Regional officials’ project reports not matching Auditor General’s findings – Minister Dharamlall

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, recently announced that some regional officials have submitted project reports that do not reflect the findings of the state’s Auditor-General.
Kaieteur News understands that these reports are based on projects set for regional development. The projects, target areas that are experiencing significant unemployment.
The Minister said that he had examined information about the projects that were committed to and started by regional administrations across the country over the past five years, but upon his review, the information in the regional officials’ reports were contrasting the Auditor General’s report.

He made it clear that Government has a zero-tolerance policy for such obscenities, which will not be overlooked, adding that they will seek to take appropriate actions against any regional official found to be reporting false information on projects aimed for regional development.
Dharamlall lamented that such actions were not only depriving taxpayers of the value for their money, but it was also contributing to a delay in national development.
The Minister further went on to say that some projects were twisted in a different direction from their original plans, which led to the new administration having to request adjustments to these “skewed” projects.

“After viewing the information, we requested that some changes were required because some projects were skewed in some way or the other so for us as a government, we would like broad-based investments across the region,” Dharamlall said.
He also highlighted that those investments would not only see jobs being created, but it would also bolster the economy.
This publication requested a breakdown of Dharamlall’s findings as it relates to the inconsistencies found in his review.
However, the Minister said he was unable to provide such at the time but promised an update would follow.
The Ministry was allocated $53.25 billion out of the $330 billion 2020 Emergency Budget.