Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn last evening told the National Assembly that a sum of $300 million is missing from the Guyana Police Force’s Finance Department.
Benn was at the time delivering his contribution at day four of 2021 budget debate.
According to Benn, a forensic audit of the Finance Department is currently ongoing to determine what happened to the funds.
He said there appears to be a “revolving” door between the finances of the police and the force’s Welfare Fund.
“Mr Speaker, an investigation is underway as it relates to the police Finance Department. There seen to be a revolving door between police finances and the police welfare fund for the last year or part of the last year. An amount of $300 million dollars [is] missing,” Benn noted.
Stabroek News understands that the discovery was made last year after the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) assumed office.
From since then to now, a number of ranks, including a few from the Finance Department, have been sent on administrative leave pending the outcome of the probe. Information reaching this newspaper revealed that there were instances where money was signed off for ranks for overtime work but they never received it.
There were also occasions where millions were allocated for purchases by the force but cannot be accounted for.
