Massive corruption at GuyOil

Apr 29, 2021 News

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– Director, Finance Controller sent home
– Investigations underway in $300M army fuel

By Gary Eleazar

Kaieteur News – Head of State, President Irfaan Ali, has ordered that a Director at the State owned Guyana Oil Company (GuyOil), Akanni Blair, and the company’s Chief Finance Controller, Shawn Persaud, be sent home pending investigations by the police and the Auditor General’s Office, into, among other things, massive corruption at the agency.

The investigations relate to a recently unearthed transaction with a private fuel dealer involving some US$3.4M, in addition to another $300M transaction involving fuel for the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
Additionally, the Head of State said, the entity is being investigated “in relation to companies collecting fuel from the terminal and [that] those companies had no right to be there collecting fuel in other agencies’ names.”
The damning revelations were made yesterday when President Ali held a press engagement at State House and insisted that the state of affairs was “inherited.”
He told reporters that as it relates to Trevor Bassoo, the GuyOil General Manager (GM) who had resigned, “he stays resigned.”
Bassoo had been sent on leave by the Board of Directors, headed by Chairman, Paul Cheong, to facilitate a performance audit of his work but subsequently resigned.
As it relates to the entity’s Finance Controller, the President noted that he was already on probation and that he has since been removed.
Over the weekend, this publication had reported on an audio recording of a telephone call that had surfaced purportedly between Director Blair and the go-between for the fuel dealer —Aaron Royalty Inc. (ARI).
That conversation with the go-between, who was identified by Blair to be ‘Chrissy,’ had detailed aspects of the fuel transaction between GuyOil and ARI Inc., — headed by Jayson Aaron—for fuel that was intended for the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL).

Chrissy then enquired “how ah getting the change, duh is wha ah wan know?”
According to the Director, “I gun tell duh man he gah give you a money bai, I gun call Aaron and tell he leh he give you a money for setting up the deal; he (Aaron) got to do it, he got to do it, he got to pay he initial dues.”
Chrissy at this point sought to query “but we gone through clear dey though?” in relation to the agreement for ARI to supply the fuel to GPL, to which he was told by the Director, “we good, we good.” That reaction was met with a burst of laughter by Chrissy, who then reminded the Director to call Aaron to drop the money.
He said “tell he you can’t make it, tell he drop the thing for me right, you boy ain’t got $20 in he pocket, literally me ain’t got $20; but god is good bai.”
Blair for his part had stated publicly that he is innocent of any skullduggery being portrayed in the media. This was reported in another section of the media.

Chairman of the Board of Directors at GuyOil, Paul Cheong, had confirmed that it was he, who directed Blair to source a fuel supplier for two shipments that the state company had tendered out for.
Cheong, in an invited comment recently, told this publication that the reports were accurate but that Blair was only asked to provide the company’s management with the information for the company.
In a separate set of communication between ARI’s Jayson Aaron and Persaud, the Finance Controller who was sent home, the conversation begins with a message purportedly from Persaud saying, “Good day Mr. Aaron I understand that you are upset and not answering your phone but I want you to understand that is not me it’s MR. BLAIR is the person who cause this deal to go sour cause he is the one who talk you down to us, and also he didn’t believe you can do it and also it’s he is the person when you left the board meeting that said that we are gonna get more money from the other supplier who is giving you a cut back.”
Aaron responds by stating that he is unconcerned about GuyOil’s internal dealings and went on to remind the official that “y’all come to my place Good Friday when I am with my family to request fuel that was an emergency.” He also spoke of encountering problems with getting a purchase order and to have his invoice signed off.
In response, the official tells Aaron that he “broke the rules” by sending the invoice and that since there was nothing written “you can’t win.” The official continued by advising Aaron to keep quiet and he would ensure that he gets his money.
Aaron had last week issued several ultimatums to GuyOil to conclude the transaction with him or he would expose that officials of the company had contacted him to procure the fuel and that there was some corrupt aspects to what was subsequently required of him to secure the deal.
In multiple parts of the conversation, the financial official indicates that he is new to the post and that he needed time to adjust: “Please don’t do anything, now I started this job 12 weeks ago, not looking to get into problems now when we can make money every month for the next 12 months.”
When told by Aaron that he was only looking to get paid what was due, the official indicated that payment was not a problem. “I have 50 million in my account and your business is just over 3 million so it’s not about the money. I will pay you but you have to keep it quiet all I ask, you are gonna make more money than you can ever imagine with me.” It is believed that the “three million” refers to the value of the deal which is in US dollars.
The official continued by exhorting Aaron to “Please remember to delete as we talk I don’t want to call cause I heard you are recording conversations.”
This publication understands that the official has since gone to the police to attempt to clear his name and has since divulged that the conversations contained in the screenshots are not recorded in his phone.
Aaron was subsequently arrested and is being investigated for purportedly breaching the Cyber Crime laws.
Additionally, President Ali in his press briefing yesterday noted that in addition to the officials being sent home, “there is an ongoing investigation with GuyOil where $300M in fuel is being investigated with the army.”
Citing that the investigations are currently with the police and Auditor General, the President noted that “they had great risk management, the AG had raised that.”
According to the President, this is in addition to the ongoing investigations into the use of Permits for Immediate Delivery (PIDs) at the state entity.
President Ali was adamant however, “these are things we inherited, those investigations are going on, those conversations are with the police and the AG at the moment, so I can’t comment more on that but those are things we inherited, massive, massive corruption we inherited there…let me make it very clear, massive corruption.”

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