The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) yesterday accused the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) of disrespecting Guyanese by refusing to declare whether a US$17.2m environmental loan to Guyana has been disbursed.
Following the announcement of the loan, the WPA had written the IDB last week expressing concerns about unapproved expenditure by the government particularly in light of the suspension of Parliament. It called for a deferral of the disbursal of the loan. There has been no response from the IDB. Since the WPA’s intervention in the matter, a second loan to the security sector for US$15M was signed between the IDB and Guyana.
The WPA, a member of opposition coalition APNU, in a statement yesterday accused the Bank of disrespecting the Guyanese public. “The Bank must be aware that constitutionally such funds must be placed in the Consolidated Fund of Guyana and can only be taken out by way of an Appropriation Act passed by the Parliament,” the WPA statement read.
It added “The WPA must now question the IDB’s commitment to transparency, accountability, ethics and the rule of law which the IDB so self-righteously claims for itself.
It hopes that the Bank will now accept this offer of self-redemption by openly declaring if any of the above-mentioned loans were disbursed, and if either was, or both … were, (their) timing and destination”.
The party stated that the recent announcement that the government will be distributing 6,000 solar panels to Amerindian communities as part of the IDB funds was akin to the bank endorsing the PPP/Civic.
The WPA is demanding that the IDB publicly declare the state of the US$17.2M loan disbursement as the Bank had noted that it would be provided in a single instalment.
“The Bank’s collusion with the Government at this stage would leave the WPA, in consultation with the members of the joint opposition, no choice but to re-examine the validity of the loans, and by extension … repayment,” stated the WPA.
Both the WPA and the Guyana Human Rights Association had written to the IDB prior to the loans, the US$15M security loan and the US$17.1M environmental loan, being signed by the IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno and Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh in The Bahamas last week Thursday.
Dr Rupert Roopnaraine of the WPA and Member of Parliament said that given the bureaucratic steps in place by the bank it is not likely that the funds will be released immediately. However the lack of response from the IDB was disturbing and showcased little sensitivity for the concerns of the Guyanese public.
He reaffirmed the apprehensions by political parties and members of civil society that to continue in a business-as-usual manner without the legislative branch of government functioning was an unsettling dynamic.
In a statement by the finance ministry, Singh had said that “the decision by the IDB to provide these loans is further testimony of the Bank’s confidence in this Government’s commitment to responsible management and, in particular, to implementing meaningful reform in the two sectors concerned.”
Stabroek News has made several attempts to contact the IDB Representative Sophie Makonnen by phone and email to no avail. A visit to the IDB office on High Street on Tuesday was also futile.
The Bank did contact Stabroek News via email prior to the signing of the loans on Thursday, but simply reiterated the environment loan objectives and refrained from answering when the loan would be signed or disbursed.
The specific objectives of the project under the US$15M loan are to:
(i) Improve behaviours for non-violent conflict resolution in target communities;
(ii) Increase the Guyana Police Force’s effectiveness in crime prevention and crime investigation nationally; (iii) Improve the Guyana Prison Ser-vice’s effectiveness in reducing offender recidivism at the national level.
The US$17.1M environmental loan according to the IDB will enhance the regulatory, institutional and monitoring structures to support the implementation of the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
