At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, US-based medical services provider RemoteMD charged 15 oil services workers US$350 ($70,000) each for a rapid COVID test, far higher than local labs and raising questions again over the expense claims that ExxonMobil and its contractors will make as cost oil.
An invoice seen by Stabroek News shows that RemoteMD submitted a bill to Gaico Construction on February 19 last year for 15 rapid tests totalling US$5,250 (just over $1 million).
While this figure in itself is not large, it should have been lower and will be eventually claimed as cost oil, thereby reducing profits due to Guyana. Up to 75% of each year’s oil revenue can be claimed by ExxonMobil and its partners as cost oil. The remaining 25% profit oil is split equally between Guyana on one hand and ExxonMobil and its partners on the other.
Asked for a comment yesterday, New Orleans, Louisiana-based RemoteMD said that those rapid test costs have decreased as it is now charging between US$65 ($13,000) and US$85($17,000) per test and justified the US$350 charges by saying that it outsources lab services to local labs and all companies sign an agreement before they are billed .
“That invoice you see shows charges for services from last year February. We billed the client but was never paid so we recently re-sent the invoice because our audits showed it was outstanding,” RemoteMD Clinic Administrator, Tyrell (only name given), told Stabroek News yesterday.
This newspaper had reached out to RemoteMD for comment and its country representative, Shandelle Reid explained that she would have to first speak to her overseas superiors for guidance and later forwarded Tyrell’s name.
Reid later explained that the company had requested a meeting with Gaico and would not be able to respond until that meeting takes place.
RemoteMD said that while charges to clients are US$65 to US$85, RemoteMD pays the labs they have outsourced between US$50 and US$60 for each test.
The labs used for COVID-19 testing, according to Tyrell, are Eureka Labs and Sheriff Medical Services.
“We pay the labs in Guyana just about US$50 to US$60 for each test. If we have to offshore, it is about US$50 to US$100,” he explained, pointing out that while the charges may seem exorbitant when compared to local labs, the company has an agreement that their tests be expedited and thus have to pay for those services.
His explanation raises the question about why COVID-19 testing requires an overseas-based middleman like RemoteMD and why ExxonMobil’s contractors are not going directly to local labs for testing.
Stabroek News yesterday checked with some private hospitals and medical services providers in Georgetown to ascertain the current average costs for COVID-19 testing.
The table below reflects the prices given by the respective medical facilities.
Around February 2021, the time of the Remote MD billing, COVID-19 rapid tests averaged $8,000 and PCR Tests $25,000, nowhere near the US$350 ($70,000) levied by RemoteMD.
Tyrell mentioned that RemoteMD had to make provisions that testing for Gaico then be done at its local office and it is why the invoice shows that it was “on site” testing. He said that the company, like all the others it does business with, signs an agreement to the terms of testing and the costs of the tests.
Gaico would then submit its cost to the ExxonMobil subcontractor which then passes that on to ExxonMobil for setting off as cost oil.
The costs being billed to this country under cost oil have been continuously raised, more so that there has yet to be a completed audit of monies spent under the heading.
An audit for pre-contract costs, completed under the APNU+AFC government in 2019 by United Kingdom firm IHS Markit, is yet to be made public by the PPP/C government.
The government said in February that it is finalizing queries of “lumped” sums and investigating costs of items such as risers, and the process would have been completed in a matter of weeks.
But more than two months have elapsed and no word on the release has been forthcoming.
The IHS Markit audit will provide the first real insight into whether ExxonMobil has been making undue expense claims.
Following this, there is about US$9.5b in post-contract expenses still to be audited and the government has made heavy weather in having this exercise started.
