GWI board to meet today on fate of debt collection manager

The Board of the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) is expected to convene a special meeting today on the hiring of the Debt Collection Manager Lear Goring, who has been sent on administrative leave following reports of his narcotics convictions in the United States.

This is according to Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, who also expressed the wish that Cabinet have the final say on the issue.

Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, the minister said he became concerned after the hiring was made public and immediately asked the corporation for a full report on the matter. He said that the meeting is “to address this sole issue and some other relevant and associated issues.”

He cautioned that the matter be treated with urgency and due consideration and sensitivity to both the employee and the public. “My general guidance and direction to the board is that in keeping with what the administration is committed to I expect full transparency and accountability and we want to show by our actions that we can meet that test…,” Minister Bulkan said.

He said that while the Government is not seeking to influence the process since the board is an independent authority, it is appropriate that following its recommendation that the matter be taken to Cabinet which will make a final declaration.

He admitted however, that this is a grey area even as he implored the board to lean in the direction of his suggestion.

“It is actually a grey area…the board seems to feel that it should be allowed to make a final pronouncement…I am being advised that yes that might be so and I am assured that is so but I am imploring the board not to seek to go in that direction and to allow my engagement and involvement as well whatever recommendations I may seek to take to the Cabinet…,” the Communities Minister said.

Apart from Goring’s criminal background the issue of the procedure used to hire him will also need to be addressed. According to sources the position was never advertised and months after he was hired his file remained empty and as such there is no public information on his qualifications. Sources have also indicated that another person was hired as the Deputy Security Officer, a position that is not in the corporation’s structure, without the job being advertised. Both persons are said to be close associates of GWI’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Richard Van West-Charles. The process used to hire the CEO was also questioned as the position was not advertised as well.

Goring also sits as a Director on a fuel company that has been granted a licence to import and distribute fuel and on which the CEO is also a Director. This newspaper had asked the GWI CEO about the connection between himself and Goring and the fact that he was hired by the utility company and he said, “And so what happened with that?” He then terminated the conversation.

According to court documents seen by Stabroek News, Goring was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine in 1995 and he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 63 months in prison by Judge K M Moore in a Brooklyn, New York Court. He was expected to be supervised for 48 months after release. He was later deported.

In 2002 along with his mother, Joycelyn Goring, he had filed a petition for a naturalisation hearing in front of Judge I Leo Glasser.

This was objected to by the US government on the grounds that Goring was convicted in 1990 of drug trafficking and deported in 1993 and then he returned to the US in 1995 with “a forged passport and drugs.”