Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo has taken a jab at members of a pro-Afro Guyanese body for allegedly fulling their own pockets rather can advancing the cause of Afro-Guyanese. He levelled these charges during a press conference earlier today.
The VP’s comment is a direct response to the Cuffy 250 Committee’s move to host a forum to examine what it believes to be an emergence of an apartheid State here. The committee has indeed been vocal about alleged discrimination against Guyanese of African descent. Those claims are being amplified by the main Parliamentary Opposition and the former government, the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) and other sections of society.
The Cuffy 250 Committee forum was mandated by former President, David Granger to be responsive to the United Nations declaring 2014 to 2024 as the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly.
Since the announcement of the forum, financial expert, Floyd Haynes, has expressed concern that he was listed as a speaker. Hayne said that he does not believe that there is an emergence of an apartheid state here and requested that his name is removed forthwith.
Jagdeo did not waste the opportunity to offer several damning revelations regarding the conduct of the committee and those involved with IPADA-Guyana, particularly Dr Vincent Alexander, the Chairman, who is an opposition representative at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
Jagdeo said that a private limited liability company was established under the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly, and the beneficial owners of the entity are Dr Vincent Alexander, Olive Sampson, Dr Norman Ng-A-Qui, Simpson DaSilva, Mark Kirton, Rosemary David, Mariam Levi and Royston Peters. This company, according to him, has received millions of dollars since 2018 and has done little to advance the development of Afro-Guyanese.
He noted that the company received $68M in 2018, $100M in 2019, $100 in 2020, $100M in 2021, and $100M in 2022.
“So, they have received nearly half a billion dollars of taxpayers’ monies to advance the cause of Afro-Guyanese. The PPP Government had given them over $200M, nearly $250M because we are an ‘emerging apartheid State’,” Jagdeo sarcastically remarked.
In its 2020 Financial Statement, Jagdeo said that $42M alone was paid in salaries and allowances.
He continued, “Conference expenses, $4.5M; travelling and transportation, $2.8M; advertisements, $2M; office materials and expenses, $9M; building rentals and utilities, $5M. Disbursement of grant funds – $343,000 out of the $100M for 2020! They are using Afro-Guyanese just for their own personal benefits.”
The blacks received millions of dollars in free money.
How much did Indians and other humans receive?