US$18M signing bonus still to make way to Consolidated Fund – Opposition Leader
On Thursday, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo blasted the government for failing to uphold the law and constitution in several instances.
Jagdeo’s main focus was on Government’s ignoring of the constitutional provision, which states that the president and cabinet must resign on the passage of a no-confidence motion.
Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman
However, Jagdeo was keen to point out that the government also acted illegally when it failed to put the US$18M collected from ExxonMobil into the consolidated fund.
Jagdeo noted comments attributed to Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, recently. He acknowledged that Minister Trotman expressed regret about the manner in which the government handles the US$18M
Jagdeo said, “Trotman suddenly expressed contrition about them hiding the $18M, now he is sorry about it.”
The Opposition Leader said that the looming election is the only reason Trotman now knows that the government should have told the nation about the money, “but still he went ahead again to cite national security reasons why they did not do so and it is a total lie.”
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo
Jagdeo was adamant that there is no threat to security in Guyanese knowing about money collected from ExxonMobil. He questioned, “Now that we know the details what is the national security implication?”
The Opposition Leader said, too, that the most troubling issue now is that “the money is still out there. It has not been paid into the consolidated fund as mandated by the FMAA and the Constitution of Guyana. That is another breach of the constitution.
Jagdeo said that the disregard for the constitution is so blatant that even in the face of the court case; the government continues to refuse to put the money into the consolidated fund.
Jagdeo said, too, that the “estimates for 2017, 2018 and 2019 are all wrong. The accounts in the estimates, which have to be certified by the Auditor General—have left out the US$18M from these accounts. So it is as though, we never got it as a country.”
He continued, “Yes, it is in a bank account but it is not part of the estimates and that is a serious violation of our law. But this guy (Trotman) lightly said in passing, we are sorry about it, we could have shared (information about the money) a little earlier but we were worried about Venezuela.”
