I thought is a worthwhile exercise to post and highlight some comments from the Auditor General’s Report released today on the royalty issues and the Department of Energy.
Page91: says the Department (Energy) has identified critical issues that have not been addressed publicly and they relate to higher oil and gas prices outside the range anticipated by the old royalty regimes. The Department has know for at least three years royalty revenue were not meeting government's targets. The Department, (meaning the bureaucrats) estimated that it could collect an additional $1B or more per year without stifling industry profitability. The AG notes that "...neither this information nor the reasons why changes have not taken place have been made public."
Page91: says the Department (Energy) has identified critical issues that have not been addressed publicly and they relate to higher oil and gas prices outside the range anticipated by the old royalty regimes. The Department has know for at least three years royalty revenue were not meeting government's targets. The Department, (meaning the bureaucrats) estimated that it could collect an additional $1B or more per year without stifling industry profitability. The AG notes that "...neither this information nor the reasons why changes have not taken place have been made public."
Page92: says "Readers will ask 'Why have these issues not been addressed?" The AG says those "...questions must be directed to those responsible for the royalty regimes." The AG then clarifies the point by saying "The Minister of Energy has final responsibility and is accountable for these decisions."
In those two paraphrased statements the AG has identified problem and who is to blame…various past the Minister’s of Energy! He then makes five key recommendations and they are interesting.
First the Department of Energy should clarify it royalty objectives and make them public. The current objective to "optimize Albertans' resource revenue share" is code to accept what ever we get as the target.
The Department's "technical review work" needs to be improved in terms of planning, coverage and reporting and it needs to expand the topic and issues it considers.
The Department needs to improve its annual performance measures related to the effectiveness of the royalty regime beyond the current "share the profit" measure. Again this smacks of accepting whatever shows up as royalty payments is deemed to be the target. The Department's performance measures indicated satisfactory performance of the royalty regimes FOR SEVERAL YEARS while a detailed analysis in the Department "indicated otherwise. What gives?
The Department should periodically report in greater detail on the status of the provinces' royalty regime. The AG says with better information, Albertans can ask better questions about the management of their resources.
Finally the Department needs to "improve controls for its monitoring and technical review." They need to document complex processes, reviewing and signing off key outputs and referencing final results to source documentation." This tells me the Department does not know what is actually happening in terms of records, controls and monitoring of resource revenues...and if they did they can't prove it.
Very strong parallels between the AG and the "Our Fair Share" Panel recommendations. Some past Energy Ministers have got some serious Explaining to do by the looks of it.
Communistic fools like you can say all they want about an "auditor general" who has never had to take an entrepreneurial risk in his life!!!!
ReplyDeleteSEE THE REAL WORLD -- LOOK AT WHAT IS BEING SAID BY PEOPLE WAY SMARTER AND WAY MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU!!!
Alberta royalty review ends with fallacy: bankers
01/10/07
By Scott Haggett
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - International oil producers will flee Alberta if the Western Canadian province's government implements a proposed hike to oil and natural gas royalties and taxes, an investment bank said on Monday.
Going ahead with a recommended 20 percent, or C$2 billion, hike to Alberta's take from oil and gas production in the province will actually cause government revenue to drop as production falls by half-a-million barrels a day, according to Tristone Capital Inc, an investment bank that serves the oil and gas industry.
"The C$2 billion increase per year in the government's take is an absolute fallacy," George Gosbee, Tristone's chief executive, told reporters.
Instead of an increase, government revenue would fall by about $1 billion a year if the proposals are adopted, the banker said.
"Some past Energy Ministers have got some serious Explaining to do by the looks of it."
ReplyDeletePast AND CURRENT Energy Ministers, Ken...you can't let the Stelmach government off the hook on this one.
Ken:
ReplyDeleteIn the interests of fairness, why don't you do a blog posting on the Tristone Capital report?