{"id":19887,"date":"2021-12-16T22:14:04","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T03:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=19887"},"modified":"2021-12-16T18:01:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T23:01:28","slug":"questions-mount-on-govts-failure-to-have-us9b-in-exxons-expenses-audited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/questions-mount-on-govts-failure-to-have-us9b-in-exxons-expenses-audited\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions mount on govt\u2019s failure to have US$9b in Exxon\u2019s expenses audited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guyana<\/p>\n

As questions mount on the government\u2019s failure to have US$9b in Exxon-Mobil\u2019s expenses audited, it has been disclosed that the Ministry of Natural Resources had been responsible for the evaluating of the financials of companies that had bid for the contract but it apparently abandoned the process without advising the procurement board.<\/p>\n

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The expiration of the deadline for the examination of the expenses means that the country\u00a0 has not been able to determine if the US$9b expenditure by ExxonMobil and partners was warranted. If the expenses were overstated it would have caused a reduction in Guyana\u2019s profit oil take.<\/p>\n

For the third day running Stabroek News yesterday sought a response from\u00a0 the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to no avail.\u00a0 Sources told this newspaper that the ministry has not said anything to the National Pro-curement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) on tenders that were submitted for the auditing of the US9b in expenses. The tenders were opened in April of this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is unclear how the ministry came to be responsible for evaluating tenders, given that the statutory process lies with the NPTAB, but one source explained that oil and gas contracts are evaluated by a special body, given that it requires expert technical evaluation while the NPTAB has \u201cadministrative oversight\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s failure to have the massive US$9b in expenses audited will raise serious questions about its management of the sector.<\/p>\n

It was Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo who last week casually disclosed at a press conference that ExxonMobil\u2019s post-2017 expenditure for the Liza-1 and Liza-2 wells would not be audited as government was not able to select a strong local group to undertake it. This statement was made although the government had advertised this year for foreign firms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been very disappointed that we have not been able to select a group to do the audit of the post-2017 expenditure on Exxon. The reason is we did not have a strong local content. We had two local groups that came in but they were not strong enough. We want to build a capacity in Guyana to do this audit,\u201d Jagdeo said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe think our people have enormous skills, forensic skills, auditing skills, and we are looking to see if we can\u2019t have an arrangement where we have a consortium of local people partnering with a foreign company so we can build capacity right here in Guyana. We are disappointed that from the individual bids we did we have not been able to do this. When I get back from Scotland (from the COP26 conference)\u00a0 I have asked the minister to see if we can\u2019t get all the groups that expressed interest to see how we can partner, they can partner with a foreign company to do this audit.\u00a0 We also have to build this capacity in GRA (Guyana Revenue Authority). GRA has been mandated to build a capacity to do this. But it is a disappointment because it has been quite a while,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

However, there has been no information on if the MNR as the procuring entity had informed the companies of why they did not qualify or why the Government of Guyana never announced that none of the tenders met the required criteria. No explanation was given on why the contract was not again advertised or if government had asked ExxonMobil to extend the two-year statutory period, given the lack of capacity here and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on works globally.<\/p>\n

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President Irfaan Ali had in August of this year promised that his government would be transparent on activities in the oil and gas sector and that it would have built a website to publish information for the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe that we have been hiding anything as it relates to the oil and gas sector,\u201d he further contended as he claimed that \u201cevery piece of information that the government has, every discussions we have had\u2026 has been made public and shared with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali yesterday returned to Guyana from Scotland where he had been attending the COP26 climate summit. This newspaper has reached out to his press and communications department for a response on the auditing of the US$9b.<\/p>\n

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In 2018,\u00a0 when he was Opposition Leader, Jagdeo had blistered the APNU+AFC administration over its sloth in auditing US$460m in ExxonMobil\u2019s pre-contract costs and when the PPP\/C took office last year he assured that all costs will undergo strict security.\u00a0 But now in 2021, as PPP\/C Vice-President, he has casually excused his government from forensic scrutiny of nearly 20 times the US$460m.<\/p>\n

Jagdeo had said last year that the $460m pre-contract costs was under review and that the Department of Energy had advised that it had audited up to 2017 and that the review of the report was still being looked and that the Department of Energy has told him that it had someone reviewing other costs up to 2017.<\/p>\n

He reasoned that while the US$460m has been the focus, the nation has to be reminded that post contract costs totaling over US$20B have been added to that total and that will be the key area of scrutiny. \u201cThe Department of Energy said to me they have a person reviewing costs up to 2017, we have not gotten around to that as yet. We will ensure that every cent, from the beginning, to Payara, all of it, has to be reviewed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe post-contract costs are the bulk of it\u2026we are talking upwards of (US$) 20B that have to be reviewed. It is a task we have to come around it. That is looking out for national interest,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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More\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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Image: Pixabay-Audit\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guyana As questions mount on the government\u2019s failure to have US$9b in Exxon-Mobil\u2019s expenses audited, it has been disclosed that the Ministry of Natural Resources had been responsible for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":19888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250],"tags":[244,116,71],"class_list":["post-19887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-electricity-energy","tag-guyana","tag-procurement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-5aL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21393,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/one-bid-received-for-exxon-cost-recovery-audit-validation\/","url_meta":{"origin":19887,"position":0},"title":"One bid received for Exxon cost recovery audit validation","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"March 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Guyana Only one company has submitted a bid for consultancy services for cost recovery audit validation of the Government of Guyana\u2019s profit oil share and it has tendered at over $340 million for the project. When the tenders for the Ministry of Natural Resources\u2019 project were opened last Tuesday, only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21168,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/procurement-board-corrects-error-in-bid-for-cost-oil-auditing\/","url_meta":{"origin":19887,"position":1},"title":"Procurement board corrects error in bid for cost oil auditing","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"March 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Guyana A data entry error resulted in the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) listing only one of the three companies in a consortium that bid to audit Guyana\u2019s cost oil and the agency\u2019s website has since made a correction to reflect all the companies involved. Following concerns raised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/pexels-aleks-marinkovic-5213545.jpg?fit=1024%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/pexels-aleks-marinkovic-5213545.jpg?fit=1024%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/pexels-aleks-marinkovic-5213545.jpg?fit=1024%2C674&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/pexels-aleks-marinkovic-5213545.jpg?fit=1024%2C674&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27849,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/audit-report-reveals-exxon-single-sourced-hundreds-of-us-millions-in-contracts\/","url_meta":{"origin":19887,"position":2},"title":"Audit report reveals\u2026 Exxon single sourced hundreds of US-millions in contracts","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"May 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Guyana An audit conducted by IHS Markit, a British firm hired by the former administration, to specifically review the expenses of oil major, ExxonMobil between the period 1999 and 2017, to the tune of US$1.6 billion, found that hundreds of US-millions in contracts were single sourced by the company. 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