Communities Ministry launches audit into City Hall spending of $300M subvention
Concerns raised by Auditor-General (AG) Deodat Sharma about the manner in which the administration of Georgetown spent a $300 million government subvention has led the Ministry of Communities to launch an audit into the city’s spending of these funds. Minister Ronald Bulkan, speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, said he was happy that the AG had been able to identify shortcomings in the accountability of local organs so early in the administration’s term, so that better measures for monitoring could be put in place.
AG says gov’t can scrap orders to acquire Carmichael Street land
Noting that government can scrap the controversial Orders made to compulsorily acquire two plots of Carmichael Street land, Attorney General Basil Williams yesterday said all that has happened so far is that a legal process has been triggered. While there have been few public statements on the Orders, sources say the government has been made aware of significant disquiet over the resort to compulsory acquisition of private property and the process won’t go ahead. Yesterday, the Private Sector Commission issued a statement warning the government to proceed cautiously in employing the Act as it could have a chilling effect on investor confidence.
Sunday, October 16
Dataram, wife returned to Guyana
Less than 24 hours after being caught in an apartment in Paramaribo, Suriname, fugitive drug trafficker Barry Dataram and his common-law wife Anjanie Boodnarine