Govt uses over $300M from Lotto funds on flags, cultural activities

The Guyana Lotteries Commission had more than $300 million taken from its coffers by the David Granger-led Government in 2018 and that money was used on a number of cultural activities, including millions of dollars on flags.
This was revealed in the Audit Office of Guyana’s 2018 report, which was recently leaked to the press. According to the report, the fund had an opening balance of $47.7 million and during the year, $715.3 million was received.
Of this amount, $326 million was transferred to the Consolidated Fund, while $355.8 million was spent on activities approved by the Cabinet. The fund ended the year with a closing balance of $81.2 million.
Under the Ministry of the Presidency, this includes $2.4 million to purchase national flags for the D’Urban Park and Stabroek Market Square. A further $39.8 million was spent to purchase a relay screen for the hosting of the Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup and $34.7 million for Guyana’s independence anniversary celebrations.

The sum of $17 million was used for the celebration of Emancipation in 2018 while the AG documented $30.5 million for an ‘Emancipation festival’ that was scheduled to be held at the Union cultural complex.
Meanwhile, the Public Infrastructure Ministry received $170 million of the amount for the Indian Arrival Monument at Palmyra, Canje, Berbice. The African Business Roundtable Incorporated got $18.3 million for the hosting of the Guyana Green Economy International Business Summit at Princess Hotel.

In laying out the proper functions of the lottery funds, the AG noted that the Government of Guyana and Canadian Bank Note Ltd (CBN) entered an agreement establishing a Government Lottery under the Government Lotteries Act, Chapter 80:07.
“Under this agreement, CBN is to pay licence fees equivalent to 24% of gross revenue,” the report states. “The Guyana Lotteries Commission manages the licence fees receivable and ensure that amounts expended are within the national sector and in accordance with the guidelines for access to the lottery funding. The Lotteries Commission continued to receive proceeds from the national lottery which were used to make payments approved by the Cabinet.
“The Commission is subject to separate financial reporting and auditing. The last set of audited accounts was for the year 2013. According to the Receipts and Disbursements Statement of the Ministry of Finance, for 2018, the Ministry budgeted $300 million for Lottery Receipts under the category of Miscellaneous Revenue and an amount of $326 million was transferred from (the lotto fund) to the Consolidated Fund,” the AG report also states.
The Government has already been red -flagged for its use of the lotto fund. In his 2015 report, Auditor General Deodat Sharma had said that Government used millions from the fund for the building of D’Urban Park, Georgetown, without parliamentary approval.
According to Sharma’s findings, the Guyana Government was using the 24 per cent of the lottery proceeds it was earning to spend with Cabinet approval. Sharma, in his report, noted that at the beginning of 2015, that account held some $1.4 billion and it received an additional $421 million in 2015.
The Auditor General had said that following checks on the accounts, it was found that while Government transferred $1 billion of that money to the Consolidated Fund In 2015, it held onto just over half a billion dollars to remain under the control of the Ministry of the Presidency and it spent $305 million on various activities.
According to a breakdown of the expenditure provided by the Auditor General, $36.5 million went towards the rehabilitation of the controversial D’Urban Park; $63.7 million went towards Mashramani celebrations while another $51 million was utilised for ‘music’.