THE Guyanese taxpayer is still in the dark as it relates to how the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana (IDPADA-G) organisation has utilized close to half a billion dollars in government funding over a period of five years.

The organization, on Monday, hosted a press conference as they scrambled to respond to disclosures by Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo that although it received $468 million for a period, it still cannot demonstrate how Afro-Guyanese benefitted. The organisation was founded in 2018 during the David Granger-led coalition government.

During the press conference, Chairman of IDPADA-G, Vincent Alexander, stated that the organisation is not one that is generally funded to provide grants.
He said, however, that in 2018 they received a sum of $10 million from the Ministry of Finance for grants. Those grants, he continued, were disbursed between 2018 and 2019.

Alexander maintained, in face of strong criticism, that the staff at the organisation, which accounts for a large portion of the overall annual budget which appears to be 100 per cent funded through government subvention, is paid to give service to the Afro-Guyanese community.

“Every cent of IDPADA-G’s subvention or other revenue is spent in service to the African Guyanese community, indirectly as in the case of salaries or directly through programmes, projects, engagements, and financial assistance,” Alexander said.

Further to this, the Chairman told those at the conference that IDPADA-G is a not-for-profit company, and the directors were the executive members when the company was founded.
These persons, he said, are volunteers and are not in receipt of any material benefits from the company.

However, he added that the organisation, also in 2020, had expended $42 million on salaries. He said that when persons visit the organisation and possibly request assistance with project proposals among other things, a “salaried” person does that work.

This, he said, is service to the community through the employees who are in direct contact with the community.
In addition to this, IDPADA-G’s Chief Executive Officer, Olive Sampson, stated that the organisation also awards small grants to support activities within the community including market days and support with education.

For capacity-building exercises, Sampson revealed that the organisation expended $22,386,555 in 2018; $44,324,848 in 2019; and $11,762,671 in 2020.
As it relates to the scholarships and tuition assistance for secondary and tertiary levels, they expended $1,879,036 in 2018; $2,083,751 in 2019; and $1,846,140 in 2020.

Among the expenditures of the company, in 2021 it was stated that IDPADA-G conducted a flood-relief survey to the tune of some $4.9 million which, it said, reached some 3,868 persons. The CEO of the organisation mentioned that the purpose of this survey was to address the “disparities” in the flood-relief distribution.

Meanwhile, in response to the press conference, Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, stated that Alexander’s attempt at “deflecting” from the misuse of government funding has left more questions than answers.

In the statement, the Vice President said that what was shocking was the revelation that some $4 million was spent on a survey which, he said, amounted to another example of misuse of the funds.

Vice President Jagdeo, in the statement said, “In spite of all of Alexander’s ramblings today, Afro-Guyanese still remain in the dark as it relates to the benefits of the close to half a billion dollars utilized.”

As such, Dr. Jagdeo asked for the organisation to provide further details as it relates to how many persons benefitted from the capacity training that was mentioned along with the process used to select trainers and beneficiaries of same.

The VP further asked how much of the $100M allocated in 2019 and $68M in 2018 were spent on paying salaries along with who are the individuals that were paid and how they were selected.
Additionally, he called on IDPADA-G to provide answers as to why the company was registered as a private limited liability company instead of a not-for-profit organisation.

The Vice President, on Friday last, noted that the organisation has never submitted a work plan to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, adding that the last financial statement that was submitted was for the year 2020.

That statement showed that a significant portion of the budgeted funds went to overhead expenses while less than $500,000 covered direct disbursements to Guyanese.