Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo says there will be no apology offered for statements he made last week while dismissing claims made by the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly- Guyana (IDPADA-G) that the People’s Progressive Party government has been practicing discrimination, especially as it relates to funding to further the cause of Afro-Guyanese.
Vincent Alexander, an Executive of IDPADA-G and opposition nominated elections Commissioner, had called on Jagdeo to apologise for his statements.
“First off let me state that I have absolutely no intention of apologizing to Vincent Alexander and he is free to take whatever course of action he wishes,” Jagdeo said in a statement posted to his Facebook page on Monday.
He accused Alexander of a “poor attempt” to deflect from the misuse of almost $500 million in government funding, collected under the guise of furthering the cause of Afro-Guyanese.
Dr. Jagdeo highlighted on Friday that between the period 2020-2022, the IDPADA-G received a total of $300 million from the government of Guyana, an equal disbursement of $100 million per year. The PPP/C came into power in 2020.
This is in addition to $68 million in 2018 and $100 million in 2019, the Vice-President revealed.
Jagdeo further added that of the $100 million received in 2020, only $343,000 was handed out as grants to various groups.
Jagdeo believes that attempts to offer an explanation at the weekend, following his statements on Friday, have left even more questions than answers.
“Even more shocking is the revelation at the press conference today that IPADA-G spent $4M on a survey which in reality amounted to another example of misuse, in this instance, undertaking of opposition political work,” Jagdeo said.
He believes that in spite of Alexander’s statements Afro-Guyanese still remain in the dark as it relates to the benefits of the funds utilised.
Now Jagdeo has called on Alexander and IPADA-G to provide details on how much of the $100M allocated annually since 2019 and $68M in 2018 was spent on paying salaries, who are individuals that were paid, what amounts were they being paid and how were they selected?
Further, Jagdeo quizzed “How much of that sum was spent on rental, who owns the buildings rented, and what process was used for the selection of the buildings? 3. How many persons benefitted from capacity training, the types of training offered, who conducted the training, and what process was used to select both the trainers and beneficiaries of the training?”
Already, the Vice-President presented IDPADA-G’s financial statement for 2020, which shows that salaries and allowances amounted to $42 million, conference expenses $4.5 million, travelling and transportation $2.8 million, advertisements $2 million, office material and expenses $9 million, and building rentals and utilities $5 million.
Jagdeo had called on the group to come clean and let the nation know how sums received from the government over the years have been expended in the best interest of Afro-Guyanese.
