Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Gold Board will keep buying gold –Minister Trotman
…Says it will guarantee the supply of foreign exchange
In light of damning financial irregularities which have been uncovered at the Guyana Gold Board, several anticorruption advocates have recommended that the Board should no longer be allowed to engage in the purchasing of gold.
Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman
The government, however, does not share this view. According to Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman, the coalition administration believes that the Board should continue to retain its role.
The Minister told Kaieteur News, yesterday, that there is always a suggestion about the role of the Board. He said that Cabinet considered this matter and believes that the board should continue purchasing in order to guarantee the supply of foreign exchange while paying more attention to the regulatory functions.
Trotman said, “That is the direction we are heading…The gold board ran up a huge debt in the last government and we have been slowly working to bring order and discipline to the board. Our efforts are paying off. Our new measure of introducing a processing fee has already shown benefits in cost recovery.”
The Natural Resources Minister said that his Ministry will be working closer with dealers in 2018 to have greater cohesion and regulation.
IRREGULARITIES
A forensic audit report prepared by Ram and McRae Chartered Accountants, details a number of worrying financial irregularities by the Guyana Gold Board.
The report says that Section 5 of the Gold Board Act provides the mechanism for the purchase price and the selling price for gold used by the Gold Board and requires notification in the Gazette. However, auditors said that there has been noncompliance with this requirement since 1983.
The forensic auditors noted that the Board consistently failed to monitor compliance with the conditions under which licences are issued to dealers.
Furthermore, forensic auditors noted that from 2012 to 2014, the Board made losses totaling $10B. Of this the Board recorded a gross loss of $9B in 2013 compared with a gross loss of $281.4 million in 2012 and $79.6 million in 2014.
At May 2015, the Gold Board owed the Ministry of Finance $8B for advances received in September 2012. At the same date, the balance on the Gold Board’s current account with the Bank of Guyana was an overdraft of $8B, making a total of $17B.
The auditors said that it does not seem that the Gold Board would be able in the foreseeable future to discharge its obligations to the Ministry of Finance or to liquidate its overdraft with the Bank of Guyana. (KIANA WILBURG)
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
No conflict of interest exists
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Accusations of conflict of interest have a peculiar way of rising to the surface in Guyana.... more
Clarifying misconceptions about the Panama Canal
Sir Ronald Sanders (Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS) By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News–... more
Weekend Cartoon
