Millions $$$ allegedly being pilfered from Kara Kara toll booth

Mar 08, 2022 News

Town Clerk, Orleena Obermuller

Linden’s Deputy Mayor, Wainwright Bethune

Kaieteur News – Officials from the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) are calling for an urgent investigation into the alleged pilfering of funds from the Kara Kara toll booth.
The call was renewed at the recent statutory meeting following the release of statistics from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC). The GFC’s Linden office is just a stone’s throw away from the toll booth.
The figures, which show the total revenues collected at the Kara Kara toll booth, within a given period, is significantly less than what was collected from the GFC for logging trucks only. The total figures received from the LM&TC finance department for all vehicles that paid the toll in 2019, 2020 and 2021 were $57M, $46M and $40M respectively, while the figures seen from GFC for those same periods collected from logging trucks only are $58M, $53M and $59M respectively.
In addition to collecting revenues from logging trucks, the toll booth also collects revenues from vehicles transporting fuel and machinery into the region and any other vehicle entering the town for commercial purposes. The financial records for 2018 show that $52M was collected, however in 2017, the toll booth raked in a whopping $92M.
The recommissioning of the toll booth was to increase revenues for the cash-strapped council so that it can clear debts and sustain itself. This is according to Linden’s Deputy Mayor, Wainwright Bethune who revealed that the toll booth, since 2016, has only marginally increased the revenue of the council and it remains cash-strapped.
Currently, revenues garnered can only meet 20 percent of the council’s expenditure. With millions of dollars in question, Bethune is alleging that the administration is complacent in its duties, since the issue of pilfering has been on the table since 2017 and little to nothing is being done to stop it. This leaves questions on the table as to whether there is apparent collusion between the staff operating the toll booth and those with the responsibility to investigate the matter.
Bethune is asking for a comprehensive investigation to be done for the administration to aggressively pursue those who may be guilty of theft. “They never pay attention to analyse the reports given by the finance department while the LM&TC has not been paying staff effectively, the staff is taking home below minimum wage salaries, their NIS and PAYE benefits are not being paid for, all of the council’s vehicles have mechanical problems, the council is short of staff and they are over $200M in debt,” he expressed.
While Bethune calls for a more intensive investigation, he said, “there should be an increase in surveillance around the work site; these cameras should be monitored, data should be refined and compared daily with Forestry’s daily information, and they should observe daily footage to see what vehicles stopped to pay revenues. The employees on duty must be held responsible for any discrepancy unearthed.”
Town Clerk Orleena Obermuller, in the statuary meeting said, she is open to an investigation being done, to compare revenues and she plans on writing the Local Government Commission to assist with an audit as well as to review previous camera footage. In 2016, former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil William had recommissioned the toll booth, after it was disbanded in 2013 by former Minister of Local Government, Norman Whittaker.
In 2017, during the Mayorship of Carwyn Holland, mere months after the toll booth was recommissioned, two employees were fired for pilfering funds. This prompted the council to install CCTV cameras, but apparently, the situation remains the same since records show the continuous decline in revenues. The council proposed to the administration to relocate the toll booth to Bamia, where there will be police presence and there are no other alternative routes to enter the township.

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