The Registrar of the Friendly Societies has appointed an investigator to probe the entire operations of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) after meeting the executives on Tuesday afternoon.
This new development comes after the society had earlier disclosed that there were “concerns” raised by its accounting specialists about the audited financial reports and annual returns of the GCB.
When Stabroek Sport called president of the Board Chetram Singh yesterday he was tightlipped on what transpired at the meeting, declaring that he would not be saying anything on the matter.
Singh advised that the newspaper contact the Registrar of the Friendly Societies but these efforts were futile.
Meantime, a source said that at the meeting, which ran for almost two hours, it was noted that the investigation will not be limited to who signs cheques and who approves expenditures. These will fall under the ambit of the investigator since some executives at the meeting complained that many times they were not aware of how and when monies were allocated for various projects.
Further, Stabroek Sport learnt that there will be a detailed assessment by the investigator of the report on the two hostels that was submitted by Design and Construction Services Limited (DCSL). DCSL was unable to provide a comprehensive audit on the construction of the two GCB hostels at LBI and Anna Regina due to the “inconsistent and conflicting” information provided by the Board. In some instances, the company had written in its findings that pertinent information that was required was not provided by the GCB. The report, which was seen by Stabroek Sport, indicated that since no record of payments was provided for the LBI training facility and hostel, DCSL could not have commented on actual payments made to the contractor, Shivnauth Construction Services.
In the case of the Anna Regina facility, the report had concluded that it could not state whether it was worth the money spent on it. The state of the hostels was the subject of a fierce dispute between two factions of the board and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony subsequently ordered an audit.
The appointed official of the Registrar also had some concerns with the audit of the Board’s finances. According to the source the firm only did a sample audit and submitted same to the Registrar, prompting another source to say that the company “only skimmed the surface”.
After a more comprehensive audit was conducted by the Registrar it was concluded that further investigations will have to be done. This according to the source will take another two weeks but if all parties cooperate, they were told by the investigator, the process would take a shorter time.
The source also noted yesterday that it could not be understood by some of the executives why “so much secrecy is surrounding this process”. In this light the source indicated that it is not yet known when the GCB elections, originally set for January 30, would be held.
