Civil society body asks Pres. Ali to make public particulars of tax payments for oil companies

Sep 24, 2022 News

By Davina Bagot

Kaieteur News – Civil society body, ‘Article 13’ has penned a letter to President Irfaan Ali requesting that particulars of the tax payments made by Guyana on behalf of the oil companies, be made available to the public.

Founding member of ‘Article 13’ and Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram

The letter, dated September 19, 2022, was addressed to the Head of State by the group which explained, “Your Excellency, we are sure that you will appreciate the significant public interest in this matter – and of course the completeness and accuracy of the national financial documents. The purpose of this letter therefore is to respectfully request that you authorise the Commissioner General, under the authority given to your Excellency under Section 4 of the Income Tax Act, to provide to us particulars of the payments made or provided for on behalf of the oil companies in the years 2020, 2021 and for 2022 to date.”

‘Article 13’ noted that while the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Godfrey Statia issued receipts and certificates under the said Article 15.4 and 15.5, the National Estimates and the financial statements of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) does not reflect such payments. However, the transparency advocate group made it clear that paragraph (b) of 15.4 requires that those taxes be paid out of Guyana’s share of profit oil.

To this end, the group told President Ali, “As this matter is the subject of correspondence between our civil society organisation and the Audit Office, we would appreciate your early reply.”

In a report published in Sunday edition of the Kaieteur News, ‘Article 13’ slammed the Audit Office of Guyana for non-compliance with the NRF legislation.

It was explained that the group carried out a review of the financial statements of the Natural Resource Fund for the year ended December 31, 2021 and comparative information for 2020. Part of this exercise, carried out by Professional Accountants here and abroad, included a determination of whether the NRF’s financial statements which were audited by the Audit Office of Guyana complied with the law but ‘Article 13’ said that exercise found that the AG did not conduct his audit in this fashion.

‘Article 13’ had pointed out that Guyana agreed via the 2016 Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) to pay income taxes for Exxon and its partners. Those taxes are to be paid from revenues earned for the sale of Guyana’s share of profit oil. Those deposits are made into the NRF account. The group noted that these taxes which ought to be paid over were not, yet the Auditor General in his review, gave it a clean bill of health.

The civil society body said, “…It was inappropriate and incorrect for the Auditor General to issue a clean audit opinion on the financial statements of the Fund for either or both years (2020 and 2021).”

‘Article 13’ on the foregoing grounds called on the Auditor General to withdraw his statements and re-issue his opinion on the financial statements for non-compliance with the law. “We understand that such a step, though unusual, was done by the Audit Office before and that, in any case, that it is a professional requirement where a previously issued report is subsequently found to have been inappropriately issued,” the group stated.

The Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, in responding to the criticism, said the audit was merely to examine the money that was placed in the NRF. He made it clear too that while his office is responsible for audits, it is the mandate of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to indicate whether the taxes are paid in full.

At the time, the group also expressed concern that based on information available to the public, the GRA would have issued receipts and certificates to the oil companies which show that taxes were paid on their behalf by the State. This is in spite of the fact that it did not receive such funds.

It said therefore that GRA must provide evidence to the public as the bearers of the liability for the tax payments, that it did receive such monies and that the certificates were properly issued. The civil society group noted too that GRA may correctly assert that it is prevented by the Income Tax Act from communicating the tax information of any person to any other person, except as authorised by the President, Dr. Irfaan Ali.

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