Two weeks after announcing that the Guyana Fores-try Commission (GFC) was unable to pay salaries for July and owes millions to the utility companies, the new government has approved the release of $350 million to cover these expenses.
According to a release yesterday on the issue, the Minister of Natural Re-sources, Vickram Bharrat on August 6 committed to seek the President’s intervention to obtain financial support for the agency, which has been struggling to pay staff on time and fund other critical operational costs for several months.
It is unclear from where the money is being sourced.
Further, government has committed to honouring the promise of a $25,000 bonus which had been made by the former administration.
The bonus which was announced in 2018 had not been paid. It however will now be received by “all eligible staff before the end of 2020.” The release did not specify what constituted eligibility.
The release further noted that Bharrat has already commenced discussions with the Commission and other stakeholders within the forest sector to examine strategies to enhance the financial performance and management capabilities of the sector.
This is the second “bail-out” announced for a state agency over the last two days. On Sunday it was announced that Cabinet on Friday sanctioned a disbursement of $600M from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha told Stabroek News that the $600M will be sourced from the $30B bond that had been secured for the industry by NICIL.
According to the Minister, GuySuCo’s management had requested the sum which they said would cover their payroll for the remainder of the 2020 fiscal year.
At his first press conference held earlier this month, Mustapha had announced that the corporation required $1.6 billion up to the end of this year for capital and operational investments to stay afloat, as revenue generated from its sale of sugar and molasses will be insufficient to meet the corporation’s financial needs.
The poor financial standing of the sugar corporation has already negatively impacted the first crop of 2020, the minister had said.
Both GuySuCo and the GFC are part of a list of 15 agencies which are undergoing a rapid financial and management review.
President Irfaan Ali has announced that a team comprising Christopher Nascimento , Public Communications Consultant; Christopher Ram, Chartered Accountant and Attorney–at-law; Nigel Hinds, Certified Public Accountant and Sasenarine Singh, Financial Consultant would immediately conduct the assessment.
A statement on the matter also noted that the team will also be conducting a review of the operations, policies and programmes of the Department of Public Information, the National Communications Network Incorporated and the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
