Former Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) Shaik Baksh says he had agreed to repay the cost of a vehicle that was written off following an accident when it was being driven by his son and should complete payments this month.
“The board requested that I repay the assessed valuation of the vehicle in the sum of four and a half million dollars. I agreed and repayment commenced in July 2015 and will end in June 2016,” he said in a letter published in Wednesday’s Stabroek News. Baksh was at the time responding to an audit report on GWI in which the issue was highlighted.
The auditor had pointed out that the vehicle was involved in an accident on the 3rd May, 2015. At the time of the accident, Baksh was out of the country and the vehicle was driven by his son who was not authorised to drive the vehicle. “After the accident, the vehicle is a complete write off and is sitting in the compound of GWI, Shelterbelt,” the report said.
It noted that Baksh resigned on June 18, 2015 and the Board of Directors acknowledged his resignation letter on June 24, 2015. The Company Secretary wrote to him on behalf of the Board on June 26, 2015 advising him that the Board had agreed to waive the required three months’ notice and accepted his resignation with immediate effect. In the letter, the Board also agreed with Baksh’s request to pay GWI $4.5 million for the vehicle by deducting benefits owed to him and for the balance of $2.6 million to be repaid in 12 monthly instalments of $220,958 each.
The report said that the auditor was able to verify that Baksh was up-to-date with the payments.
The vehicle had not been originally intended for Baksh’s use. The audit report revealed that on March 28, 2012 a contract was entered into between GWI and S Jagmohan Hardware Supplies and Constructing Services and Nabi Construction Inc, Joint Venture/Consortium for the Georgetown Sanitation Programme – Priority Works for the Installation of Force Mains.
Under the contract’s Special Conditions of Contract, the contractor was required to provide a specific list of facilities for the Engineer’s location which included one Double Cab Pickup (new or reconditioned). The contractor tendered a quoted price of $4.7 million from AINLIM for a Nissan Frontier 4×4 Double Cab Pickup – ‘DX’ – Diesel.
Site visits
“This pickup was to be utilised for the sole purpose of site visits and verification of works to be done by GWI’s Project Manager and Engineer on the contract,” the report said. It said that a decision was taken to allocate the double cab pickup to be acquired under the contract to Baksh’s full use to fulfil a clause in his contract. “There was no evidence to confirm who made the decision to allow the (CEO) to use the vehicle since he was already allocated a vehicle,” the report said.
It pointed out that the internal audit department reported that the decision was taken despite GWI making available two other vehicles to Baksh which he deemed as unsuitable. One official said that it was his understanding that Baksh should have discussed this decision with the Chairman of the Board for approval to use the vehicle instead of the one allocated to him.
It was also pointed out that the double cab pickup acquired differed to the one tendered by the contractors by manufacturer and cost. The double cab pickup acquired was an upgrade in the form of a Toyota Hilux Vigo Double Cab Pickup (brand new) 2012 Year Model, Diesel, 2982cc and cost $7.5 million which was $2.8 million more than the Nissan Frontier. The Toyota Hilux Vigo carried plate # PPP 9050. The additional cost of the Toyota Hilux Vigo was borne by GWI and recorded in the Asset Register with an acquisition cost of $3.8 million and incorrectly dated 01-Jan-07.
According to the report, the vehicle PPP 9050 was never used on the contract under which it was acquired. The Project Manager and Engineer had to resort to the use of an assigned vehicles from GWI’s vehicles pool, which is shared throughout the company on a first come, first served basis. “This significantly hampered the work of the Project Manager and Engineer throughout the duration of the contract,” it said.
It was also noted that the general maintenance and repairs to the vehicle was done by an unauthorised mechanic instead of GWI’s approved mechanic.
As it relates to the 3rd May, 2015 accident, the report said that the auditor met with the Director of Human Resources and the Health and Safety Office to determine whether an investigation was done. The official confirmed that he attempted to carry out an investigation of the accident and discovered that the vehicles was not owned by GWI; and that no GWI employee was involved in the accident, therefore, there was no need to carry out an investigation.
The report said the official is wrong and the vehicle although registered in Suresh Jagmohan’s name was never in his possession; it was always used by Baksh and was paid for by GWI. The official would have seen that the vehicle was used by Baksh daily and therefore should have made proper enquiries about the ownership and why it was being used by him, the report said.
