ExxonMobil told President Irfaan Ali that it never told the opposition that the IHS Markit audit’s questionable sums were reduced from US$214 million to US$3 million and that government had agreed to it, Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said.
“At the meeting of the Cabinet, the President called Exxon. Exxon said they never told (APNU+AFC MP David) Patterson there was an agreement. Patterson reported that Exxon told them there was an agreement on the US$214 million; they said they never said that to Patterson. They said they submitted documents to support the reduction,” Jagdeo yesterday told a press conference.
However, Opposition Member of Parliament David Patterson says that he does not believe anything Jagdeo says, but if the US oil giant did tell government that, he challenges them to also say it publicly as he and the other Opposition Members of Parliament stand ready to dispute those statements.
“If he is saying that, then Jagdeo is reporting a lie because we were all there, there were like eight persons in the room. Anybody can tell you word for word what Exxon reported to us,” Patterson told Stabroek News when contacted yesterday.
“As I told you before… Exxon said that they, government, have agreed. They also confirmed and they said they had to go through boxes and boxes of documents and to continue would be time consuming. They said they have all their records and they agreed to US$3 million. That is when I learned it is was US$3 million,” Patterson said
He said that if what Jagdeo is reporting is true, then he would “publicly challenge ExxonMobil to say that is not what Mr. (Alistair) Routledge (ExxonMobil Country Manager) said,” he added.
Last month, Patterson told Stabroek News that Routledge told the Opposition that government had accepted that the US$214 million sum found by the IHS Markit audit would be reduced to US$3 million, statements contradictory to government’s position that it had accepted that the company overstated their expenses by the US$214 audit sum.
“They said they had completed it and they had resolved the audit issue. I went in thinking it was reduced to US$11 million but Routledge said it has been reduced to US$3 million. I was shocked. I asked him if he was sure and to confirm it. He said yes,” Patterson had told Stabroek News in an interview.
“He also said they could have been reduced further because they have all their record boxes. Boxes and boxes of records, but it was time consuming so they and the government said, it was a waste of energy and manpower trying to do that [sort the boxes of documents] and they agreed to the US$3 million sum.”
The Opposition Member of Parliament said that he had been rushed to attend the meeting which occurred at Congress Place in early September, after AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan called him and asked him to attend at short notice. He said he went in with a number of questions and of top priority was to seek an update on the audit, as he had read various reports in the news that the sums had been brought down through government and company discussions.
Meanwhile, Jagdeo said that the President had also spoken to Petroleum Director, Gopnauth ‘Bobby’ Gossai the same day that the Minister of Natural Resources submitted his report to Cabinet and that the statement on disciplinary actions for Gossai came following that meeting.
Gossai has been blamed for the audit fiasco where the US$214 million was slashed to US$3 million and he is to be disciplined, a statement released by Minister of Natural Resources last Thursday said. The minister made known the government’s position after hours earlier, submitting to Cabinet a report on his ministry entering into direct negotiations with ExxonMobil to reduce the US$214 million in questionable cost oil costs.
Stabroek News had reached out to Gossai who said that he had no immediate comment. “I have no formal comment at this time.”
This newspaper understands that Gossai was asked by Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, to prepare a report into the circumstances leading up to the discussions between the Ministry of Natural Resources and ExxonMobil, which he did.
And while there is no word on what disciplinary actions will be taken against Gossai, Jagdeo said that the Minister and the Permanent Secretary Joslyn McKenzie should make this known.
“I think they need to speak more on this matter. I will urge them to speak…,” Jagdeo said.
Several calls and messages by Stabroek News yesterday to both the Minister and the Perma-nent Secretary received no response.
