The police yesterday began a criminal investigation into the transferral of millions of dollars from the PetroCaribe Fund into the personal accounts of Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) Aeshwar Deonarine and Board Director Carvil Duncan, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum has confirmed.
“We have initiated investigations today,” Blanhum said when contacted on the matter yesterday. He declined to say anything further.
Minister of Security Khemraj Ramjattan had told this newspaper recently that the matter was engaging the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). It is believed that this move was to determine whether there should be a criminal investigation.
Deonarine paid himself a hefty $27.8 million, which represented a salary increase and other benefits, while Duncan approved the over $900,000 payment to himself representing back pay for 48 months.
Sources close to the case informed Stabroek News that the police visited Duncan’s workplace but he was not there. He later indicated that he would turn himself in today. Police, the sources said have learnt that Deonarine is not in the country, and are checking immigration records to confirm whether this is true.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson had made the startling revelation to the media in July.
At that time, Deonarine was in charge of administration and he was sent on administrative leave after the transfer was unearthed during a forensic audit of the PetroCaribe Fund.
It was reported that transfer was done with the assistance of Duncan, a labour leader and director on GPL’s board and who also paid himself $948,000.
The two had managed to make the payments to themselves because they were two of the five signatories on GPL’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.
Stabroek News has never been able to speak to Deonarine, but Duncan had stated that he did nothing wrong and alleged a conspiracy by former GPL chief executive officer Bharat Dindyal, whom 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 believed the CEO was targeting Deonarine.
Dindyal, when contacted, had denied this claim and pointed out that he was just following the paper trail and that all the information was with the auditor.
Patterson had explained that 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. However, in June, with the supporting signature of Duncan, Deonarine 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.
Duncan’s explanation when he spoke with this newspaper was that he would sign cheques for the company at the end of the month and that when he signed the transfer for Deonarine it would not have been an isolated occurrence.
He said he had believed 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.
It was later revealed that Deonarine had asked for time to repay the money he had taken.
In a letter sent to Dindyal by Deonarine’s lawyer it was pointed out that a committee established by the Board had the power to fix the pay of Deonarine. Any such decision was a lawful one, which would have been binding on the company, the attorney posited in the correspondence.
