A Guyanese pro-Black rights organisation says it is willing to submit its 2020 financials for an independent audit after the country’s Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo accused its members of enriching themselves off of siphoned subventions rather than advancing the cause of Afro-Guyanese.
The organisation, the International Decade for People of African Descent-Guyana (IDPADA-G), has labelled the VP’s comments as slanderous. Jagdeo could also likely be slapped with a multimillion-dollar defamation suit by IDPADA-G’s Chairman, Dr Vincent Alexander, who has since issued the former Head of State an ultimatum—apologize, pay $50M or face litigation. The allegations have now prompted the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jnr. to intervene. He has since asked the International Decade of People of African Descent – Guyana (IDPADA-G) to provide its financial records.
In a missive to Minister Ramson today, IDPADA-G’s Cheif Executive Officer (CEO) Olive Sampson said that while the organisation is committed to accountability, the financial records for the period January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021, have already been subjected to a “comprehensive” audit by the Finance Ministry’s Central Internal Audit Unit.
The CEO noted that the only period for which receipts and disbursements by IDPADA-G have not been audited is January 1, 2022, to the present – a period of eight months.
Sampson said that the organisation is committed to transparency and accountability, and therefore, is willing to submit the relevant records to an independent auditor, notwithstanding that the period, January 1, 2022, to present, is not statutorily due for audit.
“We are ready to engage the appropriate government agency to mutually agree on such an independent auditor and the necessary terms of reference for the period January 1, 2022, to the present,” Sampson informed the Minister.
During a press conference, the VP – a former Finance Minister and Head of State – said IDPADA-G received $68M in 2018, $100M in 2019, $100 in 2020, $100M in 2021, and $100M in 2022.
Reading from the entity’s 2020 Financial Statement, Jagdeo said that while $42M alone was paid in salaries and allowances, $2.8M in travelling and transportation expenses, only $343,000 in grants were distributed to Afro-Guyanese.
But Alexander said that IDPADA-G is a “not-for-profit company”, whose directors are volunteers. He added that the payments of salaries cited by Jagdeo refer to the remuneration of the staff at the Secretariat. He added that for Jagdeo to create the impression that IDPADA-G officials are lining their pockets rather than doing actual work, is wholly mischievous.
He added that the ratio of the staff’s salaries to the overall budget is in the range of the public sector’s entities’ salaries to the current expenditure ratio.
Dr Alexander in addressing the $343,000 in grant payments, said that IDPADA-G received some $10M circa 2018 from the Finance Ministry. Those funds were earmarked for distribution to the Afro-Guyanese community.
He added that a bulk of that money was disbursed in 2018 and 2019. Therefore, the $343,000 quoted as measly by the VP, were funds that were left from the $10M. That $343k was disbursed in 2020, hence it appeared on the financial statement, which Jagdeo used.
