Administrator inflates GPL bills, pockets millions

Oct 07, 2018 News

The Audit Office of Guyana had cause to carry out a forensic investigation into the affairs of the Upper Corentyne Industrial Training Centre (UCITC). Several allegations of fraud and corruption were made against the school’s Administrator, Azad Sugrim, who remains on the job.
The audit confirmed some of the allegations and even unearthed issues that were not reported before.
One of the damning findings was that, on many occasions, UCITC collected monies from the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) but did not put the money towards the use for which it was requested. Kaieteur News understands that this has been going on for years.
Specifically, it has been found that Sugrim inflated the cost of the electricity bills for the institution which is funded by Government.
The audit was executed despite the fact that payment vouchers requested were not submitted for audit scrutiny; financial reports of the audit scrutiny training centre and Board minutes were not presented either.
BIT is focused on intensifying the delivery of relevant occupational, technical and vocational skills training with a view to addressing entry level occupational skills demand for current and emerging Industries/Scrvices that is both the public and private sector.
Emphasis is placed on vulnerable groups such as school dropouts, youths from depressed communities.
The annual budget for BIT is approved by the National Assembly and incorporated into the estimates of Expenditure under Subsidies and Contributions to Local Organizations under the Ministry of Social Protection.
Any institution that requires funding for training from BIT would submit a proposal. The CEO would take the proposal to the Board Meeting for discussion and approval. Once approved, a contract is prepared and signed between BIT and the beneficiary.
The institution, in this case UCITC, would then send invoices showing amounts that are required to offset expenditures for the month.
Kaieteur News understands that on many occasions, BIT collaborated with UCTIC for training. The money requested was disbursed but much of it was not spent on the training programmes.
The Audit found that UCTIC collected the money to buy various materials and equipment but would then use material provided by the Ministry. The money collected to buy those equipment and materials remain unaccounted for.
Also, UCTIC was caught inflating bills. In just one instance, UCTIC could not have accounted for over $7M.
An audit report stated, “The Training centre only submitted pay sheets, bills and receipts amounting to $1.4M resulting in an unaccounted difference of $7.136M.”
Further, the Audit Office noted that the proposal which UCTIC submitted to BIT included a sum of S1.501M for electricity charges based on a calculation that the training centre consumes $5M of electricity per month.
However, an examination of the electricity bills for the years 2012-2014 by the Audit Office revealed that the average monthly consumption of the training centre was $449,270, that is, a difference of $1.052M per month.
The Audit Office reported that using that training school’s principle for calculation of electricity charges, the amount that should have been requested was S150, 120, “based on the average monthly consumption, an over-estimation of 1.35M.”
An official from BIT told Kaieteur, “We are not just letting it down, something has to happen.”
The official, who spoke on the grounds of anonymity, said, “There are several issues here. You have to notice, also, that they are not only robbing us, they are also saying that they are paying $5M per month for electricity which means that that is the amount in the budget they submit to the Ministry. So they are basically getting two sweet out of one.”

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