-company owes GPL $7B, says Minister Rodrigues

WHEN the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) assumed office in August 2020, it found that the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) was in a financial crisis, according to the Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues.

During an interview on Kaieteur Radio, the minister said pointedly that GWI was in a bankrupt state. She explained that because the agency had not received a subvention over the last five years, it owed the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) in excess of $7 billion.

Added to that, the agency’s bank balance had been reduced by some $1.8 billion since the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) went into government. Moreover, Minister Rodrigues said that from August 2015 to August 2020, the operational costs for GWI had increased by $1.1 billion. This, she said, remained the situation even though the then government instituted two separate tariff increases.

“…one in October 2018 and October 2019,” the junior minister posited. She explained that the increases were activated in such a manner that many persons did not realise that it resulted in an overall increase of 100 per cent.

“I don’t know if people realised that,” Rodrigues added. She highlighted that outside of the decline in the company’s bank balances and its overall increase in spending, GWI also failed to settle its outstanding debts with suppliers.

More specifically, Minister Rodrigues said that GWI owed its suppliers in excess of $800 million, with at least 80 per cent of that figure being long overdue.

“So, the company was in serious financial crisis, and then of course, you had the corruption,” Rodrigues said, as she pointed to the scandal that surrounded the sole-source purchase of the SeaQuest, a water chemical which was being purchased at a cost of $1.8 billion over a four-year period; this was valued at almost US$9 million.

The product was being acquired via a “middleman” from a United States company called Aqua Smart Incorporated. It is a trademarked combination of chemicals used to reduce or separate the iron content from the water as part of the purification process.

“They have a middle company doing the procurement and then mixing, batching the product and transporting it to all Regions. So, a middle man was there sourcing (the product) from Aqua Smart and this was sole sourcing,” the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GWI, Shaik Baksh told reporters in June.

He had indicated then that a forensic audit was underway, owing to suspicion of mismanagement of the entity’s finances by the previous David Granger-led administration.

At a press conference, Baksh had accused his predecessor, Dr. Richard Van West-Charles of approving a series of “reckless” spending executed by the company. He went further to highlight an overpayment of approximately $87.9 million to a contractor for the Vlissengen road pipe project, as well as overpayments to SeaQuest within the four-year period.

Baksh also pointed to the construction of a $40 million facility in Region Five, (Mahaica-Berbice) which was still in need of additional $19 million to be completed. In addition to infrastructure, the PPP/C government also detected overspending in relation to staff parties which had an accumulated cost of $80 million in 2018 and 2019. Baksh had also flagged issues relating to overseas travels.

“The internal auditors found that there has been double charging in the batching, mixing in transportation; huge sums of money are involved here. There were also fictitious charges inserted in transportation invoices which made us dismiss the employee left in charge of this,” Baksh previously related.

He added, “There’s also questionable delivery of goods, double charging, fictitious charging and contract splitting, which is prohibited under the National Procurement Act and GWI standard rules.” As it is, all of the aforementioned allegations are being investigated by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).