Former Go-Invest CEO Burrowes took over $3M in unapproved advances, audit finds
-recovery of unauthorised expenditure urged
A forensic audit of the operations of Go-Invest has discovered that the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Keith Burrowes, without the authorisation of the Board of Directors, received cash advances totalling more than $3.2M and also instructed that his personal driver who was not an employee be paid.
The audit, which was done by chartered accountant Nigel Hinds, was submitted to the Ministry of Finance on September 30, 2016. Burrowes resigned as Go-Invest CEO in June, 2015 and has since migrated.
According to the report, the misuse of authority by Burrowes was evidenced in several transactions where the former CEO took loans amounting to over $3M without approval from the Board. “The CEO was not entitled to an entertainment allowance or salary advance(s) from Go-Invest since his salary was funded from Guyana National Co-operative Bank/Guyana Co-operative Financial Services,” the summary of the findings said. It was pointed out though that as at July 31, 2015, Burrowes had personal loans from Go-Invest amounting to $3,231,050. The outstanding
amount was fully repaid by February of 2016.
The report said salary advances were abused by senior management and in some cases advances exceeded two and three times their salary, despite the regulation that “No staff should have more than two advances outstanding.”
The report said too that Burrowes authorised and received an entertainment allowance for himself totalling $480,000, without the approval of the Board of Directors and authorised the payment of $232,365 to his non-staff driver, Nigel Gordon, as payment for performing contractual services as a driver.
The report also stated that the repairs and maintenance of vehicles were performed by mechanics sole-sourced by Burrowes instead of being tendered. Burrowes as CEO, it stated, also spent over $1M on cell phones for senior staff, his personal driver and the Financial Consultant. Burrowes’ personal driver and the Financial Consultant, it was noted, were not employees of Go-Invest and, therefore, were not entitled to the privileges.
‘Write offs’
According to the report, the Board of Go-Invest wrote off uncleared advances to former Minister of Trade and Tourism Manniram Prashad amounting to $1.2M and $161,124 of advances uncleared by former Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey DaSilva. The entry was by way of a Journal Voucher, dated May 31st, 2014, as per Board instructions dated January 28th, 2014, the report said. The write-offs were based on the Board’s agreement on January 28th, 2014.
The report said that no reasons were given in the minutes as to why the decision was taken. It said that the Auditor General’s report of 2011 recommended that stringent action should be taken to pursue the recovery of its Accounts Receivables. The report noted that Prashad’s amount was outstanding since 2003.
Meanwhile, the report recommended that Go-Invest develops a clear policy with regards to salary advances and loans, an area that has been without acceptable guidelines during the audit review period. It was recommended too that all outstanding staff advances should be recovered or cleared as specified by the terms of the loan agreement and that the unauthorised payments of $232,365 made to Gordon should be recovered from Burrowes.
It was recommended too that unsettled advances to Prashad and DaSilva that were written off be claimed from them.
With regards to the unauthorised funds spent on cell phones for the personal driver and financial Consultant who were not employees of Go-Invest, it was recommended that they should be recovered from Burrowes.