THE trial in the court matter against veteran trade unionist Carvil Duncan for the alleged theft of over $27M from the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) has been adjourned until December 14.

The matter was adjourned on Thursday for continuation by Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the request of police prosecutor, Sergeant Kevon Bess.
Duncan, 73, of South Ruimveldt, is being represented by attorneys Glen Hanoman and Everton Singh-Lammy.

He and GPL’s former Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Aeshwar Deonarine, are accused of being part of the multimillion-dollar fraud, in that they are alleged to have illegally transferred almost $28M to their personal bank accounts.
The government had asked the police to investigate the two senior officials in July 2015.
It was reported that the men paid themselves without authorisation. In light of investigations, Deonarine was sent on administrative leave.

Discovery of the suspicious transfers was made by independent auditors who were probing the PetroCaribe Fund, which holds the proceeds of oil shipments taken from neighbouring Venezuela.
It was while tracking payments to GPL that the auditors unearthed the strange transactions. Deonarine, who was responsible for administrative matters, had reportedly wanted to receive the same level of pay as the then Deputy CEO (Technical), Colin Welch, but his approaches to the Board of Directors were rebuffed.

He had reportedly offered to repay the money, but GPL was supposed to have waited until it was transferred from his U.S. bank account.
In light of the revelations, joint charges were instituted against Duncan and Deonarine in January, 2016 for the theft of $984,900 and $27,757,500 respectively, from the power company.

However, Duncan was the only one present to answer to the charges, since Deonarine had fled the country, causing the chief magistrate to issue a warrant for his arrest.
A few months after, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) withdrew the charges against Deonarine and the prosecution made a request to the court to have Deonarine’s name deleted from the joint charges to proceed with trial of Duncan. This request was granted.
In light of the court proceedings, President David Granger ordered that Duncan be suspended from all constitutional bodies.

A President-appointed tribunal comprising Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire; Justice Winston Patterson; and Attorney-at-Law Robert Ramcharran was set up to determine whether the criminal charge Duncan was facing was enough to have him removed as Chairman of the Public Service Commission.

However, Duncan and his attorney Anil Nandlall moved to the High Court and had the tribunal halted by Justice Franklin Holder.
This prohibited the tribunal from investigating and pronouncing on whether Duncan should remain a member of the Public Service Commission, Judicial Service Commission and Police Service Commission.

Earlier this year, Duncan was freed by Magistrate Leron Daly of a charge which alleged that he stole $984,900 from the power company on March 31, 2015.