The GT&T scapegoat

A monopoly that is shaking and toppling over - a breath of relief for Guyana.

The building of a new era is being heralded by the opening up of the telecommunications sector. The Government of Guyana has promised to liberalize the economy and is delivering on this - even if it is the only thing they do.

While the opposition is scratching their privates, the dolphin expert who holds mining concessions and received US$$$ to bring in the red company is now the Government expert on telecommunication. Of course he is the expert as he held the US$ payoff and he made good on the Red store at the airport.

Report of the Public Accounts Committee

Report of the Public Accounts Committee on the Public Accounts for the years 2004 and 2005.

This report was recently submitted to the National Assembly. The Report started by listing some of the general problems it observed in the government’s financial management. The Committee said that during its deliberation of the 2004 and 2005 Auditor General’s reports, a number of general problems which adversely affected the financial management system were identified.

Those problems included:
1. OVERPAYMENT OF CONTRACTORS
2. BREACH OF TENDER BOARD PROCEDURES
3. LACK OF MAINTENANCE OF LOGBOOKS
4. NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE STIPULATED TIMEFRAME FOR THE CLEARING OF CHEQUE ORDERS
5. CAPITAL EXPENDITURE BEING MET FROM CURRENT ALLOCATIONS
6. WRONGFUL PAYMENTS OF SALARIES AND CONSEQUENTIAL DEDUCTIONS PAID TO AGENCIES
7. OUTSTANDING POLICE REPORTS
8. ABUSE OF EXTRA BUGETARY FUNDS
9. VARIATION ON CONTRACTS
10.HIGH COST OF MAINTAINING VEHICLES

OVERPAYMENT FOR CONTRACTORS
The report says that a number of ministries and regions continued to have make overpayments on contracts. The PAC in its report said that it has noted that some ministries and regions have made progress on this issue but some continued to be delinquent.
These included the Ministries of:
1. Agriculture
2. Public Works and Communications and
3. Health
And Regions 1-3, 6, 7, 9 and 10.

BREACH OF TENDER BOARD PROCEDURES
There were various levels of non-compliance with the existing Tender Board Regulations relating to the procurement of goods and services and the undertaking of works, both capital and current by a number of agencies for the years 2004 and 2005, particularly where it relates to compliance with Tender Limits. In view of the fact that the last increase in Tender Board Limits was in November 2004 via the Procurement Regulations, the Committee recommends that the Tender Board limits be increased in the light of current prices.

LACK OF MAINTENANCE OF LOG BOOKS
The PAC is in report said that it noted that during the two years the control and use of government vehicles continued to be very lax resulting in log books not being kept or not being satisfactorily maintained. These agencies were found to be delinquent:
The Ministries of:
1. Agriculture
2. Education
3. Labour, Human Services and Social Security and
4. Home Affairs
5. The Guyana Defence Force and
6. Regions 1-6 and 8

While the Committee recommended that Accounting Officers ensure that log books are maintained and closed at the end of the year, the agencies continued to ignore these.

NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE STIPULATED TIMEFRAME FOR THE CLEARING OF CHEQUE ORDERS
All ministries, departments and regions are required to clear cheque orders with 16 days from when they are issues but there was an inability to do so and this was prevalent in
The ministries of:
1. Agriculture
2. Public Works and Communications
3. Education
4. The Guyana Defence Force and
5. Regions 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 and 10.
I

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE BEING MET FROM CURRENT ALLOCATION
While all amounts budgeted are required to be expended in keeping with that which was approved by the National Assembly, the PAC noted that a in a number of instances where the Auditor General reported that Ministries, Departments and Regions were funding activities of a capital nature from amounts approved for the Current Expenditure.
This forced the Committee to recommend that they:
Collaborate with the Finance Ministry with the aim of determining or differentiating current from capital purchases/works and also adhere strictly to the regulations whenever a need exist to make capital purchases from current allocations.

WRONGFUL PAYMENTS OF SALARIES AND CONSEQUENTIAL DEDUCTIONS PAID TO AGENCIES
The PAC report says that the slow processing of pay change directives in several ministries and mainly in the Regions results in wrongful payment of salaries to employees after they had resigned and the consequential deductions being paid to various agencies without the necessary adjustments made to the payroll and the Ministries and Regions not being able to recover such sums or any at all expeditiously.
This was especially prevalent with respect to the employment of Teachers.
It was also noted by Auditor General that this state of affairs also resulted in these Ministries, Departments and Regions recording overstatements on their Appropriation Accounts as a result of the deductions being paid over to various agencies and the Ministries and Regions not being able to recover such sums.

In 2005 the PAC recommended that:
To strengthen the mechanism to expedite the flow of information from various schools/ministries so that the necessary adjustments could be made to the payroll in a timelier manner; that the Accountings officers should seek to discuss with the National Insurance Scheme and the Guyana Revenue Authority the possibility of crediting the amounts overpaid to the respective ministry, department or region’s account; and in instances where the Accounting Officers attempt to recover sums from the agencies proved futile they should seek to bring the matter to the attention of their subject minister.

OUTSTANDING POLICE REPORTS
The Committee in its report said that it is gravely concerned about the number of issues concerning the loss of public property which are currently with the police and have not been resolved or which were pending in the courts. It said that a number of issues are in relation to the Supreme/Magistrate Courts and are dated as far back as 1992 while others were during 2004 and 2005.

The PAC recommends that Accounting Officers: seek the advice of the Head of the Budget Agency, Home Affairs Ministry where matters were with the police and have long been outstanding; seek the advice of the Attorney General with a view of bringing closure to the court matters and where discrepancies and fraud were discovered actions should be taken and developed to avoid recurrences.


