As investigations continue into a million-dollar Money Order fraud at the Guyana Post Office (GPOC) Corporation, the union representing workers in this sector has threatened industrial action if the management of the GPOC does not retract statements made in a recent press release.
During a press conference on Friday, President of the Guyana Postal and Telecom-munication Workers’ Union (GPTWU) Harold Shepherd said the press statement issued on the fraud by the GPOC was damaging to workers in the industry and contradicted agreements made during bilateral discussions. According to Shepherd, Port Kaituma Post Office, which is at the centre of this matter, has been a problematic one for some time. He accused the management of the GPOC of failing to adequately address the issue. He said that a senior official at this post office has been questioned by the police and was released on bail.
On Thursday, the GPOC, in a press statement, said that “nineteen postmasters and staff members of the finance department at the Guyana Post Office Corporation are under investigations for Money Order Fraud in excess of $ 1 million.“ The fraud was reportedly early in October.
According to the release, apart from the Port Kaituma Post Office, the others under investigation are Anna Regina, Bartica, Mahaica, Wales, Vreed-en-hoop, Fort Wellington, Kitty, Campbellville, Bagotville, Queenstown, East La Penitence, Soesdyke, Rosignol, Charles-town, Bourda, Charity, Grove and Parika.
“Initial meetings with members of the finance department and members of the reconciliation team were convened on October 13,” the release stated. According to the Corpo-ration, the Postmasters in question were invited to a meeting with the presence of the President and General Secretary of the Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers’ Union as well as a representative from the Public Service Union on October 22.
According to the release, “the Board of Directors has expressed its disgust at the level of dishonesty that has become evident within the ranks of the organization over the period and continues to work assiduously with the corporation to provide a service based on high levels of integrity, professionalism and excellence.”
Shepherd, however, said that during discussions with the GPOC, the corporation said that they were prepared to settle the matter internally and that the consequent actions by the management were in “bad faith”. He said that he expected the GPOC to stick to the measures agreed as they attempted to recoup the amount that was stolen.
The amount stolen is reportedly said to be $1, 114,000, Shepherd disclosed.
The union president said that if the GPOC does not retract the statement within 72 hours the union is prepared to take industrial action.
If SN had listened to me a few months ago and carried taken an investigative line , you would have been in a better position to give us a better report on these matters possibly even prevent it!!
The Board and the de jure PMG should be blamed for all this mess with our resources and our (my) pension money.
I recall when a structured training programme existed to make sure that persons were clear on the systems in place and that supervisors were adequately trained to be analytical and be able to properly do the job. One of the first Training Officers, who had worked thru the PO, obtained his degree at UG, then went on to become a Senior Labour Officer applied for a senior management positionin the PO, was successful and was appointed as an ADDITIONAL APMG IN TRAINING. This reflected the thinking of those in authority of the importance of persons being orientated in knowing the systems to be followed before working in authority.
Contrast this with the closing of the Training School, the pitchforking of persons into all positions without the grounding, the emasculating of the de facto CEO/PMG, the adhoc positions taken in managemant decision making, the discarding of a cadre of institutional memory positions like the Postal Security Investigators and we set up for a lack of checks and balances to be maintained.
Progress means going back to the basic principles! ‘Kaituma’ was tried before. It is the management and the Union that should make sure that the system is followed and that they follow the system trail to correct the obvious flaws at Head Office that allowed these to occur at such alarming rate nowadays.
You dont need a consultant to tell you that!!!
Obviously the two ‘PMG positions’ have been transposed!
The GPOC is in a serious management crisis. The person who micromanages knows ‘absolutely nothing’ about the Postal system and as such situations like this will continue until a PMG is appointed who ‘knows’ the system and has the ‘cahones’ to put systems back in place to deter and prevent fraud and MAKE IT WORK THE RIGHT WAY!!!!!
the guyana post office has always been a mess as far as i can remember form birth certificate fraud to postal stamps to stealing money from overseas mail, when will it ever end the salaries the government pay will always make the public service worker ddo fraud.