Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) and Member of Parliament Khemraj Ramjattan has taken the Government to task for withholding information from the public the true status of the IHS Markit Audit regarding expenses claimed by Exxon and its partners for period 1999 to 2017.
Sharing with Audit which was kept secret Ramjattan said were it not for the excellent investigative work of Stabroek News to obtain the Audit Report and publish its findings, society would have been none the wiser. IHS Markit is a top-notch international company out of the UK dealing with information, analytics, audits and solutions in business. It is held in high esteem by the World Economic Forum.
The Report in Summary stated the Audit has “established that the Government of Guyana has reasonable grounds to dispute US$214.4 million plus overhead adjustments of the costs currently included by EEPGL in the Cost Bank. This amount represents 12.8% of the cumulative cost recovery balance as of Q4 2017 Statement.” See copy of the Audit Report below.
According to Ramjattan, the nation now know the PPP Government was handed the Audit Report since March 2021 and must have known that expenses in the minimum quantifiable sum of $214M were questionable; that Exxon was in breach of insurance requirements; and, that there were violations by Exxon and its local subsidiary in presenting its Annual Work Plan and Budget.
The AFC has been indicating for some time now that the PPP Government has become strange bedfellows with Exxon in view of the serious attacks it launched whilst in Opposition against the Petroleum Sharing Agreement in 2016; and, its description that it was the “rottenest of deals”; and, that it will renegotiate and review the entire agreement once it gets into office, he noted
“It has gotten into office and there has been a complete volte fas. Sanctity of contract has now replaced renegotiation. Its relationship with the oil major is now almost incestuous. The PPP has avoided chastising Exxon for environmental violations concerning flaring activities; for contract violations concerning insurance coverage; and now, a pathetic display of covering up from the Guyanese public the reprehensible conduct revealed by IHS Markit as to the operator’s inflated expenditures of some US$214M
“The AFC via its Executive members, Dr. Vince Adams, and its Parliamentarian, David Patterson, have constantly been urging Government for the release of findings of this IHS Markit Report as well as the Redford Report. The PPP Government has been hiding them from the people. It reveals the true nature of this corrupt and lawless Executive.”
Making known that with inflated expenses of US$214M and Government doing nothing for two years means such inaction has denied the country and it citizens at a minimum of US$107.2M. “When a little black or coolie boy snatches your chain valued GUY$25,000 that is called larceny. But when a transnational giant denies the entire Guyana this massive sum of US$214 it is called economics.”
Based on the findings in the Report Ramjattan stated the AFC always knew that accountability and transparency were never the hallmarks of the PPP. “We further feel that some Faustian deal has been worked out between Government and Exxon to not renegotiate the Agreement nor scrutinise Cost Oil. In consideration, Exxon will grant to the PPP Government monies at the beck and call and whim and fancy of the Government, like recently happened in the matter of the Stadium at Corentyne.”
The party leader noted that such a relationship will only lead to a deformed accountability and transparency system and a bypass of the Constitutional and Statutory framework prescribed for public monies. This, he said, is yet another bypass similarly contrived by the PPP and its General Secretary, Bharat Jagdeo, to neutralise Presidential term limits to two terms and no more.
“Jagdeo as we all know is serving a third term via the instrumentality of his commanding Vice Presidency.” The party maintained the earlier Jagdeo goes, the better for all Guyana, labelling him as the “undoubted architect of these deformities and vulgarities.”
Dismissing Jagdeo’s response to media reports emanating from the Audit as “corrupt,” Ramjattan said it “certainly does not explain why once the report was issued as a final version, it was not made available to the public.”
