Though a police investigation is ongoing and a forensic audit has been completed, an unauthorised vehicle continues to receive millions of dollars in fuel from the Guyana Defence Force, according to the Auditor General’s Report for the fiscal year 2020.
In 2019, motor vehicle GHH 7538 was flagged as receiving $181.567 million in fuel from the GDF. The Auditor General said that the vehicle is not in the Force’s nor its supplier Guyana Oil Company’s (GUYOIL) database. A criminal investigation was launched and a forensic audit conducted.
Again, the 2020 report flagged the vehicle for receiving a total of $67,455,000 in fuel. Providing a breakdown of the figure, the Auditor General reported that $303.043 million was expended for the purchase of fuel with $191.161 paid for bulk fuel.
The GDF purchases fuel in bulk and retail quantities. As it relates to bulk fuel, the Force makes prepayments to GUYOIL based on its estimated consumption and whenever the need arises, it would request the company deliver it to camps Ayanganna and Stephenson and Coast Guard Headquarters at Ruimveldt, Georgetown. The arrangement is that Ranks on duty would sign for receiving the fuel while the delivery drivers sign for picking up the fuel.
The Auditor General said that 10 payment vouchers, valued at $188.589 million, were presented to him for auditing. The vouchers represented 99% of the GDF’s bulk purchases and an analysis of them showed that GHH 7538 uplifted 285,200 litres of gasoline and 184,000 litres of diesel with a value of $38.806 million and $28.649 million, respectively.
“Audit enquiries revealed that the said vehicle was neither owned by the Guyana Defence Force nor GUYOIL. In addition, there was no contractual agreement for this vehicle to uplift fuel on behalf of the Force. Further, we were unable to verify whether the fuel was received by the Force. Moreover, it was reported that the Goods Received Book for Camp Ayanganna was misplaced; whilst, the records for Camp Stephenson – Timehri, and Coast Guard – Ruimveldt were under scrutiny by special investigators,” the report stated.
It added that stock ledgers were submitted for Army Headquarters, Camp Ayanganna, but the receipts of fuel from the said vehicle were not recorded in these ledgers. Additional attempts to verify receipt of the fuel were futile since the gate book, which tracks ingress and egress of vehicles, was not submitted for audit.
Auditor General Deodat Sharma pointed to his 2019 findings which had revealed that the analysis of 25 payment vouchers totalling $471.738 million showed that the sums of $238.204 million and $233.534 million were expended on the acquisition of gasoline and diesel, respectively.
“It was evident on 103 invoices that vehicle bearing registration number GHH 7538 uplifted 887,800 litres of fuel valued $181.567M. As reported earlier, the said vehicle was not owned by the Guyana Defence Force or GUYOIL. In addition, there was no contractual agreement for this vehicle to uplift fuel on behalf of the Force. Included in the 103 invoices were seventy-five invoices with sums amounting to $130.861M, purporting that gasolene was uplifted and delivered to the Force.
“However, the signatures of the driver and the customer receiving goods appeared to be identical, indicating that the same person may have uplifted the fuel from GUYOIL, as well as received it at the Force’s locations. Similarly, for the purchase of diesel, there were twenty-three invoices for sums totalling $41.487M where the signatures of the driver and the ‘customer receiving the goods’ appeared to be identical,” the Auditor General stated.
He also reminded that there were 26 instances where approximately 2,000 gallons of gasolene were delivered to the Coast Guard Headquarters when the storage capacity there is 1,000 gallons.
All of these shortcomings are being investigated by both the government and the Police.
In relation to fuel purchases, the GDF was flagged for breaching procurement laws since it engaged in sole sourcing. The Auditor General identified three instances of breaches when it was learnt that the GDF engaged GUYOIL, Rubis Guyana Inc and Massy Gas Products for the supply of fuel without a contract.
The GDF said that it was customary in the past to purchase from these suppliers on a single-source approval and contracts are now prepared for all suppliers.
