Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) Aeshwar Deonarine has promised to repay some $27.8M which he had transferred from the PetroCaribe fund to his personal bank account.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson made the disclosure yesterday at a news conference at the Ministry’s Boardroom, in Kingston.
Patterson told reporters that in a letter, Deonarine agreed to repay the money but requested time to do so since he had transferred it to his account in the United States.
Patterson also said that Deonarine maintained that he did not do anything wrong by effecting the transfer.
Deonarine was sent on leave by the minister late last month after it was discovered that he transferred the funds to himself because he believed he was owed retroactive payments since he was not being paid the same salary as another company executive. The transferred funds represented retroactive payments for the period January, 2013 to June, 2015. He had repeatedly applied to the board for the disparity to be rectified but was not successful.
Asked whether Deonarine is in the country, Patterson noted that the DCEO was sent on leave and as a result his movements were is not restricted.
Files from a forensic audit into the financial affairs of GPL and related to the transfer were sent to the Ministry of Public Security and Attorney General Basil Williams, who will advise on the way forward, the minister said.
Nigel Hinds Financial Services is responsible for the audit.
Patterson had also previously said that the police would be asked to investigate the transactions.
Last month, Patterson had revealed that Deonarine in May and June transferred 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.
Duncan told Stabroek News last month that he did anything wrong.
