Auditor General’s office building capacity in oil & gas sector

The Audit Office of Guyana (AOG) is currently building capacity in a number of new areas, including the oil and gas sector, and is looking to increase its trained staff to adequately scrutinise the burgeoning industry.

The Auditor General’s office is responsible for conducting annual audits of public accounts, financial transactions or operations and financial statements. To this end, several AOG officers have been undergoing various training programmes around the world to strengthen their competence in the oil and gas sector.
Lamenting that his office does not have adequate staff to carry out its mandate, Auditor General Deodat Sharma on Thursday disclosed that there is a need to increase the complement of oil experts in his office.
“I’m now building the oil and gas sector section. That’s an area that I sent to the Public Accounts Committee, and I was sent back [by] the Public Accounts Committee to increase the numbers there. That’s a new area that we are looking at,” Sharma said as he handed over the 2024 Auditor General Report on Thursday.
According to the Auditor General, there are currently three or four officers who are equipped to tackle the oil and gas sector, but this number needs to be doubled.
“The last Public Accounts Committee made me understand that’s what I need now, although it was rejected. It was about eight or nine members that I wanted into that section, so that will go to the new Public Accounts Committee [for approval],” he noted.
Meanwhile, to build its capacity in the oil and gas industry, the AOG participated in a workshop on Auditing the Extractive Industries – Oil and Gas for Members of Parliament and Officers of the Audit Office that was hosted by the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (CAAF), which had a seven-year partnership with the local audit office that has since expired.
That workshop was facilitated by former Canadian Members of Parliament (MPs) and officers from two Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) within the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E), that is, Uganda and Rwanda, which are both members of the Working Group on Audit of Extractive Industries (WEGI).
Following this workshop, Guyana was accepted into WEGI membership, thus allowing the country to attend the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI’s) Meeting of the Working Group in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Additionally, through the sponsorship of CAAF, two AOG officers also attended “Introduction to Environmental Auditing” at the International Centre for Environmental Audit and Sustainable Development (iCED) in Jaipur, India.
Further strengthening the Audit Office’s competence in the oil and gas sector, three officers attended crude oil training which was facilitated by the Ministry of Natural Resources, focusing on marketing terminology and sovereign hedging programmes.
<<< Cost oil audits >>>
Over the years, the Guyana Government has been outsourcing experts, both local and overseas, to audit the expenses of ExxonMobil, the US-based company that is conducting oil production operations offshore.
Thus far, three cost oil audits have been conducted. In 2019, British firm IHS Markit conducted an audit of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited’s (EMGL) cost oil expenses incurred between 1999 and 2017 from its operations in Guyana and flagged US$214.4 million as questionable costs.
Since then, however, private local firms have taken over the cost of oil audits, conducting two more oil audits of Exxon’s expenses in Guyana. In the second audit, done by a consortium of local and international firms, including VHE Consulting, for the period 2018 to 2020, Exxon has responded to the audit findings. Moreover, VHE Consulting also won the contract to conduct the third cost oil audit for 2021 to 2023.
These hired firms were expected to work along with the Audit Office, training officers there on how they conduct their work and compile their reports. But according to AG Sharma, this is yet to be done.
“The three audits that were presently done were conceptualised so that eventually the Audit Office should be able to take them over. Unfortunately, I have not seen any of those reports to date, so I’m still awaiting the final report. [But] the Guyana Revenue Authority, they are actually doing some aspect of [the auditing of the oil and gas sector], which I audit.”
“But the actual auditing, in terms of the oil and gas sector, I cannot audit what is happening out there [offshore]. It would involve legal people, many, many engineers… So, what I will do is audit the sectors that are responsible to monitor what is happening out there, like the Guyana Revenue Authority – presently, I’m auditing that… The other sectors, such as the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), are the areas that I’m going to be auditing for their responsibility, and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency),” AG Sharma explained.
Only earlier this year, Guyana’s growing capacity to perform its own cost oil audits, and audits in other extractive sectors, was recognised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), though they also noted that more work is needed to ensure audit reports are published in a timely manner.
Following the 2025 Article IV Consultation with Guyana, the IMF back in March made note of Guyana’s continued implementation of reforms. As a matter of fact, they pointed out that these reforms will further strengthen fiscal transparency and anti-corruption frameworks, including in extractive industries.
“Internal audit capabilities are expanding, and more effort is needed to ensure a timely publication of audit reports of some public companies and local authorities. In line with the recommendations of the MESICIC 2024 report, work is ongoing in multiple areas to strengthen anti-corruption efforts,” the IMF had noted.