The Office of the Auditor General has recommended that the police be engaged to do a comprehensive investigation into the controversial D’Urban Park stadium and a report submitted for audit.
The recommendation for a police probe is contained in the 2019 report on the public accounts which was recently tabled in the National Assembly and comes in the wake of the runaround the audit office has experienced in gathering supporting documents for massive expenditure on the billion-dollar project which was launched by the APNU+AFC Government in 2015.
“The Audit Office recommends that the Head of Budget Agency engage the Guyana Police Force to conduct a comprehensive investigation into this issue, and a report submitted for audit, as this may enable the verification of the details relating to the $500M paid”, the audit office said after recounting much of what it had said in the previous year’s report.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were paid to a private company, Homestretch Development Inc (HDI) and what happened to these monies is likely to be the major focus of any probe.
The 2019 report noted that the Audit Office of Guyana undertook a special audit in accordance with Section 26 of the Audit Act 2004, on the construction of the Stadium. An interim report was issued on 7 December 2018. The interim report said that construction commenced in 2015 in preparation for Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary to be celebrated in 2016. A private company named HDI was created to implement this project. As at 31 December 2017, amounts totalling $1.150 billion were expended. Payment vouchers to support expenditure totalling $107.119M were not produced for audit examination.
In response, the Head of Budget Agency of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure stated that the responsibility for expenditure under the purview of HDI, as well as funds paid through the ‘Lotto Fund’ was not that of the Ministry. The expenditure of the $107.119M was identified as that of HDI and the responsible agency for the Lotto Fund payments. The Ministry added that it had no responsibility for expenditure relating to the D’Urban Park Project prior to 9 April 2016 and as such could not produce any documentation.
The Head of Budget Agency further noted that on 9 April 2016 the Ministry of Public Infrastructure was given the directive to complete the project after the works were behind schedule.
Further to the Ministry’s response above, the Auditor General’s report said that it should be noted that Payment Vouchers for amounts totalling $70.610M were still to be submitted for audit. The said sum of $70.610M was expended from Contingencies Fund Advance Warrants №s. 1/2016 and 2/2016.
Further, the amount of $500M was paid to HDI in 2017 by the Ministry to enable HDI to meet its obligation to its creditors.
“However, there was no documentation attached to the Payment Vouchers to indicate the works done, supervisory checks carried out on the works, as well as certification that the works were satisfactorily completed. Only the list of HDI creditors and Government’s proposed payment allocation to each creditor was attached to the Payment Vouchers. In the circumstances, the correctness, accuracy and validity of the payments made could not be determined”, the Auditor General’s report said.
The Audit Office said it had written the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Infrastructure on 19 July 2018, requesting documentation setting out the works done, supervisory checks of the said works, as well as certification that works were satisfactorily completed. The Head of Budget Agency had said that the Ministry was not involved in the operations of HDI and therefore it did not have any information detailing supervisory checks or their methodology of determining that works were satisfactorily finished.
The Head of Budget Agency further said that the Ministry acted on Cabinet Decision [ACP (2016) 10:3:O] relating to payment for outstanding contracts owed by HDI. HDI submitted a schedule citing outstanding payments to forty creditors totalling $716,065,776. Since it was a public project, the ministry said that the government thought it necessary to assist in the clearing of this debt.
“The project was of national importance and the anticipated benefits to be derived from its successful completion was immense”, the Head of the Budget Agency told the Auditor General.
The Head of Budget Agency further stated the Ministry of Finance was approached on the clearing of the debt since the budget for the Ministry of Public Infrastructure had already been approved by Parliament. The Ministry of Finance then outlined that $500M could be made available to pay the contractors of HDI. The $500M was approved in the 2017 Budget under “Infrastructure Development” which prompted the ‘Cabinet Decision’ referenced above and the facilitation of the payment through the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
On 11 March 2019, the Audit Office said it also made a request to the Ministry for additional documentation for the Project. Some documents have since been submitted to the Audit Office, which are being perused.
Inferior work had been done on the stadium in the run up to the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence and it was at this point that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure was mandated to take it over. Over the years there has been continued deterioration of the facility and many have questioned the wisdom and utility of the facility.
