Auditor General decries “worrying” abuse of Contingency Fund to meet “routine” expenses
Oct 14, 2016, , http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....et-routine-expenses/
After years of bashing the former regime for the abuse of the Contingency Fund, the coalition administration has found itself guilty of the same transgression.
This is according to Auditor General (AG), Deodat Sharma, who in his latest report criticized the Government’s advances from the Fund.
Sharma said that during the period under review, amounts totaling $799M were drawn from the Fund, by way of 24 advances. He said that it was disappointing to note that the advances continued to be granted, even though they did not meet the required criteria.
Kaieteur News was informed by the AG that he was left in a state of concern having learnt that eleven advances totaling $604M were granted from the Fund to meet “routine expenditure” for the year 2015.
Over the years, the abuse of the Fund was a topical issue for A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change when the parties served as the Parliamentary opposition.
In fact, it was AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan who had emphasized on several occasions that the National Assembly is the first device or mechanism for which emergency advances can be protected from abuse.
The politician had asserted, “The (PPP) has been abusing its understanding of the criteria of an emergency under the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act. When we run to the Fund it is only to be used for emergency cases, like if there is a serious flood in Mahaicony and we need to remove citizens. Money would be used in that case.”
The Public Security Minister was also one who constantly called for sanctions to be imposed against former Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh for his abuse of the Contingency Fund.
Today, the Government now finds itself in the same boat as the former regime.
