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Gold Scam…Police ranks reviewing video footage at Bartica Office

Apr 29, 2014 News

Investigating ranks probing the Gold Board scam have begun reviewing video footage of the operations at the now closed Bartica Office.
According to a source close to the investigations, the ranks have begun reviewing footage at the office over a period of one month prior to the racket being uncovered.
This move comes following an announcement by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment that there will be a forensic audit of the Gold Board operations.
“The Guyana Gold Board has engaged the services of an external auditor to perform a full forensic audit of the activities of the GGB at its locations to assist with the current investigation by the Guyana Police Force,” the Board said in a statement released via the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.
The Gold Board insists that its control systems remain one of the most robust in the region, even as investigators continue their probe into how staffers managed to breach systems into a fraud scheme.
Police are also still hunting for a technician of the Bartica branch of the GGB who reportedly went on the run after the probe was launched
earlier this month.
The Board announced that it closed one of its main sub-offices at Bartica, Region Seven; a community located up the Essequibo River and once considered the gateway to the hinterlands.
The closure was said to be because of allegations that staffers may have tampered with the gold being purchased from miners.
Gold Board sources insisted that the probe is centered on a specific timeframe, March, when the bulk of the alleged tampering of the gold took place.
It is believed that as much as 50 ounces of gold ($10M) was involved.
Police have been pursuing a theory that staffers colluded in switching purchased gold with silver and were doing so almost on a daily basis.
It is also not being ruled out that the staffers could have also colluded with miners by buying gold of a lower purity quality and passing it through the Gold Board system as gold of a higher quality, attracting better prices.
At least six persons were taken into custody, including the female manager and the accountant but have since been released on bail.
The case is worrying authorities as gold remained for the third consecutive year, the biggest foreign exchange earner and a major spinner and employer of the economy.
Last year, gold exports earned a massive US$648.5 million.

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