The Ministry of Finance has accused the former government of abusing the Contingencies Fund by withdrawing over $4 billion in the second half of 2019 “to meet a variety of expenditure that had not been budgeted for”, which former minister Winston Jordan has met with incredulity.
“That is why you go to the Contingencies Fund—to meet unbudgeted expenses. We used the fund late in 2019 to meet expenditure related to the Mahaicony sea defence, a debt for the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and two other categories I can’t remember right now. We can’t budget for unforeseen breaches. If that is abuse they must have redefined abuse,” Jordan told Sunday Stabroek.
During an interview with the Department of Information (DPI) on Friday, Ashni Singh, Minister with responsibility for Finance, disclosed that after the Caribbean Court of Justice’s ruling upholding the no-confidence vote against the former administration in June 2019, no less than $4.2 billion was drawn from the Contingencies Fund to meet a variety of expenditure that had not been budgeted for.
He expressed “astonishment” at the expenditure, which occurred from July 2019 to December 2019, after then President David Granger had acknowledged that his government was in caretaker mode.
“Ironically, the Government had boasted the previous year that they had not used the Contingencies Fund in two years, 2017 and 2018, …and it appeared to have been a matter of great pride to them…yet in the second half of 2019 when they were clearly in caretaker mode, they appeared to have no reservations about turning to the Contingencies Fund and drawing down no less than G$4.2 billion,” he stated.
Jordan maintained that it is a source of pride that under his tenure the Contingencies Fund was not accessed for two years in keeping with recommendations from the Auditor General.
“The AG has made a lot of noise about accessing the Contingencies Fund in 2015 so in 2016 it was rarely accessed and after 2016 I resolved that as best as possible there would be no used of the fund. We were on track to achieve the same in 2019 but the breaches put paid to that,” he explained.
In August 2019, funds, amounting to some $460 million had been approved by the Ministry of Finance for emergency works to secure vulnerable areas within a 3-kilometre stretch of shoreline between Fairfield and Dantzig, Mahaicony.
This was one of two emergency expenditures in the area during the period.
Jordan also explained that then Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan approach-ed him about a more than $7 billion debt to GuySuCo for lands bought by the CH&PA prior to 2015.
“The debt to GuySuCo predated the coalition administration. They kept taking land from GuySuCo for housing schemes and not paying and the minister came and we approved a first payment,” Jordan said.
According to the former minister, the comments made by Singh were better suited for the campaign trail. “Elections were held on March 2nd. The campaign should’ve ended then. To be making this comment more than 100 days into your administration when you should be governing is odd,” he maintained.
