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Chief finance officer, three others on leave for GT&T audit
…CEO denies knowledge of financial irregularities
The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) is taking a deep dive into its books and has asked its Chief Financial Officer and three other staff to step aside to facilitate the process.
Royston Rachpaul
“This procedure will test our internal controls, test our finances, test our payments, test everything.
“We have a couple of staff that have been asked to stay out of the office to facilitate the process,” Yog Mahadeo, Chief Executive Officer of the company confirmed yesterday.
However, Mahadeo would not say that any particular event prompted the audit. In addition, he would not say that Royston Rachpaul, the chief financial officer, or the other three staff members are culpable of financial irregularities.
“I don’t where, (or) if there is a definite problem. We are concerned about internal controls…if there are any irregularities it will be with controls,” Mahadeo told Kaieteur News and Demerara Waves in a shared interview.
According to Mahadeo, the audit is being conducted under Sarbane-Oxley (popularly called SARBOX), the U.S Federal Law that came into being as a reaction to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals including those affecting companies such as Enron and Worldcom.
GT&T is mostly owned by U.S. telecommunications company Atlantic Tele Network (ATN) with 80% of total shares. The Guyana Government holds the other 20 per cent shares.
“We are the only company that certifies for SARBOX for internal controls,” Mahadeo stated. But even though the company has been subjected to SARBOX audits before, this is the first time that staff of the company have been asked to stay away to facilitate the process.
“Even if they had asked me I then would have allowed such a process to take place,” Mahadeo stated.
After the SARBOX audit around the same time last year, together with an external audit towards the end of the year, Mahadeo said he was satisfied that the company’s books were in order.
The chief financial officer and the three other senior staff opted for vacation leave while the audit is being conducted. They were off the job since last Thursday and no timeline has been given for when the audit would be complete.
“You take your time, because at the end of the day all the prudent decisions, and checks and balances cannot be constrained by time,” Mahadeo stated.
The audit report would be handed to the board of directors.
“I don’t know if you’re testing controls which they are off to facilitate, I don’t know if anybody’s job is at risk,” Mahadeo declared.
GT&T recorded over $4 billion in profits last year with a revenue increase of three percent.
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