Finance Ministry rejects Reg. 10’s Agricultural financial release claims

─ says releases made in January and early February to the region

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, February 28, 2019

The Ministry of Finance has rejected claims by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), that it has not received funding for its agriculture programme for this year.

On Wednesday, a release from the ministry stated that it notes with disappointment the RDC’s claim which also called on the ministry to ‘fix the glitch in financial release’.

Regional Chairman, Renis Morian said on Wednesday that the region has not yet received the $29M parliamentary approved funding, under the region’s new programme of agriculture, the government allocated under the new agriculture programme to promote agricultural development in the region.

However, the ministry on Wednesday said Region 10 submitted its cash flow statement on January 12, 2019, and the first release of $1,211,833 was done on January 14, 2019. In addition, $1,665,833 was released on February 5, 2019, to cover costs according to the cash flow submitted.

“Ministry of Finance noticed that the entire release for January 2019 was unspent at the end of January and made contact with the Principal Assistant Finance Secretary at the Regional Democratic Council, Ms. Dollette Powers, in the first week of February to inquire about the unspent releases.”

According to the ministry, Powers said that the region was not ready to start spending under the agriculture programme and that spending should begin from February 2019 since some tenders were sent out.

Alexis Rodney