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En GUYANA | PPP Government refuses additional funds for Afro-Guyanese Organization, Claims corruption
GUYANA | PPP Government refuses additional funds for Afro-Guyanese Organization, Claims corruption
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, August 23, 2022 - The simmering volcano which characterizes race relations in The Cooperative Republic of Guyana, has taken yet another minute step towards an eventual eruption, with the refusal of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo of the overwhelmingly Indo-Guyanese PPP Government to provide adequate funding for The International Decade for People of African Descent- Guyana (IDPADA-G) organization's projects.
Jagdeo told a press conference on Monday, that he would not be apologizing to International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana (IDPADA-G) Chairman Vincent Alexander, going on to challenge him to properly account for the almost $500 million that was allocated to the organisation by the State.
“How much of the $100M allocated annually since 2019 and $68M in 2018 was spent on paying salaries, who are individuals that were paid, what amounts were they being paid and how were they selected? How much of that sum was spent on rental, who owns the buildings rented, and what process was used for the selection of the buildings?” Jagdeo questioned.
According to IPADA-G in a statement, the government turned down its formal requests for $58 million in 2020 and 2021 to provide grants for its projects. “We were advised that that request would not be honoured and, therefore, we have not gotten the specific money for grant purposes.”
Though not a grant agency, Chief Executive Officer Olive Sampson said IDPADA-G has injected funds into the Mocha Market Day and the CSEC Night Schools among other projects.
Chairman of IDPADA-G Vincent Alexander took issue with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s suggestion that his Board of Directors has personally received monies from the almost GY$500 million allocated by the government. insinuated that some GY$100 million from the State’s coffers was but none has reached to Afro-Guyanese.
Alexander said IDPADA-G is a not-for-profit company whose directors do not earn a salary and were executive members at the time of the founding of the company “They are volunteers. They are not in receipt of any material benefit from IDPADA-G,” he said, adding that the secretariat whose salaries are in the ratio of the range of the public sector’s entities to current expenses,” the Chairman declared.
The following is the full text of the statement released by Chairman of IDPADA-G Vincent Alexander:
Georgetown, Guyana August 23, 2022 - Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s tirade on the International Decade of People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G), at his press conference dated August 19, 2022, is but another attempt to discredit IDPADA-G and vilify its leadership.
At a recent forum of African Guyanese attended by him, he posed the question: ‘What has Alexander done with the G$100M given to him on behalf of the People of African Descent?’ Cuffy 250’s annual forum and its provocative topic: The Emerging Apartheid State, is but another occasion for him to continue his mischievous crusade of misinformation, lies and defamation.
We are here today to expose him and his mal-intent. In the first instance, he sought to single out the founders of IDPADA-G Inc. as the beneficiaries of some private company. IDPADA-G is a not-for-profit company, whose directors were the executive members of IDPADA-G at the time of the founding of the company.
They are volunteers. They are not in receipt of any material benefits from IDPADA-G. Some are here today to refute the impression that Jagdeo sought to convey of them as being beneficiaries of IDPADA-G Inc.
As a professional outfit, IDPADA-G has a secretariat and paid staff. Any reference to salaries, is to their remuneration. The ratio of their salaries to the overall budget is in the range of the public sector entities’ salaries to current expenditure ratio.
Mr. Jagdeo also sought to convey the impression that their annual salary of approximately G$42M for 2020 was paid to them in the circumstance where all that they were doing was disbursing to the African Guyanese community $343,000.00 in grants. This is where Mr. Jagdeo tries to pull off his biggest three card trick on the Guyanese public.
Firstly, IDPADA-G is not generally funded to provide grants. However, in late 2018, a sum of G$10M was specifically provided, by the Ministry of Finance for grants to African Guyanese, the bulk of which was disbursed in 2018 and 2019. A residual sum of approximately G$343,000.00 was disbursed in 2020.
To suggest that of a subvention of G$100M in 2020, the community was merely the beneficiaries of grants to the tune of $343,000.00 is either malicious or gross incompetence in relation to the understanding of the financial situation of IDPADA-G, although the relevant financial documents were requested and obtained from IDPADA-G on the morning of Mr. Jagdeo’s press conference. Such was IDPADA-G’s openness and efficiency in providing documents, only for them to be misused by the Vice-President.
Regarding what the staff is paid to do, IDPADA-G staff is in the first instance paid to give service to the African Guyanese community. Members of the public can walk- in and be given services such as the preparation of business plans, projects and grant request proposals for government and donor funding.
The sum that Mr. Jagdeo did not mention, goes towards projects in the sphere of education and training, disaster response,public education, entrepreneurial facilitation, and youth development, to mention a few. Examples including the G$5M exercise to register persons for flood relief, due to their omission by state operatives, will be provided on the work of IDAPADA-G, by the next presenter.
A more comprehensive fact sheet will be made available to you. Mr. Jagdeo, therefore, grossly misrepresented the work that is done by IDPADA-G, and how its subvention is spent on its engagements with the Guyanese of African descent.
Every cent of IDPADA-G’s subvention or other revenue is spent in service to the African Guyanese community, indirectly as in the case of salaries or directly through programmes, projects, engagements, and financial assistance.
As an example of the grants, five youths were awarded on Friday May 20, 2022 with cash grants from the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly to invest in their businesses.
Clinton Samuels of COBBEC Vision received $500,000; Earlecia Hieronymo of Khayr Organics – $250,000; Brian Smith of Dragonfly Geospatial Aerial Productions – $150,000; Jermaine Hall of Country Boy Farming Supplies – $75,000 and Delon Simpson of Kukki Aquaculture – $50,000.
They were the top five winners from IDPADA-G’s Youth Committee Second Annual Invest-A-Thon/Pitch Competition, which ran for a three-week period and ended on May 1, 2022. Fifty four youths from across Guyana with businesses and ideas needing investment opportunities applied to take part in the competition.
Chair of the Youth Committee, Ascena Jacobs explained that the initiative was pursued after realising the lack of access to funding opportunities for start-up businesses.