Guyanese lawyer Christopher Ram (left) and Guyanese Attorney General Anil Nandlall (right). Photo: Alba Ciudad.
The vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, has made reports of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana’s continued violations of international law and the Geneva Agreement in favor of the transnational oil company ExxonMobil in regards to the Essequibo territorial dispute, stating that new irregularities are being unveiled on the submissive nature of the Guyanese government towards the US oil corporation.
“More irregularities continue to come to light regarding the ‘business’ relationship between Guyana and ExxonMobil,” Rodríguez reported via social media this Wednesday, January 3. “The Guyanese lawyer, Christopher Ram, condemned, in one of his most recent columns for Stabroek News, the fact that the Natural Resources Fund (NRF), intended for the payment of taxes, holds $276 billion that should have been transferred to the Revenue Authority of Guyana (GRA), as established in the agreement signed with those oil companies that work illegally in the waters set to be delimited.”
The vice president also shared a note in the Guyanese Kaieteur News outlet on this subject, explaining that chartered accountant and lawyer, Christopher Ram, along with Guyana’s Attorney General and minister for legal affairs, Anil Nandlall, have been immersed in a debate over the use of funds from Guyana’s Natural Resources Fund (NRF) to address tax obligations incurred by ExxonMobil and its partners in the Stabroek Block oil region.
Más irregularidades siguen saliendo a la luz acerca de la relación de “Negocios” entre Guyana y la Exxon Mobil. El abogado, Christopher Ram denunció en una de sus columnas más recientes en Stabroek News, que el Fondo de Recursos Naturales (NRF), destinado para el pago de…
— Delcy Rodríguez (@delcyrodriguezv) January 4, 2024
The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that governs the deepwater block obliges Guyanese authorities to finance the companies’ tax payments using oil revenues kept in the NRF. The reports of irregularities arise from the fact that the NRF has not been paid on time for those tax obligations to the GRA.
Through a report made in the Guyanese news outlet Stabroek News, Ram highlighted the discovery in the NRF accounts that it currently holds $276 billion (Guyanese dollars), approximately US$1.4 billion, that should have been transferred to the GRA based on the provisions of the PSA. The lawyer urged the relevant authorities to investigate and clarify this large figure in the NRF account.
Through another recent letter published in Stabroek News, Ram also accused Guyanese President Irfaan Ali’s government of being as complicit as its predecessors in allowing ExxonMobil, which “keeps unreliable accounting,” to dictate his orders and withhold all the Stabroek Block for longer than agreed.
The three main oil companies operating in Guyana keep 87.5% of the barrels of the oil produced to themselves, leaving Guyana with just 12.5% of the resources from their own territories, all the while paying only 2% of royalties and avoiding any other tax. They also manage their own accounting, notoriously unreliably, and are deliberately opaque when publishing supposedly timely data on the oil production that they extract from the marine subsoil of the Venezuelan Essequibo, located in offshore territory currently held by Guyana.
Venezuela on Alert Against UK & Guyana’s Provocations Over Essequibo
The debate
Telesur has reported that Guyanese Attorney General Anil Nandlall has responded to Ram’s claims by pointing out that the NRF law does not allow transfers to GRA but only to the consolidated fund. Any unauthorized withdrawal allegedly constitutes an offense, according to the Guyanese official.
Additionally, Nandlall argued that the NRF Act’s supremacy provision prevails in case of inconsistency with other laws. However, Ram expressed his disagreement with the Attorney General in a counter reply to Nandlall’s statement, citing a past case in which Nandlall himself said that laws are not always supreme to contracts.
Ram challenged Nandlall to provide evidence of tax payments made by the oil companies, requesting GRA-issued tax certificates and the source of funds used. He also inquired about any other documents confirming tax payments on behalf of transnational oil corporations.
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
