…as serious financial irregularities discovered at Mabaruma municipality – Dharamlall
The Government has bailed out the 10 townships by giving $2 million to each municipality to pay employees, some of whom have been owed for months. This was announced by Local Government and Regional Development Minister, Nigel Dharamlall, who on Tuesday said that as COVID-19 continues to affect operations and revenue streams, Government has taken a decision to release funds so that each municipality can pay their staffers.
Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall
“We recognise that municipalities have been affected. Their revenue collection has been affected because of COVID-19. Many of them have been unable to garner market fees and other fees. So the Government took a decision a few weeks ago to release funds in support of the expenditure incurred by municipalities to pay staff in this specific case. Each municipality will receive $2 million. The Cabinet has made that decision,” Dharamlall stated.
Financial irregularities
Meanwhile, Dharamlall also noted that there has been a discovery of financial irregularities at the Mabaruma, Region One (Barima-Waini) municipality and as such Government has requested the Auditor General to launch an audit into these operations.
He noted that it will be prudent for such action to follow suit for all municipalities. However, the Terms of Reference are yet to be mapped out.
Thus far, Auditor General, Deodat Sharma has only been written to examine the operations at Mabaruma.
“It is prudent for us to launch audits across all the municipalities. As a matter of fact, we have already written to the Auditor General to launch an audit in Mabaruma because there is serious financial irregularities as we are aware in the township. It is prudent for us to do so in all other nine municipalities. We will have to sit and design the ToR of these audits,” the Minister highlighted.
The Georgetown municipality, within the years 2015 and 2019 would have garnered over $12 billion in revenues. Despite this, it is cash-strapped. For the same period, New Amsterdam would have accrued $645 million, $216 million for Rose Hall, $425 million for Corriverton, $1 billion for Linden. Some $225 million was recorded in revenues for Bartica within the period of three years.
Minister Dharamlall positioned that financial checks will ensure that there is transparency in the operations of local organs and so that they can manage these resources better.
“All of this is in keeping with our mandate of transparency and accountability; and value for money across our municipalities…I believe that with 10 audits in these institutions, we would be able to get a good idea of what are the gaps and where are the inefficiencies.”
In a review of the performance of these local democratic institutions, the subject Minister said there were challenges in financial management, which can be sorted out. A significant chunk is usually expended for salaries and solid waste management, with little remaining for development in communities. As a result, Central Government is tasked with investing significantly. (G12)
