PAC exposes major fuel scandal in Region Five under coalition
Region Five administration representatives
Region Five administration representatives

  Auditor General report shows fuel was purchased for 26 vehicles that were not in the region’s inventory
  vehicles were not in GRA’s system in some cases

MEMBERS of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), on Monday, raised serious concerns over breaches in the Region Five administration’s stores regulations, which were revealed in the 2019 Auditor General (AG) Report, which highlighted fuel was purchased for 26 vehicles that were not in the region’s inventory.
An examination of payment vouchers for fuel and lubricants found 18 instances totalling $253,913, where 1,195 litres of gasoline were purchased for vehicle number PTT 1184 which was not listed on the region’s vehicle inventory.

Similarly, during 2018, there were 41 instances totalling $475,713, where purchases of fuel were made for 26 vehicles not on the region’s inventory.
Additionally, there were some 35 instances totalling $282,619, where the bill date was before the date on the requisition to purchase.
The Audit Office had recommended that the regional administration put systems in place to ensure that all fuel purchased is only for vehicles owned and operated by the region, and that fuel is properly accounted for and utilised in an efficient manner.

Regional Executive Officer of Region Five, Genevieve Blackman told the PAC that PTT 1184 is a bus which belonged to the Hugo Chavez Centre, and she did not see any permission for the vehicle to have gasoline. In 2018, the daily operations of the Hugo Chavez Centre were managed by Carol Joseph, who was the APNU+AFC’s Chief Scrutineer for the 2020 elections.
“Based on the research the RDC would have given gas to Hugo Chavez to assist them but there is no documentation anywhere…. It’s another government agency in the region controlled by the Ministry of Human Services,” she said.

PAC member Dharamkumar Seeraj questioned if the region was in possession of the information as it relates to the 26 vehicles which were not listed in the region’s inventory that were collecting the fuel.

The Regional Engineer, Dhanpaul Sukha, in reply said that when they reviewed the numbers highlighted by the AG, they found that there were “errors” in the numbers submitted by the gas station.

“We would have found that there were errors in the numbers. Mostly human errors on the invoice that was submitted by the gas station. Either a digit was off or a letter was off. So then the numbers that were submitted, did not correspond to the numbers of the vehicles in our inventory.
“So, we would have offered an explanation, for example, a vehicle PTT 7349 when the invoice came in, it came in as PLL7329. So, we would have had instances where that was the case here,” he said.

Opposition Parliamentarian, Ganesh Mahipaul, who chaired the proceedings, inquired if the region paid for those fuels, and Sukha replied in affirmative.
“So, the system whereby the fuel requisition is raised, a purchase order is raised by the programme. So, under the different programmes, for a particular month, there is a requisition, or a purchase order for a quantity of fuel, maybe $1 million or $100,000 of fuel for the different programmes.

“So, what would happen is that the individual vehicles would go during the course of the month to the different programme heads and nearby to the Deputy Regional Executive Officer, and the Regional Executive officer for approval. Following that, they would go to the service station to receive fuel and that amount is deducted from the total amount.
“So, at the end of the month now, there’s a reconciliation that is done, whereby the service station will normally provide us with a list of vehicles that would uplift fuel along with the necessary quantity of fuel collected, signatures of drivers, etc…. And that reconciliation was usually done in our account section to balance the amount of fuel, the value of that collected against the amount of money paid at service stations for that month,” Sukha told the PAC.
Mahipaul further probed Sukha about how the vehicle numbers were verified.
Sukha explained that at times, the region found that there was a “mix up” of the bill number, wrong figures and vehicle numbers that did not “match up” with the vehicle on their inventory.

PAC member Bishop Juan Edghill said that the region would have received management letters about these “human errors” before the AG finalised his report, and nothing was done.
The PAC also heard that one of the vehicles which collected fuel belonged to someone who was not a part of the region.
“Something is not right…. Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of it and fix it. Because that practice that you are having right now is what you had in 2019, clearly, it’s not the right practice… It is a breach of the store’s regulations…,” Mahipaul said.

Edghill questioned the region on whether they investigated to find out who the owners of these vehicles were that were not in their inventory.
Sukha said that they had reached out to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and some of the vehicle numbers were not found in their systems.
The GRA had found that one of the vehicles belonged to someone belonging to Region Eight, and not within the region’s inventory.
“Based upon what you’re saying to us, these are errors that are occurring internally. Because even though the gas station provides the wrong number, what system is in place in the region to ensure that there is a proper reconciliation?

“And all of these answers I’m sure you could have provided to the accounting officer two months after the finding…. How do we know this is not still happening in the region?” Mahipaul inquired.

Blackman, in her response, said that there are proper systems in place, and she now has additional staff that would check the vehicles to ensure that only government vehicles receive the fuel.

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