Persaud – the Deputy Accountant General – said there is nothing to add on whether government is acting improperly or illegally in utilising the funds outside of parliamentary approval. “It has been settled by the court action,” said Persaud in an interview with this newspaper on Friday.
Persaud said Cabinet makes all decisions with regard to the spending of the Government’s portion of the Lotto proceeds.
“All approvals for the [fund’s] expenditure come from Cabinet…,” he said, stating too that it is criteria-based. “It is a development fund for culture and sports [activities],” he said. According to the Auditor General’s Report of 2011, during the period 1996 to 2011, amounts totalling $4.022 billion were received from the Guyana Lotteries Company and deposited into the Lotto Fund – bank account number 3119. It said that at the end of 2011, the balance in the account was $853.744 million and that $134.840 million was used in 2011. The monies are spent in the areas of culture, youth and sport development, financed medical treatment overseas and support for disadvantaged groups, among others.
Persaud said that the Guyana Lottery Company (GLC) is required, under the Lotteries Act, to provide audited statements to the commission. He noted that private auditors audit the statements of the Guyana Lottery Company.
He said the commission would ensure that what is supposed to be handed over by the GLC is what is handed over. The government’s portion of the lottery funds is 24 per cent.
While the GLC runs the Lotto and other games, the commission supervises the use of the money in the fund.
The chairman of the Lotteries Commission is Permanent Secretary of the Office of the President Omar Sharyff. He said that once the fund is audited, the commission reports to the Cabinet sub-committee. The commission meets once monthly, Persaud said.
Asked whether the projects are evaluated to see whether they would have made an impact, Persaud said this is something the commission does not do at the moment. He said however that the audits by the Auditor General have an element of value for money although he noted that such audits may not be as effective in these cases as an economic evaluation of the projects.
He said the benefits that come out of the projects may not be seen immediately.
Justice Diane Insanally in December threw out a case brought against the government in relation to the Lotto Fund on procedural grounds.
APNU MP Desmond Trotman in 2010 sought a declaration that government’s actions, which include disbursements without parliamentary approval, were unconstitutional and illegal.
Trotman, in his application, had asked the court whether government’s share of the money from the Guyana Lottery Company was required to be paid into the Consolidated Fund, in accordance with Article 216 of the Constitution and sections 21 and 38 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003. He had also sought to determine whether government’s spending of that money without the authority of the National Assembly, is unconstitutional and illegal.
In the Auditor General’s report for 2011, then acting Auditor General Deodat Sharma said that in his previous reports, the Audit Office highlighted the failure of the Ministry of Finance to pay over the government’s share of the 24 per cent of the proceeds of the lotteries to the Consolidated Fund. “Instead, such proceeds were paid into a special bank account No 3119.
The balance in [this bank account] was not refunded to the Consolidated Fund as required by Section 43 of the [Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA), but was retained by the ministry,” Sharma said.
He also referred to the legal opinion from then Attorney General in 2009 which said that there is no legal obligation to transfer monies into the Consolidated Fund and that the Lotto Fund is subject to an audit by the Auditor General under the provisions of the FMAA.
