-Jagdeo says
-calls out party for alleged extortion of businessmen

FOLLOWING the revelations emerging from the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) on their declining financial status, Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, says this displays the true nature of the party.

He said that based on recent utterances by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, the party seems to be in a “sad shape” financially.
“According to what he has been saying, the party is effectively bankrupt and looking for funding.

“So, this is very telling…”, Jagdeo told reporters at a press conference on Thursday last at the Office of the President.
He alleged that while the PNC/R was in office with the Alliance For Change (AFC), there was excessive splurging being done by the APNU+AFC coalition.
“I saw the cutlery Congress Place [PNC/R Headquarters] bought, in 100 years we wouldn’t have those,” he said.

He also touched on the alleged extortion of businessmen by the party.
“It’s a sad shape, they have limited prospects of winning power given their policies or lack of…this is a party that has been around since the 1950s.
“Imagine they can’t host a General Council meeting because they don’t have $2.5M… how bad can you get?”

The PNC/R treasurer, Faaiz Mursaline, in a previous interview with this publication, said the party’s finances have not been audited since July 2020.
As a matter of fact, the former PNC/R General Secretary Amna Ally had confirmed that prior to Norton taking over leadership, the party’s finances were audited every year.
The damning allegations made by Mursaline have led to party members calling for a thorough investigation into the claims.

The situation has seen a no-confidence motion being brought against Norton by the PNCR’s Florida Chapter, which alleged that Norton has “severely tarnished” the party’s image, and oversaw “a speedy downward spiral” of the PNC/R in just over a year since in the leadership seat.

When probed on whether he feels the need for an audit to help return some trust in the handling of the party’s finances, Norton said only that the situation will be dealt with internally.
“The party is always prepared to audit the accounts. When I became leader of the party, our accounts were not computerised; we have completed computerising them and our accounts will be audited. I may submit to you that our party has had a history of preparing audited accounts, but not circulating it in the public domain. And we will continue to do that. I think we are in a better position to be accountable,” Norton said.

Despite other executive members releasing information on the PNC/R’s declining status, Norton has remained silent.
According to a Demerara Waves report, several opposition members said that the party is ‘cash-strapped’ and is unable to fund its General Council meeting, which is overdue.
Adding to this earlier this year, Norton told the media that his party was unable to contest in all of the Local Authority Areas (LAAs) for the 2023 Local Government Elections (LGEs) because of insufficient funding.