PM flays postal staff over pensions fraud
Stabroek News
November 18, 2002
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds yesterday flayed postal officials who have been interdicted in the multi-million dollar Old Age Pension scam saying that they must feel total responsibility for the fraud.
The Prime Minister made this statement yesterday while addressing the issue at the Guyana Post Office Corporation's (GPOC) management seminar retreat held at the GPOC business centre.
The scam involved the cashing of numerous fake vouchers at post offices.
During a period for interaction with the staff, the Superintendent of Counters at the GPOC complained about the manner in which he was treated following his interdiction. The officer said he received a letter last month requesting that he report to the GPOC Training School. He said when he got there he was questioned as to which counter the fraudulent coupons were cashed. As the Superintendent of Counters the officer was responsible for signing all the cash accounts before the vouchers were cashed. He said he remembered dealing with coupons which were later determined to be fraudulent but not in large quantities. He said had he known the security features and was in possession of a specimen of the voucher he would have detected the fraudulent coupons.
The officer said the investigators could have questioned him at his desk rather than sending him a letter which embarrassed him. He said many persons had approached him on the matter. Hinds in response to the officer's concerns said if the fraud did not happen he would not have been embarrassed.
"So the primary problem is that it happened, it happened comrades, it happened and we had to respond to it and the general principle was to look at persons who were in the position whether they would have taken part in it or not and start an investigation," the Prime Minister declared.
He said being the minister with responsibility for the corporation he had to face a lot of embarrassment at Cabinet and was feeling as disgruntled as all those who were interdicted and subsequently exonerated. Some postmasters and other postal officials who were earlier interdicted have been exonerated but they too complained about the embarrassment they had to face. One officer from Berbice speaking on behalf of several others yesterday said that he was placed on $50,000 bail by police and even though he has been cleared he has not gotten back his money. He said his other colleagues are faced with a similar problem. Hinds assured the officer that he would intervene in the matter and use his office to help all those officers to get back their money.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that there were some misjudgments at the level of the investigators in interdicting persons who had nothing to do with the scam, adding that persons should have been closely examined first before being interdicted. Speaking directly to the counter superintendent, Hinds said, "whether you only signed cash accounts or whatever... we just don't pay someone to sign accounts. When you sign you accept it."
The Prime Minister told the officer that signing the cash account says that he is responsible for everything on the account and the fact (that) it was from that same account the fraudulent vouchers were paid he must feel responsible. He said if officers are not willing to take on their responsibilities it would be better if they leave the job.
Hinds noted that as Prime Minister, he signs a lot of documents and is prepared to take responsibility if anything goes wrong with them.
"So in my view I don't know if you should have been exonerated, because you said you signed it. You are making a pleading that it could not have been immediately obvious, but you accept that you signed a fraudulent voucher."
Hinds said he understands the embarrassment but the officers have to have the right attitude on the issue.
Stabroek News understands that the amount of money stolen is in excess of earlier estimates of $17 million. Chairman of the corporation Bishop Juan Edghill, who has been at odds with Minister of Human Services, Bibi Shadick as to who should be held culpable for not having the specimen of the coupons made available to the post office, said that the list of those persons who were interdicted was not made out by the Prime Minister, or the chairman of the board but by the managers of the relevant agencies. Edghill said that he made it very clear to management as well as the union that no one was to use the Old Age Pension investigation as a witch hunt to get at anybody they had a previous problem with. According to Edghill he also ensured that those persons who had nothing to do with the fraud were immediately reinstated after the investigation. Some 23 persons were originally interdicted when the scam came to light but only seven are still being questioned by police. Additionally, three social workers from the ministry have been under investigation. The corporation and the ministry along with the Auditor General's department and the Guyana Police Force are involved in the investigation which is expected to conclude soon. (Nigel Williams)
