If you look at Aramco's past annual reports, General and Administrative expense in millions of SAR were as follows:
2022 22,320 up 41%
2021 15,866 up 27%
2020 12,525
My question is where is the money going? Management is certainly not paying its Expats more, and I do not even think locals have experienced raises in line with the increase in spending. Remember this is just General and Administrative expenses which is supposed to go mostly for salaries.
It goes to the corruption.
Everyone has forgotten the obvious expenses........exec & the family travels, shopping trips and don't forget the strippers, pr-------es and booze. Allah doesn't see what happens in Bahrain, Dubai, Europe and the US.
If this is what they actually claim to account for, just think of what’s not going through the books…
Worse than Operational Excellence? Now THAT is a bold claim!
Graft, corruption, waste and lack of accountability. Etc etc.
One word- graft.
Look at the actual lifting costs vs production vs reported profitability…Then compare to the supermajors, the numbers just don’t add up. The markets know this, it’s why only coerced locals invest in aramco stock. On a conservative estimate there’s a good $50bn or more being trousered by management.
D&I programs. The most non-value added program even exceeding operation excellence.
Where else did the increases go .. should be to the increased pay & benefits attributed to the re-organizations to form the separate upstream & downstream organizations! More executives: the executive vp’s became presidents/CEOs, the sr vp’s became executive vp’s, the vp’s became sr vp’s, the executive directors became vp’s, the chief’s became executive directors, the managers became chiefs, the general supervisors became managers, the supervisors became general supervisors, etc. More new business lines, departments, divisions created too!
Golf outings, probably.
It includes a few other things and certain catch-alls such as professional fees. This is likely where the corrupt outflow and backhanders is dumped.