New govt. continues PPP’s trend…Money taken from lottery fund without approval
By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Last year, when the APNU+AFC government announced that it will be transferring the monies of the lottery fund into the Consolidated Fund; former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran dubbed this, “a victory for public accountability.”
But, this “victory” appears to be short lived.
Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, in his most recent report, revealed that the APNU+AFC’s dealing with the Accounts of the Guyana Lotteries Commission is not much different from the PPP/C’s. According to Sharma, the APNU+AFC has done better than the PPP in that it has placed some of the money within the lottery fund into the Consolidated Fund.
But the government continues to use the remaining monies in the lottery fund without Parliamentary approval.
The Government of Guyana and Canadian Bank Note Ltd (CBN) entered into an agreement establishing a Government Lottery which was organized and conducted under the provisions of the Government Lotteries Act, Chapter 80:07 of the Laws of Guyana.
Under this agreement, CBN is to pay Licence fees equivalent to 24 percent of its gross revenue. The Guyana Lotteries Commission, established in August 1996 by a Cabinet Decision, manages the Licence fees receivable and ensures that amounts expended are within the National Sector and in accordance with the guidelines for access to the lottery funding.
Sharma said that over the years, the Lotteries Commission received proceeds from the National Lottery which were used to make payments approved by Cabinet. “These proceeds were retained in a separate bank account and no amounts were paid over to the Consolidated Fund.”
Auditor General,
Deodat Sharma
Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan
Sharma said that in 2015, under the new Government, the Ministry of Finance transferred $1.069B from the lotteries fund to the Consolidated Fund.
Nonetheless, Sharma said that while the Ministry of Finance has been budgeting for Lottery Receipts, expenditure continues to be met without parliamentary approval.
The Auditor General stressed that expenditure from the proceeds of the National Lottery should be accounted for by having a supplementary estimate passed in the National Assembly and recorded in the Public Accounts.
Sharma reported that “aside from the amount of $1.069 billion which was transferred to the Consolidated Fund, significant sums which include prior year balances of $369.294M and the proceeds of $421.754M received for 2015 still remain in the bank account and were used to meet expenditure.”
The Auditor General said that according to the bank statements for 2015, amounts totaling $305.826M were expended.
However, Sharma said that the cash book and payment vouchers for 2015 to verify the details of the amounts spent were not presented for audit and the Deputy Accountant General explained that these were with the Forensic Auditor and had not been returned up to the time of the audit. “Notwithstanding, the Ministry provided a listing of the amounts expended according to activities and these were verified with the bank statement.”
Monies were used to cover expenses for Carifesta, Mashramani, Amerindian Heritage, Rehabilitation of Durban Park and Emancipation. Kaieteur News contacted Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan who said that he will not be responding to the findings of the Auditor General in this regard. The Minister refused to offer an explanation and said that all questions will be answered at the level of the Public Accounts Committee.
The Lotteries Commission is subject to separate financial reporting and auditing. Sharma has noted that the last set of audited accounts was for the year 2013. He said that at the time of his report, the audit for the year ended 31December 2014 is being finalized.
