Millions transferred to Broomes’ children were for scholarship arrangements — Harmon
June 14, 2019
Late last month, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo revealed that, over two years, just over $20M was transferred from the Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Public Service to the accounts of two of Minister Simona Broomes’ children: while one child was transferred GY$2.5M sometime in 2018, the other received US$50,000 (GY$10.47M) in 2018 and a further US$36,450 (GY$7.63M) in 2019. Since his revelation, Jagdeo has strongly insinuated that there was something improper or illegal at play. But earlier today, Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon assured that this is not the case.
At his post-Cabinet press briefing, Harmon clarified that the transferred funds had to do with scholarship arrangements. He stressed that in these cases, the State provides money and parties are bound to provide service at the end of their period of training.
The Director-General said, “We don’t operate those kinds of slush funds that were operated by the previous government.”
Further to this, Harmon said he can say without fear of contradiction that when the APNU+AFC assumed office in 2015, it was observed that scholarship funds were not used for their intended purposes.
He stressed that the current administration operates in a transparent and lawful manner and all transfers it conducts in this context are only for scholarship arrangements.