Natural Resources Ministry staffer had forged cheques and cashed it at bank in 2018

Natural Resources Ministry staffer had forged cheques and cashed it at bank in 2018 – PAC hears

Feb 18, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – A forensic audit conducted at the Ministry of Natural Resources in 2018 had uncovered theft by a clerk attached to the agency.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Joslyn McKenzie.

The matter was brought up before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at Parliament Building on Monday as the committee examined the Auditor General’s Report for 2017 and 2018. The issue was raised after Chairman (ag), Ganesh Mahipaul sought clarifications on an issue flagged in 2018 regarding “missing cheques”.
Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry, Joslyn McKenzie told the PAC that after the Natural Resources Ministry found that a forged cheque was successfully cashed at a commercial bank, the ministry quickly moved to implement a tighter system. McKenzie explained that at the time, the cheque books were not kept in a secured manner as was required. He said that the clerk who had responsibility for the cheque book did not properly secure it which later resulted in the member of staff acquiring the cheque book and forging the signature of the required signatories.
He explained to the PAC that the cheque books were not properly secured because, at the time, the ministry was in the process of moving from its Brickdam Office. As such, he said, “the staffer was able to get access to the cheque books, forge the signature, go to a local commercial bank, and access $690,000…”
“We discovered it and we immediately contacted the Accountant General, the Auditor General, and asked them to conduct an investigation,” the Permanent Secretary told the committee.
According to the PS after it was brought to their attention, “the bank recognised that the signatures were highly forged and they couldn’t understand why they honoured it in the first instant…” Notwithstanding, he said the Ministry was successful in recovering all the monies and the staff was dismissed.
Mckenzie said nonetheless that the Ministry is now in the possession of a new safe in which the cheque books are stored.
“We also have access control with two keys. One is held by the Accounting Officer while the other is kept by the PS for Finance. We haven’t had any reoccurrence of that issue since then,” he added.
In that new system, a new safe had been installed at the ministry which carries a specialised access control requiring two keys which are shared between the accounting officer and a representative of the Finance Ministry. Meanwhile, the ministry also saw an issue in 2018 with the deduction of more monies than required for PAYE from about nine employees. The Permanent Secretary explained that the matter was already sorted with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and there has been no reoccurrence. In fact, he said the 2019 Auditor General’s Report will speak to the situation being rectified amicably.