Minister of State Joseph Harmon yesterday announced that the government is moving to shake up the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), which he said would have seen PetroCaribe funds being diverted, now forcing the government to find US$15 million to pay farmers for the next shipment of rice.
He also said that neither of the two agencies affiliated with the rice industry—the GRDB or the Guyana Rice Producers Association—will be getting their hands on the money, but rather a mechanism would be formulated under the Ministry of Finance for the famers to be paid and for the money to be utilised.
“Cabinet was of the view that [given] the additional sums of money we have to be paying on the shipment of rice to Venezuela… we should apply a formula as we did for sugar, which means we will not be putting the monies into the hands of the people who have been there and
