Hinds, Ram to lead assessment of 19 agencies they audited in 2015 for APNU/AFC

President Dr Irfaan Ali has assembled a special technical team to conduct a “rapid financial and management assessment” of more than a dozen State agencies, including the Guyana Gold Board, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

The team comprises Christopher ‘Kit” Nascimento, Public Communications Consultant; Christopher Ram, Chartered Accountant and Attorney–at-law; Nigel Hinds, Certified Public Accountant; and Sasenarine Singh, Financial Consultant.
According to a statement from the Government, the team’s work is expected to start “immediately”.
The agencies identified for the team to assess are the Guyana Power and Light, the Guyana Water Incorporated, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the Guyana Forestry Commission, Guyana Gold Board, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited, Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, the Lotto Fund, the Guyana Energy Agency, the Guyana Rice Development Board, the Guyana Oil Company, the Guyana National Shipping Corporation, the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).

The team will also be conducting a review of the operations, policies and programmes of the Department of Public Information (DPI), the National Communications Network Incorporated (NCN) and the Guyana National Newspaper Limited (Guyana Chronicle).
Further, the team will address the matter of the functions of the Guyana Broadcasting Authority (GNBA).

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, whilst he was serving as the country’s Opposition Leader, had assured that public servants need not worry about their job security, as his party will not be engaging in any “witch-hunting” exercise.
However, he had pointed out that there are “a few persons at the top level” who will have to face the consequences of their actions.

After the APNU/AFC Coalition had won the 2015 national elections by a razor thin majority, it had embarked on a process that saw many senior public officials being terminated on the basis of their perceived political allegiance.
However, senior officials of the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) have repeatedly assured that they will not embark on this route once the party settles in to office.

In fact, Dr Ali himself, in June 2020, had assured that “we are not in a witch-hunting exercise, let me make that very clear. We are going to act professionally.”
However, the APNU/AFC in a statement on Wednesday evening described the formation of the team as a “PPP Witch Hunt Squad.” Notably however, some of the same individuals – Nigel Hinds, Christopher Ram- were part of an audit team for the APNU/AFC following the 2015 elections. Sasenarine Singh, another member of the team was at the time an executive member of the AFC.