SOME $1.8 million was made in 2019 by the Coalition Government’s Model Farm project in Region Five, after more than $90 million was invested into the project from 2016 to 2019. The initiative has since been closed down after a number of farmers won a court case in 2020 against the former Region Five Regional Executive Officer (REO), Ovid Morrison, to have some of the lands returned to them. The farmers had taken Morrison to court after they were removed from the lands when the project had started. Approximately 50 farmers had been occupying the lands at the time. The project was also mired by the theft of some of its equipment, including 10 batteries which cost of $1.006M and two solar panels with a cost of $80,000. The initiative was expected to occupy up to 35 acres of a total 49.7 acres lands at Fort Wellington, West Coast Berbice owned by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC). It was created to demonstrate best farming and integrated farming practices in cash crops and rearing of livestock and was scheduled to be maintained for five years. The project eventually covered 23 acres of land.

It was touted as being part of the region’s Plan of Action for Regional Development (PARD), an initiative created under the previous government. The project started with budgetary allocations in 2016. “The aim is to promote crop rotation techniques, proper land utilisation, processing of products, providing agro supplies to schools and hospitals and providing employment for persons in the region. According to the National Estimates, this project is estimated to cost $150M with a planned duration from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020,” the Auditor General 2019 Report had noted about the project.
According to the report, as of December, 2019, a total of $90.683 million had been expended on the project; however, a check of the cash book at the farm “revealed that the sum of $1.782M was received during 2019 from the sale of farm produce”. The Audit Report did not say if any money was made from sales by the farm from 2016 – 2018.

NOT PROPERLY WRITTEN UP
“A Receipts and Payment Cash Book was also maintained by the farm. An examination of this Cash Book revealed it was not properly written up. Moreover, information contained therein was not easily comprehensible. As such, we could not determine whether all the proceeds from sales were accounted for,” the Auditor General Report said.
It added: “There was no entry of supervisory checks. It should also be noted there was no evidence of reconciliation between the records kept by the farm and the records maintained by the administration.”

Funding for the project started in 2016 when amounts totalling $8.341 million was invested, a further $1.286 million were invested in 2017. In 2018, a total of $41.551 million went into the project, while for the year 2019, $39.505 million was invested.
The situation of the farm was highlighted by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, during his budget debate remarks on Thursday before the National Assembly.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle after his debate, the minister explained that the ministry has requested a special audit of the project by the Auditor General, and is awaiting word of when the audit can be done.

Meanwhile, he confirmed that the lands were being returned to the farmers who had won the court case against Morrison.
“The farmers were able to get a court order to have the lands back and we are in the process of sorting out, giving it back to the farmers,” Dharamlall said.
In 2018, three of the farmers fought against removal from the land and took Morrison to court after their produce were bulldozed and structures on the land destroyed when they refused to move.
The farmers claimed that they had permission from the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) to operate on the lands. Attempts made to contact Morrison for a comment proved futile.