CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, Yoganand Mahadeo, on Friday said that GT&T was not in receipt of any official information or documentation suggesting there are financial irregularities at the company, and that state of affairs would be determined only after an ongoing audit at the company was completed. Mr. Mahadeo was at the time speaking at a press conference called by the company to address the issue of vandalism being experienced by the company.
According to Mr. Mahadeo, the audit is ongoing and the company is cooperating with the auditors every step of the way. He added that, at the moment, the company’s operations are ongoing as per normal, and that the auditors have so far not made any specific request of the company at this time.
Since the parent company of GT&T launched its annual audit at the company two weeks ago, four company officials, including its Chief Financial Officer, have been asked to absent themselves from the company for the duration of the audit.
The audit is being conducted by system subscribes to the US auditing system, or Sarbanes-Oxley (SARBOX). Yesterday, during the press conference, the company said the auditors have, at the moment, not requested that any other staff member proceed on leave to facilitate the process.
The CEO said the decision to send persons off the job while the probe is ongoing is abnormal procedure, and should not be seen as an indication that those persons are culpable of any wrongdoing. He emphasised that any wrongdoing or finding that the company is not in keeping with the standard operating procedure (SOP) can only be determined after a probe has been complete.
He said that the employees who have been sent off have been working with the company for years, and their absence during this process has affected him as head of the company, as all employees live as a family, and such developments are felt by everyone.
Mr. Mahadeo, however, added that the absence of the employees has in no way put the operations of the company in any difficult situation, and that the company conducts ongoing succession planning in the event that key players and other employees are absent from the job for one reason or the other.
According to Mahadeo, the workers at the company, as per normal, are working as a team to ensure that all services and operations of the company remain intact. He said the company embraces the audit, as it allows for fixing of systems that may need altering from time to time.
Mahadeo explained that when the company goes through an audit, it is not restricted to financial matters; and audits are done in almost every area of the company’s operations, to ensure that where there are lapses or breaches of the standard operating procedures, recommendations can be made and measures taken to prevent those breaches from recurring.
In questions about the ongoing probe at the National Communications Network, the CEO said he had not been approached by NCN for any information that may be helpful in their investigation.
He declined to comment on the issue that a cheque was purportedly made out in the name of a senior NCN manager, instead of in the name of that television company.