Given its commitment to transparency of the petroleum sector and having announced that ExxonMobil’s expenses went down from US$214 million to US$11 million even after a final audit report was submitted, the government should explain to the nation how the decision was made, former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran says.
And since the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has said that it was not objecting to the report’s $214 million sum, as it explained its role, Goolsarran said that the Auditor General’s Office should have had a role, given its constitutional separation from Guyana’s executive arm.
“The Vice President, however, has indicated that the disputed costs have been reduced to US$11 million since ExxonMobil’s subsidiaries submitted additional documentation in support of the expenditure. It is, however, unclear whether additional documentation could be provided to justify the expenditure after the audit was closed and the related report issued. This is especially so, considering the elaborate and exhaustive process that the auditors went through to gain acceptance of their report,” Goolsarran posited in his Accountability Watch column.