Gold Board employees sent home over alleged fraud

Two employees of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) have been sent home for allegedly manipulating documents in order to scam the entity of millions of dollars.

News Room was reliably informed that the accountant, Rosanna Ramnarine and a clerk, Deborah Forbes manipulated assay results of sellers of gold to the Board.

The employees allegedly reduced payments to clients and paid themselves the differences.  In other cases, clients’ entire assays were paid out without them being aware.  These payments amounted to millions of dollars, sometimes in a one-week period.

A source close to the investigations told News Room that this is a serious development as it means that miners can in some cases be made to pay back money to the Gold Board if their assay results are below what was paid for and that money can go directly to the employees instead of the government coffers.

Acting General Manager of the Gold Board, Eondrene Thompson confirmed to the News Room that the employees were not at work today.

“I don’t want to give you any information on what you’re asking for… It’s too premature,” she stated.

The Ministry of Natural Resources confirmed to News Room that an investigation has been launched into the matter.

Meanwhile, the accountant, when contacted by the News Room via telephone, disconnected the call after she was asked to respond to the allegations. The police are likely to be called in to investigate the matter.