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E.C.D four-lane extension… Gafoor’s authenticates invoices
The company supplying steel to the controversial contractor of a section of the East Coast Demerara four-lane expansion has authenticated several bills that were questioned by the Public Works Ministry.
This further supports the contractor’s claims that his transactions with the Ministry were above board, contrary to claims by the Ministry.
The stalled road works on the East Coast Demerara.
Recently, the contractor of Falcon Transportation and Construction Services, claimed that his contract was terminated because of his constant refusals to give bribes to Ministry officials.
The Ministry maintained that the termination was based on the fraudulent submissions of documents and non-performance by the contractor. The Ministry has since signaled its intentions approaching the police to investigate the matter.
In a press release the Ministry had said, “Five of 11 invoices submitted by the contractor from suppliers had blocked out invoice numbers and claims for the same items (steel) twice.” However, the Ministry never made checks with the company to confirm whether the invoices with blocked out numbers were authentic. In fact, in a cover letter attached to the invoices, The Manager of Gafsons Industries Limited, Parika branch, has since invited the Ministry to verify the receipts.
According to the Manager, Gafsons Industries Limited issued the invoices with blocked out numbers to the contractor. Without offering specific details, it was explained that the branch received the invoice books from the company’s head office with the blocked out numbers.
According to the contractor, “they (the Ministry) claimed that the invoices that I obtained from Gafoor were duplicated. But Gafoor gave an explanation for the appearances of the invoices. The Ministry could have easily verified it by just making a phone call or even contacting Gafoor, but they are too important to do that.”
He stated that the Ministry refused to acknowledge a document from Gafoors authenticating the bills.
According to the contractor, the same invoices were approved by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) when he made claims for a refund of his Value Added Tax.
“These bills went to GRA and were checked…and I was refunded the VAT from it. It was accepted by GRA as authentic,” the contractor said.
It was on these perceived discrepancies that the Ministry wrote to the contractor informing him that his contract was terminated. He noted that it took the Ministry five months after they queried the discrepancies to terminate the contract.
The road works are ongoing between Montrose and Sparendaam.
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