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FM
Former Member

Inquiry uncovers 400 phantom workers on City Hall’s payroll

– town clerk given seven days to respond

By Tiffny Rhodius

 

The Local Government and Regional Development Ministry is contemplating launching another commission of inquiry into the affairs of City Hall following a recent report which cited several irregularities at the municipality, including the discovery of some 400 phantom workers on the payroll. The report, which was prepared by Ramon Gaskin, has implicated the municipality in fraudulent activities and a blatant disregard for procedure. Gaskin was recently appointed to the Implementation Committee to find out why the recommendations of the Burrowes Report, which was released following a 2008 inquiry into the City Treasurer and Town Clerk Department, were not implemented.
Gaskin found that none of the recommendations were implemented. “I myself was totally shocked,”     head of the Implementation Committee Keith Burrowes said. Highlighting some of the irregularities, Burrowes pointed out that out of the seven trucks that were donated to the municipality by government last year, only one is working. “It led us to seeing or believing that it was deliberate to have these trucks line up, because then you had to contract other people,” Burrowes noted.
Even more shockingly, Gaskin found that many of the companies that are contracted with the municipality are dummy companies. Burrowes explained in a press briefing on the report that invoices from these dummy companies did not contain addresses and phone numbers.
Investigations found that many of the businesses were not even registered businesses.  In one instance, the engineer directed the treasurer to make out a cheque valued $8 million to a person instead of a business.
“That raised some eyebrows and we went a little further and found out that there are a number of other companies that they are using that, as far as we are concerned, are dummy companies,” Burrowes. Yet the most disturbing finding, Burrowes revealed, was that City Hall has phantom workers. According to Burrowes, of the 800 staff at City Hall, 400 are phantom workers, but he cautioned that the number may be exaggerated.
City Hall has maintained that the municipality was not overstaffed, but rather understaffed. Burrowes recommended that a mandatory photo check of all workers of the City Hall could clear up whether the municipality has phantom workers. The Gaskin Report also found that the municipality’s overdraft was somewhere in the vicinity of $50 million, and this was the major reason City Hall is unable to pay workers. Burrowes also criticised the municipality for not remitting worker’s NIS monies, and owing millions to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Gross misuse of gas and diesel and poor maintenance of computers which were donated were just some of the findings revealed by Burrowes. Gaskin’s report was presented to the town clerk of the municipality on Thursday.
“What we have seen, we have no doubt that these are the facts; however, we cannot make a firm conclusion until you give the council the right to respond,” Burrowes said.   The town clerk has until June 20 to reply to the report. According to Burrowes, City Hall has frustrated the members of the Implementation Committee from the inception which caused many of them to give up on the implementation of the recommendations.
In 2008, Burrowes led an inquiry into the offices of the town clerk and city treasury. The inquiry produced 40 recommendations Burrowes said he will not sit by and watch the hard work of the last inquiry go down the drain. According to Burrowes, City Hall had frustrated the previous team when it came to implementing the recommendations.
Burrowes also noted that the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry has some oversight over City Hall, an assertion the subject minister did not reject.
“The ministry has tolerated to some extent, we are culpable too, because we have allowed for some situations to ride for too long,” Minister Ganga Persaud said. He called the findings of the report “unfortunate” and apologised to Burrowes for not acting sooner. Persaud promised that this time, the ministry will be more proactive in its dealing with City Hall to resolve the current crisis.

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Yet Hammie cries about not enough funds being provided by central government so that the city can be maintained. Hammie's PNC did the same thing whilst in government with the public service when the employed party hacks or paid them through various state agencies.

FM

Massive fraud uncovered at M&CC- report


June 16, 2012 | By | Filed Under News 

 

