THE Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) has scored a rarity: It was probably the only State agency which was given a clean financial bill of health by the Audit Office.The Auditor-General, in his 2013 report, said the entity’s financial performance and cash flows for the year in question was in accordance with international financial reporting standards. Go-Invest was at the time headed by Keith Burrowes.
However, the Auditor-General pointed out that audit examination of payroll and personnel files for the period under review has revealed that an employee who joined Go-Invest on January 1, 2013 received a gross salary of $562,552 for the entire year.
But employee and employer’s National Insurance Scheme (NIS) totalling $31,497 and $40,497 respectively were not deducted for the period 2013.
It was also observed that the employee was not registered with the Scheme for the period reviewed.
The auditors noted that deductions for, and registration with the scheme have implications for social security benefits. As a result, the NIS contributions would have been understated for the year in review.
The Audit Office recommends that the management of Go-Invest ensures that all statutory deductions are deducted and paid over in a time manner.
Go-Invest for its part acknowledged the error, contending that it was an oversight and deductions commenced in 2014 for the officer in question.
Meanwhile, Go-Invest had reported that 2014 was a bright year for Guyana in terms of investments. According to Go-Invest, Guyana was able to attract some $196 billion in investments from 234 projects, creating some 15,868 jobs.
Of the 234 projects, 162 were piloted by local businesses while the remainder was drawn from Foreign Direct Investment. The areas that attracted the investments were agriculture, energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), light manufacturing, mining, services, tourism and wood products.
Investments in locally proposed projects totalled some $107.5 billion, creating some 7,254 jobs, while proposed Foreign Direct Investment amounted to $88.4 billion.
Burrowes had told the Guyana Chronicle that the successes achieved last year was due to more aggressive marketing, pointing out that the marketing and promotional campaigns will intensify both locally and overseas this year.
Last year, in the local arena, light manufacturing accounted for the most projects, some 39, which together valued some $6729.1 million, creating some 1247 jobs while the agriculture sector attracted investments worth some $14088.6 million, the highest sum compared to the other sectors.
This sum was from 36 projects, creating some 916 jobs.
The light manufacturing sector created some 1,946 jobs, the highest compared to the other sectors in 2014, from 17 projects worth some $5887.2 million.