January 27, 2017 Source

A forensic audit of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) board has uncovered several financial irregularities, including officials in unauthorised foreign currency trade using the PetroCaribe fund, according to Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, who says the report has been submitted to Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud for further investigation and action.

Trotman told a post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday that the GRDB audit was one of three presented by Minister of Finance Winston Jordan at this week’s Cabinet meeting. The other two were audits of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA).  He noted that having perused the reports, Cabinet found in all cases issues that warranted further investigation into financial irregularities.

Consequently, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson was asked to follow up on the findings of the GPL audit, while Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan was asked to forward the GEA and GRDB reports to Persaud for further investigations.

In the case of GRDB, Minister within the Ministry of Finance Jaipaul Sharma has already delivered the report to the police due to the magnitude of the issues uncovered.

A report from the Government Information Agency (GINA) stated that Sharma had turned the report over to Persaud at his office yesterday in the presence of Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), Assistant Commissioner Sydney James.

Ordered by the government in June of 2015 and conducted by the auditing firm of Nigel Hinds and Associates, the audit reportedly revealed that $100M was allegedly loaned to the Rice Producers’ Association General Secretary Dharamkumar Seeraj reportedly to pay rice farmers who had supplied paddy but were owed by the previous administration.

The GINA report said that “the loan agreement featured the signatures of former Minister of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and was reportedly approved by former GRDB General Manager Jagnarine Singh.”

Sharma is reported as describing the loan, which remains outstanding, as “ad hoc” and signed with the understanding that the loan would have been repaid in October 2014.

Trotman, however, explained yesterday that there was no “paper or traceable signs that these loans were approved by a board or whether there were any promissory notes accompanying them.”

Additionally, he said that officials at the GRDB appear to have over a period of three to four years used the PetroCaribe fund in a lucrative foreign currency trade. “Over a period of three to four years, this agency had over US$500M passing through it in the form of the PetroCaribe fund. There were instances where persons within the agency used money to do trade in foreign currency. If you’re talking about half a billion US dollars, you could imagine if you are selling at a rate that is two or three dollars above that, which you are declaring it to be, and having access to those two or three dollars. The multiplying effect over several million should give you an idea,” he said, before adding that, “There were several instances like this which stood out and which cried out for attention.”

Asked if government would be removing any officials from their posts while the police force conducts its investigation Trotman said that in Guyana there is presumption of innocence, in keeping with both natural and constitutional law.

He added that “if at the level of the police force there is a belief that charges can be laid, then at that stage something is expected,” before noting that at the GRDB a number of persons resigned when the government changed in 2015, so issues of them being sent on leave may not arise.

Asked when the police investigation into this issue would be concluded, Trotman acknowledged that the force is overburdened with the reports sent to it. He noted that government has recognised the need to offer more support either through budgetary support to police to hire more detectives or by retaining private entities to assist to conduct investigations or collate data since a lot of reports which suggest criminality have been submitted to the force and SOCU.