GUYANA | PPP/C Govt halts Funding to Afro-Guyanese Organization (The International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G)?

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, October 4, 2022 - Following unsubstantiated claims by Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo that the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G) organization has misused its funds, the non-profit organization for the first time has failed to received its usual government allocation. 

IDPADA-G, which was formed to answer the call of the United Nations under the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 to 2024), assists Afro-Guyanese to empower themselves by  assisting communities in crafting business plans, implementing projects and grant assistance by helping to write requests for proposals for government and donor funding.

The IDPADA-G said that it requested an additional G$58m (GYD$212.75 to USD$1.00) from the Government to offer grants to Afro-Guyanese in both 2020 and 2021 but was refused.

The Organization is chaired by well known academic Vincent Alexander who says the IDPADA-G is currently assessing its options as it seeks to continue its functions without the financial support of the Government.

Alexander told Kaieteur News that “since the organization responded to the request for information by the Government, “there has been no further communication.” He said that the funds that support IDPADA-G’s operations were due at the beginning of the month, and October is now due.”

The Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports in August, wrote the IDPADA-G seeking its financial documents just weeks after Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo accused the organisation of misusing the funds given.

The Vice President, during a press conference at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, was at the time addressing claims which he said IDPADA-G made that the People’s Progressive Party government has been practicing discrimination against Afro-Guyanese in relation to funding. He said that “The cause is to shout as much as possible about discrimination so that they can draw the benefits in.” He thus urged the organisation to tell the truth about what it did with the monies received as he accused “this group of individuals” as failing Afro-Guyanese, “but they are living the good life…”

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.

Alexander, who is also a Commissioner on the Guyana Elections Commission representing the Opposition parties, said the organisation’s CEO, Oliver Sampson made it clear during a recent press conference that Jagdeo was being disingenuous in his comments when he accused the organisation of needing state scrutiny. 

Alexander pointed out that as a non-profit, the organisation had submitted its financials to the Government since the previous year, as they had requested an audit of the organisation. 

He said that the Government auditors had since comed through the organisation’s finances. He said that “one comprehensive audit for the period” 2018-2021 was done and that information was made available to the government.

Alexander said Sampson had also provided a rundown of the work IDPADA-G had done with the G$500m which the organisation had received over the years. One of the main accusations was that a large portion of the organizations funds were going into the payment of staff, which Jagdeo insinuated was one of the ways the money was being stolen. 

The organisation responded that its staffers were at the disposal of the various Afro-Guyanese communities, as among their tasks, they craft business plans, projects and grant request proposals for government and donor funding.

Alexander has since demanded that the Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo issue an apology for the statements made. However, Jagdeo refused and said that he was sticking with his claims.