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Where’s the money?
(Kaieteur News) – Oil has some chemical in it that drives many who come near to it into madness. It transforms them into mystery writers crafting a language that is hard to decipher. A great example of this is Guyana, now rich with oil, with the knots into which men tie themselves, the gibberish that stream from their minds. In a country now notorious for its love of secrecies, there is the secret of taxes paid, but no money collected. How could something like that happen, and ExxonMobil allowed to get away with pulling such a trick? Also, there are the company’s financial statements that indicate taxes paid, and the corresponding credits enjoyed. But where is the money? That’s the question that persists amidst the tangle of documents and statements. Who paid whom, and where is the accounting paper trail that supports such payments, but leaves hanging? There is a muddle to be waded through, but still the mystery prevails.
ExxonMobil’s sweetly engineered 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with Guyana provides for the company not paying taxes to Guyana. However, in its 2025 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company states that it paid approximately U.S.$1.1B in taxes to Guyana. Where is that money, i.e., who received it for the Government of Guyana, and where’s the accounting? A billion U.S. dollars is such a big development in Guyana that it stands out, shouldn’t be such a difficult payment to locate. No one in the government is taking on the duty of clearing the air surrounding this mystery for Guyanese. Article 15.4 of the PSA states that payment of the taxes owed by the company is made by the Minister responsible for Petroleum to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). The GRA is then responsible for issuing the corresponding tax receipts, certificates, to ExxonMobil. A large can of worms it is, with the Guyana Government, the GRA, and ExxonMobil all trapped in what can only be described as a danse macabre.
There is the proper wording in the contract relative to tax payments, including who pays, who receives, and who issues tax receipts and certificates. Part of the mystery is the kind of money that is being used to cover the different legs of this tax situation. Physical money doesn’t appear to be involved, for there are no physical entries in Guyana’s accounting books, nor deposits made by the subject minister to the GRA. If Guyana’s Minister responsible for Petroleum directed such a payment, from where did he withdraw the money? The New York-housed Natural Resource Fund does not show any related withdrawal, and Guyana’s auditors have been a study in silence and disinterest in what would normally make any self-respecting auditor’s eyes light up with glee. These are among the points made by Chris Ram, chartered accountant and attorney at law, who is one of the few vigilant oil watchers in Guyana.
Instead of a single mystery, there is a series of them that thickens the darkness, leaving citizens to question if they will ever get a straight story out of the PPPC Government on its handling of their oil patrimony. It is not just a matter of the convoluted activities related to tax payments and tax receipts, but on all things that have something to do with their oil. We at this paper think that it is long past due for an end to all these games being played with oil taxes and ExxonMobil. Tax payments are made or not made. Taxes are collected and accounted for, or not collected, so there is nothing to account for, or what leads to the issuance of tax receipts, and that is all there is to it. It would help if all those that have some role in this tax mystery step forward and speak in the clearest terms about their parts in this tax murk that challenges patience and comprehension.
We call on the ExxonMobil Guyana Country Head, Guyana’s Minister responsible for Petroleum, and the Commissioner General of Guyana’s tax collection agency. We hope that these three senior officials would share what is informative and reliable concerning the taxes paid, authorised, and received and documented from this oil inheritance of Guyanese.
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