The PNCR has rejected charges by the government that it could not account for $100M intended to pay its scrutineers.
In a press release issued on Thursday, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported that Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon was concerned that the $100 million, which it said the PNCR received as a result of the Guyana Elections Commis-sion (Gecom) registration exercise to pay scrutineers had not been accounted for.
According to GINA, Luncheon also said that there was information available to government that the opposition scrutineers were being used to agitate against the government to protest.
Further to this, Luncheon at a post-cabinet media briefing yesterday accused Gecom of “apparently” devolving its responsibility for accounting for public funds to the PNCR.
Contacted for a comment on Luncheon’s assertions, controller of Gecom’s finances, Gocool Boodoo, insisted that the commission’s secretariat had no responsibility for scrutineers and stressed that the body’s responsibility was for registration.
“Gecom does not have any responsibility for scrutineers, they are not staff of Gecom and they do not report to anyone at Gecom,” he asserted.
He noted that it was the Ministry of Finance that made money available to the scrutineers.
“I have no responsibility for them. We don’t have scrutineers on our list of staff,” he reiterated.
Luncheon told reporters yesterday that the administration would investigate the purported misuse of funds by the PNCR.
Stabroek News had contacted Opposition Leader Robert Corbin about the government’s allegations, which were first made public on Thursday. He dismissed them as government’s intention to divert attention from the real issues which relate to the rising cost of living in the country.
Corbin said he knew nothing of the government’s claim adding that the matter might be one for Gecom and the Ministry of Finance.
“No money came to the PNC. It is dealings between Gecom and the Chief Scrutineer. Money was passed to that person to pay scrutineers working on the registration exercise,” Corbin pointed out.
Corbin said he believed the government was worried about the mobilisation against the cost of living and was seeking to deflect attention to other matters.
The PNCR-1G opted out of attending Parliament on Thursday and instead conducted a protest march against the rising cost of living. The march, led by Corbin, continued again yesterday.
