GWI considering court action to recover missing $29.8M – CEO

The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) is considering moving to court to retrieve its $29.8 million, which was discovered missing at a local commercial bank last month.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Shaik Baksh made the disclosure during a recent press conference. He said the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will be expanding its investigation to cover more ground.

“They (Police) informed us about a week ago that they need more time because they are going international with the investigation because remember some of the funds were siphoned off to persons in the United States of America, so they are still doing their work.  So, we cannot push them faster than they can go,” he said.

Bearing this in mind, Mr. Baksh said the entity will now need to proceed to the courts to recover the funds.

“We are moving to get the monies credit back and, as a matter of fact, we may have to move right now to the courts if the response that we have received, after we study that response, we will go to the courts to get our monies credited back into our accounts and we are serious about this.”

In May the entity reported an incidence of fraud which was discovered by the Finance Department, upon reconciling accounts for March 2021.  The amounts are $17,489,417 debited on March 16, 2021 and $12,327,515 debited on March 24, 2021.

The bank had informed GWI that the amounts represent payments made through wire transfer instructions, payable to two individuals at two Brooklyn addresses in the USA.