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GBTI refutes Ramjattan’s secret US$25M account

Apr 16, 2013 News

 

The Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry has refuted claims that it has in its account, a secret US$25 million account. On Sunday, Kaieteur News carried a story about a US$25 million account that was only recently discovered in the accounts of Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry.
According to the story, the money was “in a bank account under the control of Winston Brassington, the controversial head of the Privatisation Unit.”
The story attributed the discovery to Khemraj Ramjattan, Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), who claimed that such monies “can be used to pay public servants a much-needed increase in wages and salaries.”
Regarding the bank account, Ramjattan said that a whistleblower disclosed that Brassington and Keith Burrowes, an official close to the government, are the main persons controlling the bank account at GBTI.
“We are being told by a reliable source…a whistleblower…that the account has $4.9B in it in the name of National Cooperative Financial Services. AFC is extremely concerned about this since nowhere has the government told the National Assembly that it has (this money) sitting in an account.”
Yesterday, the bank said that it had only one account above the sum quoted by Ramjattan, and that the signatories are not Winston Brassington and Keith Burrowes.
The bank added that it has no account for which Brassington is a signatory. “There is no account to which Mr. Burrowes and Mr. Brassington are joint signatories.”
Commenting on the issue of a ‘whistleblower’ a senior bank official said that commercial banks are about secrecy.
The contention that there is someone in the bank who is divulging information to the outside is distressing. However, the consensus is that someone decided to “set up” Ramjattan who could not take the time to check the veracity of the information he received.
And Mr. Keith Burrowes, who is currently seeking medical attention overseas, said that there is no secret US$25 million account to which he is a signatory.
Mr. Burrowes said that he is surprised that the information was not verified with him or a senior staff.  “Politicians must verify their information before going public with such damaging statements. Usually information coming out of the commercial banks is credible; but unfortunately in this case the information is totally inaccurate,” he added.
The other issues raised in the article are government issues or issues of other entities and as such those institutions and the government will decide if and when they may respond to the article, he said.

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