President and Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Oil and Gas Association (GOGA), Bobby Gossai, the subject of recent media reports emanating from an audit into fraudulent and corrupt transactions at the Guyana Gold Board, has sought to defend himself, saying, “all tasks were done with the full knowledge of the Guyana Gold Board’s management team, its directors and chairperson, and the subject Minister, at that time.”
Sections of the local media, including Guyana Times , reported on the findings of the Audit of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) which had in fact recommended a full-scale Police investigation into the actions of Gossai and others, in addition to a probe by the Guyana Revenue Authority into possible tax evasion practices with regards to Value Added Tax.
Gossai in maintaining his innocence by way of a public statement on Friday said, “During my tenure as Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Guyana Gold Board, I performed my duties which were directives from my seniors.”
Gossai maintains that the recent reportage, subsequent to the announcement that he was appointed President and CEO of GOGA, is in fact “old news” and that he had already sought to clear the air on the issue, stating at the time that, “I acted within the confines of my job on all related matters for the Guyana Gold Board.”
Gossai, who was employed as an analyst with the Natural Resources and the Environment Ministry between 2011 and December last year said, “I was never terminated or dismissed from the Board… My terms were all fulfilled for each period that I served on the Board.”
He also sought to suggest that, “As I embark on a new opportunity, these old news which seem to be some sort of a personal mission to tarnish my professional character must end.”
According to Gossai: “My entire professional career has been built on my abilities to successfully perform the tasks which have been given to me… I have always executed my job with honour, integrity and respect, which has afforded me the opportunity to be effective in achieving those respective goals.”
Gossai threatens
While not speaking specifically to his opted course of action, Gossai has since threatened that, “Should these character attacks not be stopped, then the appropriate actions will be sought and implemented accordingly.”
GOGA Director Nigel Hughes on Thursday, following reports that Gossai had reportedly been engaged in fraudulent practices at the Gold Board, including the forging of a signature, had said the entity was looking into the reports as a matter of urgency.
According to Hughes, GOGA was unaware of the allegations against Gossai.
He said, “The Board of Directors of GOGA was unaware of the specific contents of the Audit Report….The Board of Directors has since secured a copy of the Audit Report and will be considering the contents of the report as a matter of urgency.”
Hughes pointed out that Gossai was retained by the Board of Directors of GOGA as CEO and his employment was part of the start-up process; further, he was currently on a probationary period.
Audit findings
According to the Gold Board report referred to by the local media and the GOGA Director, the then Natural Resources Minister Robert Persaud flouted the laws and had on occasions given or transmitted instructions to management on operational issues, such as matters relating to contracts.
“We understand from discussions with management and members of the Board that instructions came by way of Mr Bobby Gossai, Senior Policy Analyst/Adviser in the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment who was named by the Minister as Secretary to the Board… In our opinion, the Act does not give the Minister the power to name or nominate the Secretary to the Board and the Minister’s action amounted to a usurpation of the Board’s authority.”
With regard to the fraudulent transactions that Gossai would have allegedly been a party to, the Gold Board probe had found that 12 questionable payments had been authorised by him to Safewatch Inc.
It was found too that a contract with Safewatch for servicing of the phone system at a cost of $180,000 plus VAT per month was signed by the Assistant General Manager, Seelochan who “indicated that she was acting on the direction of the Company Secretary when the contract was signed”.
