Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton today said that based on information he received from the ExxonMobil company during a recent meeting, the decision to slash the questionable expenses that were highlighted in an oil audit report, followed an agreement between the Government and the ExxonMobil company.

While the Government has shifted all blame to the Head of its Petroleum Unit, the Opposition Leader maintains that the decision was a collective one by senior government officials, and not just the Petroleum Head.

“We know what we said is correct, absolutely so. There is no need for us to lie and that is why we are asking in the public domain for Exxon to address it publicly,” Norton said.

Mr. Norton said during the September 8 meeting with ExxonMobil’s Country Manager, Allister Routledge, it was indicated by the Exxon official that “they agreed with the government to US$3M because it was too time consuming to continue to go through all the information and reduce it further.”

“ExxonMobil owes it to the public to say whether it is true or not in that meeting with us, they did say that they agreed with the Government to bring it down to US$3M and the reason they did not pursue it further was because it was voluminous documentation and it would have consumed a lot of time,” Norton said.

While hinting that no agreement was reached, the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat stated recently that the Head of the Petroleum Unit, Bobby Gossai had no authority to meet with the Exxon company and reduce the amount of oil costs that was flagged by the GRA.

Earlier this week, Opposition MP Roysdale Forde, wrote to the Minister of Natural Resources requesting information on the reported probe into the fiasco that was conducted by the Government. The Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton, today said information from that probe would be irrelevant.

“In our press conference as Leader of the Opposition, we said clearly that Gossai is not an issue here, and we are not interested in investigation into Gossai whether he did it or not. Our position was, one the PSA and the Laws of Guyana give the Minister the authority and the responsibility and you cannot now come and throw Gossai under the bus by saying that it is he who did it,” Norton told reporters.

The Government has found itself in an unflattering position over the oil audit report and the reduction in the questionable costs.

For its part, the Exxon company recently stated that it provided the Government with a number of documents and responses to issues raised in the draft audit report.

The company said it has acted in good faith and cooperated with the government and the Government’s consultants who were appointed to audit the cost recovery for the years 1999-2017.

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