I refer to Mr. Joel Bhagwandin’s letter in SN dated June 14, 2024 submitted in response to my letter dated June 12, 2024 on the shortage of royalty paid by EMGL. Mr. Bhagwandin claims, among other unrelated issues, that the shortage observed in royalty was associated with the following: ’(I) royalties …(being) deposited every quarter into the NRF at the prevailing market price for crude oil, (ii) the financial statement is prepared based on the average price for the reporting period, (iii) there would be marginal variances in the exchange rate used for the conversion into the local currency by the oil companies in their financial reporting versus the exchange rate used by the Bank of Guyana for the conversion as per the NRF annual reports, and (iv) there is a timing difference based (accrual accounting) on when the royalty payments are made as explained hereunder.’.
Editor, these indicators raised by Mr. Bhagwandin are irrelevant, since they were not identified and explained by a note in the published EMGL Financial Statement. In contrast, what is relevant and most important for the Guyanese people is a report showing the data that can complete the Table below. In particular, the relevant information is as follows: the dates of the transactions; No. of barrels of oil extracted; No. of Barrels of oil (Q) sold; the selling price (P) per barrel of oil; Total Revenue (TR) earned in US dollars; the 2% royalty paid in US dollars; the foreign exchange rate on the date of the transaction; the Total Revenue and Royalty in Guyana dollars.
The last row in Table 1 must have relevant cumulative totals and average rates where applicable.
Editor, if Mr. Bhagwandin wishes to be taken seriously and would like to have a credible exchange of ideas grounded in the evidence, he should complete Table 1 so that the Guyanese people would not be taken off track with the usual ‘red herring’ offered by Mr. Bhagwandin.
Sincerely,
Dr. C. Kenrick Hunte
Professor and Former Ambassador
