– Company also indebted to suppliers, other entities

By Ravin Singh

Employees and suppliers of construction company Dipcon Engineering Services Limited are currently owed millions of dollars, while the state has also been losing revenue from its non-compliance with tax regulations.This ongoing issue, which was last reported on by this publication in September of last year, has reached a stalemate, with former and current employees expressing uncertainty regarding outstanding payment of salaries.

Naresh Goocool, a former supervisor at Dipcon’s Coldingen Industrial estate revealed that the engineering company presently owes 34 former and current employees in excess of $38M. This amount is due for unpaid wages, salaries and severance. He also noted that upon enquiry, it was discovered that the company had not renewed its registration license and as such, was virtually non-existent, although it was still operating locally.

And despite the non-payment of outstanding salaries, it was revealed that some employees, more specifically guards, are still working for the company, with the fear that if they leave, they will not receive severance. Goocool said too that others were forced to leave the company due to their obligations and may not receive severance payments.

In addition, the former supervisor disclosed that suppliers of the company are still owed amounts in the millions. National Hardware Limited and Best Buy Auto sales are reportedly owed an undisclosed amount, while sand suppliers are owed close to $20M and the company’s concrete cylinder supplier is owed 5.6M.

But according to Gocool, these are not the only entities owed by the construction company which had provided services for the Government in the past. He explained that Dipcon reportedly owes the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) over $40M while no National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions were made for workers by the company since 2014.

And this was confirmed by Manager of Dipcon, Parmeshwar Ramkarran who is still in the employ of the company.
When contacted by this publication on Wednesday, Ramkarran agreed that Dipcon does owe staff in excess of $38 million but that the company cannot pay the money at this time.

“Yes, it [the amount] is somewhere around $38 million,” he said.

He explained that the company ceased operations last year and currently does not have any source of income. As such, he said that they are not in a position to pay staff at this time. Ramkarran also confirmed that guards are currently still employed with the company to protect assets, despite them not being paid.

The manager said that he is aware of the matter and has supplied all relevant information to the Ministry of Labour, and that earlier this year the parent company in Trinidad allocated $1.5M to begin paying workers.

Additionally, he noted that last year, the company was able to win a court case against the Government of Guyana, where the latter is mandated to pay the company approximately US$3M. The court matter reportedly had to do with a dispute between the company and the Government regarding the Mahaica-Rosignol road project.

But this could not be immediately confirmed since the Attorney General (AG), Basil Williams who represents the state in all legal matters, was unavailable for a comment.

Ramkarran assured this publication however, that when this money is received, the company will begin paying employees immediately, as was promised by the Director of the parent company.

This is not the first time the company has failed to make payments to employees. Last May, workers together with sub-contractors, engineers, operators and labourers had demanded money owed to them for some five months. During that encounter Ramkarran stated that payments will be made in portions.

Back in September 2015 the local company had agreed with the Labour Ministry to pay retrenched workers a sum of GUY$5 million over the span of three months.

The then Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Simona Broomes had stated that the company would have made a first payment just over $1 million since the company was not in a position to pay all debts in full. The payments were to be made at the Ministry and employees would have been called in to uplift their money.