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