Ram slams failure to audit US$9b of Exxon’s expenses

With government still to adequately explain why it allowed auditing of over US$9B in ExxonMobil’s expenses to fall into default, Chartered Ac-countant Christopher Ram flayed its nonchalant attitude saying it could have asked Canada for help.

“And if the Government was so interested in auditing those costs, it could have called on the Audit Office, which has easy access to Canada and its wealth of experience in petroleum audits, to provide assistance, even as a short-term measure,” Ram told Stabroek News yesterday.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo last week announc-ed that  ExxonMobil’s post-2017 expenditure had not been done because government was not able to select a strong local group to undertake it, although it had advertised this year for foreign firms.