Santa Rosa treasurer in custody for missing $9.5M govt grant

Oct 19, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The treasurer of Santa Rosa Village, Moruca, Region One, Phillip Bess was on Monday arrested for questioning over a missing grant money that was meant for coffee farmers.

Santa Rosa Village treasurer, Phillip Bess

Bess’ arrest came two weeks after Santa Rosa residents accused their Toshao, Stavros Stanley of corruption during a protest they had staged. They wanted Stanley to give account for some $9.5M that was granted to the village by the government as a grant for coffee farmers.

Speaking with Kaieteur News on Tuesday, Commander of the Region One District, Himnauth Sawh confirmed that the village treasurer, Bess was detained for questioning over the same $9.5M that the residents wanted their toshao to account for.

Sawh said that based on information received from his ranks, Bess has been able to give account for the cash but investigations are still ongoing.

Santa Rosa residents had moved to protest over the funds and other alleged corrupt acts taking place in their village after a letter was published in one of the daily newspapers, claiming that no attention is being paid to allegations of corruption in Indigenous communities.

The letter was penned by Mervyn Williams, a member of the opposition and he made reference to the allegations made by the Santa Rosa residents that their Toshao, Stanley cannot give account for the $9.5M granted to the community by the government to fund a coffee project. Williams wrote that the funds were reportedly deposited in a bank account and the village council was given control of the monies to manage it in the best interest of the residents.

“At a recently conveyed General Meeting, the Toshao, Stravos Stanley and the treasurer Phillip Bess were called upon to give account for the Coffee Project fund. The report was that all of the Santa Rosa Village Funds had been withdrawn from the account and the villagers are alarmed. There was no consultation with the coffee farmers regarding the withdrawal or use of the funds. Further, farmers have not benefitted from the fund withdrawn”, Williams alleged in his letter.

The residents had told Kaieteur News that indeed they had called on Stanley and the treasurer to give an account on how the money was spent but both of them, failed to give them a proper response.

They had alleged too that this is not the first time that Stanley is unable to give account for village funds.

One protestor, Paul Rodrigues, an elected committee representative of Kumaka – part of Santa Rosa – alleged that Stanley had failed to declare other funds entering the village treasury to its council members.

He recounted two occasions where monies were not declared and when the council called on Stanley to account for the cash, he could not.

“A contractor came in here to do the roads and he paid the village $150,000 for sand royalties (a royalty paid for using sand from the village). That money was never declared, the same contractor also donated $260,000 to repair a four wheel motorbike belonging to the village, that too was never declared and we don’t know where the money is”, Rodrigues had claimed.

The Protestors had also accused Stanley of abusing his powers to hand out and repossess land without the approval of the village council and residents.

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