Discrepancies flagged by the Auditor General’s Office in its 2011 audit of Region Four’s financial records revealed that hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and lubricants were utilised by vehicles which were not registered to the region and its authorities were slammed for their failure to investigate the situation.
“Clearly there is fraud involved here,” said PPP/C MP Gail Teixeira, during yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting. She said the fact that documents had been tampered with indicated a conspiracy by those involved to embezzle. She was responding to Region Four’s Regional Executive Officer (REO) Deolall Rooplall, who said that not only were several documents missing, but others had been forged.
According to the Auditor General’s report, “fuel and lubricants valued at $733,076 were uplifted for three vehicles that were not owned by the region.”
Rooplall explained that the previous REO had instituted a system where vehicles registered to the region would be able to receive fuel from GuyOil, whom it was in contract with, whenever there was need to do such. He said payments were made to the company in advance to facilitate this process.
However on scrutinising the process, it was discovered that two of the vehicles which received fuel paid for by the region were not registered to the region, while another was owned by a private individual, who said he had nothing to do with the region.
The three vehicles each received fuel from GuyOil on December 2, 8, and 30 2011, and on each occasion, the serving station was the Kitty Service Station.
Considering this information, PPP/C MP Bibi Shadick said it was quite possible that the perpetrators of the fraud were aware of the amount of money lodged with GuyOil, and sought to use it up.
When asked why the region had not formulated a system to