By LCN Business Desk
Auditor General Deodat Sharma said he will resubmit a proposal to the Public Service Commission to establish a specialised Oil and Gas Division within the Audit Office, Kaieteur News reported, speaking after submitting his 22nd annual report on the public accounts. The word is resubmit: a proposal made before did not result in the division.
The office already audits the bodies that sit around the sector. Sharma named the Natural Resource Fund, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, and said a dedicated unit is required for the technical complexity of the sector itself.
What has the office had to keep pace with?
A budget that has grown by three quarters in five years. The scrutiny has to cover the same ground whatever the number, and the number has moved a long way.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| National budget, 2021 | G$883.1 billion |
| National budget, 2026 | G$1.558 trillion |
| Growth across the period | About 76 per cent |
| Consecutive years the 30 September deadline was met | 15 |
| Performance audits under the current tenure | 19 |
The office has met the statutory 30 September date for fifteen consecutive years, and why that is structural rather than diligent was set out here in Santo Domingo Will Publish Four Years of Audits. What has changed since that piece is the scale on the other side of the ledger, and what the office says it now needs to meet it.
What is the office building?
Engineering capacity, which it did get. Engineers in the Works and Structures Division have completed Project Management Professional training to evaluate contract delivery, resource allocation and contractor performance, and the Public Service Commission has approved three additional engineer positions. The contrast with the petroleum unit is the point: one request produced posts, the other is being made again.
Thirty-one senior managers, supervisors and auditors completed a review of Central Government audit planning, 24 audit clerks received technical training, and three officers took Information Systems Audits and Digital Public Infrastructure training in India under the ITEC programme.
How new is the real-time shift?
Less new than Friday makes it sound. The office is moving toward real-time auditing of state disbursements, including public assistance cash grants and pension payments, so irregularities are caught as they occur rather than only in a post-payment review. An overpayment found after the money has gone has to be recovered; one stopped at the point of payment does not.
The direction was set out ten months earlier. INews Guyana reported in November 2025 that the state had moved to address audit issues as they are detected rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year, and that from 2022 onwards overpayments detected during audits were fully recovered before the audit report was finalised. Friday's statement that all overpayments have been recovered or worked off continues that, rather than announcing it.
What did the office submit alongside the main report?
A performance audit of the Solar Home Energy Program in hinterland and riverine communities, the 19th performance audit of the current tenure. That programme sits inside a larger question this newspaper has costed: a rooftop system for every household was put at between US$486 million and US$1.27 billion against a gas programme costing at least US$1 billion, in A Rooftop System for Every Guyanese Household, and the published cost of each solar farm sits beside an unpublished figure for the power plant, in Guyana Publishes What Each Solar Farm Costs.
How does the international scorecard read?
Fairly low, and the data is four years old. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the international standard for reporting what a country earns from its resources, rates Guyana at a validation status of "Fairly low". Its latest validation was in 2022 and its latest published data is from 2022, while the EITI's own country note records that oil and gas went from 17.02 per cent of GDP in 2020 to 34.9 per cent in 2021.
| Country | EITI status | Joined | Latest validation | Latest data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinidad and Tobago | High | 1 March 2011 | 2023 | 2022 |
| Suriname | Fairly low | 24 May 2017 | 2024 | 2024 |
| Guyana | Fairly low | 25 October 2017 | 2022 | 2022 |
The row to read across is Suriname. The two countries joined within five months of each other and both sit at the same status, but Suriname has been validated in 2024 on 2024 data while Guyana's validation and data both stop at 2022. Trinidad and Tobago, a producer since long before either, is rated High.
Validation is not an audit and the two bodies are separate. But they are measuring adjacent things, and they point the same way: an office that says it needs a petroleum unit it does not have, and an international standard whose most recent picture of the sector is four years out of date.
What is under examination now?
Special forensic investigations at the Guyana Revenue Authority and at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, both concerning vouchers. The office is also monitoring the Gas-to-Energy project, the Bellevue pump station and the Region One wharf, though Sharma said specific findings stay confidential until the report is laid before the National Assembly.
That last point is the one to hold. The report exists and has been submitted; it becomes public record only when it is laid on the table of the Assembly, and the office's own reports index carries the series once published. The Auditor General is also the sole external financial check on the Guyana Development Bank, which opens on 5 October, a gap examined in Most of What the Opposition Wants Changed at the Development Bank.
What the title card shows
- Fairly low: the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative's validation status for Guyana, with its latest validation and latest data both from 2022. Source: EITI country page.
- No oil and gas division: the Audit Office has none, and the Auditor General said he will resubmit a proposal to create one. Source: Kaieteur News.
- Three bodies: the Natural Resource Fund, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, which the office already audits. Source: Kaieteur News.
- G$883.1 billion to G$1.558 trillion: the national budget in 2021 and in 2026, a rise of about 76 per cent. Source: Kaieteur News.
- 19: performance audits conducted under the current tenure, the latest on the Solar Home Energy Program. Source: Kaieteur News.
- Three engineers: additional posts approved by the Public Service Commission for the Works and Structures Division. Source: Kaieteur News.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have the overpayments been recovered?
Auditor General Deodat Sharma said all overpayments identified in previous audit cycles have been recovered, or the contractors have since carried out the work they were paid for. INews Guyana reported in November 2025 that overpayments detected during audits from 2022 onwards were fully recovered before the audit report was finalised.
When does the report become public?
When it is laid on the table of the National Assembly. Until then specific findings remain confidential, including those on the Gas-to-Energy project, the Bellevue pump station and the Region One wharf.
What is real-time auditing?
Examining state disbursements as they are made rather than only reviewing them afterwards, so an irregularity can be caught at the point of payment. The office is moving toward it for disbursements including public assistance cash grants and pension payments.
Does the Audit Office audit the oil sector?
It audits the Natural Resource Fund, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission. Sharma said he will resubmit a proposal for a specialised Oil and Gas Division to handle the sector's technical complexity.