Former Region 10 REO sheds light on possible spending

Missing Ituni M

BY Utamu Belle

Former Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Henry Rodney has shed new light on what may have happened to the $5 million from a social account of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in 2011, derived from the sale of scrap iron by residents of Ituni.

During an interview with this newspaper, Rodney who served as REO from 2004 to 2012 recalled that a deposit of just about $2 million was made into the fund during his tenure. He said at the time there was an economic fund of the RDC in which the then Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo, was the custodian.

He explained that generally, government accounts would be authorised by the finance secretary, the funds of which the REO becomes custodian. Rodney noted however that this fund was something different, noting that it was considered a “holding” fund under an economic fund of the RDC.

He recalled that between 2004-2005 the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL)would have handed over a check of about $2 million to the RDC for holding. Rodney said that there had been previous deposits before he took office.

“Records would have shown that they made previous deposits, amounting to 4 point something, nearly $5 million but not in my time. Whenever apparently they sell these scrap iron, they deposit into the Region, this economic fund to be used for the benefit of the community”, he said.

The former REO added that the account also held other monies such as flood relief, which the diaspora would have contributed to, activities from the Ituni guest house, among other things. Rodney pointed out that funds from the guest house went into the account which was eventually repaired and handed over to the community for management.

He said since it was the belief that Central Government did not provide funding for certain community activities, the RDC had authorised utilisation of approximately $3 million from the holding fund to clear a road which had been blocked by residents in 2012.

He further said the regional chairman was the only person who could authorise such utilisation, to which he was also the main signatory. As REO, Rodney said he only had access to the information, but it was the chairman’s authority to determine how the money could be used.

“Monies were used to repair the guest house and the guest house was handed over to the community for management…I know also that there was some blocking of the road and the RDC had intervened and…RDC would have taken some money from that fund to do internal work in the community…the RDC had authorised the utilisation of near to $3 million for work on that road,” Rodney disclosed.

He recalled also that just over half a million dollars was used to repair the guest house and its maintenance. Rodney stated further that the RDC in that time would also utilise money from the fund to award gifts to the region’s top achiever students since such funds were not provided by the state, citing that there had been records of all of the transactions.

Those records, he noted, would have shown that previous deposits had been made around the period of 2003. He said while he is not aware of all the details, a lot of the money was utilised on the Ituni/Kwakwani roadway repairs.

“If you look at the records, you would see that while the money might not have been strictly used directly in keeping with the scrap iron (sale), activities of Region 10, some would have been used for.”

The money, considered as “missing” has been the centre of controversy at the RDC for several years, and previous Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon, had even set up a committee in 2013 to probe the missing money after the residents of Ituni had requested it in an effort to carry out developmental activities.

However, the committee had failed to locate the cash. While the Committee was not able to solve the case completely, it discovered that a sum of $1.2 million was the final withdrawal made at the end of (December 31) 2011 by an employee of the RDC. No official explanation could be given as to how the sum was spent.

Recently RDC councillors had made calls to Regional Chairman Renis Morian to have the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) investigate what happened to the money; however Morian said it was not his remit and that NICIL should conduct a probe.