Unauthorized vehicle collected $181M in army fuel – Auditor General 2019 report

According to the Audit Report of 2019, one unauthorized vehicle uplifted 887,800 litres of fuel from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) totalling a whopping $181.567 million. But that is just one of the many shortcomings discovered of the GDF with respect to the purchase, reconciliation and storage of fuel.

The Auditor General (AG), Deodat Sharma, stated in his report that $547.219 million was expended for the purchase of diesel and gasoline, of which $528.692 million was paid for fuel in bulk. With regards to bulk purchases, Sharma explained that the Force makes payments to GUYOIL. Whenever the need arises for fuel, the Force would then make a request GUYOIL for fuel to be delivered to its locations at Base Camp Ayanganna, Base Camp Stephenson at Timehri, and the Coast Guard Headquarters at Ruimveldt. “The fuel would then be delivered to these locations by GUYOIL’s tankers. The drivers of the tankers would sign the respective invoices as having uplifted the fuel from GUYOIL, and upon delivery at any of the Force’s locations, the rank receiving the fuel would sign the respective invoices as receiving the fuel for the Force,” Sharma explained. However, on 103 invoices, the report pointed out, an unauthorized vehicle bearing registration number, GHH 7538, uplifted the fuel.

Audit enquiries revealed that the vehicle was not owned by the force nor was it owned by GUYOIL. In addition, the AG said, there was no contractual agreement for the vehicle to uplift fuel on behalf of the Force. The AG also made several other worrying finds. He stated that included in those 103 invoices were 75 invoices totalling $130.861 million, which purports that gasoline was uplifted and delivered to the force. However, the signatures of the driver and the customer receiving the goods “appear to be identical” indicating that the same person may have uplifted the fuel from GUYOIL and also from the Forces’ locations.

(Kaieteur News)