THE Guyana Gold Board has chided Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for misleading the National Assembly on Friday by providing false information on the agency’s financial position.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Board said it learnt that Jagdeo had indicated that the organisation has accumulated a debt of Gy$17.5 billion. “The Guyana Gold Board wishes to note that, at the end of 2013, the organisation recorded a loss of Gy$9.9 billion, with another Gy$400 million added in 2014. These early losses contributed to the entity’s 2015 overdraft being Gy$12.9 billion.”

The board has said that as at November 2016, its overdraft was Gy$14.9 billion.

“The overdraft never amounted to Gy$17.5 billion, as was contended. The Guyana Gold Board wishes to note that, at current prices, the value of its stock in hand is Gy$14.3 billion. The management and Board of Directors of the Guyana Gold Board have been reviewing methods and ways of turning the Board’s fortunes around. It has observed that there were significant market policy distortions that have created the losses which the organisation faces. Specifically, the Guyana Gold Board buys gold at a selling price and then must in turn sell that gold at the selling price.”

Additionally, the Board of Directors said, it has noted that this purchasing method can never be feasible, especially in a declining price market. “Coupled with this issue, it is known that the organisation was holding significant amounts of gold in the 2012-2013 period when prices were falling, hence it was not able to recoup its basic purchase cost. All of these real and incorrect policy positions have contributed to the deficit. To remedy this, the Board of Directors has agreed on a number of policy changes that, once implemented, would allow the entity to recover its costs,” the statement said.

“The Guyana Gold Board wishes to note that it has contributed to the revenues of the country, bringing in US$114.8 million in 2015 and US$218.9 million in 2016. The Guyana Gold Board is disappointed that the Leader of the Opposition would be aware of these facts and misconstrue them for cheap political mileage,” the Board has said.