The PNCR is calling on the Auditor General to undertake an immediate audit of the financial operations of those ministries to which sums were “unilaterally voted” by the government in the last sitting of the National Assembly.

According to the PNCR in a news release yesterday, “it is now becoming much clearer why the government found itself in difficulty in accounting for the $4.0 billion requested in the Supplemen-tary Provision under the guise of providing housing for Guyanese.” The major opposition party noted that Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali had “refused to provide answers to questions in the National Assembly about the intended use of that large allocation.”

In that light, the PNCR said it is interesting that Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud was now informing the nation that some of the $4 billion allocated to the Ministry of Housing will help to purchase lands from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) for house lots. The release quoted Minister Persaud as saying that “the monies will be used by GuySuCo to bring new and unused cane lands on the East Coast of Demerara and in Berbice to cane cultivation.”The PNCR said further that according to the Minister of Agriculture GuySuCo requires urgently $10 billion to carry out capital works which included bringing new cane lands under cultivation while the corporation was forced to shelve many of its plans after finding itself in severe financial troubles last year. “It is now evident that the government was providing a subsidy to GuySuCo in a most clandestine manner,” the PNCR contended.

And if this was the intended use for the Supplementary Provision, the PNCR added, “It is difficult to understand why the minister had difficulty in providing clear and unambiguous answers to the National Assembly.”

However, the PNCR had pointed out in Parliament that the truth “is that the government has allocated large resources under the Ministry of Housing so that its utilization will be carried out without any scrutiny, at the expense of transparency and accountability.”

Against that background, the PNCR said that it is again calling on the Auditor General “to undertake an immediate audit of the financial operations of those ministries to which sums were unilaterally voted by the PPP in the last sitting of the National Assembly.”