AFC wants an audit of COVID-19 cash grant
Kaieteur News- Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Khemraj Ramjattan believes the recent distribution of a $ 25,000 payment out to households nationwide as part of the government’s relief efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is full of corruption.
As such, Ramjattan would like to see an audit of the cash payment and other spending by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP / C) Civic administration upon his appointment.
“I certainly would like to see evaluation audits done,” Ramjattan told members of the local media corps last week, during a party engagement in the Press.
Ramjattan also referred to the purchase of two tractors by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) purchased at $ 72M each.
AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan
With this in mind, Ramjattan told media executives that he has since directed that the matter should be raised at the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) level.
He reminded the party’s General Secretary, David Patterson, in his remarks that he, too, would have called for a value for money audit on COVID-19 relief.
He was quick to point out al
Covid-19 cash grant distribution clerks with a police escort during the recent relief exercise.
as “it’s not just about checking where the money is going; it is a question of having an audit of the system to distribute the money. ”
Patterson qualified his position by pointing out that his party receives several complaints across the administrative districts, which highlight the use of different measures for different communities.
Patterson cited as an example, reports that in some communities people have been able to collect the cash grant by highlighting where they live while others are made to provide supporting documents.
He reminded however that an audit would have to be undertaken anyway, as it would be done under the Auditor General’s annual audit of government revenue and financial expenditure.
Patterson noted, however, that an assessment of the relief package must not only be subject to a value for money audit but a managerial audit “that can be done now.”
He also noted that it was not just a matter of whistleblowing but an attempt to identify weaknesses in the system.
This, he said, is crucial as the government plans to bring in a second round of COVID-19 relief funding.
According to the AFC’s Secretary General, “it is important that we have an audit to see what and what has been done.”
According to Patterson, such investigations could uncover acts of discrimination that had taken place to remedy the situation going forward.