Government has disclosed that a seeming mix-up has stalled the completion of the audit of the pre-contract costs for ExxonMobil,and its partners in the Stabroek Block as the United Kingdom firm hired to undertake the audit submitted its final report without ever providing a draft and they have been written to in order to correct this.
“They were supposed to have three deliverables – an initial report, a draft, and then the final report. They submitted the draft as the final report on 30th July, I believe,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said on Tuesday at a press conference.
“Since then, in the first few months I think we did not pay enough attention to it. Since then, we have had the GRA and the Department of Energy look at the report – there is some committee. The draft, that report, has to be sent to ExxonMobil [who] will have to comment and [as] with any audit, a final report [will] be completed. That will determine whether we accept all of the expenditure that was made in the pre contract as well as additional expenditure. We would then determine if all of those costs are consistent with the contract’s understanding,” he added.