Mahipaul calls for audit of $685M Govt. controlled SLED programme

Oct 25, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Under the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development from 2020 to 2022, a sum of $685M was approved for the Sustainable Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) Project but since 2020, this Ministry under the leadership of Nigel Dharamlall has failed to provide to the nation the total number of job opportunities and employment created.

APNU+AFC shadow Minister of Local Government, Ganesh Mahipaul.

The issue was raised during a recent press conference held by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition last Tuesday. According to APNU+AFC shadow Minister of Local Government, Ganesh Mahipaul, Dharamlall has failed to show account for the disbursement of fund since there are also no records of the total number of training programmes, enhanced skills and competency; and the social and cultural cohesion programmes that were birthed.

Dharamlall claimed that all the monies from this allotment were distributed to friends and family members of the PPP without any accountability or transparent process.

As such, the APNU+AFC Member of Parliament (MP) said that therefore taken to call on the Auditor General of Guyana to conduct a forensic audit on the SLED programme allotment and to provide a report on that expenditure soonest to the people of Guyana.

This is not the first time that fraud and dishonesty has been linked to the SLED project. The discovery of what appeared to be instances of ‘fraud’ and ‘criminality’ in the spending of millions by entities in Region 10, under the SLED programme was made by Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton shortly after he took office in 2020.

Minister Hamilton said that particular emphasis will be placed on Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), which had received more than 60 percent of the $250 million which was allocated to the project in the 2019 national budget under the then APNU+AFC government.

Outside of Region Nine, projects were also funded in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and 10. Hamilton said he will be doing a countrywide inspection of all 2019 SLED projects across the country.

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