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– presents no proof some CSOs were paidBy Abena Rockcliffe-CampbellThe Office of the Auditor General has found quite some amount of malpractice, and has cited numerous cases of irregularities, at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs and also its predecessor, the Ministry of Amerindian AffairsFormer Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline SukhaiLooking only at what Auditor General, Deodat Sharma had to say about the sums expended for the Community Support Officers (CSOs) programme and the sums utilized from the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF), Kaieteur News noted that the Ministry has failed to account for over $111M. This represents $44.7M utilized in the payment of stipends to CSOs and $66.5M expended from the ADF.In his 2015 report, Sharma stated that the Ministry spent $161.150M to pay out stipends to the CSOs. However, he observed that five payments to the tune of $27.470M did not have any supporting documentation attached to verify that the amounts were fully accounted for.“Also, payments relating to the sum of $17.344M were made without any supporting documents attached to the payment vouchers.”The Ministry had no explanation for this. It responded to Sharma’s findings by saying that efforts are being made to locate the supporting documents and have same presented for audit examination.This anomaly would have occurred during the tenure of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration. Over 2000 persons from Amerindian communities were attached to the Community Support Officer (CSO) programme. Each officer was given $30,000 monthly stipend. This was a major issue amoung the politicians.Former Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai had advocated heavily for the programme. But, Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock, said that the CSOs were recruited under a political scheme called Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Programme (YEAP).While the new government was not too keen on going ahead with the programme, it said that it had proof that the PPP had no plans to continue the programme after the 2015 elections. Allicock said that the PPP/C had made no financial allocation for CSOs beyond April 2015, effectively shutting down the programme. He said, “It appeared that the PPP Government had shut down the programme and left the CSOs exposed, after using them as political activists in the so-called ‘Red Shirt Brigade’ to join picket lines and campaign for the PPP.”WHERE IS THE $66M?Another issue highlighted by the Office of the Auditor General was the fact that the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs has not accounted for over $66M that it spent from the ADF.Sharma pointed out that $287.400M was budgeted for Amerindian Development and includes construction of village offices and woodworking centres, subvention to Bina Hill Institute, purchase of sports gear, musical instruments, cassava mills, fogging machines, tractors and implements as well as support to other projects and programmes including eco-tourism and language revival.Sharma said that as at the end of 2015, $270.818M was expended. However, payment vouchers representing only $204.244M were presented, leaving expenditure to the tune of $66.574M still to be verified.Further, some red flags were raised even with regards to the sums that have been accounted for.The Ministry obtained approval from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board and procured six John Deere tractors and trailers along with six disc ploughs and harrows valued $52.080M.Sharma said that those assets were received, registered and brought to account in the records of the Ministry – three were distributed to Santa Arataka Mission, Region No.3, Wikki/Calcuni, Region No. 10 and Kwaimatta, Region No.9. The remaining tractors and trailers, ploughs and harrows were identified for the villages of Yarakita, Sebai and Karrau.In relation to the construction of projects in Amerindian villages, $39.1M was issued to 20 village councils for various developmental projects such as construction of village office, meat bird rearing facility, woodworking centre, sewing and catering projects and construction of a duck pen. Audit checks revealed that all of the amounts were paid out in 2015 and 2016. However, up to the time when the Audit report was prepared in September 2016, the Ministry did not provide evidence that these projects were completed.With regards to the amount of $10.821M expended for musical instruments, audit checks revealed that $4.822M was expended by the Ministry to procure keyboards, drums, guitars and flutes. The difference of $6M was paid over to six village councils to purchase musical instruments identified by the villages.Sharma said that these amounts were collected by the villages between January and March 2016, and up to the time of reporting in September 2016, no evidence was seen that the amounts disbursed were fully expended for the purposes intended.Another $4.499M was disbursed to three Amerindian villages to purchase cassava mills and construct facilities for cassava processing. However, the Office of the Auditor General has not received proof that the cassava mills were procured and the facilities constructed.In response to these findings, the Ministry told the Auditor General that corrective action, with a major focus on monitoring, will be carried out by its Community Development Officers (CDOs) based in Regions One to 10. Also, the Ministry is now in the process of employing an additional 10 CDOs to aid in this work.The Ministry said that village councils were “notified of this situation at the National Toshaos Conference held in August 2016 and were requested to submit acknowledgements of assets and all projects financed by the Ministry”.The Audit Office recommended that the Ministry engage the Finance Secretary,Joe Greene Steelers Jersey, the Director, Office of the Budget and the Accountant General on the challenges it is encountering in the implementation and completion of projects in the villages.