Vincent Alexander, Chairman of IDPADA-G, says that the umbrella body will not tell its constituents not to take monies which the government intends to give them directly this year.
The International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly–Guyana (IDPADA-G) and the government have been locked in a court battle over the 2022 subvention which the organisation is supposed to receive. The legal case developed after the government withheld the subvention claiming that IDPADA-G had not been transparent and accountable for the funds.
While the matter is still in court, the government earlier this month announced that it would allocate the planned 2023 subvention directly to the 50+ members and not IDPADA-G.
Alexander provided the organisation’s position on Tuesday at a press conference at the Critchlow Labour College in which he alluded to the implications that may arise from the mechanism that the government now seems intent on pursuing.
Alexander said, “We have no problem with individual organizations being given grants but to juxtapose grants to individual organization to a subvention to IDPADA-G is to interfere with a country coordinating mechanism, which is a collective response by the community to the declaration (of the decade by the UN).”
At the press conference, Alexander pointed out that with such a move, it will be the Government’s responsibility to address accountability for the funds as this will no longer be IDPADA-G’s remit.
“The Government giving grants, what we call ‘cash grant’ is not under the purview of the IDPADA-G. That’s a Government activity. The question on how they determine the status of the organization, the accountability, they will have to address”, he said.
Despite government’s best intentions, Alexander said that the right thing to do was to have the funds go through the body for greater accountability. “The Organization collectively could speak about the African Guyanese Community at large. We will be able to put our heads together; come up for what’s best for the community. When you speak to individual organizations, you are disaggregating the African Guyanese community.”
He noted that if the Government plans to fully go into that mode, the body will continue to complain to the United Nations, to whom the government will be answerable. The High Court last week set a date for the hearing of the IDPADA-G case against the government.
In 2022, the Ali Government had accused the IDPADA-G of ‘recklessness’ and not directing the subvention for its intended purpose. However, despite the body’s financial records being easily accessible, the government has not to date provided evidence to support its claim. Alexander had also called for a meeting between the President and IDPADA-G but without any success. Alexander also described government’s latest move as “tantamount to divide and rule.”
During the Granger administration, parliament had given approval for an annual subvention of $100M to IDPADA-G to enable the group to carry out its functions, guided by the UN’s General Assembly proclamation.
