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Almost five years later… Govt. and Exxon still to agree on sole expert to settle audit dispute- Vickram Bharrat
(Kaieteur News) – As the five-year anniversary approaches since the government of Guyana received the first audit report of ExxonMobil’s expenses, the two parties remain at odds over the appointment of a sole expert to settle the dispute.
This was revealed on Friday by Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat when pressed on the sidelines of an event to provide an update on the audit of the company. Bharrat was hesitant, first reminding that the review of the report is being handled by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Kaieteur News however informed the Minister that queries to the agency have gone unanswered, with the nation still awaiting an update on the process. To this end, Bharrat explained, “I have seen some of the correspondences between Exxon and GRA and they have recently come to a position where they have two sole experts. They have narrowed it down to two and I believe within a month or so they are gonna identify the one that they are going to move forward with because both parties must agree on that sole expert as is specified in the agreement.”
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat
Bharrat added that the process will move forward upon the appointment of the sole expert. Furthermore, from the government’s standpoint, he assured that efforts are being made to follow-up on the process to ensure it moves ahead.
An audit of the Cost Bank of the Stabroek Block was conducted for the years 1999 to 2017 by IHS-Markit, a British firm. The audit resulted in findings of US$214M and a report was submitted to the government in March 2021.
Following the submission of that report, the flagged sum was reduced to a meager US$3M based on submission of documentation that was absent during the course of the audit. After careful consideration the Government did not accept the presented documents, and the sum was restored to US$214M. As such, the disputed amount highlighted by the auditor will stand.
Consequently, the Sole Expert process has been invoked to settle the dispute between the parties. Should the sole expert determine that the costs were inaccurately added to the cost bank, Exxon will be required to credit the sum.
The 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) states at Article 26 that if the parties fail to agree on a sole expert within 30 days such expert shall be appointed by the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) in accordance with its Rules for the Appointment of Experts and Neutrals.
The contract states at Article 26.10 “…the Parties shall cooperate fully in the expeditious conduct of such expert determination and provide the expert with access to all facilities, books, records, documents, information and personnel necessary to make a fully informed decision in an expeditious manner. The sole expert shall act as an expert and not as an arbitrator or mediator, and shall endeavour to provide an opinion on the Dispute within thirty (30) days of his appointment, but no later than sixty (60) days after his appointment…”
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