No word from Gov’t on timely completion of Exxon’s third audit
Mar 27, 2025
…as timeline draws near
Kaieteur News- The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has refused to respond to queries on the completion of the third audit of ExxonMobil’s US$19.6B expenses.
Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat
Since March 13, at least five attempts were made by Kaieteur News to seek an update on the process, which is slated to be completed by the end of this month, as was previously communicated by Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry, Joslyn McKenzie at a press conference in January.
At the time, he informed reporters, “That’s the period 2021-2023, and the audit sum totals roughly about US$19.6 billion thereabouts. This is the quantum spent for the three years right, and that audit commenced in November of 2024 and is expected to be completed by March of 2025.”
Subject Minister, Vickram Bharrat on March 13 directed this newspaper to seek the update from the PS, which was done. McKenzie however did not respond, prompting Kaieteur News to send a reminder of its request on March 15, which was again ignored.
On March 24, this publication again reminded the Permanent Secretary of its request, which received no response. Consequently, on March 25 Kaieteur News via a message to Bharrat informed the Minister that the PS did not respond to the query. Bharrat committed to “remind” McKenzie of the information requested but up to press time on Wednesday, no further detail about the process was shared.
It should be noted that the Chief Policymaker for the Oil and Gas Sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo often directs such questions on the “day-to-day-management” to the Ministry of Natural Resources. This therefore raises questions about government’s commitment to transparency, especially in the management of the petroleum sector.
The audit in question is the largest in the country’s history and is specific to the period 2021 to 2023. It was awarded to the local consortium VHE Consulting on October 10. Notably, unlike what obtained during the first cost oil audit, the media was not invited to attend the signing of the contract, sparking concerns from the Opposition.
Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC) and former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson believes that the media was blanked on purpose from the event. In an interview with this newspaper, Patterson said, “We noted that the contract signing was done without the presence of the media, departing from earlier such contract signing. We see this as an attempt by the government to dodge questions on the performance of the company, as well as the contents of their report.”
On May 24, 2022 the Government of Guyana (GoG), through the Ministry of Natural Resources awarded a contract for a four-month review of ExxonMobil’s expenses between the years 2018 to 2020. VHE Consulting which is a locally registered partnership between Ramdihal & Haynes Inc; Eclisar Financial; and Vitality Accounting & Consultancy Inc had won the contract and subject Minister, Vickram Bharrat was faced with a plethora of questions from the media on the process and next stages following the completion of the review.
On this occasion however, journalists were not afforded that opportunity even as questions linger concerning the completion of the two previous audits. The first audit for Exxon’s pre-contract costs, during the period 1999 to 2017 was awarded to a British Consultant, IHS-Markit. That audit of US$1.6B found over US$214M in questionable costs claimed by the contractor. The second audit which was awarded to VHE however only found less than US$100M in disputed charges for the period 2018 to 2020.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Report for 2022 highlighted Guyana’s failure to complete any of the two cost oil audits conducted to date.
In its latest Report for the year 2022, the transparency watchdog explained that the EITI Standard states, “implementing countries are expected to disclose final cost and tax audit reports, or summaries of those reports, including costs deemed as non-recoverable and costs deemed non-deductible and any additional revenues to be collected as a result”. In keeping with the terms of the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), costs deducted by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) are subject to an audit by the Government of Guyana (GoG). Consequently, the document notes, “At the date of this report, two such audits have been carried out by separate teams, but agreement has not been reached on any potential adjustments to be made.”
(No word from Gov’t on timely completion of Exxon’s third audit)
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