GUYOIL GM resigns amid the fuel scandal
… He says that he reported matters of concern to the Board
… The Finance Minister calls the Auditor General to investigate allegations
Kaieteur News – Less than a year after his appointment as General Manager of Guyana Oil Company (GUYOIL), Trevor Bassoo has resigned from the post amid allegations of corruption relating to the illegal sale of fuel.
Former GUYOIL GM, Trevor Bassoo.
GUYOIL Chairman Paul Cheong.
GUYOIL’s Board of Directors Chairman Paul Cheong, when asked earlier yesterday to confirm the development of the state-owned oil company, told this announcement that Bassoo had actually tendered his resignation, and public reports denied that now the former General Manager. sending the job away on compulsory leave. According to Cheong, the man gave no reason for the resignation.
Influenced for comment on the issue, Bassoo confirmed that he had tendered his resignation to the Board of Directors on Monday.
This, he said, had alerted the Board to “matters of concern”. Although he did not want to elaborate on the brewing issue, without first talking to a lawyer, Basso told Kaieteur News that what is being peddled in the public domain is actually propaganda being promoted by people within the company oil that is actually involved in questionable acts.
The reports called, a smoke screen to divert from the issue in question.
As for the specific allegations that are being made public that he collected a $ 600M ‘kickback’ suspected of being a former police rank for buying and selling fuel, Basso said he does not know the man. According to Bassoo, the man was in contact with some of GUYOIL’s other personnel. According to public reports, a former police rank, who is said to operate a real estate agency, would buy fuel for others using letters of credit.
Cheong subsequently sought to clear the air in a public statement, in which reports denied that GUYOIL had entered into any contract to supply Aaron Realty Inc. (ARI), the company run by a former police rank.
According to the public statement issued yesterday evening by Cheong, “although ARI is one of several companies in which GUYOIL has had discussions on the potential fuel supply, GUYOIL has never entered into a contract with ARI.”
The Chairman advised that the Board of Directors had since met with a Senior Minister in the President’s Office with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, who has since been briefed on the matter.
It was noted, “the Minister has asked the Auditor General to be called in to investigate the allegations.”
GUYOIL also stated that he had accepted Bassoo’s resignation and that, in the meantime, a sub-committee of the Board had been appointed to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Company.
Bassoo was appointed to the post in October last year, replacing Renatha Exeter. His departure comes with the heels of a recent abuse that was said to be practiced by several oil importers in terms of the Consent for Immediate Distribution (PID) system. An investigation by the Guyana Finance Authority (GRA) had said that importing and clearing fuel through the PID system was flawed, as oil importers used the PID exemption letters to clear fuel regardless of who it was supposed to be, ie, and was the fuel. fully exempt, partially exempt, or subject to tax.
GUYOIL was named among the oil importers who can be found guilty but had denied the allegation that he had abused the PID system. GRA Commissioner General Godfrey Statia, had said in a letter to the Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, earlier this year, found that an investigation in 2017 found Rubis, GUYOIL and SOL Guyana, allegedly abusing the PID system by mixing exempt fuel with non-exempt or partially exempt fuel in order to avoid paying taxes due on the required basis.