The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has stated that Auditor General (AG) Deodat Sharma was “not factual” when he stated that $1.550 million requested from the Contingencies Fund had been used to pay a non-taxable bonus to employees of the Government Information Agency (GINA).
In the 2015 Auditor General’s report laid in Parliament last week, Sharma stated that the OPM had requested “an advance of $11 million from the Contingencies Fund on 29 December 2015, for payment to GINA to offset partial liabilities to the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL), [publisher of the Guyana Chronicle newspaper].”
The report further stated, “An audit examination of the requisite payment vouchers and other supporting documents revealed that GINA paid GNNL the sum of $9.450 million, whilst the difference of $1.550 million was paid to GINA employees as a non-taxable bonus for the year 2015.