By Johann Earle
Since the commencement of Lotto and other lottery games back in 1995, the Government of Guyana has, up to 2006, received approximately $2.686 billion as its share of the proceeds.
The monies have not entered the Consolidated Fund but continue to be used by the Office of the President to finance various projects with little or no parliamentary oversight.
This is despite repeated calls from the opposition parties for this to be corrected. The Audit Office has year after year repeated that such proceeds are public revenues which should be paid over to the Consolidated Fund in accordance with Section 17 of the Financial Administration and Audit Act (FAA) and that any public expenditure must be approved by Parliament through appropriation.