Controversial businessman Larry London received a multimillion-dollar contract under the previous APNU/AFC Administration to print birth certificates for the Ministry of Citizenship.
The bombshell revelation was made on Monday, the first day of the examination of the budget estimates for what was previously the Ministry of Citizenship, headed by Winston Felix.
Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira was asked about a $29.1 Million allocation under Line item 6224, page 46 of the 2020 estimates.
Under questioning from Member of Parliament Sanjeev Datadin, Teixeira revealed that the amount relates to a Florida-based company called ‘Universal Procurement Services’.
According to Teixeira, the company received a contract to print thousands of birth certificates for the Ministry of Citizenship.
Some 20,000 birth certificates were reportedly ordered from the company between 2019 and 2020 to the tune of some USD$150,000.
“[The money] covers the purchase of birth certificates. Some bought in May 2019 and paid for in 2020. And some purchased in 2020 and paid for. These birth certificates were purchased from a company in Florida and the value of this contract is probably US$150,000 in total,” Teixeira explained.
Teixeira pointed out that “birth certificates used to be published in Guyana with the local printers, with safety and security watermarks put in. So, I find this rather unusual and strange.”
According to documents seen by INews, the Florida-based company is listed as “inactive”.
London has been the subject of numerous articles, dating as far back to his involvement in the Durban park project, which cost over $1B and was shrouded in secrecy.
At the time, he was named as the principal of Homestrecth Development Incorporated, which coordinated the construction.
To this day, the former APNU/AFC government has been unable to account for how public monies were spent on the project, despite the best efforts of the Audit Office of Guyana to reconcile the payments over the past few years.
Most recently, London was revealed to have been appointed by the former government as Director of Parks, with a salary of $500,000 plus benefits.
