The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has unearthed a fraud in the personnel division at its Head Office operations at Ogle and has called in the police to investigate.
Officials at the Corporation were reluctant to divulge information yesterday when contacted by Stabroek News, but a terse statement subsequently came from GuySuCo which said the police were called in to investigate irregularities in the division. “The irregularities were detected internally and promptly reported to management. The police were immediately alerted and are currently conducting their investigations,” the statement from the corporation said.
Public Relations Officer at GuySuCo, Romel Roopnarine, when contacted earlier in the day, declined to comment save to say that an investigation was underway at the office. He said too that more details would be forthcoming when the police wrapped up their investigations.
Stabroek News was told that a clerk at the Corporation has been fingered in a massive fraud involving the sugar corporation’s leave package allowance. It is unclear how much money has been siphoned off from the corporation—GuySuCo’s statement did not mention any figures.
Reports reaching this newspaper indicate that the fraud was detected internally after changes were made to the corporation’s system sometime ago. The individual fingered in the fraud was apparently being watched for a short while and when GuySuCo felt it had enough information to call in the police, they did.
An employee at the corporation disclosed that a trend was developing where the finances are concerned, since the numbers “weren’t adding up”.
GuySuCo has been cash-strapped and was rescued by the administration back in February this year with a $1 Billion bailout to service its debts and cover expenses. Production has been low in the industry, particularly last year when the numbers dipped below 230,000 tonnes.