-  Three top officials likely to be sacked


The Ministry of Local Government has discovered that the Mayor and City Council owes various entities over $1B. This was disclosed at a press conference on Wednesday at the Ministry of Local Government.
According to reports, the investigation was sparked by allegations against the Town Clerk and the Treasurer by the Auditor General’s office. The probe soon became more detailed.
Among the findings was the existence of “dummy companies”, ridiculously high over time claims, high debts, fuel fraud, abuse of company resources for personal use and unauthorized loans.
The probe was executed by a special team headed by Keith Burrowes and the exposures, according to him, were “most shocking.”
Burrows said that over a year ago, he and his team, after investigations, prepared a report of recommendations and handed it over to the City Council. He said that the Ministry of Local Government and the City Council then reached agreement for the 40 “key” recommendations to be implemented within the City Council system.
Burrowes said that all equipment needed to implement the recommendations was handed over to the council, including a number of computers. “From the findings of this report, not one of the recommendations was implemented.”
“We are not going to sit idly by and have the works of myself and colleges go down the drain.”
Burrowes said that Ramon Gaskin, a member of the investigative team, spent three months at the Mayor and City Council to get factual inside information.
Findings
Burrowes disclosed that the Government of Guyana, last year, handed over seven new garbage trucks to city council. However, recent checks disclosed that one of the trucks was inoperable. It had a burnt engine. So, he said, the team started to explore reasons.
He said that it was soon realized that it was a deliberate ploy to have the trucks “lined up” instead of being used so that the “other people” could be contracted; “and we are now seeing the link between some members of the council and these other persons.”
He spoke of the discovery of “what we would call dummy companies.” Burrowes said that the first step in realizing that the companies being paid large sum of monies were fake was a simple check on the invoice sheet.
He said that the invoice was lacking a phone number or location of the company. “It is unusual for a company invoice to be lacking its location and telephone number.” Further, he stated, the team took the next step–checking the telephone directory for the name of the payee companies were listed in the directory. “We then checked to see if the companies were registered, no!”
He said that what is more cause for concern is that a cheque was prepared for $8M and on the invoice it was asked for the cheque to be prepared for a Ms. V. McDonald. “That raised some eyebrows because if a payment is being prepared for works done by a company then the cheque should be made payable to the company not an individual.”
Burrowes said that the City Council has 800 members of staff. “Now if all those people are working, the city should be cleaner.”
The head of the investigative team said that the findings of the probe suggested that there are also numerous “dummy employees.” He said that for that particular situation, he is calling for a somewhat costly exercise that will avoid situations like this.
Burrows asked that all employees of the Mayor and City Council be photographed and documented for reference. “We can know for sure that he is a real man, he is alive and he is working with the company…and I recommend that exercise to be mandatory.”
The overtime at M&CC, he said, is appalling “… I think that is the only place where the overtime is rivaling the overall employment cost.”
He cited one case of a senior officer having a driver at his disposal for 17 hours on consecutive Sundays. “It is unbelievable. The driver should be going to a union, if he has to work 17 hours in one day.”
The probe also examined the issuing of gasoline. The findings show the issuing of gasoline and diesel to be unbelievably high. Burrowes said that it means, therefore, fuel not only goes to the official’s vehicles. “It has to be going somewhere else.”
Burrows added that the system is so set that M&CC is supposed to consult with the Ministry of Local Government before applying for a loan. However, the council was loaned $49.999M without the Ministry’s approval.
M&CC is now repaying $750,000 a month or some $9M a year. He said that that money will now have to be taken from another account. “They should be negotiating with the bank on this but nobody is looking at those things, said Burrows.”
Commenting on another finding, the “scrap metal issue”, Burrowes said that “they” rented the incinerator, Old Smokey, for storing scrap metal. They used the name “Wood Crop Scrap Metal…We looked for the registration of such a company and found none.”
“Now these scrap metals are being exported…We don’t know if Wood Crop Scrap Metal is made up of City Council Employees.”
Further, the council is highly indebted to the Guyana Revenue Authority. “They don’t pay NIS so if the workers get sick and go to NIS no benefit would be given”.
Burrowes said that there are still businesses that are paying residential rates and taxes. He said that such taxes payable to the council are 40 per cent as opposed to 400 per cent for a business “…But again they hadn’t found the interest to check those things out.”
Norman Whittaker, Minister within the Ministry of Local Government informed that M&CC owes GPL $882M. He said that GPL is now threatening to halt its street lights supply.
What is interesting, he said, is that there are “persons and businesses out there that are indebted to the tune of approximately $12B…but there is no interest shown by the council to collect those monies- a lot of which is owed by commercial businesses.”
Whittaker said that M&CC abuses the resources. “They run them down and instead of paying $5 to fix them they rent one for $50.”
Minister of Local Government, Ganga Persaud, said that his Ministry has allowed some situations to ride for too long but the delayed actions have come to an end.
“We have no doubt that these are the facts. However, a firm conclusion cannot be made until the council is given the opportunity to respond,” Burrowes said.
He said that in the event that the finds are verified, three top officials whom he referred to as “the Mafia” will be sacked.
This newspaper has learnt that the Town Clerk has been given one week to prepare a response to the findings of the report.

FM

I don't understand your point here Albert.  The Central Govt has the institutions.  What is the Auditor General's role here in ensuring such institutions are under control.  When there is a lose control environment, unscrupulous people will take advantage.  Is this a distraction for other issues?  I wonder sometimes if the Govt allow things to run amok and pull them out at their convenience to cloud other issues.

 

As I said, I don't blame the Govt that some people are corrupt, but where are the control institutions.

