Audit launched after $250M SLED budget could not be accounted for

The Audit Office has launched a special probe into the Sustainable Livelihood Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) Programme after the Social Protection Ministry was unable to properly account for the expenditure of its $250 million budget.

In the Audit Report of 2019, the Auditor General Deodat Sharma, flagged the SLED Project, launched in 2015 after the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition took office.
Sharma explained that according to the Appropriation Accounts, amounts totalling $249.997 million were expended under SLED as of December 31, 2019 with $169.555 million being issued to Region Nine.
Also included in that amount were 21 Inter/Intra Developmental Warrants amounting to $229.600 million that were issued to Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Nine and Ten.
Audit examinations of a sample of Beneficiaries’ Files, the AG pointed out, revealed that application forms were “not completed” despite it being a critical requirement as stated in the notice inviting applications that was published in the newspapers.

Moreover, the report stated that “no criteria or checklist” was seen as utilized for the appraisal and approval of grants.
“As a result, it was difficult to ascertain the reason(s) for granting approval to the respective beneficiaries. As such, a Special Audit into the SLED Programme has commenced and a separate report will be issued,” the report stated.
SLED, headed by the Ministry of Social Protection, was an initiative which presented grants to Cooperatives and Friendly Societies to equip them to engage in sustainable, entrepreneurial ventures.
The project was lauded heavily by former Social Protection Minister Amna Ally who had stated, “I can proudly tell you that these people who have benefitted from this project, are loud in praise for this government for what they have achieved in this short time of training.”

People’s National Congress Executive, former Granger-administration Director of Sports, and current Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones was a beneficiary of the SLED initiative. Jones was arrested in late August by police officers under a simple larceny accusation for possession a quantity of barber chairs, among other items, acquired under the programme but reportedly belonging to the State.
He was later released on $100,000 bail.

A search was conducted out on Jones’s premises after an audit carried out at the former Social Protection Ministry, showed that they had approved the payout of almost $5 million under the Region Four administration for the procurement of equipment for a barbershop under the SLED to Jones.
A review of a grant received by Jones revealed that the full amount was spent by December 31, 2019. However, over $1 million in items were in fact not delivered and the project was not executed. The remaining items were stored at Jones’ home.
Later investigations revealed too that the barbershop that Jones claimed he owned had never came into fruition. In fact, that audit revealed that at the address listed for the barbershop was only an empty plot of land.
Questions were immediately raised about what criteria were required for grants to be issued via the project and under what arrangement Jones qualified as a recipient.