Two staff members of the sub-treasury unit at the Region One administration office at Mabaruma are in the city assisting police with investigations into an alleged multi-million dollar fraud in the region.
Stabroek News had reported recently on approximately $10M being missing after the current accounts of expenditure by the regional authorities were audited by a team from the Office of the Auditor General.
The two staff members were cited as being centrally involved in the disappearance of the sums of money, most of which was owed to businesspersons contracted by the region to supply goods and services.
One of the businesspersons declined to comment when contacted by this newspaper but it was noted that more than three persons who were contracted by the regional authorities were owed money.
One of the employees was on the job when the audit was undertaken last month while the other individual had reportedly fled to neighbouring Venezuela. This newspaper understands that the investigation into the fraud was handed over to the police and both employees were briefly arrested two weeks ago but were subsequently released on station bail. They have been reporting daily to the police headquarters at Eve Leary.
Regional Chairman Fermin Singh could not be reached for a comment yesterday but told Stabroek News earlier this month that an investigation was being carried out at the Regional Democratic Office (RDC) at Mabaruma into the alleged fraud. He could not pronounce on the findings at the time.
This newspaper understands that one of the staff members who is being questioned worked within the Sub-Treasury unit (a sub-office of the Finance Ministry) for several months. A source in the region noted that the unaccounted monies had been removed from the regional office since early this year.
To date, in excess of $10M in cheques and an undisclosed sum of cash, have been discovered missing as the current accounts of the region were being perused by the Audit Office.
In March of this year, two officers from the Matarkai sub-region Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) were summoned by the regional administration of Region One (Barima/Waini) over an investigation into allegations that a former official was advanced some $4.5 million off the books. The former official was benefiting from contracts for Region One works.
Stabroek News was told that in some cases no contracts were drawn up and it was only after the completion of the work that documents for payments would be drawn up. There was no tender process in the awarding of contracts, sources said. It is believed that the former official was asked to step down from his position because persons had started to complain about the fact that the company he was associated with was being awarded so many contracts.