The European Union (EU) has insisted on a number of measures before the release of $5.8 billion (€25 million) –frozen under the previous administration – for sea defence and the sugar sector including for government to show that funds released previously were utilized in a transparent manner.
“With regard to the sea defences, the real truth is that it is a tremendously expensive proposition. Unfortunately, due to the previous administration‘s performance, we were eligible for some support from the EU and that had been frozen. It started, initially because of the lack of parliamentary oversight, but they’ve now also tagged on the question of transparency, corruption etcetera onto the requirements and so this government, my ministry is now a recipient of that,” Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson told Stabroek News in an exclusive interview.
Patterson met with an EU delegation on Tuesday and subsequently told Stabroek News that there was no movement on whether the funds would be released any time soon and this will impact Guyana’s ability to tackle sea defence