By Jomo Paul

Aerswar Deonarine and Carvil Duncan

[www.inewsguyana.com] –

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) Aerswar Deonarine, along with a Director of the company, Carvil Duncan have found themselves in some amount of trouble over the unapproved transfer of close to $30M to their personal bank accounts from the PetroCaribe fund.

The revelation was made by Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson who told reporters on Wednesday July 22, that the transactions came to light as a result of an on-going fiscal audit of the PetroCaribe fund.

The Minister revealed that in May and June of 2015, acting with Duncan, Deonarine would have transferred $27.8M to his own account which was supposed to be retroactive payments for salary increases.

Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson

However, the Board of Directors for GPL did not approve the salary increase for Deonarine who would have approached the Board several times for his salary to be increased to the same as another Deputy CEO of GPL.

Patterson revealed that Deonarine has been asked to proceed on administrative leave pending a full investigation.

As it relates to Duncan, it was revealed that in addition to the monies for Deonarine, he also approved payment of $948,000 to his own account – this was also for retroactive salary payments.

Patterson explained that Duncan would have been approached for an explanation into the expenditure but could not provide a transparent one. According to Patterson, the GPL Director fingered both Former President Donald Ramotar and Former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds as having approved the transfers.

But Patterson told reporters that the Prime Minister has since denied any involvement in the issue. However moving forward, Patterson revealed that the government would be seeking the aid of the Guyana Police Force in the matter since the transfer of these monies constitutes a criminal act.