compared to the other public servants at the same level.
With the ramping up of offshore oil and gas activities, the GRA has seen an increased presence of petroleum operators and contractors, with the agency struggling to catch up.
In 2019, Statia said the agency had 15 trained personnel in this department. The staff complement however grew to 31 in 2023, though at least 34 more persons were needed at the time. He said back then, 121 petroleum companies were operating in the country; however, the figure increased to more than 350, with this number also still climbing.
Due to the shortage of employees, GRA was conducting “selective audits” with the tax body concentrating its efforts on clawing back the largest return. In addition to that, Statia said, “We have to use external accountants to do the cost recovery audit and we work along with them and we utilize their analysis and their findings to guide us in our examination and review of the accounts that would have been submitted by the oil and gas players.”
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