The former PPP/C administration improperly used the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) to pump large sums into the One Laptop Per Family Project (OLPF) as well as the e-Governance project, an audit ordered by the APNU+AFC government has shown.
The forensic audit into the NFMU is ongoing and when asked if he could expand on the extent of the misuse of funding, Junior Minister of Finance Jaipaul Sharma told Stabroek News that he would not be able to comment on any findings of the audit as it has not been finalised and had not been sent to Cabinet as yet.
As the audit is ongoing the full extent of the redirected funds cannot be established but sources told Stabroek News that for years dating back to 2012 and before, the NFMU was being used to funnel funds elsewhere because it was a stand-alone body without any direct oversight by Parliament.
However, NFMU Managing Director Valmiki Singh said in a press release issued yesterday said the unit was “authorised and instructed by the government to fund (mostly recurrent and operational costs) for the OLPF and e-Governance projects.”
The release said that every request for payment submitted by the two projects prior to May, 2015, was approved by the then head of the presidential secretariat. “This approach has continued post-May, 2015, where the Minister of State, Ministry of the Presidency via the Perma-nent Secretary, Ministry of the Presidency/Office of the Prime Minister, authorises every request for payment,” the release added.
Sources told this newspaper that the 2013 national budget estimates would show that almost $1 billion under a Rates and Taxes and Subventions to Local Authorities line item was redirected. However, Singh said in the release that all expenditure made by the NMFU for the ICT projects were included in the budget estimates, which were considered and approved by the Committee of Supplies of the National Assembly for the years 2012 – 2015.
He said the manner and approach in which funding for the ICT projects were budgeted and expended prior to May, 2015, have continued and are driven by the policy of the government.
Sharma said the “poor revenue collection is alarming. It could lead to corruption” continuing that the opportunity was present to commit fraud due to the large sums of money in oddly placed line items in the budget.
However, Singh said the NFMU is confident that any fair audit and report of its operations will reveal that the NFMU is properly managed; its operations are above board and that “there were no acts of corruption/fraud at the agency.”
The controversial $3.1 billion e-Governance project that commenced in 2011 ran into numerous problems and the last administration was in the process of having it rectified to the tune of millions of dollars.
Chief Executive Officer of Dax Engineering Com-pany, Faisal Mohammed, had told Stabroek News that the rehabilitation would cost “somewhere about US$10 million.” Then head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon told Stabroek News on April 26 that under the agreement for the repairs, the contractor, Dax Engineering, would have been given a number of pairs of fibres in that cable for its own use. The cable has 12 pairs of fibres.
Head of the e-governance project Alexei Ramotar was sent on leave in July with Minister of State Joseph Harmon stating that an investigation was imminent.
As for the OLPF, the project is under review according to Harmon. The minister visited the head office in Queenstown on July 8 and stated that he found a large amount of unserviceable and defective laptops, which he said is as a result of “bad sourcing of the equipment from the source country, China.”
Subsequent to the visit some 40 employees were given dismissal letters.
Under the US$30 million project, the PPP administration had originally planned to distribute 90,000 computers to poor families over a three-year period.
