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by pltm
(PLTM) - The Premier’s Office, which administered the COVID-19 stimulus grant initiative for farmers and fisherfolk, has been accused of significantly inflating the payments so that they exceeded the amounts individuals actually applied for. The shocking revelations were made today, June 28, by Auditor General, Sonia Webster during her testimony before the United Kingdom-backed Commission of Inquiry (CoI) which is probing allegations of Government corruption. The Commission was at the time reviewing the Auditor General’s report dated June 21, 2021 on the stimulus grant to farmers and fisherfolk. That report is said to be going to the Governor.
Specifically addressing findings on the farmers' grant, the report revealed that farmers were paid in some cases, three times the amount they requested from Government.
Sections of the report which were read by Counsel to the CoI, Bilal Rawat stated that the amounts requested by farmers were inflated by the Ministry prior to payment. This resulted in payments that were substantially greater than the amounts requested.
Rawat asked Webster, “When you are referring to the Ministry, which particular Ministry are you are referring to?”
“This would be the Premier’s Office,” Webster stated.
Rawat highlighted part of the report which identified a sample of request made by 70 farmers which totaled $351,713. However, according to Rawat, the amount actually paid to those 70 individuals totaled just over $1M.
According to Rawat and confirmed by Webster, irrespective of the request, irrespective of need, there was a standard payment being made of either $13,500 or $22,500.
“What you conclude is that the amounts requested by farmers were modified by the Ministry and increased dramatically resulting in significantly larger payouts. Is that right?
“That is correct,” the Auditor General replied.
Not referring to the names of the individuals in the report, Rawat stated that one applicant requested for a roll of barbwire in the amount of $50.99 and received $7,828 which the Auditor General confirmed.
The same person also asked for the purpose of a fence, $371.00 and received $5,671.
"So the difference between what was requested to just short of $423; what was received was $13,500 that difference is $13,077. Is that right?" Rawat asked Webster.
“That is correct,” the Auditor General stated.
“Your conclusion was that 203 payments were made to farmers of which 182 were of $13,500; one was at $15,000 and 20 were of $22,500," Rawat stated. To which the AG confirmed.
According to Webster, there were two additional payments that may need to be on the list, each was $11,000, and her Office was looking into determining if these people were fishermen or farmers.
It was revealed that as of May 20, 2021, there were 203 payments issued in farmer stimulus grants. Of that amount, 49% were paid out to persons who were not registered with the Department of Agriculture. No information was provided on how these individuals qualified for grant awards.
Rawat then asked Webster, "Where did she try to seek your information?"
“The Premier’s Office. The information we got from the Agriculture Department indicated that these people were not registered so the next step is to find out if they were not registered how did they qualify as farmers. And we asked the Premier’s Office to send us the information regarding all of the farmers and fishermen and got no response. In the end, the most we can say about those individuals [is that] there was not information to show that they were indeed farmers," Webster stated. Farms Not Found
According to Webster, the qualification for the grant was that you either had to be registered with the Agriculture Department or present an affidavit that you are indeed a farmer for the past three years.
"There is entirely the possibility that there are hundreds of affidavits that were received by the Premier’s office indicating that these people were farmers, but at the end of the day the Agriculture Department did not know who they were. This, I should add, these are supposed to be commercial farmers and not just farmers…meaning that farming is actually a part of their livelihood; not people who simply have a garden in their backyard and growing tomatoes and giving some to their friends. Actually growing stuff to sell on a commercial basis,"
Webster again agreed that there was no information received as to how unregistered farmers qualified for the grant award.
"In that regard the Cabinet requirement in terms of accessing who will be paid, this should have been done by the Agriculture Department, but that role was entirely assumed by the Premier’s Office," Webster stated.
Rawat referred to the investigation conducted by the Auditor General in trying to identify whether farmers were legitimately entitled to the stimulus grant.
It was revealed that the Auditor General undertook inspections to try and identify the existence of the farms using a sample from the payouts
According to the information shared with the CoI, site visits were conducted at 22 properties, 11 of which could not be located by the Agriculture and Fishers Department; hence, the Auditor General was not able to confirm whether in fact, those properties were commercial farms.
Of the remaining 11 farms that were located; seven were on Government properties leased out to farmers in Paraquita Bay while four others on private land. According to the information provided, two of the farms visited on private land showed farming activities that did not meet the scale of operations criteria for commercial farming.
What About Controls?
It was revealed that tThe policy for the grant for farmers was approved by Cabinet with certain controls which were to make sure that grant funds were applied within the programme and value of money was pursued. As part of the controls, there were also expected to be monitoring by the Public Works Department and a quantity surveyor approved by the Premier's Office; direct payment to contractors; and monitoring of produce by the agriculture and fisheries department to record growth and progress of the industry after the programme.
"What you then said in relation to the fund for farmers grant is that there is no accountability of how the grant amount was applied despite the excessive amount awarded," Rawat stated to which Webster confirmed.
Rawat said what appears to have happened was that payments were made directly to applicants so they were no payments made to contractors or suppliers which was one of the controls that Cabinet had put in.
The CoI hearing revealed that initially on July 29, 2020, the Premier's office submitted a log of applications to the Minister for Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture to be reviewed by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to ascertain which of the applicants were registered as farmers.
It was noted that less than half of persons receiving stimulus grants were registered with the Department, indicating that the assessment was therefore assumed by the Premier’s Officer.
The CoI heard that payments were made without any further involvement of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
“They were involved to a limited extent in that the Premier’s office did send the log to the Department of Agriculture and the small group in that log, the Department of Agriculture went through their records and indicated who was active and who wasn’t. The numbers that were on that particular log they were sent to the department and those were vetted, beyond that the department was not involved," Webster indicated.
According to Webster, the Department stated that there isn't sufficient staff to undertake meaningful monitoring of the industry.
The AG confirmed that the end result is a programme implemented without controls resulting in significant threats to the Government receiving value on the money distributed into the industry and that the payments made to farmers under the scheme don’t appear to be driven by need, but rather it it evolved into a system where persons were getting sums of money irrespective of what they were claiming for.
"It doesn’t appear to have complied with the controls that Cabinet put in and doesn’t appear to have been adequately assessed in terms of being able to verify whether applicants were in fact eligible," Rawat outlined.
“That is correct," Webster stated.
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