Gov’t in hunt for local auditors for ExxonMobil costs

Vickram Bharrat

In an effort to have a pool of local auditors to assist in auditing post-contract costs and the continuous auditing of oil & gas expenses, government has met with the Institute of Chartered Accountants to work out a mechanism to acquire the requisite skillsets needed.

Discussions continue even as government says that ExxonMobil has given its assurance that it would not hold firm to a rigid two-year time frame for completion as stipulated in the Production Sharing Agreement it has with this country, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat says.

“[With regard to] this current audit [post contract], we want to bring it to a stage where we can do auditing all the time; quarterly, yearly, and not wait necessarily on a big audit. The only way we can do that is by building local capacity, we have to get our local companies involved,” Bharrat told the  Stabroek News  when asked for an update.