…refuses to renew contract of former GM
The Guyana Gold Board (GGB) has a new General Manager, with the announcement being made on Tuesday that acting General Manager Eondrene Thompson has been elevated to the substantive position at the entity.
Thompson, who acted in the position for some eight months, is the former substantive Finance Manager of the Gold Board. Her appointment is effective January 1, 2018. A statement from the GGB said the Board of Directors took a unanimous decision that the organisation needed to proceed in a new direction, under new leadership.
“The Board holds in high regard the integrity, skills, and commitment of Miss Thompson to positioning and leading the organisation forward,” the release said.
the Guyana Gold Board,
Eondrene Thompson
According to the Gold Board, Thompson has been at the Gold Board since March 2010 after a 15-year-stint at the Bank of Guyana.
Non-renewal
Thompson takes over the position held by former General Manager, Lisaveta Ramotar, who along with her assistant Andrea Seelochan and legal officer Suzanne Bullen, were sent off on administrative leave in April 2017 to facilitate a Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) probe.
While no charges for Ramotar ever came out of that probe, the release stated that the contracts for all three officers were left in an expired state.
“In keeping with its visions of new direction and new leadership, the Board of Directors decided not to renew the contractual relationships,” the Board’s statement noted.
Ramotar had always professed her innocence in the fiasco. In a letter to SOCU, she had denied being involved in the alleged corruption in her entity.
In the letter, Ramotar said: “I wish to assert strongly that I am absolutely innocent of any wrongdoings. I have discharged my duties at the Guyana Gold Board professionally and based on the important metric of declaration, it was under my tenure that the Cooperative Republic of Guyana obtained its highest ever declaration to date.”
Allegations
She also sought to clear up a number of issues that were influencing the probe. One such allegation was that embattled gold dealer Saddiqui Rasul sold gold several times per day using his mining company, indicating a washdown several times per day. However, Ramotar explained that the Guyana Gold Board was required to buy all gold presented to the organisation, not to verify production.
As it relates to allegations that Rasul’s company did not pay the two per cent tax, Ramotar said under a regulation which she has seen, mining companies are not required to pay the two per cent Withholding Tax.
Rasul was himself charged with six counts of obtaining money by false pretence. He was accused of defrauding the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry G$956 million.
