Amid questions about how $90M allocated to the police during the last general elections was spent, the force today issued a statement saying it could account for the entire amount.
The statement follows:
Cognisant of recent publications in the print media concerning an alleged “missing $90M” that was allocated to the Guyana Police Force for the conduct of policing duties during the last General and Regional Elections, and which have resulted from unofficial, unauthorized and misleading statements from a Police Divisional Commander, the Guyana Police Force wishes to set the records straight.
During 2011 the Guyana Police Force prepared a budget of proposed activities for the General and Regional Elections 2011 which was submitted to the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Home Affairs. Subsequently supplementary provisions were received by the Police Force during November 2011 in the sum of $90,649,200.00.
Of this amount $39,641,200.00 were for the shortfall on voted provisions and $51,008,000.00 were received under the line item 6261 – local travelling and subsistence – which also caters for the feeding of police ranks during the inlying period for Elections. The Force wishes to clarify that the sum allotted to the police for elections duties was $51,008.000.00 and not the total $90,649,200.00.
$8M was to facilitate the cost of travelling expenses and the remaining $43,008,000.00 was brought to account by the police. A total sum of $32,491,822.00 was drawn out to Police Divisions, Police Headquarters and Special Constabulary Headquarters to meet expenditure for the feeding of ranks.
Police Divisions, Police Headquarters and the Special Constabulary Headquarters were allocated cash and commodities from the Police Consumers’ Cooperative Society Ltd. and other outlets for the feeding of ranks.
Police Headquarters comprises all the Branches of the Force such as the Tactical Services Unit, CID Headquarters, the Felix Austin Police College, Immigration, Commissioner’s Office, General Office, Finance Office, the Police Band, Quartermaster Stores etc. However, the Tactical Services Unit received a separate allocation for the elections period.
The following is a breakdown of how the monies were allocated:
Police Headquarters – $9,500,251.00
“A” Division – $8,526,676.00
“B” Division – $3,459,851.00
“C” Division – $2,299,465.00
“D” Division – $1,199,037.00
“E&F” Division – $1,696,888.00
“G” Division – $1,136,623.00
TSU – $4,176,144.00
Special Constabulary – $ 496,887.00
The remaining sum of $10,516,178.00 is still in the Force’s accounting system.
The Guyana Police Force wishes to reiterate that monies received were allocated to the appropriate Divisions and Branches for the feeding of ranks and other policing activities during the elections and that there was nothing sinister in the handling of the monies as alluded to by the media.
