RECENT financial audits into the Petro Caribe Fund have resulted in two officials of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated being placed under the microscope after monies from the fund were allegedly transferred to their personal accounts.Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Administration, Aerswar Deonarine, was sent on administrative leave yesterday and outgoing board member Carvil Duncan will come under review by

GPL’s incoming board, for the alleged transfer of monies from the Fund to their personal accounts.

“Arising out of a forensic audit into the Petro Caribe Fund, the auditor brought a matter to my attention,” Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson told the press corps yesterday during a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive.
“The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Administration), for GPL transferred the sum of $27.8M to his account,” Patterson disclosed.
According to the Public Infrastructure Minister, Deonarine was paid $27M with assistance from GPL’s Board Director, Carvil Duncan. Those payments were claimed by Deonarine retroactively for the period January 2013 to June 2015.
Deonarine’s payment was made in May and June of this year, during the peak of the May 11 polls, which saw the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition defeating the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Patterson disclosed that GPL currently has two Deputy CEOs, one for Administration, and another for Operations. The holders of these positions, although both being Deputy CEOs, are paid different remunerations.
Deonarine had appealed to GPL’s Board of Directors for an increase in his remuneration, which would make his salary equal to the Deputy CEO in charge of Operations.
Patterson noted however, that Deonarine was paid less than his colleague because of the nature of the colleague’s contract, and for this reason GPL’s Board of Directors rejected Deonarine’s plea on all occasions.
Carvil Duncan, also President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), was paid some $948,000. In Duncan’s case, the GPL Board had appealed to the former Donald Ramotar Administration for an increase in board fees paid to Board members. This case was rejected.

Duncan, being dissatisfied that he was not able to claim extra pay for his 48 months on the board, approved $948,000 for himself in April of this year, one month before the May 11 polls. Patterson was keen to note that Duncan was the only GPL Board member to receive a retroactive payment.
GPL receives periodic disbursals of monies from the Petro Caribe Fund, which has come under investigation for “mismanagement,” a term used by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo to describe the state of the fund under the PPP/C Administration. The Petro Caribe Fund holds monies received from Guyana’s rice trade with Venezuela.
Duncan is a signatory to the GPL fund, where Petro Caribe monies are transferred, along with Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal, and Chairman of GPL’s Board, Winston Brassington, and two other directors. The life of GPL’s current board will come to an end on July 31, and a new board will be installed.
GPL’s Chief Executive Officer has since written Deputy CEO Deonarine asking that he return the $27M transferred to his account between May and

June of this year.
The details of the case, according to Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, also present at the press conference yesterday, will be submitted to the Criminal

Investigations Department (CID) of the Guyana Police Force.
The revelations by the new Administration come as a number of financial audits have been ordered into many of the State agencies.
Similarly, a number of State boards will come under review after the life of those boards would have ended in the coming months.
Apart from his board membership at GPL, Duncan was the Chairman of the Public Service Commission, and the Judicial Service Commission. While Duncan might be affiliated to other State boards, Harmon referenced only those mentioned above.

By Derwayne Wills