GuyOil and Ed. Ministry staffers implicated in fuel theft – PAC
Mar 15, 2022 -- Source -- Kaieteur News Online -- https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...d-in-fuel-theft-pac/
Review of 2017 audit report findings…
Kaieteur News – Under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government, staffers from the Ministry of Education and the Demerara Ice Factory found themselves in hot water over the sale of stolen fuel.
The situation, which occurred in December 2017, was brought up for discussion before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday.
According to the report, the fuel was uplifted on 30 instances. As a result, on average, in excess of one ‘45 gallon’ drum was uplifted on each occasion. Based on the report, six vehicles not registered as property of the Ministry were used to uplift 4,351 litres of diesel valued $788,773 from the Guyana Oil Company’s (GuyOil) Regent Street location.
A police investigation later found that hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen fuel from the Ministry of Education (MoE) was reportedly sold to the Demerara Ice Factory, allegedly with the full knowledge of the company’s manager at the time.
The full police report was laid over to the PAC after Minister of Public Works and PAC member, Juan Edghill, sought answers from the Ministry on new systems to prevent a recurrence.
“What I would like to know is if the police investigations were completed, what were the findings… and how many persons were charged?” Edghill queried. In response, it was noted that at least two persons from each agency were held culpable for the act.
Permanent Secretary of the MoE, Alfred King told the committee that he could only say that the police were called in and the investigation was out of the hands of the Ministry. He said, too, that he could not say what the recommendations of the MoE are to prevent situations like this since he was not the PS at the time.
According to the AG report, the Ministry wrote the police in January 2017 to investigate the matter of fuel. The Ministry also sent a follow-up letter to the police in February 2018, seeking a status update of the investigation.
Based on the response, it was revealed that Mark Samuels, a driver who was attached to the Ministry at the time, had collected the fuel in pails and used his father’s vehicle to transport it. His father reportedly worked at the ice factory.
The fuel was reportedly purchased by the company’s general manager. The company official later denied the accusations in the police report.
However, both Samuels and the general manager were charged in December 2018 with fraudulently obtaining a little over $1 million in diesel from GuyOil.
The Ministry acknowledged the finding and stated that the matter was being investigated by the Police Force.
The Audit Office had recommended that the Ministry follow-up with the police to expedite the investigation.