Millions of dollars are unaccounted for from the Sustainable Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) Initiative, which was rolled out under the previous government, Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton announced on Friday.
Addressing a press conference on Friday at his ministry’s boardroom, Hamilton said that in Regions Nine and Ten, there is no evidence of projects on which money has been spent.
“What we have seen is there are shepherds but no sheep… so millions of dollars are unaccounted for,” the minister lamented.
“All these small groups have formed themselves into cooperatives and applied and received grants but there is no evidence to say they are functioning. This is a clear case of mismanagement…,” the minister added.
He said that an investigation will be launched to determine the total sum of money that has been distributed and what has happened to the programme.
However, he stated the Chief Cooperative Officer has been finding it difficult to gather information from persons who were involved and worked on the programme.
The programme was rolled out in 2019 and had the objective of funding community-based projects across nine regions in areas such as agriculture, livestock and apiculture, value-added products thereof, ICT and tourism.
It was estimated that the investment would create 120 direct jobs and 100 indirectly with a per capita investment of approximately $400,000 from the standpoint of fostering opportunities for economic development, creating opportunities to expand the economy in terms of new sources of jobs and economic activities for local communities.
During the 2020 budget debate, Minister of Local Government Nigel Dharamlall claimed that $250 million budgeted for the SLED programme in 2019 could not be accounted for and threatened prosecution of opposition members.
According to him, there one project in an area “where a shop was built by a certain councillor on a government reserve.”
Former Sports Director and opposition MP Christopher Jones has filed a lawsuit against the Guyana Police Force whom he said has breached his constitutional rights to protection from arbitrary search and deprivation of property in wake of a controversial search of his home and the removal of 18 barber chairs and two air conditioners, altogether valued at $4.8 million, purchased as part of a $4 million government-funded project under the SLED programme under the former APNU+AFC administration.
The police have launched a probe into what they say is the alleged larceny of state assets by Jones.
Jones had been arrested hours after his lawyer secured an order barring the law enforcers from entering his Georgetown home without a warrant.
