The Guyana Police Force will be asked to investigate what appears to be illicit transactions involving the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Administration) of the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) and a member of the company’s board, who paid themselves millions of dollars.
Aeshwar Deonarine, who has not been at work since Monday, in May and June managed to transfer the sum of $27.8 million into his account with the assistance of labour leader Carvil Duncan, who is a director on GPL’s board and who also paid himself $948,000. The two managed to make the payments to themselves because they are two of the five signatories on the company’s bank account. Deonarine made the transfer by way of a bank instruction, which was signed by him and Duncan, while a cheque was made out to Duncan.
This was revealed by Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson yesterday during a post-cabinet press conference at the Ministry of the Presidency. He indicated that the information was brought to his attention by Used Financial Associates which is currently conducting a forensic audit of the PetroCaribe Fund. There had been a large transfer to the power company’s bank account from the PetroCaribe Fund under the previous administration. It is from this transfer that Deonarine and Duncan reportedly paid themselves.
Stabroek News was unable to make contact with Deonarine, who was sent on leave by the minister yesterday. However, Duncan, speaking to this newspaper, stated that he did nothing wrong and alleged collusion by GPL Chief Executive Officer Bharat Dindyal who he said the PPP/C administration had intended to dismiss in June. According to Duncan, Deonarine was tipped to replace Dindyal as CEO and he believes the CEO is targeting Deonarine.
Dindyal, when contacted, denied this claim pointing out that he was just following the paper trail and that all the information was with the auditor. Dindyal, who had left the power company before but was asked to return by the previous administration, said that he had indicated to the then government his intention to leave in June. But since a new administration is in office he is giving it an opportunity to find a replacement. He said he had made his intention known since January of this year.
Two
According to Minister Patterson there are two deputy chief executive officers, Deonarine who is responsible for administration, and another individual responsible for operations, but the latter was being paid more money because he is on a special contract. Deonarine, he said, had made representation to the board that there should be some sort of parity.
“He has made several representations and on all occasions they have been disapproved by the previous board,” the minister said.
In June of this year with the supporting signature of Duncan, he paid himself representing the retroactive sum for the period January 2013 to June 2015.
In relation to Duncan, the minister said, the board had made representation for members’ fees to be increased from $5,000 to $20,000 a month and while this was discussed at the level of the board no decision was reached. However, in April, Duncan approved the over $900,000 payment to himself representing “back pay for the 48 months he has been on the board.” He was the only director who received the retroactive payment.
“I would be forwarding this information to the relevant authorities for further actions,” the minister said and he later clarified that one of the authorities is the Guyana Police Force.
Reading from a preliminary report forwarded to him by Dindyal, Patterson said, “Mr Carvil Duncan subsequently called and initially indicated the board had approved the increase. I told him I had just spoken to the chairman of the board and the secretary and both denied knowledge of any approval. He then said it was the Prime Minister [Sam Hinds] who gave this approval and again I told him Mr Hinds just confirmed he never approved the increase. He suggested then that it had to be President [Donald] Ramotar who approved the increase.”
The increase referred to in this section of the report, according to Dindyal, relates to the payment to Deonarine.
He said Deonarine has been written to by Dindyal instructing that he transfer the money back to the account but Cabinet instructed that the matter be handed over to the police.
Asked how Deonarine was allowed to place the $27 million into his account without alerting anyone, Patterson said because he is deputy chief executive officer responsible for administration, finance and payroll fall under him and his signature and that of Duncan were all that was required to effect the payment.
Board approved
Meanwhile, Duncan said he would sign cheques for the company at the end of the month and that when he would have signed the increase for Deonraine it would not have been an isolated occurrence.
It was not a cheque through which Deonarine got his payment, but, as was explained by Dindyal, a bank instruction.
Duncan said if he could “recall vividly” he believes the board approved the retroactive payment to the deputy CEO and he was paid fees owed to him for some six years since the company had not paid its board members for that period and they were forced to use their own money for transportation and other expenses.
“Ash [Deonarine] upgrading his salary was a board decision and the board went on to say that that it need to get the concurrence of the minister responsible for electricity to move forward [it would have been Mr Sam Hinds at the time]. Ash would have had some approval, I can’t see a senior manager saying his salary was upgraded and he didn’t get no approval. And once he did not get the approval the cheque would not have come to me,” Duncan told this newspaper.
And according to the board member his payment was approved by way of a Cabinet circular which sets out board fees. However, he did say later that he had written to Deonarine indicating that he was prepared to return the money if it was not authorized after it was “hinted” that the money should not have been paid to him.
When told that Dindyal had submitted a preliminary report to the minister, Duncan said that the CEO misled the minister and when “this thing comes to finality, Dindyal is going to be embarrassed.
“If the minister had called me it would have been clarified to him. GPL was the only board that was not paying any board fees,” Duncan said.
