Dear Editor,
I refer to the article you published titled ‘Ex-Precision Woodworking workers still to receive termination benefits’ on June 11, 2022, which highlighted the travails faced by Precision’s Directors and its former employees at the hands of Republic Bank Guyana Ltd. Since then, there has been radio silence despite innumerable requests from the Directors and the former employees of the company to Republic Bank, its purported appointed receiver and its external auditors for information on the company’s statements of accounts.
In June 2011, Republic Bank refused repayment of our indebtedness to them and instead appointed a receiver, Mr. Kashir Khan. Which bank refuses repayment??? In addition to this inexplicable refusal of repayment, we discovered an alleged unauthorised deposit of more than USD 400,000 into our company’s Republic Bank account. We have specified the depositor’s name, the deposit amount, and the date of the deposit. The refusal of the Bank of Guyana to act against Republic Bank for this shady transaction violates the Financial Institutions Act, Act No. 1 of 1995.
Republic Bank and the receiver they appointed, Kashir Khan, have destroyed our company, sold off our assets, including prime real estate, and refused to give us any accounts, all while still demanding monies from us. Attempts at legal recourse have been an abysmal failure, with the trial judge delivering a judgment which completely ignored the majority of the claims raised – a decade after we filed the action. We are awaiting an appeal. If I may, your editorial of January 15, 2023 profoundly observes: “foreign investors will not come if they have no confidence in the legal system, never mind the fact that the local population is entitled to timely justice in the criminal sphere, while civil litigants should not have to wait years to secure a judgement.”
In the meantime, we have written countless letters to every possible regulatory authority, only to be met with callous indifference. We recently filed a formal complaint with the Bar Association against the misconduct of two of their members in the hopes that some sanction will be imposed against them. Even as we await hearing of our appeal, we continue to demand the provision of our accounts, the removal of the receiver – one who has defiantly withheld from us for more than eleven years, accounts of his administration, in breach of the law – and the return to us of our company.
Sincerely,
Ronald Bulkan
Joint Managing Director
Precision Woodworking Limited
