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The case of the maid who rented vehicles to army

Was wife of senior functionary

The Auditor General’s report on the public accounts for 2006 has highlighted a series of problems in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) including a case where the army hired three vehicles from a maid who happened to be the “wife of a senior functionary in its core”.

The report was presented to Parliament last week, almost a year after the deadline. Addressing the expenditure of $136M under the category of Other Transport, Travel and Postage, the Audit Office said that $128.6M was spent on the hiring of vehicles. Of this figure there were 191 transactions valued at $55.6M involving the army and its staffers.

“This practice is devoid of any ingredients that would render the transactions transparent, since the proferring of contracts among staff members and its institutions creates bases for conflicts of interest, irregularities, fraud and/or corruption”.

Of particular note, the report said was that among the contracts to staffers was the hiring of three vehicles from the maid to the tune of $2.5M. “In this case, the army had hired three cars from the maid, who incidentally was the wife of a senior functionary in its core”, the report said.

When this matter was raised by the audit office with the relevant officer in the GDF, it was explained that “systems would be instituted to discontinue hiring of vehicles, which are owned by members of the force”.

For its part, the Audit Office recommended that the GDF institute measures to exclude GDF staffers from the awards of contracts for goods and services. The audit office also pointed out that the army’s system required that prior to any hiring of a vehicle that its ownership be validated but there was no evidence that this procedure was carried out in some of the cases. It also said that there was no evidence that the vehicle hire earnings were submitted to the Guyana Revenue Autho-rity. In relation to purchases of materials, equipment and supplies, the report found that tender board procedures were not followed for four transactions totaling $18.4M. The army had been cited in previous years for non-compliance with tender procedures.

In relation to the purchase of fuel and lubricants, 25 vouchers totaling $60M were not presented in support of fuel purchases and this made it difficult to determine whether value was received for the amount.

“Covert operations” was the way in which the army explained why it utilized prepaid phone services and phone cards. The audit office recommended that the army make use of identification-blocked post-paid services for its covert operations.

In relation to the capital account of $51.5M, the audit office report found that three transactions totalling $11.8M required approval from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board but this was not obtained. Transactions totalling $28.4M for the purchase of five Toyota pick-ups, one generator, three Motorola pack radios, 15 Dell desk-top computers and five HP Laser Jet Printers were not brought to account in the stock records.

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7 Responses to “The case of the maid who rented vehicles to army”

bbuckman
on August 9th, 2008 8:00 am

privitisation at its best.

[Reply to this]
CFO
on August 9th, 2008 9:38 am

Despite what the Government says about the AG (ag) and the praises they heap on his office, they do nothing when these reports come out.

[Reply to this]
kabaka
on August 9th, 2008 11:39 am

These are not isolated revelations .They are common and accepted practices
of many ministries.Something like”the amount of XXX was spent for security purposes and no bills or receipts were available” This was done on an “HONOUR STATEMENT”.Afixed at the bottom was the official stamp of the relevant PS and his/her or designate signature.DARE ANY ONE TO QUERY THAT VOUCHER.

[Reply to this]
GAVMAN
on August 9th, 2008 1:39 pm

There should be more transparency with the allotment of all contracts. Maybe it is time that all awarded contracts be made public.

it is sad the the report is so late, the A.G should be able to do better than that.

[Reply to this]
ankoko
on August 9th, 2008 7:33 pm

AG…. who?? er; er; ain’t it Goolsarran? Nah hia reports were timely and such then he went to the UN? He did feeling heat. Remember de game “Fire?” when U far is water then closer you get is smoke then heat then when U on the target is “Fire”. I think that what happen to Goolsarran - “Fired” I don’t know why.
Well dis now AG …. I just don’t know! Don’t even know his name. Guess it is just what it is!
Kabaka - Dem honour statements thing had limits you know. According to the position of the person there was a limit to the value that could be claimed on an honour certification. Like for meal claims I remember it going from $2.50 in the early sixties to $8.00 in 1981. Emergency purchases of spare parts were limited to what would be certified as necessary by the engineer. (Nostalgia) That had nothing to do with discrepancies and improprieties as found by the AG which is one of the purposes of the Audits to find and recommend plugs for holes before too much bleeding occurs.

[Reply to this]
LoveGT4Real
on August 9th, 2008 8:54 pm

This is just another example of “follow de leader”

The GDF top brass know fully well that such activities are common occurrences in Government Ministries so they feel like “hey, what’s the big deal”?

Besides, if a Venezuelan bomb should fall on Guyana the Ministers would most likely jump on the first lane out, while the GDF would be the ones blocking the bullets for all of us.

As to the recommendations of the Auditor’s office, it’s just a matter of time before the GDF find a way around them. What the Auditor should be recommending instead is that the GDF be allowed to procure it’s own fleet of vehicles period.

[Reply to this]
Debbie
on August 9th, 2008 11:51 pm

Why would a functioning government spend $128. 6 million on “hiring” vehicles ? Use that money and purchase the necessary vehicles needed for government agencies, makes sense to me… but then again I am not a politician.

[Reply to this]