FOLLOWING the discovery of what appeared to be instances of ‘fraud’ and ‘criminality’ in the spending of millions by entities in Region 10, under the Sustainable Livelihoods Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) programme, Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton, said he will be doing a countrywide inspection of all 2019 SLED projects across the country.
During an interview with this newspaper on Monday, Minister Hamilton said that particular emphasis will be placed on Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), which had received more than 60 per cent of the $250 million which was allocated to the project in the 2019 national budget.
Outside of Region Nine, projects were also funded in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and 10.

“I hope on Friday to go to Region Five; they have two programmes that were funded there, one was for nine plus million dollars, there are ones in Region Three, so I’ll be scheduling to go there early next week. And then for the weekend, I plan to be in Region Nine, because in Region Nine the total sum of disbursement was over $160 million,” Minister Hamilton said.
Minister Hamilton visited Region 10 last weekend to get an on-the-ground look at projects; however, he noted that he was unable to visit all the projects in that region.
“I still have to go back to Region 10, because there are still projects where people collected money at Ituni, Kwakwani, and Kimbia. Then Region Two also they have some projects there and Region Four also, I have to do an assessment,” he further explained.

According to the Auditor-General’s 2019 report, sums totalling $249.997 million were expended for the project by the end of 2019; however, the report said, “it was difficult to ascertain the reasons for granting approval to the respective beneficiaries.”
The report noted that a special audit report would be issued for the programme; however, the Auditor-General’s investigation aside, Minister Hamilton has begun his own analysis, armed with his own statistics as to how the money was disbursed.
According to the Ministry of Labour’s records, it has been able to track projects that account for $234.644 million from the programme. Across the regions, the monies were distributed to projects carried out by either cooperative societies, or individuals.

Some $6,275,029 is recorded as going to Region Two; another $13,691,535 went to Region Three; $7,907, 103 went to Region Four; $12,057,356 to Region Five; $209,307 to Region Six; $802,310 to Region Seven; $169,489,990 to Region Nine; and $24,211,422 to Region 10.
Of the $234.644 million, a total of $21,985,838 went to individuals, and $212,658,214 went to coop societies. Hamilton noted that in many cases, the cooperatives were not registered with the co-ops division of the Ministry of Labour.
“Just last week, some anonymous person dropped a package with applications to register as co-ops, coming out of Region Nine, I don’t know who brought it, but it was forwarded to the Chief Co-op Officer [Perlina Gifth].

She examined it and reported that most don’t have all the documentations. But the point is, these people are now coming to be registered when they collected money since 2019, presenting themselves as co-ops, even though they knew they were not registered as co-ops at the time,” Minister Hamilton said.
The minister noted that in Region Nine, a named opposition Member of Parliament was responsible for the disbursement of some $155 million.
“The person responsible for $155 million of the $169 million was responsible for the disbursement among 18 groups,” the Labour Minister said.
In Region Nine, some $163.993 million was shared between 14 community projects, the largest project was for $17.932 million, and was for integrated livestock and agricultural production in Potarinau Village. Another $17.275 million went to a multipurpose centre in Shulinab Village.

Of the projects assessed thus far in Region Ten, Minister Hamilton noted that just one has appeared to have been carried out to completion.
“Only one project is beneficial, not to the community, but to a small minority of persons in the co-op. But that project with government funds is on private lands, belonging to the aunt of a person in the co-op. An initiative aimed at business and job creation in communities across the country, the SLED programme was set up in 2015 under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition government. It has since seen $760 million invested over the years. The programme provided funding to persons and organisations for the support of entrepreneurial activities. When it commenced, the programme was overseen by the then Ministry of Communities; however, it was later moved to the Ministry of Social Protection; the two ministries no longer exist. Under the current administration, the programme is being administered by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and was allotted a further $105 million in the 2020 Budget.
Minister Hamilton noted that once the ministry has concluded its assessment of the 2019 SLED projects, it will also be looking to visit and assess the projects given funds in 2018 and 2017 as well.