Prominent chartered accounting firm Ram & McRae has been selected to carry out the audit into the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) credit union.
The request for the audit was made by the union’s Committee of Management to the Ministry of Labour in the wake of allegations of impropriety in the acquisition of vehicles. “Yes, we have been asked to do the audit,” Ram told this newspaper last night.
Chief Cooperatives Develop-ment Officer Kareem Abdul Jabar told Stabroek News that it was the Committee of Management that approached his office requesting the audit and he said that he gave his no objection although he is still on leave. Jabar also confirmed that another audit with a different scope is presently ongoing.
He did not go into details of the ongoing audit but said that the new audit that was announced has a specific mandate.
An official of the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League (GCCUL) said that two persons had originally been identified to carry out the audit of the GDF credit union. The source at the GCCUL said that Jabar’s office in the Ministry of Labour also has a panel of auditors from which the auditor is selected. It is however possible to select someone from outside of this panel if the nature of the audit demands it, such as in the case of a forensic audit.
Jabar ordered an external audit into the operations of the Guyana Defence Force’s Credit Union following reports of breaches of credit union rules for the acquisition of vehicles.
The Guyana Defence Force said that the audit of the 2400-member GDF credit union will be wide and encompassing. The current Secretary Manager and a past Secretary Manager have been sent on administrative leave to facilitate the audit.
In March of 2012 Jabar had told Stabroek Business that he intended to proceed with an exercise aimed at regularizing the operations of the GDF Credit Union following a letter sent to him by registered members expressing concern over the functioning of the credit union.
Jabar’s announcement in March that he would be engaging the GDF Credit Union came in the wake of a media release issued by the GCCUL and signed by its Public Relations Officer, Derrick Cummings, which alluded to unspecified “ominous developments” taking place within the GDFCU and calling on Jabar to use the authority vested in him “to ensure that all regulatory and governance issues are speedily resolved in the interest of the membership”.
This newspaper had been reliably informed that the GDF credit union, one of the largest of 24 such organizations registered with the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League had been experiencing difficulties associated with what a league source described as “serious operational problems.”
One of the persons sent home to facilitate the audit is accusing the higher echelons of the force of having a grouse with him and that the actions against him were part of a vendetta. It is being alleged by persons in the Force that money from the credit union was being used for the establishment of enterprises such as hair salons and that these were not loans.
It is said that the GDF owes money to the credit union for various services rendered.
According to the source, the only reason the external audit is now being allowed is because a senior functionary of the Force discovered that one of the men has purchased a vehicle through the credit union. According to sources, there is no policy regarding the purchase of vehicles at the credit union and that persons can purchase vehicles without any paper trail to ascertain the status of the repayments for the loan taken to purchase it.
Persons close to the society are questioning why the two officers have been sent on leave since the GDF credit union is autonomous from the Force and the officers’ duties in the Force will in no way interfere in the affairs of the external audit.
