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Ramotar Cabinet illegally transferred $600M from GGMC to EPA – Goolsarran
Flagrant breaches of Guyana’s Constitution and strict financial laws by the former Cabinet have
Forensic auditor,
Anand Goolsarran
surfaced once again. This time, it has been highlighted in a forensic audit report on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This report was prepared by Chartered Accountant Anand Goolsarran.
In his report, the former Auditor General said that in early 2015, under the direction from the then Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Agency tendered for “Consultancy Services for the Re-orientation of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
This was done to address the organizational changes needed to strengthen and improve efficiency.
The auditor said that funding of US$240,000 was provided from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) based on a Cabinet decision on September 9, 2014. This amount was placed in the Agency’s account at a commercial bank. Goolsarran said that after two attempts, no bids were received for the project, and no expenditure was incurred as of 31 May 2015.
The auditor said that the troubling part of this arrangement comes into play when the EPA received an additional amount of $600 million from the GGMC, consequent upon a Cabinet decision of January 15, 2015.
Of this amount, Goolsarran discovered that $500 million was to be transferred to the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to execute works in Regions One, Three, Four, Five, Six and 10. This was part of the “Pick-It-Up” campaign.
Goolsarran noted, nonetheless, that no transfers were made to the NDIA, as a Memorandum of Understanding for the execution of the works had not been finalized. As of May 2015, the balance on this account
Former President, Donald Ramotar
was $515.718 million.
The forensic auditor said however that it should be emphasized that it is not within the authority of GGMC to transfer funds to other government agencies to incur expenditure, especially if such expenditure is unrelated to its activities.
He said that this practice not only undermines the role of Parliament in approving public expenditure, as provided for under Article 217 of the Constitution, but also Section 16 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act 2003.
Goolsarran said that if the GGMC has funds that are surplus to its requirements, it would be entirely appropriate for transfers to be made to the Consolidated Fund to allow for the Legislature to reallocate funds to other areas of Government operations that are in need of them.
In addition to this, the Chartered Accountant stated that since the transfers are not captured in the National Estimates, the related expenditure will not be reflected in the public accounts of the country, and hence there will be an under-reporting of public expenditure.
Of significance, Goolsarran said, is the fact that the former Cabinet also acted improperly in approving these two transfers. He stressed that the former Cabinet’s actions and/or decisions violated both the Constitution and the FMA Act.
Management has since commented that the EPA board considered these two matters and accepted the recommendation contained in the main report that the two amounts be transferred to the Consolidated Fund. At the time of reporting, the Agency was awaiting concurrence from the subject Minister before proceeding further.
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