(www.inewsguyana.com) – The Guyana Police Force continues their investigation following a report from the Guyana Gold Board that several staffers were suspected to be involved in gold tampering, which resulted in several persons being taken into police custody for questioning.

According to a media release from the Guyana Gold Board, the Board of Directors emphasized that the current investigation is being done on an internal basis and no licenced gold dealers of the GGB are being investigated at this time.

iNews (www.inewsguyana.com)  understands despite the reports of gold tampering, the Guyana Gold Board believes that in the last two years, there have been improvements at both the technical and policy level with the approval and implementation of upgraded standard operating procedures for the finance, audit and laboratory departments.

As such, it was reported that a number of initiatives were enforced through the Board of Directors of the GGB; with full endorsement from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. This resulted in two systems review of the general operations of the GGB by an independent external auditor. The first was done in February 2012, whilst the second was done in January and February of 2014.

Further, the Board of Directors implemented the recommendations of these systems review with the support of the Ministry of National Resources and the Environment. Some of these included the confirmation of the General Manager, the hiring of an Assistant General Manager, Assistant Account and a Legal/Compliance Officer and the establishment of a sub-committee on the sale of gold, which comprises of some of the Directors.

According to a press statement, for improved operation, the Gold Board opened its third location at Charity on December 18, 2012. This branch will be closed when the office at Port Kaituma becomes operational during the first half of 2014.

It was noted that with more office location, the various staff is being rotated between the Georgetown, Bartica and Charity Sub-Offices. Since 2012, the GGB has increased the number of licenced gold dealers to ensure that there are improved levels of gold trade both locally and internationally.

Meanwhile, on the matter of security, the GGB has upgraded its Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance system at all locations. There has also been an increased in the number of physical personnel at the various locations from both the public sector and private sector.