Permanent Secretary of the Office of the President Abena Moore will be seeking a write-off of a whopping $19.5M that was owed by an American company which failed to deliver CCTV cameras purchased by the APNU+AFC Administration in 2015.
This move will be pursued after legal opinion received recommended that the Guyana Government would have to seek to recover the monies in the US court system – a process which would be tedious and costly.
The Permanent Secretary told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today that the legal advice received noted that in view of the time elapsed, the process for recovering the money will not be easy.
As such, she said the Office of the President will be approaching the Finance Secretary to have the sums written off.
“The position remains the same, however I recently received a legal opinion, which I’m guided by now, and I’m soon to approach the FS so that this matter could finally be written off. Because from the legal opinion it was said that time has elapsed, it is now five plus years and if you’re going to bring a matter before the court it is supposed to be three years.”
“That’s with the Guyana situation. If we still want to pursue, we’d have to hire an attorney in the US, so that those laws over there can apply to the particular situation. So that’s just an update on the matter,” Moore told the PAC.
The non-delivery of the cameras has been a recurring issue in successive Auditor General reports.
It is understood that the company which was contracted to supply the cameras, Moonblink Communication Incorporated, has since filed for bankruptcy.
These very CCTV cameras, which were purchased in December 2015 with monies taken from the Contingency Fund for an “emergency”, were subject to questions in the PAC back in 2017.
Under questioning, Moore had provided the names of the company’s principals.
When the matter came up last year, both the PAC Chairman and fellow PAC Members Gail Teixeira and Ganesh Mahipaul, had urged the PS to ensure that all steps are exhausted before a write off of the money is even considered.