On January 1 2004, the Procurement Act 2003 became operational. This act provides for the regulation of the procurement of goods, services and the execution of works, to promote competition among suppliers and contractors and to promote fairness and transparency in the procurement process. Regulations for this Act were also made and came into operation on the 29 November 2004. However, although the Procurement Act to date has assisted in some instances in addressing the numerous concerns the Committee had over the years, it was noted at the time of the report: THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT COMMISSION PROVIDED FOR BY THE ACT HAD STILL NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED AND THE PAC RECOMMENDED THAT THE ISSUE BE RESOLVED.
The PAC expressed concern of possible collusion between contractors and officials at certain agencies and recommended that:
1. Accounting officers should ensure that there are proper systems for the verification of works to be done and that ministries needed to ensure independent verification.
2. Not only contractors should be held accountable for sums overpaid but also the officer who certified the payment of such sums and
3. The Accounting officer should inform the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board of the names of the contractors and the amount overpaid with a view of preventing those contractors who were requested to repay overpaid amounts and failed to do so from obtaining future jobs or to assist in the recovery of over paid amounts from subsequent contracts.
4. Accounting officers should employ a mechanism within their building/engineering departments to improve the verification f projects to ensure accountability

MORE TO COME !!!

Overseas vote

The filing of a Constitutional Motion maybe the next step to blocking Local and General Elections and securing an extension in the Presidential office for another two years. We have been reliability informed that two overseas based Guyanese are preparing to file this motion through some lawyers in the local courts. This motion seeks to have challenge the lack of system for overseas voting and among their arguments would be that they have been disenfranchised by lack of such a system.

The chief culprits behind this act?

1.The man who recently wrote an article in the Mirror about overseas based Guyanese need to vote is the one touted to be drafting the legal arguments.

2. The man who has been saying that he will never agree to a third term but whose emoluments have increased significantly and will continue to do so in the up coming years.

3. The power drunk visitor to Guyana who has been denying that he will stay in that office.

The repercussions ?

Well the Guyana Elections Commission will have to stall its programme for the holding of Local Government Elections until the Court matter has been heard.

It will also in the mean time to have start registration of overseas based Guyanese.

The Country will have to wait until that process is over before Local and General Elections could proceed.

Given our court system and the back log who knows when this matter will be heard !

TheTaylors - a true story

It has been more than two years since an American Couple and their son was chased out of the Rupununi. The scenario of a morning…while at their abode in Yupukari in the Rupununi, an armed vanload of police arrives and asked them to accompany them to Lethem. They could not pack but were told to walk with passports. But they did not stop in Lethem, they were driven all the way to the City and to the Immigration Department where they were told its to either ‘leave or be deported’
But what was the reason for this act?

Many Government officials have posited a number of reasons, most of these were never uttered in the public domain but were spoken under their breaths when they were asked about the Taylors.

Among they reasons were that Peter Taylor was working with the CIA, they couple were spies, they couple were anti-government and the last but not least was that they were pumping money into a village that was anti-government. A public comment posted on their website www.rupununi learners.org was another reason for the government’s attention. That comment which was taken from the Poverty Reduction Strategy Report spoke of Amerindians being deprived of certain essential services but was later removed from the site after a meeting with government officials.

Initially Peter Taylor came in 2005 to study Black Caimans where he then set up set up the Caiman Research Field Station. He was later joined by his wife Alice.
But with the arrival of Alice Taylor it was evident that the small Amerindian Village with about 500 people had little to do. Her plan was to encourage the development of new jobs, tourism and education.

Her activism overseas won the Community school libraries, internet free libraries and saw the establishment of a non-profit organization Yupukari Crafters which was set up to create jobs and sustain development.

But while Peter’s study was flourishing with information on Black Caimans it may have been Alice’s ‘philanthropy actions’ that may have brought the government’s attention to them.

Her downfall in trying to help the village could lie in some statements she made while doing an interview with the New Canaan Advertiser.

In that interview Alice said that she felt the need to improve education in the village the moment she walked into classrooms. She said that for the exception of a blackboard and some tables, the classroom had only one text book and the children only had one small exam booklet for the year’s duration and pens because the government did not supply pencil sharpeners. She said also that the textbooks, lessons and exams were still in English when the primary language of village including teachers was Macushi.

The most explosive statement some said it when Alice said that she ‘hopes to help the Amerindians become self-sufficient and politically active in their own country’
To date little is being said about the Taylors or their contribution to Yupukari. While the Rupununi Foundation and Rupununi Learners Corporation continue to do work locally the Taylors are said to be blacklisted from entering the country. There is information that Caiman House Field Station work has continued but under the watchful eye of the government who sent the Tourism Minister there some time ago to check on the operations.

Appeals to for the Taylors’ return to Guyana and to help continue with several of the projects fell on deaf ears. These appeals sent as far as the Head of State and the Minister of Amerindian Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues. There are recordings of the Minister meeting a group of Amerindians from the village where she verbally abused them asking them why they encouraged the Taylors in the village and asking them if they know what embarrassment they have brought the government. There is also a reported encounter with the President at his home, State House. It was reported that after several attempts to visit the President at his office the small group led by the Village Toshao was forced to show up at State House. There the Head of State greeted them but when they told them they were from Yupukari his demeanor changed and he asked them to leave. He later asked for the Toshao (who knows little English) to meet him and the Minister of Amerindian Affairs but little is known about that meeting.

Caiman House still operates but with minimal activities and under the watchful eye of the government. Books and other school supplies shipped to the Taylors for the village is still in containers at a wharf.