Dear Editor,
The Auditor General’s Report for 2024, laid in the National Assembly on November 3, 2025, offers a sobering view of public-fund management across critical sectors. It details overpayments, defective works, and missing documentation that together reveal how far practice has strayed from accountability.
In the Ministry of Housing, auditors uncovered G$ 95 million in over-payments for infrastructure projects in Regions 3 and 4 and found multiple instances of duplicate land allocations. The Central Housing and Planning Authority’s internal-audit unit was described as weak, and several core-homes projects were less than 40 percent complete by year-end 2024. For a Government that trumpets transparency, these findings are nothing short of alarming.
The Ministry of Home Affairs fares little better. Four police-station contracts worth G$ 1.4 billion suffered delays and construction defects, while the Guyana Fire Service paid G$88 million in advance for equipment never delivered. Community-policing groups, which received G$136 million in grants, failed to submit a single consolidated financial statement. These lapses are not clerical oversights; they point to systemic disregard for procurement rules and internal controls. Every dollar wasted in mismanagement is a dollar denied to a family awaiting a home or a community needing safer streets.
Beyond the numbers lies a question of credibility. How can Government ask taxpayers to trust new mega-projects when old ones remain mired in irregularities? The pattern, large advances, weak supervision, and late reporting, erodes public confidence and damages the morale of honest public servants. Strengthening internal audit units, publishing quarterly compliance reports, and enforcing sanctions for non-performance should be treated as non-negotiable reforms, not polite recommendations.
Parliament now has a clear duty to act on the Auditor General’s evidence. The Public Accounts Committee must summon the accounting officers of Housing and Home Affairs, demand restitution where losses occurred, and ensure follow-through before the next budget cycle. Accountability delayed is accountability denied. The people deserve assurance that their taxes build homes, equip stations, and strengthen communities, not line the pockets of inefficiency.