Personnel Officer, senior staff sent home

Jun 20, 2015 News

…as Ministry of Presidency probes sale of state assets
The release of two people from the Ministry of the Presidency, formally the Public Service Ministry, was done to facilitate an investigation into the suspicious transfer of state assets to private individuals, according to Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
He was discussing the release of the agency’s Personnel Officer Margaret Cummings and Joyann Taylor.
“It is more than an allegation. It is on actions the Ministry has taken based on a report which was made to me as the Minister of State by the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Public Service Mr Hydar Ally,” explained Harmon.
Minister Harmon said that he received written correspondence from the Permanent Secretary concerning suspicions that the two employees were involved in fraud under the Ministry of Public Service.
Minister Harmon said that he learnt that there were some documents that had been sent to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), purportedly signed by the Permanent Secretary under his letterhead but in effect, were signed by someone else. “He had no knowledge of this transaction,” said Minister Harmon.
According to the Minister, Permanent Hydar Ally had directed him to the discrepancy in the paperwork and to the application to the GRA for the transfer of eight vehicles. He said that the signatures of Cummings and Taylor, were found on the receipts for the documentation, sale and transferral of said vehicles which were owned by the Ministry.
Signatures for the payment for state assets, the Minister explained, were from former Public Service Minister Jennifer Westford; Gary Beaton, a close friend of the former Minister; WayneWalker; Delroy Lewis and Osbert McPherson.
“(Ally) sent me a bundle of documents which included a document from GRA which showed that there was an application to transfer these vehicles that belonged to the state, to some private individuals. The bundle of documents also included receipts showing that these vehicles were sold to these individuals by the Ministry,” said the State Minister.
Additionally, Minister Harmon said that based on a preliminary investigation he conducted on a visit to the Public Service Ministry, he thought it important that police be called in to investigate the matter. He said that he asked that the two staff members involved in the matter to be “sent on leave immediately”.
The documents, according to the Minister, have since been sent to the Assistant Police Commissioner, Wendell Blanum and that investigations have since commenced.
Should those persons be found guilty, Minister Harmon said, the determination will have to be up to the police.
He added that the transferral of 25 other vehicles is also under investigation. However, he said that those vehicles are the subject of another matter as the Government has received reports of many state-owned assets being transferred to private individuals.
“In the second week of this administration I did make a statement to the effect that on two days in May that at least 28 vehicles were transferred from the Government of Guyana to private individuals. That is the subject of a separate investigation because what we are getting now is that many other assets of the state are being transferred to private individuals,” the Minister related.
Harmon is calling on the public to return any assets they may have purchased or borrowed from the state.
“The State Asset Recovery Unit will soon be starting its work and therefore as a sort of an amnesty of sorts, (we are asking) people who are in possession of assets belonging to the state to quietly bring them back to the state ministry from whence they came or bring them back to the Ministry of the Presidency,” said Minister Harmon.

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