Finance Minister Winston Jordan says he has started moving to have all government revenue transferred into the Consolidated Fund.
Asked about the movement of the revenues from government holding company, the National Industrial commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and the lotto fund into the Consolidated Fund, Jordan told Stabroek News in an interview on Thursday that he has started moving in this direction. “In general, I have already moved.
I have spoken to the Accountant General on having, for example, all inactive accounts closed and their balances transferred to the Consolidated Fund,” he said, before adding that he has to meet with authorities from the semi-autonomous agencies, such as the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), which have “huge chunks of money,” about transfers into the Fund. He added that some transfers are taking place but he is looking to have it done on a systematic manner.
The former PPP/C administration was criticised by analyst Christopher Ram and also by former Auditor General Anil Goolsarran for its failure to transfer revenues from NICIL and the lotto fund into the Consolidated Fund, thereby bypassing parliamentary scrutiny and shirking its obligation under the constitution.
GFC and GGMC, Jordan said, were tasked with policing the sector and collecting “our central government revenue.” He said it was never intended for the revenue to remain in the domain of these agencies; rather, the revenue was to be collected on behalf of the body and transferred to the Consolidated Fund. He said that some of the money collected will remain with the agencies for them to carry out their functions but the “bulk of the revenues belong to the government.”
“I don’t think these agencies are saying that these are our revenues.
“I don’t think that these agencies are saying that. But to the extent to which they are lying outside the Fund, from which we have to run the government, means we are unnecessarily borrowing money while others have our money locked off. I am not interested in running any parallel treasury. The Consolidated Fund remains the constitutional fund from which the government has to put in and take out,” he said.
