Chris Ram – scourge of oilmen, leaders gutted by them

Jul 05, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall…

(Kaieteur News) – No one could have done it as clinically and comprehensively as Chartered Accountant, Mr. Chris Ram.  He took a scalpel to Exxon, the oil contract, and political leaders.  Dissected all three with much blood drawn.  The contract, the regulatory and political environments, and Guyana’s six years of oil revenues served as his operating table.  In instances, it felt that he operated a guillotine and not a scalpel, such were the spurts of blood.

Working backwards, the numbers stagger the imagination.  What should have been 1:1 became 6:1 in favour of the oil companies re revenue sharing.  The money involved is not a million dollars, a tidy sum in itself, but trillions.  The political leaders whose hands are tarnished from presiding over the agreements between Guyana and Exxon range from former Presidents Janet Jagan to Bharrat Jagdeo to David Granger to Irfaan Ali.  President Jagan gave away too much land for little.  Pres Ali gave away whatever leverage and liberty was left to Guyana -the sacredness of contracts.  I recall Lucifer loved quoting scripture.  In between, President Jagdeo found God (force majeure) and President Granger made himself into a god.  He donated everything to Exxon for peanuts.

Meanwhile, the Exxon-led consortium claims that it is the best partner that Guyana will ever find.  Beneath that corporate commercial lurks the cold calculation of a giant ambushing anaconda.  Beneath the Exxon tangle of weeds and bushes, rests jagged fangs: hidden oil reserves, some mystery oil profit-sharing formula (6:1 and not 1:1), and even more mystifying oil audits.  When the numbers are revealed, they don’t add.  When the numbers are concealed (how spent, on what, and to what purpose), they reveal a network of co-conspirators and one constant victim.  Guyana’s present population, and the one to come.  What has trickled out reveals a handful of contradictions.  Those who say how well their stewardship is.  Think ruling politicians and their cowardice.  It’s only money.  Those who say how much they looked at, and how well they did.  Consider examining the records, and the reporting done.  What value for money?  Real money, as in billions involved.  By the tens and in U.S.

Exxon still insists it’s a super partner.  Regrettably, I sense a bloodsucker.  A sly one.  Tax arrangements.  Name me a partner that compels the other partner to pay his taxes.  Then takes it out of the weaker one’s pay envelope.  But, still have the unmitigated gall to call himself a fellow worker, a partner, even a brother to the Guyanese people.  More than a stark contradiction.  It’s the worst self-condemnation.  And even untutored Guyanese now see through the smoke, and detest it.

From oil operators to oil regulators to oil auditors, Mr. Ram weaved a razor-edged scalpel.  There’s a huge pool of blood on the floor.  Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t even try its former mop-up charades anymore.  To avoid the smearing that has resulted.  Mostly on its own face.  Auditors claim they saw the bloodstains, investigated them.  Their shoes give them away.  No oil spending plasma sticking to their soles.  Simultaneously, the political squads maintain the masquerade of being in charge, calling the shots, and getting the best for Guyanese.  In the manner of masquerades, it’s a big show.  Lots of noise, lots of energy, and lots of enchanted spectators.  And after that, what else from PPP Govt and political opposition.  Oil is a monster of a presence in Guyana.  Local politicians, almost without fail, are pleased to make themselves into sawdust miniatures.  Exxon glances sharply at them, they shatter.

One political side took a fall (dive): sanctity of contract.  The other side fell face forward.  Then surfaced with an oil contract that does a number on Guyanese.  Trillions that don’t match.  Regulators that don’t regulate.  Auditors that are masters of artistry, through much spending and reporting embroidery.  Mr. Ram still had another set of numbers, compliments of his now thoroughly bloodied scalpel.  Gauzes, ties, and compressions can’t control the flood of blood.  I counted 12 glaring failures that he carved out, hung on an exposed tray.  The word is that Guyana has the biggest GDP.  It also has the biggest go—ee.  Political leaders have them.  Exxon gift to them (and Guyana).

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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• Chris Ram, GHK Lall, oilmen, scourge

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