GEA staffers blame top-level corruption for fuel smuggling surge

Apr 01, 2013 News

“When you have a worker whose boyfriend is involved in logging and you have top officials with businesses in sectors that require fuel, it is not hard to wonder why no real action is being taken to fight the issue…” – GEA field officer

Staffers of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) yesterday stepped up their accusations against top level officials who they claim are aiding and abetting fuel smugglers.
“The administration is not advocating for policies that would clamp down on smugglers,” one staffer told Kaieteur News.
Continuing with allegations that they voiced on Saturday, some staffers alleged that field officers are restricted to certain areas in their investigations and are told by seniors who and where they must search.
They claim that they are not given the go-ahead to penetrate certain known smugglers and in other cases, charges are not brought against perpetrators.
Workers alleged that when the names of major companies are called, especially government affiliated firms or persons, “no permission is given to infiltrate these cases.”
Workers cited various connections between named agency officials and state officials deeming it a conflict of interest.
“When you have a (named) worker with an agency such as this, whose (named) boyfriend is involved in logging and you have top officials with businesses in sectors that require fuel, it is not hard to wonder why real action is not being taken to fight the issue,” a senior field officer suggested.

Staffers argued that the named officer acted as field operations coordinator for some time, but was never subjected to a polygraph test, although the section was pegged for testing. An official in the fuel marking area was also bypassed, in addition to an analyst although, “these are crucial areas that must be looked at if corruption is to be tackled.”

An officer reported that, last year “We went to the East Coast and a smuggler asked ‘wha yall doing here. I pay off yall boss last night.’”
“Whether it is true or not, these people must be tested to maintain the integrity of their positions and the firm,” the officer said.

Kaieteur News was further told that attempts are also being made to frustrate staffers into functioning inefficiently.
“When people applied for the position of Analytical Inspector at the GEA, they were enticed by the salary that was paid back in 2004, but little did they know that that would have been their permanent income over the next several years.” Staffers said that after the passing of the previous CEO Joseph O’Lall, the situation has not been the same.

“He was a man of action. He would pick up a team and do surveillance and even visit sites randomly but he was dismissed for reasons still unknown.”

“The post of Analytical Inspector sounds fancy but young and unsuspecting persons are confronted again and again by hostile fuel smugglers. There were times that some were hospitalized after being stung by dozens of Africanized bees. Men armed with cutlasses and some with guns were a regular sight for the Inspectors, some were even harassed in remote areas with no contact with the outside world.

“Day by day, Inspectors are being put at risk without an allowance other than the $4M life insurance policy if one were to die while on duty. The employment contracts stipulate a Monday to Friday from 08:00 am to 17:00 pm work time; but inspectors are forced to include weekends and Holidays when applying for annual leave, while officials have instructed that Inspectors complete ten hours of work before they become eligible to claim meal allowance of $750.”

Since the disappearance of former Field Operation Coordinator Levoy Taljit, who went missing December last, staffers say, “Inspectors are under the supervision of (individual identified) who, based on instructions from (name given), steers the Inspectors to work in particular geographical areas, restricting work only in Berbice, East Coast, East Bank, West Bank, West Coast and Essequibo Island.”

The Inspectors said they visit and take samples of legal sites/locations only and it has now gotten to the stage where business entities and residences storing fuel are feeling pestered by having the GEA officials visit each day. The GEA Linden base was burnt during the recent protest, so staffers are placed under a tent with no form of security for themselves or the machine used to test the fuel.

“If they truly wanted to fight the illegal fuel trade they would fight for legislations to be put in place to tackle the issue, but it’s like they putting policies in place to make sure that their smuggling friends get a free reign. In the meantime they polygraph us small staff, but they must show us the results when we fail the test and we will show them where the corruption is.”