President Irfaan Ali has promised to check on the status of Guyana’s first audit of the oil and gas sector which was conducted by the United Kingdom-based HIS Markit on the US$460 million pre-contract costs.
“I have to follow up where this is and will definitely communicate,” Ali responded when asked for an update on the report that has been completed more than a year ago.
In the face of concerns that his administration has only paid lip service to transparency in its stewardship of the oil and gas sector, Ali had in August of this year, said that government is building a dedicated website to publish all available information.
“We are working now on a website that will have all the production details; that will have all the revenue details… that will have all the expenditure details. We are presently putting that system and institution in place,” Ali had said.
“I do not believe that we have been hiding anything as it relates to the oil and gas sector,” he further contended as he claimed that “every piece of information that the government has, every discussion we have had… has been made public and shared with the public.”
It is unclear as to the status of the website.
There has also been no word on the IHS Markit audit of ExxonMobil’s US$460 million pre-contract costs, save for the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) earlier this year saying it was completed but that the submission was bungled because of the form in which it was delivered.
Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat had in February of this year said that the report had been in its finalisation stage.
The IHS Markit audit will provide the first real insight into whether ExxonMobil has been making undue expense claims.
