More than a decade after Precision Woodworking Ltd (PWL) was placed in receivership, former employees say they have not received a penny of their benefits from the more than $600 million in proceeds from the sale of its assets.
In a May 19, 2022 letter to Republic Bank Guyana Limited (RBGL), which had appointed a receiver for PWL, Eon Andrews, the adviser for the ex-workers said they were hoping to have received their termination benefits by now.
More than a year after the conclusion of legal proceedings which PWL had mounted against Republic Bank, however, Andrews in his letter to the bank’s Managing Director, Stephen Grell, lamented the non-payment.
In that letter, Andrews expressed shock that well over a year since the dismissal of the legal action, the receiver “has not been discharged,” and that to date, both the receiver and the bank “are refusing” to provide the directors of PWL the financial records regarding their company.
In a letter dated May 10, 2022 which was also seen by this newspaper, Directors of PWL, brothers Ronald and Rustum Bulkan, were firm in their request of the receiver to furnish them the financial records of their Company since disposing its assets.
Referencing in that letter a March 14, 2022 correspondence, the Bulkans slammed appointed-receiver attorney-at-law and accountant Kashir Khan who they said wrote demanding forthwith from them, the sum of $1,500,000.
“The preposterous and absolute absurdity of this demand cannot be overstated,” the Bulkan brothers said in their letter, as they sought to remind Khan of their previous requests regarding his role as receiver of their Company, for the inspection of financial records pertaining to the sale of PWL’s assets.
The Bulkans said that the receiver has failed to honour his statutory obligation which he continues to ignore.
“All we know of your dealings with our Company’s assets, is what you have said in court under cross-examination by your attorney…namely that you have sold all of our real estate properties for a total sum of $665,000,000.”
The brothers go on to state in their letter to Khan that their Company’s debt at the time of his appointment as receiver stood at $417,166,298 and added “as of now, only you know what has become of our equipment valued in excess of US$1.0 million present when you took control of our Company.”
The Directors said that their principal fear, which is compounded by Khan’s refusal to provide them information on their Company’s account at Republic Bank, is that their several accounts may have been used for over the last decade.
Against that background, the directors urged Khan to “lay our fears to rest” by providing them with relevant accounts of his administration as per their previous requests.
“Sir, just comply with the law and give us copies of our accounts at Republic Bank… since your appointment and accounts relating to your administration of our Company, ” the Bulkans have asked of Khan.
In their most recent letter to Khan dated June 1st, 2022, and seen by the Stabroek News, the Bulkans said that with Khan having indicated that all of PWL’s assets had been sold since 2015, they remain at a loss as to why he was still entrenched in the position of receiver, as there was nothing for him to preside over.
“Just imagine, you got rid of all the Company’s assets in 2015 with zero accounting to us and are still in place seven years later. Doing what, may we ask?” the Bulkan brothers enquired in their letter.
Meanwhile, Andrews, in his letter to the Bank, said that his interest remains the welfare of the former PWL employees, while adding that given the conclusion of the legal action, their expectation was that the “receiver would be discharged and they would get something from the remaining proceeds.”
With the Bulkans relating to him that they are “totally in the dark” regarding the affairs of their company, Andrews in his letter to Grell said that if this is in fact true, “apart from finding it to be shocking, we assert that it is far divorced from your published core values which speaks very eloquently to integrity, respect for the individual and professionalism.”
Andrews said he joins with the directors in urging the Bank to ensure that Khan immediately provide the Bulkans with copies of their company’s accounts.
“We beseech you Sir, on behalf of the many workers and their families, to come clean, in order that these workers may have some closure, irrespective of what it may be.”
