AFC mulls court action against Govt. for failing to conduct timely audits of Exxon’s expenses

The Alliance For Change (AFC)onFridaysaidthatitis mulling court against the government of Guyana for failing to conduct timely audits of the expenses billed to the country by U.S. oil giant,ExxonMobil.

The party at its weekly press conference told reporters that it is most egregious that tax payers are funding the development of the oil sector but are uninformed about what they arepayingfor Guyanese are yet to be privytothedetailsofanaudit report conducted to review the expenses Guyana is payingfor

Further, the party posited that the country is losing billionsduetoinactionbythe government to conduct the audits in keeping with the provisionssetoutinthe2016 P r o d u c t i o n S h a r i n g Agreement (PSA) with the oilcompanyanditsaffiliates, HessandCNOOC.

Section 1.5 in Annex 'C' of the PSA states “The Minister shall have the right toaudituponninety(90)days writtennotice,athissolecost and expense, accounts and records of the Contractor, maintained hereunder with respecttoeachCalendarYear within two (2) years from the end of each such year For purposes of auditing, the Minister may audit, examine and verify, at reasonable timesduringnormalbusiness hours but not more than once per calendar year, all charges and credits relating to the contractor's activities under theAgreement...”

Former Head of the Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA), Dr Vincent Adams believes the lack of timely audits could be costingthecountrybillions.

“Government is losing money by the billions and it's just as if the government really doesn't care,” Adams toldreportersFriday.

He explained that this i n a c t i o n b y t h e administration is benefitting the oil company, confirming doubts that may have lingered that “Exxon is fundamentally now running thisgovernment.”

Dr Adams, a Petroleum Engineer, also pointed out that by not scrutinizing Exxon's bills, government is committing the most egregious act. In fact, he noted that while Exxon is reluctant to publicly share its expenses, “government is aiding and abetting them by hidingthiscost.”

The former EPADirector reasoned, “We have to know whatthesecostsareforevery single thing that you do. That's the way that normal governments are run, I was part of it in the United States government.Weusedtohave our people sitting there, sitting in the same offices with the contractors, sharing the same software, access to the same information, so there couldn't have been any hiding ” Meanwhile, in responding to a question fromthispublicationasto (Continued on page 9)