Dear Editor,
I note a letter to the press from Mr Floyd Levi in response to a letter from me titled `Increased spending by Granger Administration questionable’ published on page 7 of Stabroek News on 19th February 2020. Firstly, I want to sincerely thank Mr Levi for his response. But it would be remiss of me, to let this particularly glaring recent example of how to deflect from the core issues, go unremarked upon.
Where in my letter did I remark upon the genesis or history of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA)? While it is good information, it is irrelevant to the core issue and this history does not aid to serve as a credible rebuttal to the arguments advanced by me.
In this regard I put the following questions to the nation and invite Mr Levi to answer them in order to dispel any doubt the nation may have on its mind:
1. Were 107 new employees hired by the NDMA in 2018? What were these people hired to do? Was intelligence gathering one of their tasks?
2. To date, you have not told this nation what is the latest with the $113 million that the NDMA spent on a fibre optic cable in 2018? Is it working? Was the project completed?
3. To date, you have not reported to a Select Committee of Parliament on your activities concerning the Data Centre that was constructed at Liliendaal? What is the nature of the data this Data Centre is collecting? Does it collect information on private citizens without their permission?
4. The Auditor-General in his 2018 Audited Report stated that the 2015 financial statements of the NDMA lack “key disclosures and are not in compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)”. Yet the Granger cabal sought to put several billions of dollars into the hands of such an agency that does not appear to understand basic accounting and internal controls.
5. Why is the 2015 audited report the most recent for the NDMA? Where are the completed 2016, 2017 and 2018 audits?
6. Why have the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 audited reports of the NDMA not been presented to the National Parliament?
7. Why was the financial information for 2018 not submitted to the Office of the Auditor-General as yet?
8. Do you know Mr Levi that your actions as the Accounting Officer of the NDMA are in clear violation of Section 80 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act?
What are the primary functions of this agency and can you account for its deliverables since 2016? What has the NDMA done for the people of Guyana? Why the secrecy and the lack of proper reporting from the NDMA? What is the nation supposed to conclude from this situation?
With the kind courtesy of your pages, please permit me now to respectfully invite Mr Levi to make publicly available his action plan to bring his agency into the realm of good governance, transparency, and accountability. But more importantly, I hope he just answers these few small questions. Into whose hands is all the information gathered and processed by the NDMA released? And why does the Granger cabal need all this electronic and telecoms data?
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh