Close to $56M missing from Diamond/Grove NDC

…Police, Auditor General called in

Close to $56 million in revenue and taxes has allegedly been stolen from the Grove/Diamond Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) between August 2015 and February 9, 2017 by a former employee.
This is according to NDC Chairman Bharrat Narine, who on Thursday reiterated calls for the Guyana Police Force and the Office of the Auditor General to ensure that they conduct in-depth investigations into the matter.
Narine raised the concerns over the status of the missing monies during a recently held meeting at the Regional Accounting Communities (RAC), as he lobbied the regional authorities to support the probe and subsequent Police investigation into what he described as the “fraudulent embezzlement of the Council’s money by a

former employee”.
“Madam chair, I am rising again to plea for this matter to be properly investigated as we cannot sit by as an NDC and have these millions missing and nothing being done. Since this matter was exposed, the Auditor General’s Office visited and said they have a lot of work and that is all we have heard from them and this is not good enough as with only 60 per cent of the internal audit completed we found that $21 million were missing and with the remaining 40 per cent completed it is estimated to be around $30-35 million,” the NDC head said.
Narine told the gathering that they were very disappointed when they discovered that the monies were stolen and that the suspect, a former employee of the NDC, Latoya Moore, was called to a meeting on February 9, 2017; however, the following day she tendered her resignation without giving any reason.
More so, Narine noted that the matter continues to remain in the hands of the Auditor General who he said doesn’t seem interested in doing anything about it.
“Madam chair, this matter has been with the AG’s Office since last year and nothing has happened. We are exceptionally hurt because it has been so long and nothing has happened. I know that you and your office have been seeking to help in having this matter properly addressed, however, nothing has happened. We have been raising this matter over and over at all levels of meetings being held here at the RDC but nothing has happened and I am aware that you Regional Chairman has been trying to have it addressed,” he said.
Furthermore, the Chairman declared that while the (Golden Grove/Diamond Place) NDC have been able to stop the haemorrhaging of the funds, they are hoping that other NDCs would seek to strengthen their systems, thus preventing a repeat.
Narine said in the initial stages of the investigation, the ground work was done by his Councillors, noting that the Police have not been very helpful thus far.
“RC [Regional Chairman] I must however express my Councillors’ satisfaction and appreciation for the support and assistance that have been given to us thus far by the RDC. Nevertheless, we cannot allow such a situation to go by without any meaningful action being taken,” he said.
Narine in his plead to the Regional Chairman said there are many unanswered questions, stressing Moore could not have pulled off such an act all alone and questioned why no one else, including the Overseer at the time, was never questioned by the Police.
“All the Police said to us is that they cannot locate Latoya Moore as she apparently moved out from her Kaneville address, but what we are concerned about is why no one else was ever questioned as such a fraud could not have been committed by one person alone,” he posited.
Meanwhile, Regional Chairman Geneveive Allen in responding to the request and concerns of the NDC Chairman thanked Narine after promising that she will personally get on the ‘backs’ of the Police and the Auditor General in ensuring that this matter is addressed.
“I am in support of your views and concerns and you would have notice that since this matter we have made several new implementations of systems across all the NDCs in the region as we will not wait for another situation to occur before taking action. I agree with you that action needs to be taken and I can assure you that the RDC will continue to do all within its powers to ensure such,” she promised.

https://guyanatimesgy.com/clos...-grove-ndc-chairman/