Was any one fired over the problems with the Carifesta accounts?

Nov 05, 2008 Peeping Tom

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I am calling on the media in Guyana to be more aggressive in their questioning when attending press conferences. Before anyone comes away with the impression, however, that I am calling for the press to rough-up their hosts, let me clarify that all I am calling for are more probing questions during press conferences.
I was disappointed, for example, that during the press conference hosted by the President this past weekend that the media did not press him more on the explanation he gave in relation to why the Carifesta workers were not paid.
I believe that the media lost an opportunity to put the President on the spot. I do not believe they should simply have accepted the explanation he gave about problems concerning the accounts. They should have asked some more questions.
The President said that while he was flicking through some of the accounts, he noticed what seemed to be more than one account for the same person and he enquired whether these were for the same services provided. Subsequently, the President said his Ministers discovered duplications. This, thus, caused the delay in payments since the accounts needed to be put right.
If I were present at the press conference, my first question would have been “Why was it necessary in the first place for the President of a country to be going through vouchers?”
I have never heard of this in my life. Even Ministers usually do not get into such minute details. They leave this to their technical staff.
If, however, the President had to browse through payment vouchers and if it was he who queried some of the accounts since names had appeared more than once, then what in heaven’s name was the Accounts Section of the Carifesta Secretariat doing?
Even if there were duplications, any proper accounting system at the Ministry of Finance which disburses the funds for the various ministries ought to have picked this up.
There is no need for a Minister or even a President of a country to be dealing with these details.
My second question therefore is whether the President was responsible for the release of funds for Carifesta. If the answer to this, as I suspect, is no, then I can only assume that the reason why the President was going through the accounts was to be able to appreciate just who was owed and how much.
Even then, the Ministry involved should have prepared a list of their liabilities and these could have been vetted by the Ministry of Finance and a report submitted certifying the sums owed. I see no reason why the President of a country has to flick through accounts.
However, since it was discovered that there were problems and since these problems I presume would indicate some amount of tardiness, my next question at that press conference would be whether having being told of the problems with the accounts, there was any demand by the President for persons to be fired.
Certainly, if our busy and important President had to take time from his schedule to go through accounts, then those responsible for causing more than one voucher to appear for the same service should be asked to give an explanation and if that explanation is not satisfactory, then that person or those persons should be fired.
I can never imagine in my life Forbes Burnham or Cheddi Jagan having to go through accounts with their Ministers. There are persons who ought to be delegated with those responsibilities. Modern governments are not run by having the President of a country detained with such minor checks.
There are supposed to be systems that should capture duplications of amounts demanded. There are auditors who will pick up these things.
Anyway, I am pleased that our President is so meticulous in his management. We must thank him for being so careful with the accounts because we do not know whether there would have been overpayments had he not picked up the anomalies.
I do not know what we would do without his style of management.
I hope that when all the artistes who have not been paid receive their monies that a comprehensive investigation will be launched into the accounts for Carifesta since we can never know what other tardiness may have occurred. Somebody needs to be called to account for the problems that developed.
Hopefully, the artistes can be paid without the President of Guyana having to make any further intervention.
I hope he is not bothered any further by this matter since I have another pressing concern which I wish to bring to his attention. The fence at the site of the Non-Aligned Monument is being vandalised.
I am not sure whether this area falls under the responsibility of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown but I am calling on whoever is involved to do something before the entire perimeter of the monument site is fenceless.

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