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Cash-strapped GWI spent $30M on 2018 Christmas party, Anniversary retreat
Former GWI Managing Director, Dr. Richard Van West-Charles (right), Substantive Minister for the Sector at the time, Ronald Bulkan (left) and former Georgetown Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green.
Kaieteur News – The cash-strapped Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) utility company in 2018, under the then leadership of Managing Director, Dr. Richard Van West-Charles, reportedly spent some $30M from its coffers for a Christmas party and its Anniversary celebrations.
The staggering figures are illustrated as expenditure by the company in an internal document, which has since been leaked to this publication.
At the beginning of the year, in January, the utility company’s ‘Planning and Transportation Committee’ reportedly took some $260,000 for activities related to GWI 16th Anniversary activities. Four months later in May that same year, just over $15.2M was utilised as a clearance for the anniversary activities. GWI observed the Anniversary at the end of that month—May 2018.
This was followed by a subsequent disbursement, acknowledged for the month of June, for $9,325. Another amount totaling $50,000 was obtained in November 2018 for an Anniversary advertisement, making the cumulative amount for GWI’s Anniversary some $15.58M. Activities for the entity’s Anniversary included a Retreat, a Prize Giving and Awards Ceremony, held at the Ramada Princess Hotel. Finally, for the year, the document reveals that at the end of that year, the utility company hosted a Christmas Party expending some $14.5M. As such, GWI for 2018, spent a total of $30M for its Christmas party and Anniversary celebrations from its coffers.
The expenditure by the utility company is coming under focus in light of the company’s position that it is essentially cash-strapped, to the point where it was unable to pay its electricity bills for that year. It was reported last year that GWI owed the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) some $7 billion for the period 2018 to 2020 and that the power company was hoping to enlist the assistance of the then newly elected Irfaan Ali-led administration to have the company pay off some of that debt.
GPL’s Divisional Director of Finance, Loris Nathoo, had told a Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hearing on the power company’s Operating Standards and Performance Targets that GWI’s average monthly electricity bill is approximately G$220 million to G$250 million. He reported at the time that said GWI’s debt is up to the end of August 2020.
GWI had informed GPL that it “did not have the funds” to pay its electricity bills and despite correspondence between the two utility companies and their ministries, “no concrete arrangement were ever finalised for GWI to settle their balance.” The State Corporation’s current CEO, Shaik Baksh, earlier this year reported that the utility company had managed to reduce its debts to suppliers from $800 million to $260 million from September to December 2020.
“We owed a lot of money to suppliers and GWI was finding it very difficult to access credit to source important equipment and materials for its day-to-day operations…So, indeed, this is a big achievement. Many suppliers have been paid and we still have some outstanding current year debt which is 2020,” he said.
Baksh had reported that when he took up his appointment in September last, GWI was in debt. It also had a bank overdraft of an undisclosed sum at one of the commercial banks.
“When a company has an overdraft, it means that you are in a desperate financial position,” he said. Although the entity’s financial position has improved in recent months, Baksh stressed that there is still room for improvement.
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