Assuring that all monies spent on the Hinterland Employment and Youth Services (HEYS) programme can be properly accounted for, Junior Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Valerie Garrido-Lowe has said she has instructed the Deputy Permanent Secretary to investigate why all the progress reports were not submitted to the Audit Office for scrutiny.
“The HEYS Department has been monitoring all over the region[s], how the business is going, the amount of businesses, the state they are in plus giving courage and support so that the youths can continue,” Garrido-Lowe told Stabroek News, while noting that the ministry has photographic and video evidence to show that the monies were well spent.
In his report on the public accounts for 2017, which was recently presented to the National Assembly, Auditor General Deodat Sharma stated that the ministry could not properly account for the $865.1 million reportedly spent on this programme as well as amounts totalling $210.3 million that were released for projects in over 200 Amerindian villages.
