“Closure of dormant bank accounts, transfer of balances, nothing new” – Says PPP
The opposition People’s Progressive Party has taken umbrage to the APNU+AFC government’s revelations that it was forced to close several dormant bank accounts it inherited and have those monies transferred to the Consolidated Fund; resulting in the recovery of almost $10B.
In a statement on Thursday, the PPP/C said such acts were nothing new, deeming it a continuation of what was started under its 23-year rule.
“The PPP/C wishes to point out that as far back as 2010 and as recently as 2014, the Government has been closing dormant bank accounts and transferring balances to the consolidated fund. In fact, in the Auditor General’s report for 2012 which was tabled in the National Assembly, the fact that Government had closed over 100 bank accounts was publicly acknowledged and reported,” PPP’s statement added.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Winston Jordan disclosed that several unused account were closed and between $8B to $10B were recovered and placed in the Consolidated Fund.
But even as the PPP boast of closing over 100 of these accounts, it is unclear why these remained opened.
Jordan believes the old accounts could have potentially been open to fraud.
But the PPP in its argument says when it closed such accounts, incidentally in response to a recommendation by the Auditor General; there was a great outcry by political commentators like Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram and Anand Goolsarran.
“… Suggesting that there was somehow something wrong with what the then Government was doing. Unsurprisingly, one cannot hear a single whimper from these self-appointed commentators when the APNU/AFC continues this same exercise commenced by the PPP/C in Government.”
The PPP released this statement hours after Minister of State Joseph Harmon in a shocking revelation on Thursday announced that the PetroCaribe fund, which the new APNU+AFC coalition government inherited from the PPP administration, was bankrupt.
There was no mention however of this announcement.
The revelation means that the new government, which will not be ready with a national budget until September, has to find a total of US$15M to pay local farmers when they are ready to export the next shipment of rice to Venezuela.
Sourced - NewsNow
