Ramsammy blasts some NGOs for taking home ‘huge salaries’

Nov 23, 2009 News

– collect large sums of cash, but do little charitable work for HIV/AIDS
By Fareeza Haniff

A number of Non -Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Guyana have come under fire from Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, for allegedly collecting huge sums of money from international communities and not using it to contribute to society, as it relates to tackling the issue of HIV/AIDS in the country.
Rather, these NGOs use the money to pay themselves ‘huge salaries’, Dr. Ramsammy said. Speaking to Kaieteur News on Thursday at the City Mall during a visit to an HIV testing site, Minister Ramsammy said, “there are many NGOs in this country who have gotten money and they are paying themselves huge salaries and yet they have these conditions where for every activity you have to pay them and NGOs are supposed to bring something to the table.”
The Health Minister noted that he plans to reveal the identity of these NGOs in time to come, as he urged the international community to take note of the ongoing trend and to bring the NGOs under review.
He also called for the international communities to audit the books of these organisations so as to keep track of how the monies are being spent.
“There are some organisations in Guyana that run NGOs as a business…if they don’t get money, they don’t participate and I believe that should be a condition for funding people because this national week of testing has seen some organisations receive some huge sums of money as NGOs and they have not contributed a thing.”
According to the Health Minister, although these non-governmental organisations receive credit from the international community for charitable work, no charitable work is done.
“Some people have rules which is, ‘unless you show me the money upfront, I’m not part of this…so they do it for the money and then they also get a lot of credit from international organisations for charitable work…but there is no charity in what they do…absolutely not.”
The real charity he said comes from organisations who do not receive monies at all, as there are some NGOs that have performed excellently.
“I think the international organisations need to take note and the same auditing that people want us to do, should be extended to everybody who receives money,” Minister Ramsammy said.
He added that the health workers of Guyana do not make big salaries although there are those who work late nights. “This is not me being angry but I think somebody needs to state the fact…monies are coming to this country and are being given to NGOs and these international organisations need to establish the guidelines and conditions because they are saying that they are giving it (money) to Guyana and the Guyanese people and therefore we need to ensure that the money is used optimally.”