Latest update May 7th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 07, 2015 Editorial
It is amazing how the more things change in Guyana they remain the same. During the tenure of the previous administration a lot of attention was focused on public spending. Many of these were not made known because the government always contended that the people only needed to know what concerned them.
The result is that some shocking revelations have emerged and as sure as night follows day, there will be more. For example, the nation was never made aware of how the Lotto Funds were spent. They did know that when certain sporting organisations approached the government for money to undertake some trips, they were told that no money was available.
It now turns out that the government was spending money on those things in which it had an interest. For example, there was a $36 million expenditure on the Caribbean Premier League, a cricketing experience in which Dr. Ranjisinghi Ramroop played an integral part.
The money might have gone to pay for live telecasts of matches beamed to Guyana but from the report by the Auditor General, there is no indication. We do remember former President Bharrat Jagdeo announcing that he was going to use money from the Fund to pay for the broadcast of a Test series, when National Telecommunications Network announced that it simply could not fund the broadcasts.
Today we realize that this entity had lots of money in its account, not taking into consideration the large grants it got from the Japanese government. Having said that, we were also aware that the network sold sponsorship spots. None of the money was ever repaid to the government which did not seem to mind.
We now learn that the current administration has been presented with a bill for $100 million again for whatever service the nation procured from the Caribbean Premier League. This time around, the nation would be made aware of the reason for the claim because the new administration says that it is unaware of it.
There were reports that the PetroCaribe account was bare. This was an account that the government and the Venezuelan government agreed would go toward paying rice farmers and helping the less fortunate.
It turned out that the government spent the money in a number of areas that the agreement never contemplated. The money went into the Hope Canal when the nation thought that the funding for the canal was coming from the Public Treasury.
The ailing Guyana Sugar Corporation also got money from the fund as did Guyana Power and Light. These disclosures only came about because there was a change in government and the new government opted to check on its inheritance.
An audit is currently being conducted on the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) which spent exorbitantly on the newly constructed Marriott hotel. There were numerous other areas of expenditure of which the nation was never made aware. These are about to be disclosed.
One is now left to wonder whether Governments are the new playboys in town, spending the people’s money without due regard for the very people who each year keep asking for increases in their living allowance which comes by way of a salary.
We see that the current government is being asked to forego some US$4 million spent on the fibre optic cable project out of Brazil. That sum would have made policemen, nurses, teachers and old age pensioners, whichever the government selected, very happy. It is now lost in the same way a gambler loses his money at the table.
The prying into government spending does not end there. The present administration is being accused of similar extravagance. The political opposition claims that the David Granger administration spent some $200 million on his inauguration.
While this may be correct, the administration claims that the money came from private donors who thought that they should sponsor the event. What we do know are that audits are being conducted and they will continue as long as governments exist in Guyana. The people will know in the end.
GRA catch EXXON trying to hunch GUYANA over 11 BUS dollars in one shot!!!!
May 07, 2024
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