| A petition signed by more than 100 residents of the Amerindian villages of Orealla and SiparutaOrealla Resident Carl Peneuxwas yesterday taken to the Ministry of the Presidency for the attention of President David Granger. The petition is one that sees the residents appealing for the President to decree an urgent change of the Orealla Village Council in light of its inability to account for millions of dollars it was entrusted with.According to concerned resident, Mr. Carl Peneux, who was yesterday tasked with delivering the petition to the Ministry of the Presidency, residents for some time now had concerns with the operation of the Council. Among the concerns is that the Toshao and Deputy Toshao are still to account for millions of dollars that should have been spent towards developmental projects.The concerns of the residents have been substantiated by an audit completed by the Audit Office of Guyana which was forwarded to the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs for the attention and necessary action(s) of its Minister, Mr Sydney Allicock.The audit, which was conducted in July of last year, examined the financial and inventory records of the Council for the period May 2012 – June 2015.According to the Audit Office, the main objectives of the audit were to obtain reasonable assurance that: the resources of the Village Council have been managed in accordance with the Amerindian Act; that the financial statements and records fairly present the results of operation and financial position for the years audited for the Village Council; that full values were received for monies expended and that assets acquired by the Council were properly recorded and physically verified as property of the village and all revenues were properly accounted for in accordance with the Act.Based on Section 31 (1-2) of the Amerindian Act the Council is required to maintain a Bank Account at a licensed financial institution. However, when an examination of said Account was done it was found that no cash book is maintained.An examination of the partial passbook revealed that there were entries up to June 29, 2012 with a balance of $39, 300. For the period July 1, 2012 to March 17, 2015 there was no passbook or bank statement, while the bank statement for the period March 18 to June 17, 2015, had a balance of $330, 121 as at June 5,Paul Kariya Ducks Throwback Jersey, 2015.But there was no evidence that the income collected from royalties, levies, etc were deposited into the bank account as stipulated by the Amerindian Act. In fact it was found that monies were kept at the homes of individuals associated with the Council, including the Toshao.However, the income of the Council included Presidential grants between 2012 and 2014, royalty from logs and lumber, passing through levies, sand levies, boat service for residents and cargo and electricity and water rates.It was found by the audit office that the Council could not account for sums including a $1.3 million ‘jubilee’ grant from Government and the majority of $1.9 million which was disbursed from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs to the Village Council for the upgrade of trail from Orealla to Siparuta.The latter amount, according to the audit report, was not even recorded in any of the records of the Council and the Toshao did not reveal that this amount was received by him until he was asked. “He then explained that he received the sum and expended approximately one million dollars to transport an ATV and solar panel from Georgetown to Orealla and to pay GFC fines,” the Auditor revealed, as it was pointed out that “the Toshao did not produce any bills or receipts to support these cost that were incurred.”Further, it was revealed that “we did not see any evidence that the trail was upgraded.”Added to this, the audit process revealed that on the Council’s bank statement for the period March 18 to June 17, 2015, the amount of $1.9 million was seen as deposited on March 7, 2015. However, it was observed that by June 7, 2015 the bank account only had a balance of $330, 121. There was not record to support legitimate expenditure.“As such the amount for the upgrade of the trail was not appropriately used and the balance of $900,000 cannot be accounted for by the Village Council,” the Audit Office has noted.According to the findings of the audit, there was no cash on hand at the time of the audit and “we were unable to verify the accuracy of the cash position since the cash book maintained by the Council was not updated at the time of the audit.”It was recommended by the Audit office that the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs assist the Council to improve its operations by conducting training sessions in order to ensure that there is proper accounting, preparation of village plans, improve systems in collecting income and preparation of annual accounts as required by the Act. Monitoring and supervision was also recommended by the Audit Office.But Peneux and other residents are convinced that failure of the Council to account for its financial activities is deliberate. He noted that the residents have called on Minister Allicock to take necessary action given the findings of the Audit Office, but no action has yet been taken.In fact, Peneux noted that residents have seen activities to suggest that the misappropriation of funds has even worsened.“These things happened under the previous Toshao and it is happening under the current Toshao…a lot of monies are being spent and the Council cannot account for this spending,” said Peneux, as he made reference to a finding of the Auditor General that $3 million was purportedly was budgeted for a guest house that was never constructed and the money expended otherwise. |
