Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran says the evidence clearly shows that the water well in the compound of the Queens Atlantic Investment Inc (QAII) at Industrial Site, Ruimveldt belongs to the Guyana Water Inc.
In his accountability column in yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News, Goolsarran said “…the evidence clearly shows that the well is the property of GWI since: (a) it is reflected in GWI’s assets register and hence its balance sheet duly certified by the external auditors; (b) GWI is paying the electricity bills as well as the cost of operation and maintenance of the well; and (c) GWI is collecting water rates from some 9,000 residents in the area. GWI is therefore a service provider and QAII, a customer of GWI.”
The issue arose recently when a team from GWI visited the QAII compound in relation to the well and there was a standoff with company employees. GWI subsequently issued a statement on August 31 saying it had launched an investigation to determine in whose name the well was registered.
The statement said that during a recent meeting QAII Head Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop said he had bought the entire complex which included the well. The GWI statement also reported him as saying that QAII had inherited the daily checks of the well by GWI and that this arrangement would continue.
Thus far, GWI has not released the findings of its investigation but Goolsarran’s column yesterday was adamant that the well is the property of GWI and not QAII. Goolsarran tracked the managing of the well and its reflection in the accounts of the water utility. He pointed out that GWI has been maintaining the well at the former Sanata Complex and paying the electricity charges for its operations.
In addition, it collects water tariffs from some 9,000 residents in the surrounding area.
He noted that GWI was formed out of the merger of the Guyana Water Authority and the Georgetown Sewerage and Water Commissioners (GS&WC) in 2002 and all assets were transferred to GWI including immovable property and buildings and “all assets relating to the undertaking of the Commissioners and the Authority held by the Government or by an entity owned by the State or in which controlling interest is vested in the State or any agency or other entity on behalf of the State.”
Sanata Textiles Limited was dissolved in the late 1990s and replaced by G&C Sanata Company which entered a MoU with GS&WC and the government holding company NICIL in 2001 for water supply in the compound. Ownership of the well was vested in NICIL by order No. 49 of 2000 but this would have been superseded by the GWI founding order of 2002.
Goolsarran said that when QAII exercised its option of purchasing the complex on September 10, 2010 the valuations done did not include the well as part of the assets of the complex.
Further, the agreement of sale entered on October 26, 2010 also made no mention of the well,
Goolsarran therefore concluded, “There is no evidence to suggest that the well at the Sanata Complex was the property of G&C Sanata (or its predecessor organization, Sanata Textiles Ltd) at the time when the agreement for the lease of the Complex was entered into between NICIL and QAII. In addition, neither the lease agreement nor the subsequent sale and purchase agreement makes any reference to the well. Further, the valuations of the Complex that NICIL relied on as the basis for arriving at the sale price did not include the well.”
