Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton will soon engage Attorney General Anil Nandlall to consult on the way forward after an audit report into the operations of the Sustainable Livelihood Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) under the APNU+AFC government revealed funds were illegally used.
The report, seen by the News Room last week, supports the Auditor General’s initial statements that multiple projects and funds were mismanaged by the APNU/AFC Coalition government. Millions were recorded to have been spent on some projects but checks later revealed that the projects never existed. In some cases, monies were put to personal use.
In an invited comment to the News Room on Wednesday, the Minister said: “I plan to consult the AG on some of the identified issues of illegal use of Government funds by some named individuals.”
The Minister was referring to the Members of Parliament whose names were mentioned in the report.
Initially, it was reported that $294 million was injected into the programme but according to the report, several allocations that were done for the period 2018 to 2020 amounted to approximately $371 million.
The SLED is intended to fund community-based projects countrywide. However, it was found that application forms were not completed for many projects, despite this being a requirement. According to the report, many of the projects did not have relevant documents to verify the correct allocations of the grants.
The audit also revealed that among the projects embarked on, most were abandoned and inoperable, with the monies seemingly put to personal use.
Following the audit, it was concluded that better management of all grants and documentation for the grants must be implemented to monitor when grants are given for failed ventures due to lack of proper consultation and follow-up.
damn!