UG claims money was used for infrastructural works

Missing 9M

The University of Guyana (UG) says the missing $209 million that was reported by the Auditor General (AG) was spent on infrastructure projects. The money was reported missing by Auditor General Deodat Sharma in his 2016 report which was submitted to Parliament. According to the AG, the $209 million was missing from the Science and Technology support programme.
Director of Strategic Planning, Dr Fitzgerald Yaw, stressed in a recent interview with Guyana Times that the monies were used for infrastructure projects on the campus, including a fibre optic cable to provide students with Wi-Fi.
According to Yaw, the project focused on the Science and Technology faculties and some of the monies were also used to renovate the faculty buildings.
He noted that similar consideration was extended to the Faculty of Earth and Environment Science, which while fairly new, got a building that was renovated by the project.
“The project officially came to an end in September of this year. The main outputs of the project were renovation of buildings for the Faculty of Natural Science, Agriculture and Forestry (and) Technology,” Yaw explained.
According to Yaw, new computers, printers and other Information Technology equipment were also purchased through the project. He revealed that research and consequential papers were also facilitated; including the presentation of research findings in Chicago, Illinois. The research was funded by the project.
“We were able to buy a new generator for backup power. This is one of the bigger ones. We have three generators on campus and the one we bought for this project fund is the biggest one. And we get better coverage, it is very important to have back up power.”

Shortfall
In his 2016 report, Sharma had found that $209 million have been unaccounted for from the University of Guyana’s Science and Technology Support Project, funded by the Government of Guyana (GoG) and the International Development Association (IDA) under Credit Agreement No 4969-GY.
In 2016, the sum of $906 million was allocated to this project for curriculum reform; infrastructural design and research; infrastructure rehabilitation; equipping of Science laboratories; drainage; Internet network; multimedia equipment; and institutional capacity building at the University of Guyana. A supplementary provision totalling $411 million was approved, bringing the total allocation to $1.317 billion.
“According to the Appropriation Accounts, amounts totalling one thousand, three hundred and eleven million dollars ($1.311 billion) were expended during the period under review. However, the records of the project reflected expenditure totalling one thousand, one hundred and two million ($1.102 billion), giving a difference of $209 million,” Sharma wrote in his report.
But Dr Yaw said that when reconciled, the shortfall in monies could be accounted for. Referencing the accounting system the university uses, he said that towards the end of the year, expenses may be shown to have incurred when the actual payment of funds and activities were done the preceding.
“So for accounting purposes, the accounts have some fund movements that don’t actually reflect that transaction based upon actual purchase of goods and service. So at the end of the day, when everything is reconciled, all the monies are accounted for,” the Director said.
“It’s just that at the end of the year, this is why sometimes you would find that projects have to get started later in the year or something (is) rushed, (it’s) because the you don’t get some things finished within that year. So if you look at it in the full context, it isn’t (a case of) misappropriation or anything.”
Yaw also said the World Bank had reviewed the Auditor General’s report and in a correspondence to the Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry, stated the Auditor issued unqualified findings.
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Photo saved in November 19 as UG