Chartered accounting firm Ram & McRae has completed its audit into the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) credit union and has handed over its report, Chief Cooperatives Development Officer Kareem Abdul Jabar confirmed.
However, Jabar told the Sunday Stabroek that while he can confirm that the audit was done and the report handed over he could not divulge its findings until Minister of Labour Dr Nanda Gopaul had had a look at it.
And while the GDF had issued a release announcing the audit and that it had sent two of its officers on leave – the current and past Secretary Manager of the credit union – the organisation has been mum on the findings of the audit.
The Sunday Stabroek understands that the report dealt with many issues of the credit union and made some very strong comments about a senior officer who is on the management committee of the union. At least one of the two officers sent on leave – Major (ag) Leslie Ramlall – has been instructed to return to work.
Sources had told this newspaper that the audit was ordered as a consequence of a personal vendetta against Ramlall by a senior officer who did not take too kindly to how the man operated when he managed the credit union briefly before being removed.
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.
Jabar had 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 was on leave at the time.
Jabar had also confirmed that another audit with a different scope is presently ongoing.
The GDF in September had announced that the audit of the 2400-member credit union will be wide and all encompassing.
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 its functioning.
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 Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League 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.”
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 a hair salon and a play area and that these were not loans.
It is said that the GDF owes money to the credit union in excess of $75M 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 had purchased a vehicle through the credit union.
According to sources, there is no policy regarding the purchase of vehicles at the credit union and 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 had questioned why the two officers had been sent on leave since the GDF credit union is autonomous from the Force and the officers’ duties in the Force would have in no way interfered in the affairs of the external audit.
Meanwhile, acting Chief Justice Ian Chang made the orders which were sought by Ramlall against Chief of Staff Commodore Gary Best and Colonel Enoch Gaskin – the chairman of the union’s Committee of Management – absolute.
In his affidavit in support of the motion for the orders, Ramlall had stated that the decision to send him on leave and suspend him from the union’s Committee of Management was “arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable, irrational, unlawful and unconstitutional and as such is therefore null, void and of no legal effect.”
He had contended that being sent on administrative leave had prevented him from completing a course he had started which must be completed if he is to be considered for promotion to the rank of Major next year. He also contended that the Chief-of-Staff is not empowered under the Defence Act to send an officer on administrative leave or without a hearing if empowered to do so.
The course has since ended and it means that Ramlall would not be promoted come next year.
