GPL multimillion-dollar fraud

Local law enforcement officials are aggressively pursuing the extradition of former Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Aeshwar Deonarine, in order to bring him before the Court for allegedly siphoning off millions from the utility company’s accounts as “back pay”.

Wanted former DCEO of GPL Aeshwar Deonarine

In August last year, Deonarine was sent on administrative leave after he allegedly transferred some $27.8 million to his personal account without the approval of the Board of Directors. He is also being accused of paying former board member Carvil Duncan a sum of $948,000 that was not authorised.

Following months of investigations, the two former GPL executives were slapped with conspiracy and simple larceny charges last month. However, Deonarine had left the country since August and never returned as such he was charged in his absence.

Additionally, when the matter was placed before the courts late last month, an arrest warrant was issued for the former GPL second in command.

However, Head of the Criminal Investigations Department, Wendell Blanhum, told reporters on Thursdays that efforts are afoot to have Deonarine brought back to Guyana to answer to the charges.

“We have already informed our overseas enforcement counterparts. I’m in constant communication with them and we have already expressed an interest in having him apprehended and returned to Guyana so that he can be brought to justice and face those charges,” Blanhum stated.

Asked whether the Police have the former GPL’s DCEO exact location, the Crime Chief opted not to disclose that information, saying “I wouldn’t go into those details”.

After coming into office, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) administration found that close to $142 million of the PetroCaribe Fund was plugged into the operations of the state-owned GPL. This was realised after Government said it had found an empty PetroCaribe fund when it took office and later launched an investigation.

Based on information gathered, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson had explained that the power company has two DCEOs – one for operations and the other for administration. He said apparently the operations DCEO was receiving a higher salary than the administration DCEO and the operations DCEO had been making  representations to the Board for there to be parity in the salaries of the two.

This, the Minister pointed out, was reportedly disapproved by the previous Board. In June 2015, with the signature of Director Duncan, Deonarine made the payment to himself retroactive from January 2013 to June 2015.

Patterson further stated that Board members had made several representations to have board fees increased from $5000 to $20,000. He noted while the Board had discussed the recommendation, no final decision was made in that regard. However, Duncan later went ahead and approved payment to the tune of $948,000 for himself, representing “back pay” for the 48 months that he had been a board member of GPL.