The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs has stated that after two independent audits in  Orealla Village in the Corentyne River, it has concluded that Toshao Floyd Edwards and his councillors have  not utilized the funds of the village for their personal agenda as alleged by a group of residents.

In an exclusive interview with Toshao Edwards, Orealla Councillor David Henry and Senior Councillor Hilary Wong of Siparuta Village at the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs conference room yesterday afternoon, the toshao referred to  matters of concern to Orealla residents  and the motive behind those who had levelled allegations against him and his council.
He explained that complaints were forwarded to the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs before the election of  office bearers in the village, and  subsequently Minister Pauline Sukhai  summoned him to a meeting where she related the concerns of the villagers.
All the requirements for the elections were put in place and five persons, including former Toshao Carl Peneux, made a bid for office.  Edward amassed a total of 270 votes, gaining majority support in the village and his team secured the leadership position.
However, another attempt was made to have them removed when Peneux wrote President Donald Ramotar, expressing his dissatisfaction over the way the elections were conducted.
Meanwhile, an investigation by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs revealed that the elections had been duly conducted in accordance with the Amerindian Act.
Months later, allegations about the misappropriation of funds surfaced and another letter was sent to the ministry, prompting Minister Sukhai’s intervention and  an audit was done.
The group opposed to the Orealla Village council did not accept the findings and at the first general meeting of the village an attempt was made to move a motion of no confidence but this was defeated by the majority of villagers.
This prompted the group headed by Peneux to personally seek permission to check the accounts of the village;  this was granted and the financial statement and books were found to be true and correct.
In spite of this, at the second general meeting Peneux and his team raised the same matter after being satisfied months ago that all was correct.
According to Toshao Edwards, the dissident group then switched their complaints from the accounts to projects in the village and accused the toshao and councillors of personally converting funds to their personal use.
The ministry again intervened, another audit was conducted and the findings cleared the toshao of all the misappropriation allegations.
The toshao stated that at the time the annual heritage celebrations were imminent and they needed money to finance a number of activities and programmes and the council agreed at a meeting to use the Presidential Grant.
In addition to expenses for heritage celebrations, funds were provided for medical and other emergency needs.
Peneux recently mounted another challenge when he went to the nearby village of Siparuta in Region 6 to solicit support from the villagers to have the toshao of Orealla removed. The councillors of Siparuta wrote the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs about the matter and also informed Peneux that they were not going to support his objective.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs has indicated that it will soon dispatch a team led by Permanent Secretary Nigel Dharamlall to the village to address a number of issues of concern to residents.