‘Free for all’ fuel system at Guyana Fire Service – AG Report

Jan 04, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The Auditor General’s (AG) Office has noted in its report for the year 2020 that a ‘free for all’ fuel system exists within the Guyana Fire Service (GFS).

The Rose Hall Fire Station, one of the three stations flagged for using unauthorised signatures to issue fuel

It was noted in the report for spending during the year 2020, that a total of $46.1M was spent by the government that year to purchase fuel and lubricants for GFS and during an audit of its stores it was found that there, “is a lack of segregation in the requesting, authorising, issuing and collecting fuel”.
This means, that there is no internal control procedure implemented by the fire service to avoid theft of its fuel stock by corrupt employees.
According to the AG’s report, this practice was prevalent at three fire stations in Guyana, the Rose Hall Fire Station located in Berbice, the Melanie Damishana and the La Grange fire stations, located on the East Coast and West Bank of Demerara, respectively.
In fact, the report detailed that auditors counted at least 57 times where unauthorised signatures were used to approve the issuance of fuel at these three fire stations.
The AG’s office reminded GFS the current “free for all fuel system” that exists is not in compliance with Stores Regulations of Guyana and advised that it must follow the rules at all times.
GFS has since conceded that indeed there is some malpractice going on when it comes to management of its fuel stores and has promised to eradicate the “free for all” system by educating its officers of about rules it must follow.