After 4 years: Audit Office still cannot verify $70M spent by APNU/AFC on Durban Park project

– reiterates calls for Police investigation

The Audit Office of Guyana (AOG) has unsuccessfully tried to source important documents necessary to audit the controversial D’Urban Park project for years. And for the second year running, the Audit Office has recommended that Police be called in to investigate the matter.
Auditor General Deodat Sharma’s advice is contained in his 2020 report. A special audit was conducted into the D’Urban project since 2018, finding that $1.1 billion was spent on the project. Even then, payment vouchers to account for how millions were spent were not provided to the auditors.

“Payment vouchers to support expenditure incurred by the Ministry totalling $70.6 million were not produced for audit examination. As such, the completeness, accuracy and validity of this amount could not be determined,” the Auditor General had noted, reiterating his advice that outstanding payment vouchers be submitted for auditing.
There is also the matter of the $500 million paid by the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government to special purpose company Homestretch Development Incorporated (HDI). This money was supposed to allow the company to clear its debts. According to the Audit Office, however, there is a stark lack of transparency in how this money was used.
“There was no documentation attached to the payment vouchers to indicate the works done, supervisory checks carried out on the works, as well as certification that the works were satisfactorily completed,” the Audit Office said.
“Only the list of HDI creditors and Government’s proposed payment allocation to each creditor was attached to the payment vouchers. In the circumstances, the correctness, accuracy, and validity of the payments made could not be determined.”
It was explained that when the Audit Office wrote the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure back in 2018 requesting the relevant documents including supervisory checks of the works, the Ministry had claimed it was not involved in HDI’s operations. As such, no documents were forthcoming. A similar request in 2019 only yielded some documents. This position remains the same.
“The Audit Office once again recommends that the head of budget agency engage the Guyana Police Force to conduct a comprehensive investigation into this issue and a report submitted for audit,” the Auditor General said in the report, repeating advice that was contained in his 2019 report.
It was then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman and now President Dr Irfaan Ali, who had previously requested further probing be done by the Auditor General into D’Urban Park. This was after revelations that millions in Lotto Funds were sunk by the Government into the project.
But the audit into the D’Urban Park project has always been hindered by a lack of access to pertinent information, with the Audit Office being forced to write to the Public Infrastructure Ministry requesting documents.
Controversy surrounding the D’Urban Park project exploded when it was revealed to the public that former Public Service Minister under APNU/AFC, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine sat as a Director of the special purpose company, established to collect funds from private companies to develop the Park.
But while the public is still in the dark about how much private donations HDI received for the project, there is no doubt that over a billion in public funds was used in the controversial project.
Public funds for the project were scraped from multiple avenues by the Government. According to the audit report, the $500 million paid to HDI in 2017 came from the funds budgeted to the Ministry for Infrastructural Development. A further $28.2 million came from the money for the maintenance of other infrastructure.
In 2016, a further $60.3 million was pulled from the money allocated for infrastructural development. In addition, $118.1 million was pulled from the money allocated to the Ministry for the maintenance of roads.
The Government also withdrew two sets of monies totalling over $400 million from the Contingency Fund, which is supposed to only be used for emergency purposes. However, over $70 million in payment vouchers were not presented to the Audit Office.
And in 2015, $36.5 million was withdrawn from the Lotto Fund to fund D’Urban Park. According to the Auditor General, however, no payment vouchers were presented to his auditors for this transaction.