Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram has cited evidence that the then APNU+AFC government effected change to the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) it signed with Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), Hess and CNOOC. Ram presented his evidence in his column published in today’s Stabroek News.
While the original document stated that royalty was recoverable, Ram noted that in April 2019, a Deed of Amendments, signed by the then President, David Granger, amended Section 3.3 of Annex C – Accounting Procedure, to provide expressly that royalty paid by the Contractor under the Agreement would not be recoverable.
Just recently, during his appearance on the Glenn Lall Show, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo said definitively that royalty, which is the 2 per cent off the top payment to Guyana, is not a recoverable expense.
In his column, Ram said, “Those who had argued that royalty was not a recoverable expense must have known of the renegotiation of this provision but never thought it necessary to share that information.”
Ram calls on the PPP/C government to “take the example of the APNU+AFC and demand renegotiation.” Interestingly, the APNU+AFC itself was loud about the sanctity of the contract citing that as the main reason it could not correct any of the atrocities in the contract. Not even the APNU+AFC admitted that it was able to effect change.
