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.