Sixteen days after it had been revealed that the statutory period for the auditing of US$9.5b in ExxonMobil’s expenses had expired without an audit firm being hired, President Irfaan Ali yesterday said that the forensic scrutiny of this massive figure will be done.
The President’s response to Stabroek News via his spokesperson came after his government had been pilloried for allowing the two-year period to expire without the appointment of a firm.
The announcement of the lapse had been made by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on November 1st at a press conference. It was not until yesterday that both Ali and Jagdeo sought to assure that auditing will still be done. Neither of the two said whether ExxonMobil and its partners had been approached to extend the period to allow the auditing to be done.
