— unauthorised vehicle collected $181M in fuel for army

A careful examination of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF)’s operations by the Audit Office of Guyana has found that an unauthorised vehicle had uplifted over $181 million worth of fuel on behalf of the force in 2019.

According to information from the Auditor General’s Report for 2019, the GDF had severe shortcomings with respect to the purchase, reconciliation and shortage of fuel. In this regard, 887,800 litres of fuel, valuing $181.567 million, were uplifted by an unauthorised vehicle.
This included 26 instances where 2,000 gallons of gasoline was uplifted for the Coast Guard Headquarters, Ruimveldt, even though the storage capacity at this location was only 1,000 gallons.

“At the time of reporting, the matter was being investigated by the Guyana Police Force and the Military Intelligence Department of the Guyana Defence Force,” the audit report outlined.
Sections of the media had quoted Minister of Public Works, Deodat Indar, as saying that a $300- million fraud was discovered by the GDF regarding fuel supply at Guyoil.

In a statement, on August 26, Guyoil did not say precisely what action had been taken but added that the State Corporation suffered no loss from the fraudulent activity involving its staff and the GDF.
In addition to discrepancies surrounding the supply of fuel, the audit report revealed that the GDF expended $91.6 million on the maintenance of 30 vehicles, representing an average maintenance cost of over $3 million per vehicle.
More significantly, 10 vehicles were maintained at costs amounting to $46.429 million, representing an even higher average maintenance cost per vehicle of $4.643 million.

“Remarkably, one Toyota Hilux Double-Cab, acquired over 11 years ago, was maintained at a cost of $7.185M; whilst a Ford Ranger was maintained at a cost of $5.660M,” the audit report outlined.
Also, a Ford F-350 and Ford Ranger Double Cab were maintained at costs amounting to $6.486M and $5.599M, respectively. However, based on a list submitted for audit, the Force has deemed these two vehicles unserviceable.