‘I did not defraud GT&T of millions of dollars’
– Fired GT&T’s Chief Financial Officer maintains innocence
FORMER Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of GT&T Royston Rachpaul, whose service was terminated by its parent company ATN, is refuting unsubstantiated claims of his involvement in any fraudulent activity during his tenure at the Company. Royston Rachpaul, who served as Finance Director for two years before becoming Chief Financial Officer vehemently denied that he had defrauded the company of millions of dollars as speculated by certain sections of the media.
Visibly upset, he said that he has taken responsibility for not being vigilant enough with the internal controls of GT&T that are usually strictly adhered to. Pressed on what controls might have been breached, he listed insufficient signatures, quotations for products and services procured and not enough vigorous oversight by his department.
He added that having accepted responsibility, he chose to tender his resignation to the company. However, the Board of ATN felt that the breaches were too critical to overlook and instead terminated his service to the Company.
Rachpaul has been a certified accountant for 3 years and previously worked at IPED and Ram & McRae. He assumed the position of CFO around the same time that former CEO of GT&T Yog Mahadeo took office.
Over the past weeks, GT&T has been dogged by speculations about an unexpected audit by ATN and an apparent breach in procedure in the issuing of a payment for services rendered by the state owned television company, NCN.
Yog Mahadeo when questioned about the audit in the weeks leading up to yesterday had said it was routine. He resigned yesterday as CEO of the Company.