State assessment team working pro bono – Teixeira

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira has revealed that the special team established by President Dr Irfaan Ali to conduct a rapid financial and management assessment into several State agencies is working “pro bono”, ie for free.
During a virtual press conference on Friday, Teixeira set the record straight on a number of issues in the public domain regarding the transitioning of the new People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government.
The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led APNU/AFC coalition had raised a number of questions regarding several decisions of the new Government, among those was the establishment of the four-member team. Two of the team members were hired by the very APNU/AFC in 2015 when they took office to audit several State agencies.
In promptly responding to the opposition’s concerns, Teixeira explained: “To help us do an assessment of how bad or good things are in the country, we have established a rapid assessment team who are working pro bono.”
The team comprises of Chartered Accountant and attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram; Certified Public Accountant, Nigel Hinds; Financial Consultant, Sasenarine Singh, and Public Communications Consultant, Christopher “Kit” Nascimento.
According to Teixeira, the work of the team is not that of an audit, but simply, as the name suggests, a rapid assessment of the status quo of several agencies.
“[It is] just to present to the Government a quick overview of the state of these agencies,” she explained.
In further explaining the reason for establishing the group, the Governance Minister reminded that during the period after the no-Confidence Motion, when the former coalition Administration was supposed to be in caretaker mode, it was involved in the transfer of “a lot” of State assets.
This, she noted, would be one of the areas to be assessed by the team during its examination of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
In addition to NICIL, the team will be assessing 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, 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).
The APNU/AFC had 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.