Forced to downsize its operations due to a lack of funding, the Coordinating Council of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana (IDPADA-G) is currently seeking legal advice on Government’s decision to withhold its monthly subvention of $8 Million.

The move has crippled the operation of IDPADA-G, and has left it in the red to the tune of $10.5M.

“Given the apparent attempt to discontinue the subvention, legal advice is being sought,” Chairman of IDPADA-G’s Coordinating Council, Vincent Alexander told reporters during a press conference on Thursday.

He anticipates that legal advice on the matter would be provided by the end of next week.

IDPADA-G’s Coordinating Council is convinced that Government’s decision to withhold the subventions for the months of September and October is as a result of the organisation’s decision to publish an ad by the Cuffy 250 Committee promoting its annual forum under the theme ‘Resisting the emerging Apartheid State in Guyana.’

Mr Alexander explained that two days after the advertisement was published on IDPADA-G’s website, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, on August 19, directed the organisation to submit its audited financial records and Articles of Incorporation to the Ministry.

 Mr. Alexander said that on the same day, the Vice President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo waved pages of the submitted documents at a press conference while accusing the organisation of being a private company which received and misappropriated Government’s subvention to the tune of $500M.

As was done in the past, Mr Alexander, in refuting the claims made by the Vice President, clarified that the $500M subvention was received over a five-year period. 

He said contrary to the notion peddled by the Vice President, IDPADA-G disbursed $10M in grants between 2018 and 2020 and not a mere $343,000.

He said IDPADA-G has always been open, transparent and accountable in the conduct of its affairs.

He said notwithstanding the organisation’s move to set the record straight, it was further harassed by the Culture Ministry.

“The harassment of, and attempt to silence IDPADA-G was taken to another level on August 31 when the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports wrote to IDPADA-G instructing that all of its financial records, including payment vouchers, payroll, contracts and receipts for expenditures be handed over to the Ministry,” Mr Alexander explained.

Alexander said the Culture Minister Charles Ramson Jr. was advised that the Ministry of Finance’s Central Internal Audit Unit had already audited IDPADA-G’s financial records for the period 2018-2021.

A copy of the report was submitted to the Ministry with the organisation expressing a willingness to have its 2022 records audited by a mutually agreed auditor.

Mr Alexander said since then, the requests for subventions for the months of September and October have been met with absolutely no response.

The impact, Mr Alexander said, is grave but IDPADA-G remains resolute.

It was explained that the organisation was forced to terminate the services of 10 of its 20 employees and has now downsized and remodeled its operations to focus on low-cost activities.

“In terms of remodelling, you may have noted that we have already terminated contracts. So, we have scaled down the bureaucratic, so to speak, operation of IDPADA-G. We are moving in the direction of volunteerism, and as well, we are moving more in the direction of advocacy than the actual implementation of projects. Advocacy, in fact, is one of our original mandates, a mandate, which requires that we interact with the State for the purpose of legal, institutional and policy changes that would facilitate recognition, justice and development of people of African descent,” Mr Alexander explained.

Mr Alexander said the organisation is looking to be self-sufficient, even when the subvention is reinstated. 

Weighing in on the matter, IDPADA-G’s CEO detailed that the company now has a debt of about $10.5M with salaries owed for the month of September.

It was explained that the staff complement has been reduced to 10, with the wage bill moving from approximately $4M a month to approximately $1.8M for the remaining staff.

“We have laid off 10 of our staff members. Others continue to work despite the fact that they have not been paid or fully paid. So, we are grateful for their support, and so, we continue to work as Mr Alexander said, on types of projects that require little staff and little funding,” she said.

The CEO said at the beginning of the year, she took a salary cut of $100,000, and informed the Council, that with no subvention, she will be volunteering her service.

Ms. Sampson disclosed too that a number of programmes funded by IDPADA-G including the Sophia Night School Programme and an ongoing survey have been affected.

The Coordinating Council is convinced that despite the stumbling block, it must receive subventions owed as they are provided for under the Appropriation Act.

It has also made it clear that it will not be intimidated by the Government.

“We are not going to bow out of our mandate, we are conscious that the Government of Guyana in 2013 subscribed to that declaration [Durban Declaration], we are conscious that President Ali very recently, at the United Nations spoke about the question of reparation and the role his Government intends to play, and our intention is to hold the Government to its rhetoric,” Alexander said.

IDPADA-G’s Annual Assembly, over the weekend, passed a resolution to that effect.

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