THE Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) on Tuesday arrested Deputy Accountant General of the Ministry of Finance, Vladim Persaud, as investigations continue into fraud at the Guyana Lottery Commission Fund.

Persaud’s arrest stem from the findings of the forensic audit into the operation of the Commission’s Fund and the role he played in what have been deemed criminal activities. Over the past few months, several persons including Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and other senior members of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) were arrested by SOCU in relation to the many forensic audits conducted by the APNU+AFC coalition government.

The agreement between the Government of Guyana and Canadian Bank Note Ltd (CBN), which established the Guyana lottery, requires CBN to pay licence fees equivalent to 24 per cent of gross revenue. The Guyana Lotteries Commission was established to manage the licence fees obtained and ensure that monies spent were within the national sector and in conformity with established guidelines for accessing lotto funds.

It was observed by auditors that over the years the Commission collected monies from the varying lottery games and those monies were used to make payments upon approval by the Cabinet. The said money was placed in a special bank account but was never transferred to the Consolidated Fund.

Auditor General Deodat Sharma in the 2015 Auditor General’s report said that when the change of government occurred in 2015, the Ministry of Finance transferred $1.069B from the lotteries fund to the Consolidated Fund.

Notwithstanding this, the Auditor General said though the Ministry of Finance has been budgeting for lottery receipts, money has been spent without the approval of Parliament. Sharma stated that apart from the $1.069B, significant sums which include previous years’ balances of $369.294M and proceeds of $421.754M received for 2015 still remain in the bank account and were used to meet expenditure. Monies were used to cover expenses for Carifesta, Mashramani, Amerindian Heritage, Rehabilitation of D’Urban Park and Emancipation.