FM
Originally Posted by Conscience:

Yet Hammie cries about not enough funds being provided by central government so that the city can be maintained. Hammie's PNC did the same thing whilst in government with the public service when the employed party hacks or paid them through various state agencies.

The buck stop with the PPP..who runs the central government? Who is responsible for the accounting? Who is responsible for local election not being held for the past 17 plus years? The people voted for PPP not the PNC to ensure they receive the quality and resonable service for their tax dollars.  So you just shooting yuhself in the kakahole trying to pin this on the PNC.....   

sachin_05

It is all fine and dandy for voices from the third force to scream about the misdeeds of the PPP but never for the real monster, the PNC. How can the Guyanese people put their trust in a third force that refuses to tackle the real monster and whose interests goes no further than to replace the PPP?  Here is a perfect example of thievery by a city government headed and dominated by people from the PNC yet the AFC chose to blame the PPP. It's like some ghetto politician trying to blame crime in the hood on society and the system. The real perpetrators are automatically acquitted and the government must take the blame.

 

Billy Ram Balgobin
Originally Posted by Billy Ram Balgobin:

It is all fine and dandy for voices from the third force to scream about the misdeeds of the PPP but never for the real monster, the PNC. How can the Guyanese people put their trust in a third force that refuses to tackle the real monster and whose interests goes no further than to replace the PPP?  Here is a perfect example of thievery by a city government headed and dominated by people from the PNC yet the AFC chose to blame the PPP. It's like some ghetto politician trying to blame crime in the hood on society and the system. The real perpetrators are automatically acquitted and the government must take the blame.

 

It' not about the third or second force, it the first force which, for 20 years, have held executive and majority power.  Regardless whose supporters hold control of various institutions, the central has the right and obligation to ensure clean and responsible governance.  Now, back to the original question, why hasn't the "first" force exercise it's obligatory right to ensure the resources of the people are safeguarded.  What is the purpose of an auditor general's office.

FM

Baseman,

 

I hold the PPP also responsible to some degree. I say this because the PNC is still a powerful force in the country and any serious attempt to wipe out corruption in the police, judiciary, Georgetown City Council, or anywhere else they have nested themselves in can lead to serious repercussions. This does not mean that we should forever tolerate eye-pass. The PPP ought to have done something over the last 20 years to reduce the corruptive powers of the old regime in these institutions. I can't give them a passing grade in this area.

 

The AFC claims to be different from both dinosaurs but a careful examination of this new party reveals that they are on a path that goes contrary to their promises. They are conniving with PNC in an attempt to shut down the government and ultimately destroy the PPP regime. Who benefits if they succeed?? I don't need to say the obvious.

 

Billy Ram Balgobin

How come has Green and gang been in power at the city level for so long without elections being called. I don't think there was an election during the period that Jagdeo was President when Green and gang could have been defeated.  And it now continues because if an election is called today Green and Gang will win by about 90 percent because a vote for them is now a vote against the PPP. 

 

Some of these Jagdeo PPP propaganda people such as Demerara Guy and a certain GINA big fish are big silent supporters of Green and gang.  Then who is to blame. 

Prashad
Last edited by Prashad

Prashad,

 

I recall vaguely that an election was held for the mayorship of GT and of the three parties that contested which included the PPP, none won an absolute majority.  It was then agreed that the mayorship's term will be shared between the parties.  However, when came the PPP's turn to govern the PNC and the GGG, headed by H.Green banded together and denied the ruling party from running City Council. 

The PNC and the AFC are quite happy with a PNC goon running Georgetown. They don't have a problem with that despite what some of Indos from the AFC are saying on this forum. IT's purely superficial and meant only to whip up criticism of the PPP by its Indian based support. 

 

 

Billy Ram Balgobin
Originally Posted by Billy Ram Balgobin:

Prashad,

 

I recall vaguely that an election was held for the mayorship of GT and of the three parties that contested which included the PPP, none won an absolute majority.  It was then agreed that the mayorship's term will be shared between the parties.  However, when came the PPP's turn to govern the PNC and the GGG, headed by H.Green banded together and denied the ruling party from running City Council. 

The PNC and the AFC are quite happy with a PNC goon running Georgetown. They don't have a problem with that despite what some of Indos from the AFC are saying on this forum. IT's purely superficial and meant only to whip up criticism of the PPP by its Indian based support. 

 

 

Baseman also want to see more criticism directed towards the PNC.  The PNC is an equal and, to some extent, a greater enemy to a vast majority than the PPP.

FM

Prashad you blaming Jagdeo and Donald but it seem like you forget who brought the guy back when Hoyte had him on the ropes.  So don't blame Jagdeo and Donald but instead the person who you follow.

FM

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