–as police launch investigation into gift-giving scandal
— Auditor General says law provides for jailing of accounting officers for misuse of public funds

THE Guyana Police Force has been called in to investigate the circumstances surrounding Government agencies gifting expensive items to the former Ministers of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and Annette Ferguson. This was confirmed by Minister within the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar, who said that neither of the two ministers has indicated their intentions to repay the State for the exorbitant gifts. “They have been defending themselves,” Indar posited.
According to 2016 records, the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) had purchased a birthday gift for Patterson valued at $60,000. Further, in 2018, the same agency purchased a $384, 700 birthday bracelet for Patterson from King’s Jewellery World. Patterson had initially denied receiving the gifts, saying that the reports were crafted in an effort to tarnish his reputation. With documentations being exposed, Patterson later admitted to receiving the gifts, but said that he was not aware that his acceptance of the expensive items was in breach of regulations.

Documents from May 2020 showed that MARAD went on to approve a majestic sum of $704,292 “towards the purchase of birthday gifts”. Unlike the previous years, the 2020 records did not specify that the purchase was for Patterson’s birthday gift. The then Minister of Public Infrastructure also received gifts from the Transport and Harbours Department, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, and the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC).  Junior Minister of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson was not left out, as she received items valued at $1.4 million from agencies under the ministry; however, these were classified as “donations”. A spreadsheet from the DHBC showed that in excess of $6 million in “donations” were given to the Public Infrastructure Ministry between June 2015 and July 2016.  Meanwhile, efforts to secure comments from the two Opposition Members of Parliament were futile, as several calls to Patterson went unanswered, while Ferguson refused to comment on the revelations. Meanwhile, Auditor-General Deodat Sharma told the Guyana Chronicle that as part of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act, accounting officers, also known as Permanent Secretaries, could face penalties for spending monies that have not been budgeted for and approved by the National Assembly.

COULD BE CHARGED

“Accounting officers could be charged if they do not use the money for the purpose intended,” Sharma said.
He further explained, “If you get it (a certain amount of money) for salary, that is what you’re supposed to be using it for, unless you budget to buy ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’, and it was approved in the budget.” Section 85 of the FMA Act states that accounting officers could be imprisoned, fined $2M, plus face three years imprisonment for breaching public procurement regulations outlined in the Act. “An official who: (a) falsifies any account, statement, receipt or other record issued or kept for the purposes of this Act, the Regulations, the Finance Circulars or any other instrument made under this Act; (b) conspires or colludes with any other person to defraud the State or make opportunity for any person to defraud the State; or (c) knowingly permits any other person to contravene any provision of this Act, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable on conviction to a fine of two million dollars and to imprisonment for three years,” the FMA act states.
Sharma indicated, too, that “when we carry out a normal audit, we are now moving towards the forensic section.

If you move to a forensic audit, then we call in the police, and we are hoping that those penalties could be applied.”
The issue of gift-giving within the Ministry of Public Works was placed under the microscope following an investigation into the operations of the state-owned asphalt plant, a subsidiary of the DHBC. The investigation, which wrapped up in December, found that the General Manager of the DHBC, Rawlston Adams, had approved the purchase of an $897,000 wristband as a gift for himself in 2019. Adams has since resigned, and is currently in the process of repaying the State for the hefty gift.
Former Ministers Patterson and Ferguson have not made any such commitments, and are, therefore, expected to be contacted by the police.