— to handle oil revenues, GCCI president urges

PRESIDENT of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Deodat Indar, has urged the Audit Office of Guyana to strengthen its capacity as it prepares for oil and gas revenues in 2020.
Indar’s message was conveyed to employees of the Audit Office and other officials of the finance sector during the closing ceremony of a technical cooperative workshop at the Marriott Hotel on Thursday.
The GCCI president explained the importance of a strong and independent audit office, noting that its work cannot be understated because the revenues of the country will grow with the advent of the oil revenue.
“We should make sure it is strong and fully equipped with all the resources to complete their mandate,” he said.
According to recent reports, assuming a minimum of 800 million barrels of oil are produced at a rate of US$50 as Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman had indicated, it means that US$40 billion will be generated from this production.
The report went on to state that should ExxonMobil (oil exploration company) benefit from a cost recovery of US$5B and the remainder divided 50/50 (between Guyana and the company), it means that Guyana could receive US$17.5B in oil revenues.
Country representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Sophie Makonnen, said Guyana needs transparency and accountability now more than ever.
She emphasised the need for the auditing processes of the Audit Office to be enhanced in order to improve public accountability.
The IDB, over the past 15 years, has funded technical training for the Audit office.
Through the training, the Audit Office has been able to use applied information technology for audit processes with special emphasis on reducing document retrieval time and so forth.