More than two months after withdrawing its support from the European Union (EU)-funded Micro-Projects Programme, government yesterday gave the go-ahead for funds to be disbursed while stating that its concerns still stand and work is ongoing to resolve the issues.
This move is likely to be greeted with relief by groups that had submitted proposals for funding, after they had earlier expressed concern about the government’s holding up of the projects.
In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Finance said that it has granted approval for outstanding disbursements to be made under the Guyana Micro- Projects programme pending resolution of the administrative issues that were identified previously. “The Micro-Projects Programme management is yet to satisfactorily address these administrative concerns. In the interim, however, programme management and the Board are working with the Ministry to resolve the issues”, the statement said.
“The ministry has indicated that this decision was taken in the interest of ensuring that on-going micro projects are completed and that beneficiaries receive the anticipated level of support projected under the Programme”, it added.
In late May, the government withdrew its support of the 39 projects that were selected for funding. Questioned about the issue in parliament, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh had said that the government had “administrative concerns” regarding the projects. Earlier, Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon had stated that the action was taken because certain expectations were not met. Questioned about government’s hold up of the projects in parliament, once again, Singh would only say that concerns were not related to particular projects or communities.
He said at the time that the agreement between the EU and the government had a number of conditions attached to it and it had come to the government’s awareness that “some expectations have not been met”. Asked whether government was providing any money to be disbursed for the project, he had answered in the negative.
This Sunday would have been the original deadline for the tapping of the EU funds but a source had told Stabroek News recently that there has been an extension to November.
Under the programme, which began in 2005, groups are invited to submit proposals for funding on micro projects. Programme Manager of the project, Jimmy Bhojedat had told this newspaper that his office would ensure that all the requirements were met by applicants before passing on the proposals to the micro-projects board, which would review and evaluate the proposals before crafting a short list which is sent to the European Commission and the Guyana Government. He had said the final decision rests with the administration to approve the contracts.
He had disclosed that this round of contracts would have been the third since the programme was launched in 2005 and noted that so far 104 contracts had been approved and this was the first time, such a difficulty had been encountered in administering the scheme.
The thrust of the programme is to improve the socio-economic conditions of vulnerable groups through the development of sustainable and participatory self-help schemes. The programme will come to an end later this year and Bhojedat had said that August 17 was the deadline for the implementation of all projects and if the situation remained the same the money would likely be returned to the EU.
