VP Jagdeo ducks info of recipients of cash grants

Feb 17, 2024 News

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…Mahipaul calls it a “grave shame”

Kaieteur News- Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Ganesh Mahipaul said that it is a grave shame that the Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo has shied away from releasing data on cash grants recipients, saying the VP always gets arrogant when asked direct question on public accounts, and always manoeuvres never providing a direct answer to the media.

Mahipaul’s comments come a day after Jagdeo told this media house that he would not release data because Kaieteur News would distort it. During his weekly press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, Kaieteur News asked him: “sir you have spent a lot of time complaining about the Guyana Teachers’ Union and its accountability, but membership of any trade union is a private matter. However, your government has expended billions of tax payer’s dollars on cash grants since 2020, but we are yet to see any audited statements of these expenses. How do you reconcile this? And in the interest of transparency would you release the list of all the recipients of the farmers and small business grants?

The MP strongly believes that if the government is concerned and care about the ordinary working Guyanese, it will release the criteria and recipients list for the cash grants given to small businesses, farmers and fisher folk for public scrutiny since the monies belong to the taxpayers. Mahipaul said that, “The criteria that was used for the distribution (should be public), and there should be no problem really for scrutiny by the public, so that it can be guaranteed to the people that the recipients are indeed people who were in need, and we need that assistance to bring them (govt) back to a sense of normalcy.”

Explaining that the cash grants are for the vulnerable citizen of Guyana, making the recipient list public will bring, “in a great sense of assurance that our people are treated equally.” The MP noted that since the VP is refusing to release the documents despite being asked to do so he is being disingenuous and, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) “will be writing officially for the Auditor General, requesting of him to conduct audits on a number of lines within the 2023 budget that requires an audit to verify that the monies were spent in keeping with the established financial laws of our country.”

In response Jagdeo said that he is not going to commit to releasing the documents, since the Kaieteur News will find a way to distort the information. However he did note that the accounts are audited on a yearly basis. The VP said that, “The records are there we account for every year for every cent that’s spent because we submit ourselves to the Auditor General the financial records for auditing and we have a proud track record of doing so in the PPP government.” He added that the audited records are tabled in Parliament to the PAC which is now chaired by the opposition. “The Public Accounts Committee and they can question any element of the public records including the ones that you just mentioned and they can ask for records of this. So, it is audited, and I am not going to commit to you again because you will distort it. You are just looking for distortion, so yes the accounts are audited, the public accounts and, the members of the Public Accounts Committee can request any information.”

However, Mahipaul said “The Auditor general’s report is produced on the audited expenses that a government incurs, but it does not cover 100% of the expenses. What the Auditor General does is select a 10% of the expense by region departments and Ministries. That 10% is what is audited and produces a report.”

Mahipual said many times it can be found that important line items and important spending are missed. “This isn’t the Auditor General’s fault since the samples are selected by an automated system.” In order for full transparency into government’s expenses Mahipaul believes that the auditor general should be directed on what to audit based on the demands of the public.

Only last month Former Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan called out the government for failing to transparently distribute billions of dollars from the treasury to compensate farmers and fisherfolk. He also cited a similar blackout of information regarding the beneficiaries of other cash handouts such as the $200,000 entrepreneurs’ grant. The Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) was at the time making his contribution to the 2024 Budget Debates at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Georgetown when he raised his concerns.

He told the National Assembly, “They have this arrangement whereby PPP activists are distributing monies and they are bypassing Coalition supporters. I have heard of arrangements whereby some of the PPP supporters are begging the activists please ensure you give that man something, not because he’s a known opposition person.”

Ramjattan continued, “And they got the money in they haversack and they distributing. Is that how you run a country? Why is it that you do not have an accountable system that states who is doing the distribution and also who are collecting?”

The leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) party contended that he has requested the list of beneficiaries of the $200,000 small business grants, however the information has not been handed over. According to him, “…you don’t want to give us, since the Covid-19 relief we asked, the flood relief we asked, the fishermen’s relief we asked, you never provided it…that is not how you operate accountably and you must understand too Mister Speaker that these persons don’t understand that democracy got certain pillars.”

Ramjattan continued that while he agrees that free and fair elections is an important pillar in a democracy, government must also recognise the three other equal pillars- good governance, rule of law and accountability. He said, “We are not getting the accountability one here at all…it is important that we get these figures. I have been asking, take for example, what was it that was given to some members after the flood relief and was told by the agriculture minister, we don’t have any information to give. How could you do that and the fisherman’s relief also.”

The Opposition MP stressed the need for transparency and accountability as he pointed out that billions are now at the disposal of the administration in this year’s budget.

Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha in an invited comment told Kaieteur News that the list of beneficiaries of the respective grants is available. While he directed this publication to the Ministry of Finance, he did not respond to further questions regarding online availability of the information. Kaieteur News was however able to find a list of fisherfolk that received compensation in 2022. See link attached. https://agriculture.gov.gy/2022/08/08/ministry-of-agriculture-fishermen-cash-grant-list/

This publication was unable to locate a similar list of beneficiaries for the farmers and entrepreneurs who benefited from cash payouts by government. The government had distributed close to $8B in emergency relief to farmers that were affected by the 2021 floods. The payout to each farmer varied, relative to their losses. See more here: https://dpi.gov.gy/over-9b-spent-for-emergency-relief-to-farmers-households-in-2021/

 

 

 

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• Audit, cash grants, Jagdeo, Mahipaul, Opposition MP Ganesh Mahipaul

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