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One fired, more staff sent home

Mar 26, 2009 News

The reins of Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) have been placed in the hands of Director of Operations, Yuri Chandisingh, following the decision by the entity’s Board of Directors to send Chief Executive, Karan Singh, on extended leave last Monday.
According to information reaching this newspaper, Singh and his entire Secretariat, including an Executive Assistant, a Clerk and driver, were sent off the job to facilitate a thorough investigation into reports of mismanagement at the entity.
The Board of Directors, in a release issued on Tuesday, stated that it had moved to examine in greater detail allegations brought to its attention about mismanagement in the water sector.
The release added that Singh was informed of the situation and agreed that his absence from work would facilitate the speedy completion of the Board investigation.
Also, as part of the investigation underway, the entity’s Human Resource Manager, Sabrina Panday, has reportedly been dismissed.
Interesting to note is that all of the staffers that have come under scrutiny were also former employees of the Cricket World Cup (CWC) Secretariat.
The investigation at the water company, according to a source, started after an internal audit revealed that there were discrepancies with a number of contracts. The Board is now examining all contracts that have been awarded, as there are certain procedures to be followed in assigning contracts, particularly when they exceed certain limits.
Reports are that while Singh may not have been involved in the day-to-day procurement process, he had approved contracts that are now proving to be questionable, thus the need for him to be set off on leave.
But according to Singh, since he did not have responsibility for procurement but instead headed the entire entity, there is no way that he could be implicated in any act of mismanagement.
He described some media reports as “an attempt to assassinate my character.” He noted that time and time again persons have tried to damage his reputation but have failed miserably, adding that on each occasion he has been vindicated.
It is his belief that deliberate attempts are being made to implicate him in fraudulent activities.
“Once that investigation is done in an unbiased manner I am confident that at the end of the day my name will be cleared.”
Reflecting on his involvement in the water sector back in the 1990s, Singh said that although allegations were brought against him he bowed out quietly and did not retaliate, knowing that he had done nothing wrong.
According to Singh, if he had really been involved in immoral activities there was no way that the current administration would have allowed him to handle billions of dollars during Guyana’s hosting of the CWC in 2007.
“When I was placed at GWI it was an utter mess and I did all that I could to make that entity what it is today.”
Singh said that he has no problem staying away from the job if it means that the investigation into the allegations will be properly conducted.
This newspaper has learnt that all heads of department within the company will also be subjected to interviews conducted by the Board once they would have had some level of involvement in various contracts.
It has been suggested that the internal audit was engaged after it was discovered that Head of Procurement of the water company, Dhani Narine, had been involved in a scam over the issuance of contracts.
Narine has since been sent on leave. There are allegations that over a period of time he had been making deals to receive ‘drawbacks’ from contractors employed by the water entity.
A source close to the entity revealed last week that Narine would allegedly demand that contractors’ advance him specified sums of money from the contracted sum before they were guaranteed the contract.
The source related that the contractors became aggravated and, as a result, decided to lodge an official complaint with senior officials of the entity.

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