{"id":33962,"date":"2024-05-02T23:43:27","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T04:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=33962"},"modified":"2024-05-02T18:55:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T23:55:41","slug":"region-10-found-in-breach-for-cutting-cheques-in-2019-for-unfinished-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/region-10-found-in-breach-for-cutting-cheques-in-2019-for-unfinished-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Region 10 found in breach for cutting cheques in 2019 for unfinished work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guyana<\/p>\n

The Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) administration\u00a0 breached Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 in 2019 since 228 cheques totalling $131.8 million were prepared for work that was still to be completed.<\/p>\n

This information was revealed on Monday, February 12, during the 59th meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on the 2019 Auditor General\u2019s (AG) report.<\/p>\n

According to the AG\u2019s report, the Regional Administration breached Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003, which requires that at the end of each fiscal year, any unexpended balance of public monies issued out of the Consolidated Fund shall be returned.<\/p>\n

This raised eyebrows of both government and opposition parliamentarians of the Committee, who proceeded to take the current regional official, Dwight John, and other representatives to task for allowing this to be swept under the carpet.<\/p>\n

Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, who was visibly frustrated remarked \u201cThe cheques were cut for works not completed. The work didn\u2019t do, how the cheques were cut if the work didn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Regional Executive Officer (REO) Orrin Gordon, in his defence, told the PAC that actions had been taken in response to \u201csituations confronting the administration at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon explained, \u201cThere are some projects which are not going to be rolled over, and once it is not [rolled over], the (maximum)\u00a0 payment has to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former REO reasoned that the regional administration opted to have these cheques prepared beforehand so the payments could be made once the work was completed. He also requested that the system of disbursing funds for projects not rolling over be reviewed so that such issues do not reoccur.<\/p>\n

However, several committee members including Ganesh Mahipaul, Edghill, and Chairperson Jermaine Figueira, deemed this unacceptable, pointing out that this should not have occurred in the first place.<\/p>\n

Mahipaul asserted, \u201cEngineers, you must not subject yourself to instructions that are against the financial laws of this country\u2026 you cannot pay for work that is expected to be completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AG\u2019s report cited that \u201cAudit checks conducted on 20 January, 2020, revealed that there were 228 cheques on hand totalling $131.848 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added, \u201cThese cheques should have been refunded to the Consolidated Fund and the necessary adjustments made to the Appropriation Accounts. As a result, the Appropriation Accounts were overstated by the said amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further analysis of the cheques showed that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) cut 5,325 cheques totalling $4.425 billion for current and capital expenditure incurred by the Regional Administration.<\/p>\n

However, 1,053 cheques totalling $775.817 million or approximately 18% of total expenditure were cut in December 2019 as shown in the table below.<\/p>\n

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more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Image: pexels-cottonbro-<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guyana The Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) administration\u00a0 breached Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 in 2019 since 228 cheques totalling $131.8 million were prepared for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":33963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250],"tags":[157,116,125],"class_list":["post-33962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-anti-corruption","tag-guyana","tag-public-procurement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pexels-cottonbro-6862443-scaled-e1714693943512.jpg?fit=1014%2C676&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-8PM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20930,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/region-6-launches-probe-of-procurement-breaches\/","url_meta":{"origin":33962,"position":0},"title":"Region 6 launches probe of procurement breaches","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"February 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Guyana \u00a0 Chairman of Region 6 (East Berbice \u2013 Corentyne) David Armogan says that an investigation has been launched following the findings of Auditor General Deodat Sharma concerning the award of $615.34 million in contracts. 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