Non-existent body gets $130M allocation

Jan 28, 2011 News

…received $140M last year

A review of the expenditures in the 2011 Current and Capital expenditure would reveal that monies have been allocated to a non-existent body which also spent more than was actually budgeted for last year.
The State Planning Secretariat is slated as an agency under the Ministry of Finance and is budgeted to receive $130M in subvention/contribution from that Ministry, but the entity was abandoned ever since 1994.
Further, the body was allocated $130M in the 2010 budget but the revised figures show that the entity actually received $140M.
There is a provision of $800M towards the Haags Bosch landfill, but while the Minister said the site at Le Repentir will be closed in February, he announced no allocation for this.
A review of the 2010 Budget conducted by Ram & McRae states that the “City Council of course does not have the expertise or the financial resources to have this done and the sire may continue to be treated like a political football with potentially dire consequences for the affected communities.”
It was pointed out, too, that Contract employees continue to drive up employment costs while some traditional public servants earn monthly salaries equivalent to less than US$175 per month.
The allocation for the office of the Leader of the Opposition is also projected to double in 2011.
“Several entities with a poor record of audit and accountability continue to receive huge subventions and in certain cases increases…Indeed so pervasive is this situation that only those entities whose audits are in arrears by more than five years are publicised.”
The review by Ram & McRae also states, “Similarly, a number of the annual reports of several of these organisations are not being laid in the National Assembly as the law requires…Among these are the Guyana Information Agency, National Communication Network and the Integrity Commission.”
The Review also states that, “In this, the International Year of People of African Descent, there is no allocation or subvention to any African organisation.”