This year, the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) terminated the services of three employees after instances of corruption were discovered. This was according to the Human Resources and Administration Manager, Shonda James-Williams.
During the Commission’s year-end press conference held at Durban Backlands this morning, the official told media operatives that those three individuals would have entered illegally into arrangements with clients, which would have hurt the agency if they were left undetected.
“They would have entered into agreements with clients [and] collected monies in exchange for land… In one case, another staffer was dismissed for inflating bills and taking advances to do surveys, “James-Williams said.
These misconducts were discovered in the audits that were done between 2010 and 2015. James-Williams noted that the persons who would have paid for these illegal services, began showing up at the GLSC to collect their promised lands.
This led to the Commission tightening up to eradicate corruption from the agency.
“And so, when those cases came to us as a commission, we acted in relation to our policy. In those cases, the matters weren’t turned over to the police because the clients didn’t want to pursue…But as a commission, we took our action,” she said.
When asked how the agency plans to prevent recurrences, James-Williams said, “We have our polices and we would keep meetings and issue memos to staff. Corruption is something that we can’t stop, but as soon as we find it, we take action,” she said.
The HR Manager said that no refunds were made to those persons who were swindled.
