It is an often repeated story that a prominent businessman donated the sum of one hundred million dollars to the 2015 elections war chest of the Coalition. That would not have been the only donation made to that group and it is certain that the PPP/C too would have had their own sources of financing to their campaign. Observers would have noted the huge sums being spent on all forms of expenditure including hiring foreign pollsters and consultants.
Sheepishly, we the voters never for one moment seem to think that funding and their sources matter to the democratic process. As Guyana rushes into becoming a petro-state with billions of dollars circulating annually, no less a person than Minister of Finance Winston Jordan has described, borrowing the term used by the PPP/C in 2015, that the 2020 elections will be the “mother of all elections.” But Mr. Jordan also reassured his political grouping audience, that “we” would keep the thieves away from the resources.” The irony may not have been lost on his audience that in fact, it was the definite “he” that denied that ExxonMobil did in fact pay to his Ministry the sum US$18 million, and that it was on his instructions that the US$18 million was kept far away from the Consolidated Fund. So far in fact that it was held in “foreign”.
The accounting for this hundred million has been hidden and guarded from party executives and members and gets no mention in any Treasurer’s Report. Strange but not surprising that it is unlikely that that and other sums were ever reported in any Suspicious Transaction Report to the Financial Intelligence Unit.