The Opposition APNU+AFC this afternoon said it feels vindicated in its position that the current government has been engaged in massive corruption.

Member of Public Accounts Committee, Opposition Member of Parliament Ganesh Mahipaul said the 2021 annual report of the accounts of Guyana, raises several accounting issues. He said the report is replete with cases of massive corruption, gross disrespect of financial law and dereliction in the management of taxpayers’ dollars.

“The lack of transparency and accountability were well documented and noted. With reference to the Ministry of Health, it was found that an amount totaling $1.195B was paid for drugs and medical supplies but not delivered. Of that amount only $9.2m were covered by bank guarantees. This means, that should the suppliers default on the supply of drugs and medical supplies, the Ministry will find it difficult to recover over $1.9B,” Mahipaul, a member of the Public Accounts Committee said.

In some Ministries, Mahipaul said, the report points to gross misuse of public monies, and in some cases, there was no trace of what funds might have been used for. The AG’s report also flagged instances where funds were not returned to the consolidated fund.

“As it relates to the awarding of contracts in region 9, it was found that the RDC, awarded eight contracts, totaling $106M to a contractor who is currently blacklisted up to the year 2030, by the Public Procurement Commission of Guyana. With reference to the violation of the fiscal management Act, there were 162 checks totaling $623M still on hand, which should have been refunded to the consolidated fund,” the Opposition MP noted.

According to the Opposition Member, the financial irregularities outlined cannot be ignored as they constitute serious breaches of the country’s financial laws.

“Guyanese, these among other financial irregularities and abnormalities were unearth and I am sure when the accounting officers appear before the Public Accounts Committee, we will find lots more but with the current attitude of the government’s side on the PAC, noting that it is them who changed the quorum of PAC and gave themselves full control in deciding whether a PAC can he held or not, it is my conclusion, that the PPP government will continue to slow down the meetings of the PAC by way of absenting themselves or curtailing the hours with a clear intent to not examine their years of massive corruption,” the Opposition MP noted.

The Opposition has repeatedly accused the Government of mishandling the country’s finances and avoiding oversight.

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