Natural Resources Ministry staff fired for stealing, cashing cheque

After discovering that a cheque belonging to the Natural Resources Ministry was stolen and cashed at a local bank in 2018, an employee attached to the entity was dismissed.
This revelation was made on Monday during a sitting of the Public Accounts Committee at Parliament Building where the 2018 and 2017 Auditor General Reports were being examined.
Chairman (ag) Ganesh Mahipaul sought clarifications on an issue flagged in 2018 regarding “missing cheques”.
The Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Joslyn McKenzie, explained that at the time, the cheque books were not kept in a secured manner as was required. As such, “the staffer was able to get access to the cheque books, forge the signature, go to a local commercial bank, and access $690,000…”
“We discovered it and we immediately contacted the Accountant General, the Auditor General, and asked them to conduct an investigation,” the Permanent Secretary noted.
The commercial bank in question was also approached and told of the issue. According to McKenzie, “the bank recognised that the signatures were highly forged and they can’t understand why is it they allowed it in the first instant…”
Notwithstanding, the Ministry was successful in recovering the monies. “We were able to recover all the monies, the staff was dismissed,” the Permanent Secretary confirmed.
He further admitted that the cheque books were not properly secured because, at the time, the Ministry was in the process of moving from its Brickdam Office. Nevertheless, the Ministry is now in the possession of a new safe in which the cheque books are stored.
“We also have access control with two keys,” McKenzie said, noting that one is held by the Accounting Officer while the other is kept by the PS for Finance.
“We haven’t had any reoccurrence of that issue since then,” McKenzie further asserted.
The name of the commercial bank and the identity of the employee were not revealed during Monday’s session.
Meanwhile, the Ministry also saw an issue in 2018 with the deduction of more monies than required for PAYE from about nine employees. The Permanent Secretary explained that the matter was already sorted with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and there has been no reoccurrence. In fact, he said the 2019 Auditor General Report will speak to the situation being rectified amicably. (G11)