Police have now acknowledged that the complaint filed by AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan regarding the alleged illegal spending by Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh eleven days ago is being looked at.
Contacted yesterday for an update, Crime Chief Leslie James said that he has since made contact with his superiors. He said that the matter is “under examination”.
Ramjattan’s decision to lodge a formal complaint came after it was found that government had spent more than $4.5 billion of the $37.4 billion cut from this year’s $220 billion national budget. Singh, on June 19, tabled Financial Paper 1 of 2014 seeking the approval of the House for the extra-budgetary spending. However, this quickly attracted the ire of the main opposition APNU as well as the AFC who have labelled it illegal.
Last week, the AFC leader told Stabroek News that he is expecting the force to issue a public response to his complaint sometime this week.
In a nine-page complaint and brief to the police which was submitted on July 19, Ramjattan wrote that he was making a formal complaint and report that Singh and other officials in his Ministry have committed a violation of the provisions of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003. The minister, he said, has spent monies without having obtained legislative authorization and he and other officials in the relevant ministries have expended $4.5 billion up to June 16th, 2014. This, according to Ramjattan, constitutes a misusing, a misapplication, or an improper disposal of public monies.
Quoting Section 85 which says: “An official who knowingly permits any other person to contravene any provision of this Act is guilty of an indictable offence and liable on conviction to a fine of $2,000,000 and imprisonment for 3 years,” the AFC leader said that criminal liability can therefore befall the minister and those under him if it is determined that they went against the above-mentioned legislation.
Ramjattan, in the document, also told the police that Singh breached Article 217 which outlines all the conditions under which funds are to be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund.
