Carvil Duncan charged with fraud

…warrant issued for GPL ex-finance chief

PRESIDENT of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) and General Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union Carvil Duncan, and the former Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) Aerswar Deonarine, have found themselves in hot waters over the unapproved transfer of approximately $29M to their personal bank accounts from the PetroCaribe fund.Duncan, who is also a former Director of the GPL, was yesterday placed on $1M bail by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in connection with three criminal offences he is accused of committing against the entity as a board member of the while a warrant was issued of the arrest of Deonarine since he had allegedly fled the jurisdiction.

The police alleged that Duncan stole $984,900 from GPL on March 31, 2015 at Georgetown after conspiring with Deonarine to commit the act of simple larceny.
Duncan is also alleged to have conspired with Deonarine to commit a felony – that is to say between May 7 and 8 at Georgetown he conspired to steal GYD$27,757,500, property of GPL.

The President of FITUG denied the charges and was represented by Mr. Charles Ramson Jnr, who in his application for bail told the court that his client had a credible defence and had strong ties to the nation.

Police prosecutor Deniro Jones made no objection for Duncan being granted bail but requested that a warrant be issued for Deonarine’s arrest since he had left the country for Canada.Chief Magistrate adjourned the matter until February 19 and issued a warrant for Deonarine’s apprehension.

Duncan’s saga is linked to former Deputy CEO of GPL, who reportedly paid himself some $27M. As a Director, Duncan signed off on Deonarine’s payments. Deonarine reportedly signed off for Duncan’s back pay, which represented the 48 months he would have been a Director

According to Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson during a post-Cabinet press briefing last year these seemingly suspicious payments were discovered by independent auditors who were probing the PetroCaribe Fund. That audit was one of many ordered by the new Government into state entities and other operations.
Deonarine reportedly paid himself what he believed to be owed to him retroactively since he was not being paid the same salary as another senior manager of the company who was in charge of operations. He had repeatedly applied to the board for the disparity to be rectified but was not successful. Duncan also paid himself retroactively for 48 months since the company’s board members had requested that their allowance be increased from $5,000 to $20,000 but no approval had been given.

The two paid themselves from the monies transferred from the PetroCaribe Fund to the power company by the past administration.