Ex-GMC head seeking legal advice to respond to audit report

May 28, 2016 News

In the wake of the forensic audit conducted into the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), former General

Former General Manager of GMC, Nizam Hassan

Manager, Nizam Hassan, has expressed confidence that there is no fraud.
He is also seeking legal advice on how best to respond to some of the more critical elements of the report.
Some examples of what the forensic audit which was conducted by Saykar A. Boodhoo into GMC for a period spanning 2012 to 2015, has red flagged include instances where a sum of $450M was transferred from GMC to other agencies such as Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO).
Also cited by the auditor, had been a payment of $273.3M on a letter of credit arrangement to GUYSUCO. Documented was an excess repayment of $120M to the Guyana National Co-Operative Bank (GNCB).
The report also documents that $35M in payments were made to the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (GRPA), while $111.2M in payments to the Ministry of Agriculture for vertical pumps were made in November 2014.
In the case of GMC’s loan to GUYSUCO, the auditor stated that not only was the loan interest free, the agreement had a special clause stating that only $87M was to be repaid to GMC.
This would represent a difference of over $360M, based on the agreement.
When asked to comment on this during an interview, yesterday, Hassan stated that he is engaging the services of legal counsel on how best to address the issues of fiduciary transfers in the report.
And while the auditor had noted that Hassan refused to explain the GUYSUCO arrangement, the former General Manager was adamant that he never refused to answer any of the auditor’s questions, but rather deferred some to the appropriate individuals.

Land cruiser
With regard to the section of the report which stated that a Toyota Land cruiser was purchased for him without the Board’s approval, Hassan could not confirm or deny that the Board really did have an input in this.
He stated that it would be necessary to comb through the Board minutes.
According to Hassan, currently the General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) since last year, what he could attest to was that all National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) processes, as set out, were followed for acquiring the vehicle.
That vehicle, Hassan stated, is now with GMC.
Inter agency cooperation
A section of the report spoke of cases whereby the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), through Permanent Secretary George Jervis, had requested funds from the GMC to take care of expenses such as trips made by former Junior Minister of Agriculture, Ally Baksh to Regions Two and Three.
In addition, it was noted in the report that a cheque for $600,000 was made out to pay for the MoA’s 2015 costume and float parade band.
According to Hassan, however, there is nothing wrong with inter-agency co-operation. He stated that all the agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture’s umbrella would contribute collectively to a unified cause. He added that the Ministry took a position of ‘one agriculture.’
He also stressed that it was not a case of his former Corporation paying an individual, but rather payments were made out to the ‘Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture.’
He did not offer a comment on the other allegations, including the one that GMC cash was used to purchase cell phones for the former Junior Minister and others.

‘Rubber stamp’
Describing Hassan as a ‘rubber stamp’, the forensic auditor also stated that from his observations, the “General Manager and Accountant did not provide any meaningful fiduciary responsibility when payment originated from the Minister of Agriculture or the Permanent Secretary.”
When asked, Hassan denied that there was undue political interference in the work his agency did while he was the General Manager.
He stated that there were management meetings, where the Minister of Agriculture would have an input. Policies were taken and followed, but within rules and regulations, he said.

1 thoughts on “Ex-GMC head seeking legal advice to respond to audit report”

george wiltshire May 28, 2016 at 4:03 pm

Take note and jail who could be jailed and put in place barriers to stop this from ever happening again. I am suggesting that 2025 election only a party with 60% should form the government. This will force the parties to collate . If they refuse then an interim government made up of persons drawn from identified positions.

Comments are closed.

Latest News